I awoke in my tent at a shelter 11 miles outside of Damascus. I had quite a bit of work to catch up on so I did so before emerging from my tent. Everyone except Savage, Bruiser and Mulligan had already set sail on the trail for the day. I packed up and headed out myself.

I had a slight uphill to start, then several miles downhill. I stopped at the next shelter for a break. Sookie, Spirit, and Tom were all there eating lunch. Mulligan caught up with us and sat down at the shelter table for lunch as well. He had orange peels with him. He said the ponies coming up would really like them.

I just had a quick snack so I hit the trail before everyone else. I had a pretty massive climb. I ran into three young women hiking up the hill. Well first, was Brooklyn, then the other two, Chickadee and Lavender next. I stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes before marching on.

I reached the top of Buzzard Rock. I bald mountain with spectacular 360 degree views. It was pretty windy. I stopped and took quite a few photos and video before moving on. There was a camp site near a road which would put me at 12 miles for the day. Another 7 miles up Mount Rogers was a shelter. I just didn’t feel like climbing another big mountain this late in the day. So I was pushing for the 12 mile spot.

Made it to the tent site and Chickadee was there waiting on Lavender and Brooklyn. We sat and chatted for a bit waiting on them. I told her my plan of staying there for the night. Their plan was to climb Mount Rogers to watch the sunset. Her hiking buddies showed up and Mulligan was hiking with them. I didn’t realize they all knew each other. They had been hiking together since the beginning of Georgia.

They decided to stay at the tent site instead of hiking further that evening. So we had a nice group camping together. We setup camp and got a fire going. A guy by the name of Tequila Sunrise showed up, as well as Fire Plug. I ran into Fire Plug a few times already.

We ate dinner and socialized for awhile. Fire Plug was a retired fireman. Tequila Sunrise got his name from cowboy camping to watch sunrises, and also one night while hiking the AT he ordered 4 shots of tequila for himself and his friends. The waitress misunderstood him and brought all 4 shots in 1 glass to him to drink himself. We chuckled 🙂 I found out Mulligan and Chickadee were part of Cushy Life’s original 12 person “tramily” called The Dirty Dozen. Small world. They all hiked together in GA for the first week or so.

Before heading off to my tent I leaned why the Woodchuck Hostel owner offered us our money back when she got sick. Apparently there was a big outbreak of the Norovirus in Damascus shortly after we left town. The Norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes vomiting and diarrhea. Anyone can get infected and sick with Norovirus. You can get Norovirus from having direct contact with an infected person, or consuming contaminated food or water. Sounds like we got out of there just in time…

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