Made it to Damascus, VA just in time for trail days! Sure, we hiked 26.6 miles in one day to make it here, but I would say the mental break from hiking every day was well worth it. Pictures are being uploaded to our NC & Tennessee and Virginia albums here: http://picasaweb.google.com/HikeStrong2010 (there are some really awesome pictures in the NC & Tennessee album... check them out! To catch you up...
We said goodbye to Mary & the Mountain Harbour Hostel after our second night tenting in their yard. She told us to send her a card and mocked me again for the phone call I placed to her before we arrived the first night. She told me that hikers usually know exactly when and where they will be, but when she asked me if we would arrive before dark I replied "I dunno, I hope so!" LOL... apparently I need to get into the game a little better!!! That days hike was great as we crossed our 400th mile!!! The hike from Dennis cove to Laurel Falls started out really flat, but ended up as a roller coaster up, down, up, down and up again very steep stone steps. Our feet were killing us! It was so bad that when we actually got to the falls, neither one of us wanted to walk down to see them... so we got the best view we could through the trees and pressed on! Terrible, I know! Shortly after the falls is my favorite 100 feet of the trail so far -- a narrow stone walkway around a huge rock cliff right next to the river. A few miles after that we were in Hampton, VA where we stayed at Braemer Castle Hostel in Hampton, TN for the night. Hampton is a sleepy little town and reminded me a little of Maxwell... except it had a McDonalds. We walked down to McD's to have a Big Mac attack and as we walked through the doors we heard a familiar voice say "Hey, tell my friend in there to get his @ss in gear!" I have neglected to mention "The Florida Boys," Tim & Jeff, who we had seen hiking the last 2 days. We first met them during our 10 mile slackpack to Mountain Harbour Hostel. While we were hiking we passed Tim who, upon seeing us, told us to look out for a "big old bear" and tell him to get his @ss in gear when we saw him. Soon after we ran into Jeff and delivered the message. Jeff asked if the message was from his "9 month pregnant friend" and laughed that they both enjoyed "trail mail." The next day we ran into both again and exchanged the same pleasantries. That night we happened to run into them after walking a mile to McDonald's... lol... which worked out perfectly as they, and famous 'Trail Angel' Mrs. Janet, gave us a ride back to the hostel. Sutton, Beverly & Alex run the hostel and were very nice and welcoming. Alex said that another hiker had accidentally left his medical tape behind and asked us to return it to him at Trail Days... the 'other hiker' was our friend Loon and we were happy to oblige.
Leaving the hostel we immediately passed the group that calls themselves "Chicken Pot Pie," comprised of Tiny Dancer, Salty, Mr. T, Hot Sauce, Speakeasy & her dog Claire who goes by the trail name "Dragonslayer." We crossed the Dam in Hampton and took a lunch break after a few miles. I mention the lunch break because we decided it would be a good idea to have Pepperoni & Cheez-Its on a Tortilla for lunch today... what the heck?! LOL! We hiked a normal pace for the rest of the day and ended up at Iron Mountain Shelter for the night along with Chicken Pot Pie, Baldy, Powder with his dog Russell and two older gentlemen (one of whom definitely did NOT go far enough away from camp to relieve himself). We stopped early, around 6pm, deciding to get up at 4am to knock out the next 26.6 miles into Damascus the next day.
At 4am the alarm went off, but we weren't about to get up. This was the day that we learned we will never, ever, wake up early to hike. If we want to hike farther, we'll have to do it later in the evening when we are already awake. We were up and out of camp by 7am and it felt like a foot race against Chicken Pot Pie the entire day! Exhausting! We made it to Damascus just before 7pm, going 26.6 miles in under 12 hours and headed straight for tent city. Before we could get anywhere near where we eventually pitched our tent we heard a man shout "get your @sses over here and grab a beer!" It was the Florida boys again! After a welcome break at their tent, we navigated the mile-long strip of land that was designated as "tent city" for hikers to camp in at trail days. We stumbled upon hikers Jason & Evan, pitched our tent next to them and headed to Quincy's pizza for some dinner. On the way there we passed Lawson & my jacket buddies and were amazed at how many people we knew we had seen in such short time. We even saw One Life at Quincy's and were glad to know he was still on the trail. On the way back to tent city we wondered how we would find our tent seeing as how we forgot our headlamps... so we stopped by the general store for beers and to think about it. We purchased a 12 pack at the counter and were directed to a tiny room in the back of a dingy bar to pick up our purchase. There we were greeted by two men and a woman who took 15 beers out of an ice chest, packed them in paper bags and sent us on our way. The paper bags rapidly began to fall apart from the wet beers, and since there were cops all over tent city, that was awesome. We followed the first guy with a headlamp we saw until he turned a direction we knew wasn't towards our tent. So there we were, fumbling around in the dark with 15 beers in shredded paper bags, not knowing where we were when a bright light shone in our faces. Then we heard it... "Hey you two! Get your @sses in gear!" Lol... it was Florida Boy Jeff who happily exchanged a Bud Light for leading us to our tent. That night in tent city was madness. After our longest hiking day yet we were exhausted and fell asleep early, but tent city was drinking, drumming, screaming and partying until just after 4am.
Sure, maybe we are just getting old, but one night in tent city was enough for us, so we headed to a nearby town to relax the next couple days. We had a list of people to see at trail days, and without even trying, were able to check it off as we headed out of town. As we left our tent site we met our fundraising teammates Dayla and Jasper for the first time. Around the next corner was Peach & Bam Bam with the rest of the goonies. Saw Baltimore Jack downtown at the outfitter. Headed to a diner for lunch, changed our mind and went to a different diner only to see our fundraising teammate Joe inside. We were amazed we'd seen everyone! Then we went to pick up packages and realized we'd missed one person, Loon, who *surprise* was at the post office! We gave him his medical tape, took a picture of him with his parade dress, and headed out of town.
Life is good. Rested, resupplied, saw Iron Man 2 and ready to hit the Virginia trail in the morning!
~Styx & Bones
-- HikeStrong 2010 - Jeff & Aly Ready to donate? Visit www.hikestrong2010.com and click the "donate online" button! Want to receive our blog updates by email? Send a note to HikeStrong2010@gmail.com to be added to our distribution list!
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