I began my hike on August 23; I arrived in Damascus, VA, the last stop before crossing the border into Tennessee, on September 23. After 32 days of hiking an average of 17.2 miles/day I am over halfway done with my hike and taking my first (and only?) zero day! The AT winds for about 550 miles through Virginia, which is more than a quarter of its entire length, so reaching Damascus (and the TN border tomorrow morning) is a big waypoint to reach.
I left my motel late on Thursday, with my pack completely loaded with food from my Wal-Mart visit (I got a little bit over excited at the cheap, cheap calories and bought way more than I needed to get to Damascus — I got here with well over a pound of remaining rice and lentils alone). I think it is the heaviest my pack has been this entire trip, but I had planned to get to Damascus at a more relaxed pace than I had been going, and was only going to go 12 miles to the first shelter that first day.
After a leisurely walk, and spending some time at the Mt. Rogers visitors center, I arrived at the shelter. It is a very nice shelter, and I think it may be the only shelter on the AT with running water (including a shower) since it is so close to the visitors center. There was one other section hiker there named Grey Wolf. There are lots of Grey Wolves (and White Wolves and Lone Wolves) who have hiked the trail, but this one has thru hiked three times and has done dozens of long sections (including Harpers Ferry to Springer several times). I think he is the fourth hiker I’ve met who has more than 10,000 miles on the AT.
It was only 4pm, and I was bored, so I decided to move on to a campsite six miles south. But on the way there I realized I was running out of Virginia and I hadn’t yet done any 30-mile days or any night hiking, two things I wanted to do at some point on my hike. So I thought, Why not hike all night?
I made it to a place called the Hurricane Mountain Shelter just before midnight, 31.3 miles and less than 12 hours after leaving the motel in Atkins. I managed the first hour after sunset without my headlamp, even though it had only been a few nights since the new moon so I didn’t get much light from him. But as soon as I turned my lamp on once, even on the dimmest setting, my eyes didn’t readjust to the dark very quickly so I left it on for the rest of the time and temporarily changed my trail name to Light-Emitting.
That was probably the longest day I’ll do (and with one of the heaviest packs I’ll have had — oops)! Hurricane Mountain Shelter happens to be located almost exactly at the halfway mark of my hike. I wasn’t sure of the etiquette when arriving to a shelter at night. I decided to approach with my light dim and pointed down to see if it was occupied, and if it was I would find a place to sleep outside nearby. But it was completely empty so I needn’t worry about waking anybody or finding a tree to hang my food from. I ate a double-sized Snickers bar for dinner which I had packed specifically to celebrate reaching halfway, then went to sleep and slept in past 8am for the first time since I started.
Much of the next day (Friday) was spent on a ridge above 5,000 feet in the Grayson Highlands State Park, which was nice with many open areas with grass and views. I met many of the friendly feral ponies of Mt. Rogers. At one point I walked through a whole herd of them standing around the trail. While they live in the wild, they are obviously very habituated to humans, and I think some of them would have let me pet them if I tried.
Friday afternoon I spent some time on the summit of Mt. Rogers, the highest point in Virginia at 5,729 feet. It’s not much of a "summit" as it is rather flat and covered in a mossy evergreen forest, but it is a pretty place. I camped a few miles south of the side trail which leads to the summit. I think the entire mountain is full of water, because I have never seen so many cold, clear, flowing springs in one section of the AT before! Lots of very nice tenting sites everywhere as well.
On Saturday (and again Sunday morning) the trail coincided with Virginia Creeper Trail for a few miles. The Creeper Trail is very popular with bicyclists, and it was quite the transition to go from walking alone in the woods to having bicycles constantly whizzing past. At one point an entire girl scout troop from North Carolina passed me on their bicycles. As she passed, one of the leaders asked me if I was hiking the AT. A little while later I caught up to them taking a break and they asked if they could take a picture with me and then offered me all kinds of granola bars and snacks.
I got into Damascus early Sunday. Since I was there a day earlier than I planned, and the Methodist church here runs a hostel called The Place for long-distance hikers and cyclists for a mere $6 requested donation/night, and since I’ve been walking for a month without a break, I decided to take a zero day here. And what a great place for a zero day! The trail goes right through the main streets of the town (where every other building is a bicycle rental place, an outdoor outfitters, or an inn/hostel). There’s a Subway I’ve eaten at four times already with electrical outlets at four of the tables and with country music playing all the time, there is a city-wide WiFi network (which I can connect to from my bunk in the hostel if I’m lucky), and a large grocery store a half mile out of the town center where I bought some tortillas and ramen noodles to supplement my leftover rice and peanut butter during the next leg of my hike.
The Place is a two-story building with a deck (where I am writing this in the warm sun), a sunroom (which is always in the shade), a kitchen with sink and microwave, a dining room, a room with couches, a bathroom with shower on each floor, and several bunk rooms with wooden bunk beds which hikers can spread their pads and sleeping bags out upon. Last night the only other person staying was a thru hiker named Beatfeet, so we each got our own floor of the place. Today three other thru hikers arrived (bringing the total number of thru hikers I’ve met so far up to six).
The next trail town is Hot Springs, NC, in 193 miles. But between here and there are a gabillion hostels. So many that I won’t stay at all of them; but they all have little stores where I can supplement my food bag along the way so I won’t have to carry much food at any time. The first one I’ll get to on my third night after leaving Damascus is the Kincora hostel run by Bob Peoples. I’d heard stories about Bob Peoples and Kincora from Pennsylvania to Maine last year, so I’m looking forward to experiencing some of the living legend for myself!
I hope to reach Hot Springs on or about October 7th. Shortly after Hot Springs I’ll enter the Great Smokey Mountains, where I plan to meet my dad and another friend (both named Louis) to hike with for a few days! After the Smokies it is only a couple of hundred miles to the end of the trail on Springer. It feels so close… but it is still 467 miles away. I’ll get there eventually.
I’ve updated the map again.
Diode