[Mile 469-560] We Got Engaged!

6/1 ‐ Day 32
2.5 miles from TN/VA border to Broken Fiddle Hostel

 

Damascus is a major milestone on the AT. It is the symbolic southern terminus of the trail in Virginia, as well as the site of the largest hiker gathering in the country, Trail Days, which takes place mid-May. Cabbage, Happer, Spout, and I walked two and a half miles down gentle switchbacks and found ourselves on the edge of town.

 

 

We went straight to the Damascus Diner, because where else would we go, and ate a huge breakfast. The diner had some delicious hashbrown casserole and a hearty selection of other standard breakfast offerings. Afterwards, we went to the Broken Fiddle Hostel a couple blocks down the road to check-in.

 

We were commited to making our next resupply as fresh as possible, since we finally had access to a grocery store. We walked a mile along the Virginia Creeper Trail through town to Food City. In addition to an increasingly large quantity of dry food (energy bars, oatmeal, tortillas, knorr sides, ramen noodles) we purchased two, massive family-size subs from the deli, hot dogs & buns, and apples for the trail. The advice of Robert from the Refuge Hostel was to pack out as much real food as possible, which helps with obtaining fats & other nutrients, preventing dehydration, and of course, improving morale.

 

 

We spent the rest of the day doing a variety of hostel activities like showering in the outdoor shower, stretching, cooking lunch and dinner, talking to Verizon tech support for multiple hours trying to setup Spout’s phone, and hanging out on the porch of the hostel with the profoundly laidback owners, Fathom, Quartz, and Luna. It was a neat place to relax and we watched Bad Boys 2 on a projector screen in the evening.

 

6/2 ‐ Day 33
0 miles

 

Today was the first zero day we felt like we needed rather than just wanted. Despite nero-ing the day prior, we knew another day of rest was necessary from the moment we woke up. Our bodies stiffened and previously unnoticed pain began demanding attention when we moved. On the plus side, both of our shins were feeling better. The only persistent ailment I’ve been dealing with is aching on the outside of my knees, which I was told from another hiker could be tightness along my IT band that connects to the hips.

 

 

I walked down to the coffee shop to work on the website for a few hours in the morning. Afterwards, we met with Habib and Happer and went to the Damascus Brewery for a decent beer or two. Lastly, we joined with a guy named Mags for wings and burgers at 7 Trails Grill. Otherwise, there were many hours of laying in bed and catching up on sleep.

 

6/3 ‐ Day 34
17 miles from Broken Fiddle Hostel to US 58

 

We showered one last time and cooked a breakfast consisting of ten eggs, two bagels, a loaded turkey sandwich from the deli, and a breakfast Kind bar to fuel up before we left the hostel and were back to living like cavemen. The issue with packing out fresh food is that it weighs significantly more than dry food and both of our backpacks were the heaviest they have ever been.

 

The trail cut through the remainder of the town of Damascus, then briefly ran parallel to Laurel Creek along the Creeper Trail before turning off. What is interesting is that the AT used to share several miles of the Creeper Trail, following faithfully alongside the beautiful river. Some years ago, the trail was rerouted to go up and down a large hillside instead, with no views of the river or the surrounding landscape, likely because the ATC wanted to keep the trail as separate as possible and not share with bicyclists. Sigh.

 

 

We hiked ten miles through the afternoon, occasionally crossing footbridges over the river. We eventually came upon one full mile that was actually shared between the two trails but split off for good near Lost Mountain. We must have passed half a dozen hikers who made jealous remarks about the sandwiches hanging outside our packs. The lust in their prying eyes was evident, but we payed them no mind. We knew the power those sandwiches held on the trail and were prepared to fight and even die for our subs, if necessary.

 

 

We arrived at the Lost Mountain shelter around 4:00pm. Since we were out of Tennessee, there were finally privies again! This one had graffiti’d on it, “anything under fifteen miles is nero, suck it up”. It struck a nerve, so we decided to hike another mile and a half to a campsite just past US 58, nestled in a quiet, pine grove.

 

 

We ate like royalty that night: two pounds of fresh lettuce, tomato, and onion with turkey. It is safe to say that it is worth the weight to pack out sandwiches and we will be doing it at every opportunity we get. Eat good, sleep good, as they say.

 

6/4 ‐ Day 35
16.2 miles from US 58 to Wise Shelter

 

Every day on trail so far has been special, but some are just a little bit more special than others. Leaving our campsite, we immediately began climbing up Whitetop Mountain to Buzzard Rock. A cluster of boulders sat upon open, grassy ridge with spectacular views in all directions. From there, the trail weaved through some meadows where we hiked alongside a herd of cattle and continued working our way north along the ridgeline.

 

 

We met up with Happer and took the half mile spur trail to the summit of Mt. Rogers. The trail led us through patches of protected frasier fir, that filled the mountain air with a rich, earthy aroma. There were no overlooks at the summit, but it was a pleasant hike nonetheless, and we bagged the tallest peak in the state of Virginia.

 

 

When I hiked my first section of the AT many years ago as a Boy Scout, we stayed in Four Pines hostel in Virginia one night. I vaguely recall a conversation I had with one of the thru-hikers where he told me about his favorite section of the trail thus far: Grayson Highlands State Park, an open high country where ponies roamed free, frolicking in the meadows. Now, nearly a decade later, we were approaching the park and my anticipation was palpable.

 

 

The scenery was simply breathtaking as we rounded Pine Mountain on the outskirts of the state park. There were rolling hills in all directions with small, rocky cliffs jutting up among shrubery and gorgeous pink blossoms of mountain laurel. We began to spy small herds of ponies no more than a hundred yards off the trail and it was not long before we stumbled upon one grazing happily right in the middle. It was a beautiful creature, with a long, golden mane that hung off to the side.

 

 

We had come prepared with apples, common pony food in the fall that they miss sorely in the summer months. After a brief moment of hesitation, the pony began chomping away at the fruit right in Spout’s hand!

 

 

The sun was shining brightly across the grasslands but it was a cool day for June. It seemed that every half mile had something new to offer and my girlfriend was clearly loving every second of it. I thought to myself, wouldn’t this be an amazing place to ask Amy to marry me? On the crest of a particularly gorgeous cliffside near Wilburn Ridge, I did just that. She said yes!

 

 

The entire day felt like a fairytale. The only part that I didn’t think through was that instead of celebrating the engagement, we still needed to hike five more miles before we’d even reach the nearest campsite. We traversed through the remainder of the park, which was equally magical, then came across a rowdy herd of ponies grazing among some tents just past the Wise Shelter. There were two baby foals docile enough to let us pet them after we feed them small bites of apple. We decided to spend the evening there, threw up a tent of our own, and relaxed by the fire as the sun set. To top it all off, our dinner was roasted hot dogs over the flames. Once the daylight finally yeilded, I crawled in the tent with my beautiful fiancé and we went to sleep.

 

 

6/5 ‐ Day 36
20.1 miles from Wise Shelter to Trimpi Shelter

 

It was surprisingly cold in the morning and the dew point was well-surpassed. Fortunately, the sun heated up quickly as we packed up our gear and set off through more exposed grassy fields. We were delighted to see a final herd of ponies on a nearby hillside as we passed. We came upon an area called the Scales, where old ranchers would weigh their cattle before taking them down the mountain to sell- supposedly because the cattle would weigh more before making the hike.

 

 

After this, there was nothing else too eventful for several miles. Fortunately, Spout and I had plenty to talk about following yesterday’s events. We hiked eleven miles before taking a short lunch at Hurricane Mountain shelter, then continued through dark tunnels of rhododendron approaching Comer’s Creek Falls. Spout soaked her feet in a shallow pool at the base and we splashed our faces with the cold water to shock ourselves back into hiking condition.

 

 

We hiked to the top of a small mountain and found some cell service to let friends and family know about our engagement! Two miles farther down the hill was Trimpi Shelter where we posted up for the night.

 

6/6 ‐ Day 37
18.7 miles from Trimpi Shelter to Settlers Museum

 

We decided to attempt a resupply in Marion, VA instead of relying on a Sunoco that was supposedly just off the trail ten miles north in Atkins, VA. At this point, we are going to take advantage of every good resupply we can get, even if it means we need to hitch or shuttle to get there. We read on FarOut (the app we use for trail navigation and waypoints) that a free shuttle left for town at 11:15am from the Mount Rogers National Rec HQ. We were camping exactly ten miles south of the building. By time we were up and moving, it was 7:45am which meant we needed to hike 20 minute miles for the entire stretch to make it.

 

This got Spout motivated and she flew past the early morning warmup mile. We crossed more tall grass meadows and poked between the woods decorated with patches of white blooming mountain laurel. By the end of the first hour, we were nearing the completion of our fourth mile. We ended up arriving around 11:00am after we hit a wall of fatigue eight miles in. As it turned out, we needed to call to have the shuttle pick us up so we ended up hitching after all that.

 

Happer was coming into town with us and showed me the proper hitchhiking technique they use in Israel. We hid in the bushes while Spout did her thing and got the 2nd car on a quiet Monday morning to pull over a few minutes later. Happer and I crept out of the brush like two hobos as soon as she started making conversation with the driver.

 

As luck would have it, the man who picked us up was headed right next to Walmart. Before we resupplied, we found a Charley’s and each ate a large Philly cheesesteak with fries. Then, we went for second lunch at McDonald’s where I ordered two McDoubles and a large chocolate milkshake, pushing over 3,000 calories for the total meal, a new record. To be clear, eating a lot of food in town isn’t to be glutinous, it is to compensate for the ridiculous caloric deficit we face on the trail. We each have lost a considerable amount of weight already. Some thru-hikers have lost upwards of 20lbs in only a few weeks. As Aquaman, our long-passed SOBO guide once said: “When I go into town I need to eat so much I feel disgusting so the next day I don’t feel like shit”.

 

 

After we ate and resupplied, we got back to the trail around 4:00pm and continued hiking. A while later we passed a couple of weekend hikers we had met in the morning. It is hard not to feel a little weird when you wake up, hike ten miles, pass someone camping, take a five hour detour to stuff your face with fast food, then pass them again once you get back on trail. Despite feeling like we constantly have minor injuries, we have been able to hike farther and faster more comfortably. It’s now been over five weeks since we started hiking daily, and I am personally amazed at how my body has adapted.

 

 

We passed one nice overlook of Walker Mountain as we went, then hit a few comically steep hills with loose rocks that broke up the otherwise crushable fields and flat, muddy tunnels. We skipped the Chatfield Shelter and went on another two miles to the Settlers Museum. The museum sat on a few acres of fields and tall grass with an 1800s single-room school house with a “trail magic” supply. The entire area was free for hikers to use. A pavilion with lights, outlets, and picnic tables became our home for the night. Happer, Spout, myself, and a middle-aged couple, Coughdrop and Dragonfly, sat on the porch of the museum, which was a classic farm house complete with a picket fence out front and a rickety, old rocking chair on the porch. We watched a magnificent sunset across the field before fireflies lit up the world once darkness finally fell. We felt another one of those “yeah, this trail is unbelievable” moments.

 

 

6/7 ‐ Day 38
17.4 miles from Settlers Museum to Knot Maul

 

In the morning, Spout had the idea to make biscuits and gravy using country gravy mix and English muffins. They turned out pretty well using Happer’s stove to heat the water. We took our time leaving the pavilion, as we wanted to arrive at the US 11 crossing around 11:00am to grab lunch once the restaurants opened. We hiked an easy two miles to the road and stopped at Sweetwater Venue for sandwiches and packed out some chicken wraps for dinner.

 

 

The terrain of southern Virginia has been constantly switching between rolling pastures and unnecessarily steep hills lurking among the trees. We completed several repetitions of this pattern in the afternoon. Rain showers started around 2:00pm and our pace slowed drastically. We’ve learned how important it is to hike the majority of the mileage in a day before taking lunch, which was the exact opposite of what we did.

 

 

Fortunately, it is easier to overcome lethargy than injury and after a few successive breaks we caught our second wind. We crawled over these annoying wooden ladders built for hikers to cross barbed wire fences between farms that pop up every few miles. After one final cow pasture and its accompanying mountain, we reached Knot Maul shelter around 6:30pm. Taters and Bug, a young couple we’ve been leap-frogging with, joined us a while later and talked to us about their experience living in Salt Lake City.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, we hit the 1/4 of the way today. Can you believe that?

 

Etc.

 

I am going to stop updating the excel sheet keeping track of expenses. Mostly because I don’t care as much as I thought I would and it is one more thing to keep track of when these blog posts keep me plenty busy in town. I will say that so far, the trail has been more expensive than anticipated but I think that is mostly due to the hyper-inflation of everything in the past few months. I have credit card history to keep track of expenses and maybe after the hike I will gather all of the data.