Trail Days!

What to say about trail days...
Trail days is pretty much a three day party that the town of Damascus through for all the hikers, past and present. Most hikers within 100 miles north or south of damascus come in for it, not to mention all the old through hikers and gear reps that come.
The activities started Thursday morning which is one reason we pushed so hard to get in Wednesday night. We woke up early and went and got in line for meal tickets the baptist church was giving out. You needed a ticket to be able to get the amazing dinner they cooked that night, and we happened to be the first in line. After we got our tickets we walked down the street and these older ladies sitting on a porch called to us and asked if we wanted coffee cookies and hats. Turns out they were a craft group with the church and had crocheted a ton of hats for all the hikers. By the next day all the hikers in town were sporting their new hats. Later that afternoon the held an eating contest and of course our group of guys were all over it. The way they did it was everyone who wanted to participate put their name in a hat and they drew 8 people for the hotdog part and 8 people for the sheet cake part. There were a ton of people to sign up but the third name to be called was Austin's. Then right after him both phlegm and gravity were called up along with another guy we have hiked on and off with named Milo. There was a table set up on a flatbed truck with a bunch of chairs on one side for them to sit. They were all big guys and had trouble sitting shoulder to shoulder. They each got 8 hotdogs and whoever finished the most in 3 minutes won. Right off the bat phlegm started to choke but quickly recovered. By the end of the 3 minutes he was crowned the winner after eating 5 and a half of the hotdogs, our friend Milo got second, a guy we didn't know got third, and austin and gravity tied for fourth eating 4 hotdogs. Phlegm won a 7 ounce hammock that we ended up hanging up in a tree for the rest of trail days (see pic) I arson got some great pictures of the eating contest but they aren't on my phone. The rest of Thursday we hung out around the church and used the internet cafe they had set up and took showers in the disaster relief shower trailer the church had set up behind it. And that night we ate the biggest most amazing home cooked meal ever!
On friday we got up and walked around a festival like area that they had set up in the park. One side was all the topical festival vendor tents with every kind of crafted item. Then in the middle was all the festival foods like funnel cake and roasted corn. But past that was all the vendors for the hikers. That weren't major brands of gear for the most part, but alot of smaller companies selling very creative and interesting things. We had a blast walking around. The major gear companies had tests set up just outside of town where they had sectioned off an area for the hikers to stay. However that wasn't to sell gear but repair any gear that had a problem with it. Austin got his treeing poles fixed and a hole in his kilt sown up.
Saturday a friend that we had made before the smokies that isn't hiking the trail, grey fox, came to hang out with us for the night. We met up with him at one of the diners and talked for a long time until the hiker parade started at 2. Our whole group had bought ridiculous clothes at the thrift store for a dollar to wear during the parade so we ran back to our tents to change and missed the beginning of the parade but jumped in when we could. Apparently a long time ago when the parade was going on some of the locals thought the hikers smelled so bad that they trough water at them and started a tradition that during the parade all the locals who turn out to watch us walk down the street bring water balloons or supersoakers and it just turns into the biggest cross town water fight. We had a blast catching balloons and throwing them back at the locals. We were soaked by the end but had tons of fun. Our friend grey fox was gonna stay at tent city that night and since we had to be there early the next morning anyways we packed up our tents and moved to tent city for the night. When we got there the gear tents were doing some give-aways and having some contests. Our friend gravity won a 4 man non-backpacking tent from the raffle. Pretty cool but very un practical for what we are doing and it turned out to be a little bit of a pain to send it home, cool none the less. Austin spent most of the time hanging around the Princeton tec tent because they were having a competition that he turned out to be very good at. Its kinda hard to explain so stay with me... there was a long mat laid on the ground about 10 or more feet long, the object was to see who could set a nalgene waterbottle the farthest on the mat without touching the mat. So what most guys would do is take two nalgenes and walk it out with their hands until they were in push-up positions with all their weight on the waterbottles (making sure their right hand was centered on their chest) then put all their weight on their right hand and stretch with their left and place the waterbottle with their finger tips as far as they could. Now the hardest part of this whole thing wasn't doing all that but having the strength to be able to push you whole body back up to standing with only the one bottle left. It was much like doing a diamond push-up but with your hand glancing on top of a waterbottle. But of course austin rocked this competition. (See pictures) he didn't have any trouble at all with the standing part at the end (which is where most failed) the only thing he had trouble with is the fact that there is a maximum for how far it is physically possible to stretch depending on how tall you are. Height isn't everything tho and austin was beating alot of guys talked then him and was in first place for a long time, until right at the end a guy who had austin beat by a good 4 inches came and passed him. But austin still won second place and ended up winning an awesome headlamp. O yea and I was the only girl that was able to complete the challenge. Most girls tried to do it the same as the guys but our center of gravity is different. So I balanced with the bottle at my stomach and was able to do it. No prize for me tho cause I was still a good 2 feet too short. The rest of the night was fun baning out with grey fox but we went to bed early cause we had to be up early for hard core trail crew! But that's another post for another night! And I promise im trying to caught up! So busy! But that was pretty much trail days :)

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Damascus Adventure!

So the last I posted we were just leaving the hostel with my new shoes. The shoes took a few days to finally start feeling good but I think I got a good feel for them now.
The hostel was about 50 miles outside of Damascus Virginia which is where trail days was being held. Trail days is pretty much a three day party that the town holds every year for the hikers. Everything in the town pretty much opened up for us and was wonderful. But more on that later, all you need to know is for days and weeks leading up to it hikers from about a 100 mile radius of damascus plan on how to be there for trail days. We wanted to get to damascus and pass it before trail days started so when it was over we could get a ride up to where we left off and it wouldn't be as crowded as hiking out of the city with everyone else. So we had 50 miles to get into town so naturally we did 10 miles, 21 miles, 19 miles, in three days. (O my friends have corrected me.. it was 10.4, 21.5 and 18.5.... I stand corrected) They were some big days but they were fairly uneventful. On one of the days tho me and austin were walking along fairly quickly when I suddenly came to a complete stop. Austin almost ran right into me and was really confused. The reason I stopped was because there was a 3 foot black snack stretched out down the trail. I had to back peddle little so I didn't step on it. Luckily we walked up on the tail end. I used my trekking pole and poked it in the tail and encouraged it to move.Austin chased it little more until it got far enough away. And then less then 10 minutes later I stepped right next to one on the trail and I didn't know it was there until it scurried away. It scared me and I jumped pretty high and austin just said "do I need to walk in front!" Other then that the only exciting thing was we did cross into Virginia! That means we are done with 3 states :) (see photo from other post) Too bad we wont cross our next state line for 700 miles. It is a third of the trial..
When we got into damascus we called a number in the guide book and asked if he had room for us to stay at what we thought was a hostel or motel like place. But after I talked to him on the phone I got the impression that it was more like a shack in his backyard, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. It turned out it was a finished guest house that was just a tiny room with a full bathroom. All it had was a full sized bed and a bunk-bed set. It was wonderful! It was the cutest place ever. It barely fit all of us and our gear but was perfect! They told us if we stayed the another night they would give us a great deal. So we stayed another day to figure out what we were going to do about trail days. On our zero we mainly just took care of errands and hung out at the outfitter. We also decided that it would be easier to skip ahead on the trail and hike southbound into damascus instead of hike out and try to hitch-hike back. So we paid 8 dollars each and they dropped us off 40 miles up trail and we planned on three days back into town which would put us there right in time.
The first day was beautiful! We hiked through this section called the Grayson highlands where there are wild ponies that roam. So we were walking along and we just came up on big groups of ponies. They were really friendly and loved to lick all the salt off of us so they would walk right up to us. I will try to post the video I took but no promises.
The second day we planned on hiking 18.5 miles and then the next day get up and do 8 more miles into damascus. I started to get a pretty bad shin splint right before lunch so I was walking quite a bit slower then normal but we still had plenty of time to make the shelter. We stopped at the last shelter before the one we were going to stay at for the night and started talking to some other hiker friends of ours. They gave us the idea to push on and go into town that night. We knew it was going to be too long of a hike to do that night but the AT met up with a bike trail 2 miles from where we were. Some guys that worked at the outfitter had told us about the bike trail and said we should give it a shot cause it was prettier the the AT. The mileage was adding little more miles then the actual AT but it was flat and not rocky. We heard that the outfitter in town would come met you on the trail and give you bikes to rent to ride in on the bike trail. So we got my phone out and had absolutely no signal. Austin and gravity decided to walk a mile back to the road to see if they could get a signal, but after walking all the way there and a half a mile down the road and back they still got no signal and came back. All the guys were still so pumped about getting into town that night that by the time we made it the next two miles and met up with the bike trail they had already cooked up another plan. By the time I got there they had already put their packs down and asked if I wasn't carrying any weight would I be able to make it. How could I turn down three excited determined faces? So they took everything out of my pack and split it between the three of them (austin taking the most of it) all I had left was my pack, some water and my polls. We hiked the rest of the miles in on the bike trail which was beautiful! We had to stop mid way for dinner then kept pushing on. We hiked probably 3 hours in the dark with just our headlamps and by that point I was using my polls more as crutches then polls. But the guys were great and austin and phlegm walked slow with me into town while gravity hurried on ahead to figure out were we could sleep for the night. We made it into town at around 11:30 and it was after midnight by the time we were all set up in our tents. The totally mirage for the day was 27 for me and phlegm and over 30 for gravity and austin with there extra walk to find service, plus all the guys were carrying alot more weight then they normally do with all of my stuff. It was probably harder then I should have pushed it but I knew we were going to have plenty of rest days to recover with trails days starting. It was and exciting if not difficult adventure. And since we made it into town Wednesday night we were able to get the meal tickets they passed out Thursday morning at 8:30. So everything worked out great.
Ill have to tell you about trail days in another post. Got to save phone battery! But I will say that my shin splints healed wonderfully during trail days! So no worries :)

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Pictures for upcoming blog!!

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Feet problems

So the last I wrote I mentioned that we climbed our hardest mountain yet. While we were climbing that mountain my shoes decided they were going to completely where-out and start rubbing my feet raw. It wasn't too bad by the end of that day.... but by the end of the next day they looked awful! (See photo) They weren't like any blisters anyone had seen before but the general advise I got was to take a days rest, soak my feet in cold water, and powder my feet to keep them as dry as possible when I did hike. It just so happened that the shelter we stopped that night was only half a mile from a road. So the next morning me austin and the two guys we are hiking with got up and went to the road to hitch into town and get breakfast. Since I was suppose to me taking a rest day austin carried me on my back all the way to the road and then down the road till we got a ride. Our friend Gravity was trying to get us a hitch while I was riding on Austin's back but around 20 cars past and still no one stopped. By this point austin was getting sweaty and a little tired of carrying me so he put me down for a break. I told gravity to let me try to get a ride. No lie, the first car that past after I stuck out my thumb stopped and gave us a ride into town. The rest of the zero day went fine and the combination of rest and soaking my feet seemed to help alot so the next day we did a big 19 mile day. It was a hard day and it took alot out of us but it was good to be hiking again. When we stopped gravity decided to push on another 6 miles and make it into a hostel that's right off the trail because a cold front moved in. We werent up to the 25 mile day so we stopped short and had a pretty cold night and met up with him the next day. We ended up staying the night there so we could get a ride into town and get our much needed mail drop. And it was fate that my wonderful older sister had sent me a new pair of bright pink shoes just in time! (See photo)
The hostel was a wonderful place and we had a ton of fun with all the hikers that were there. It was a really small building with a tiny livingroom and kitchen area to hang out in but it was crawling with stinky hikers (picture the seen in fight club with all the "space monkeys" filling the house). Everyone bought and cooked food and shared with everyone, we played games and sang songs. It was an awesome night. There was a guy helping the owner named baltimore jack there who is very well known on the trail and after talking with him he gave me an AT necklace (awesome!) I told him ill bring it to katahdin. Ill post a picture of it at some point. The next day we headed out on our way to damascus VA!

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Catch up!

I've been really behind in my postings. Sorry! My book has gotten really good and there are only so many relaxing hours in the day. Anyways I believe I left off with us finally leaving hot springs. But I did forget to mention one last thing about hot springs... while we were there austin convinced all the guys we have been hiking with the save their hair into mohawks. So now everyone asks them what their deal is and where my mohawk is. Its a pretty funny way to distinguish our group.
So the climb out of hot springs was way worse then we expected and we all had a hard day. But the next morning we got up and hiked 4 miles into a gap and found a sign that said that if we walked 350 yards down the road there was a house where we could get waffles. That was a no brainer. It was a little weird just walking up to some random house but before we made it to the door a guy came out to great us and told us to leave our packs and shoes outside and come in. Two other hikers we knew were already there and the four of us sat down at the table. The wife was cooking waffles in the kitchen while she talked to us and the husband was showing us a drink menu and getting our orders. They had anything you could think of to drink! (Go figure I got a huge glass or cranberry juice and spilled it all over the table cloth..) She gave us each a huge plate sized waffle and when we were done with that she came out with plate number two. That consisted of a muffin, small quiche, and a meat medley (amazing). As soon as those plates were clear they brought out lunch. That was a bbq sandwich, coleslaw, greenbeans, baked beans, and a pickle. Then came dessert... they had a very long list of anything you could think of including apple pie and brownie Sundays. All I could put down after all that food was some icecream. We were all so stuffed that we ended up staying in their livingroom in food comas for an hour. When we finally left we planned on doing alot more miles but our bellies had trouble with the next few hills so we called it an early day and stayed at the next shelter.
The next few day were pretty normal. One of the nights we knew a big storm was coming but the shelters were spaced out weird so the did 16 miles and stayed at a campsite 4 miles from the next shelter (all uphill). One of our friends only has a tarp so he pushed on to be in the shelter and waited for us the next day to caught up. The storm was pretty intense but the way the gap was shaped shelters us alot from the wind. Turns out it was the same storm that caused a bunch of tornadoes in the area and killed a bunch of people in the area. But we rode it out in our tent and stayed completely dry. The next day we hiked the next 4 miles to meet up with our friend gravity who was waiting at the shelter. As we were taking our snack break they got to talking about the next town we were coming to, Erwin TN. It was around 17 miles to town from there. The plan was to go 10 more miles to the next shelter and into erwin the next day. But everyone wanted to go into town but no one really had the money to stay there. So austin offered to pay for a room for us all if we hiked the whole thing that day. It was a hard push but we made the 21 miles (our longest day yet). When we got there it was still 2 miles to our hotel from the trailhead. We started walking down the road with me in the back. As the first car was about to pass us gravity told me to stick my thumb out. Sure enough the truck stopped and picked us up and took us right there. Alot of the guys say its nice to have a girl to hike with cause you get hitches faster. Lol I don't know if that's true but it worked for us. The hotel was amazing and we were able to wash our socks in the sink and order pizza. The next day we met up with another hiker who was staying there and happened to have a rental car so he drove us around town to get our resupply. We were a little bummed cause everything we planned on doing there didn't pan out but we still had a wonderful time. We hiked out 4 miles the the curly maple shelter that night.
Yesterday we hiked out of curly maple and did an easy 14 mile day. In the middle of they day we came to a place called beauty spot. Its a big grassy bald on top of a mountain. It was so wonderful to eat lunch and relax in the grass that we made it a 2 hour lunch break and all relaxed and read in the sun after we ate. Go figure I got the worst sunburn I have gotten in awhile! I wasn't thinking and only put sunscreen on my face and Austins neck (which saved him from a burn). But I had taken off my knee braces and my black shirt was hot so I pulled it up as we laid in the grass. My knees and stomach are now lobster red. I couldn't were my knee braces today cause of it. And my pack tightens right over my burnt tummy. A couple other people that were up there got some sun too but I have it the worst.
And today was probably the hardest 16 miles we have done yet. The first 7 were easy but the last 9 were awful! We climbed roan mountain at the end of the day and it was by far the hardest climb we have had yet. We gained 2000 feet of elevation in about 3 and a half miles. If you have trouble picturing that, it is pretty much straight up. But we made it and it was a beautiful climb. We are now at the highest shelter on the AT (over 6,100 ft). It is an awesome pine forest though so we are camping out instead of sleeping in the shelter. It is much colder this high up!
Ill try to keep up with updating better. Sorry everyone! But thank you for reading. Reading your comments brightens our day :)

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