Two Days Past Damascus

Last time I wrote on here, I was in Damascus. Damascus is a strange place. It has the ability to suck you in like none other. Hikers in town stay at The Place which is basically a free place to stay. It's $4 per night and it's all on the honor system. Anyways, everything is whithin easy walking distance, one of the best eating establisments (Sicily's) so far is on the trail there but there is no regular bar and no place to drink beer which is why it is strange that hikers and other people get stuck there. Hikers particularly look forward to the light at the end of the tunnell which is usually food that requires some baking, broiling, grilling or frying or a nice frosty beverage. All in all, I stayed four nights in Damascus and at the end of the third, I felt like my stay was wearing out. I ended up seeing the same people around town and this one guy in particular was giving me wierd looks all the time and wouldn't say much. He was a scraggaly as I am but he lived there in town. On top of that, I was kicked off the computer and out of Mojoes. The lady reasoned that people walking in and seeing me on the computer would walk out and that my thirty minutes per day limit was up hours ago. Wooooooooo! I went back when she was off work though and got the rest of my business done on the computer. I sure showed her!

About the trail though. I left wednesday morning with Dixie Dawg and we took a short cut. Instead of taking the long hilly way from Damascus to where it crosses the Virginia Creeper Trail, we just took the VCT and saved a lot of time. It slowly ascends 900 ft over 10 miles and ends up in the same place that the AT does after it goes 14 miles up, down, around and under hills. It could have possible been one of the better decisions that I have made so far. The next day we walked through the Grayson Highlands, and Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. The thing that is popular about Grayson Highlands and Mount Rogers are the wild ponys that live there. They run around the fields and are there in plain view while the tourists walk around and point and snap pictures or climb rocks in their nice clean cotton clothing. Mount Rogers and surrounding area was set aside for the publoic to use because it is the highest peak in Virginia, but believe me, I didn't feel guilty one bit skipping the side trail to the 'viewless peak'. Just down the trail is where the beauty begins. The most scenic stretch of the AT in the Damascus > Pearisburg stretch is here in Mount Rogers NRA. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the savannah-esque-ness of the open bald areas, but it certainly is the most foreign feeling place. Either side of the trail is thick with brush and up on the hillside is a pony. Feral pony tracks lead off to the hilltops and so on and so forth. Instead of following the blazes on the trees, there are posts stuck in the ground with blazes on them and once in a while one will be painted on a rock.

I was excited to be hiking with someone and not off on my own meaining I was glad to be hiking with Dixie Dawg, but that night he busted his ankle. We were no more than a mile from the shelter around 10:00pm and thats when it happened. We had gotten to the top of Hurricane Mountain and two steps on the other side down he goes. He limps to the shelter and we wern't the quietest, after all Dixie was in a good deal of pain. I could see one person inside and I knew it was Bellows so I called out to him.

That night I met Tony the ridgerunner. What a polite, kind individual. *sarcasm*



<---Dixie Dawg, chill fellow