[at-l] Pre-Thanksgiving Hike, Damascus, 2005

[thornel at attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)]

I decided this year to do a brief section hike southbound into 
Damascus. Originally, I'd hoped to spend a couple of weeks like last 
year, finishing most of Southern VA from near Punchbowl Shelter (Blue 
Ridge Parkway mile 51). My girlfriend let me know that this was a bit 
long for her and her girls, so I amended the plans for 5 days, 11/19 
Saturday to late Wednesday 11/23 and drive home in time for 
Thanksgiving. I had promised myself not to go further north than 
Damascus given my experience with cold and snow last year on the 
northbound journey. But the time and motivation was there, and I knew 
I had the strength and skills for whatever the AT threw at me. This 
year, I wasn't hiking alone, but had another section hiker, Almost 
There, the wrestling coach at the local high school in his young 30's.

This section has been in drought much of 2005, and several friends 
advised me of poor water supplies. I discussed the early planning on 
a hiker's website (WhiteBlaze.Com) with suggestions to start at the 
Mt Rogers Park Headquarters, making about a 64 mile hike. After a 
tough time on a break in hike between Unicoi and Dicks Creek Gap (17 
miles in North Georgia), we decided to try a shorter hike, beginning 
at Dickey Gap or about 54 miles. I was ambivalent about whether to 
try hiking with my Speer hammock, quilt and related warm gear, or to 
play it safe with my little Nomad tent that has served me well for 
over 5 years. Weather was predicted to be cold with very little 
chance of snow, mainly Tuesday night. There had been a bit of rain 
and snow the prior week, so we were more hopeful about the water situation.

The drive out of Metro Atlanta was delayed by the usual Friday 
evening rush hour. Rather than going the entire way to Damascus, we 
baled out in Erwin, TN and spent the night in Miss Janet's Hostel. 
The bathroom has been elegantly repaired and remodeled, and the new 
furnace was piping out the warm air. Janet was found at the local 
theater, opening after renovations with Harry Potter's Goblet of 
Fire. I slept well, although others claimed I had been busy making 
lumber all night.

Saturday AM, we drove to Damascus, although with a couple of side 
trips, including looking for an additional sleeping pad and reading 
glasses. Mt Rogers Outfitters had all we needed, told us the water 
was doing better but wasn't good, and that there might be a bit of 
ice at elevation. L. Wolf introduced us to the fine cuisine of Do 
Duck Cafe, a little diner sharing space with bicycle renters next to 
the AT and Virginia Creeper Trail. (The Virginia Creeper is a 
rail-to-trail popular with bicyclists that shares the AT for much of 
the last few miles into Damascus.) Breakfast was eaten and L Wolf 
drove us up to the trailhead at Dickey Gap. I made last minute 
adjustments, and decided to go for the tent even though no rain was 
predicted, but bitter cold was expected.

This portion of trail is fairly East to West, paralleling the NC/VA 
line with a few loops to include the Grayson Highlands and other 
scenery. We started about 11:30AM. Water was easy to find, the trail 
was in great shape, and we managed to walk between 2.5 and 3 miles 
per hour. We visited the new shelter at Hurricane Mountain, We 
typically had Almost There ahead of me on level and downhill 
sections, while I tended to climb faster. We stopped at Fox Creek, a 
road crossing with water and a picnic table about 4:00, and decided 
to make supper, but got a fairly late finish around 5 PM for the hike 
up to Orchard Knob Shelter. I arrived first as the light began to 
fade, with Almost There close behind. The campsite was fun. A church 
group from a local university took the shelter. A group of mid aged 
men were camping and making a fire, inviting us to tent nearby and 
share their libations. The sky was clear although fast high clouds 
were flying past in the night. Sleep was good.

Sunday AM, we started about 8:30AM, with Almost There (AT) heading 
out first, and climbing to the first bald a bit ahead of me. I didn't 
mind as I listened to Aqualung on my iPod, and then started listening 
to A Briefer History of Time. The latter was a difficult audio book 
about physics for the lay person. Thankfully, my batteries died and I 
had to make to without media for the rest of the trip. We walked to 
the Scales, a hunter's compound with dirt road and horse access. We 
had some hope of running into L Wolf with some libations and a desire 
to hike into town with us, but that was for naught. Over the next 
hill, we began to meet the feral ponies of the Highlands. A bit after 
noon, we reached Wise Shelter, and lounged in the grass and sun, 
enjoying a bit of Snickers, cheese and other lunch. AT went ahead, 
expecting me to catch him on the looming uphills. Hunters were out 
spotting their deer in anticipation of the beginning of shooting 
season, especially up on Buzzard Rock. Just beyond, we entered the 
Grayson Highlands, and the herds of ponies.

While these are feral ponies, they are severely tame and keen to beg 
for food, much like a very large Black Lab. I fed one some of my 
dehydrated peaches, and was relieved when she finally tired of me and 
let me move along. We noticed more high clouds coming, with students 
on break joining the walk into Damascus. The students and the clouds 
advised us of pending rain this evening. They chose the shelter at 
Thomas Knob, just below Mt Rogers, the highest peak in VA. We found a 
little campsite a hundred yards south, a bit away from the privy and 
far from the excellent water supply. We were tired, but enjoyed 
dinner and bedded down early.

The rain began about midnight, and got serious about 3AM. We packed 
up quickly, making Instant Breakfast and prepared to head out into 
the rain with our rain gear on. I was missing my orange fleece, but a 
SOBO thru hiker had found it while night hiking into the shelter. 
Great luck! The rest of the day was filled with rain, mist, wind, 
cold wind, a bit of freezing rain, fog and general nastiness. At 
midmorning, I crossed an exposed bald with a rocky top in the wind 
and fog. White blazes were painted on posts and on the rock, with a 
post leaning on a boulder as the trail appeared to go down a rocky 
ravine, not much steeper than Agony Grind or Mt Albert. But the white 
blaze at the bottom turned out to be a beer can, and the scramble 
back up and to the trail was difficult in the wet and cold. I later 
learned that AT had made the same mistake, and like me, was too 
exhausted to think to toss over the post that someone had moved to a 
wrong location. The next blaze was on the ground, painted on a rock 
over to the left as the trail headed off the bald into the woods.

About 3PM, AT and I met again at Lost Mountain Shelter. We decided to 
keep going further in hope of campsites at Bear Gap, or possibly 
hitting Saunders Shelter. In any case, the plan was to start looking 
for level ground and water at 4:30PM and be encamped by 5:30PM. AT 
walked ahead as I took a water and rest break, feeling very wet and 
cold when I stopped. We soon came to our first opportunity to share 
the Virginia Creeper Trail, following it for a couple of miles before 
the AT split up the hill onto side hill trail, while the nice level 
Creeper followed the water.

The trail got darker, more hilly, and rocky. There was little water 
available on this section once we left the Creeper. The lone water 
source was a pond, and not an particularly appetizing pond. A poor 
camp site was near this pond, and AT was waiting there for me. We 
decided to push on into the darkness as we were wet, cold and needing 
a more level campsite. We hoped the Bear Gap Day Use area was nearby 
and would have more level ground. Night gathered around us as we 
found the trail toward Bear Gap and US-58. Cars were going by, and we 
thought about trying to thumb back to Damascus, but looked at our 
wet, nasty selves and decided to look further. The day use area was 
primarily a mountain biking area, we think from what we could see in 
the dark. We elected to go back toward the AT and camped in the 
middle of the little side trail on fairly level ground. We had 
covered 17 miles, were beat up, wet and exhausted. I didn't cook, but 
simply ate cheese, Snickers and some peaches and went to bed early.

Did I mention it was raining like gang busters? It resulted in 
everything we owned getting wet, with severe condensation in the 
tents, including AT's tent with a separate rain fly. As the night 
progressed, I found the exterior of my down sleeping bag getting 
moist, but it continued to keep me warm. About 2AM, the rain finally 
stopped, as it turned to heavy wet snow. It periodically slid of the 
tent, and didn't collapse it.

So, the sun rose, such as it was, about 7:30AM, and both of us had 
managed to cobble together clothing that was less wet, less cold and 
somewhat satisfactory. We were a bit over 10 miles from Damascus. I 
ate some cheese and conserved what was left of my water, and headed 
for Saunder's Shelter. I got there about an hour later, found water 
and ate a bit more, trying to stay as warm and dry as possible. Snow 
continued, with clouds occasionally breaking or turning to freezing 
rain and mist. AT went back up to the Appalachian Trail the correct 
way, but I took a blue blaze, that I suspect was the old AT that 
avoided climbing over the local peak. Eventually, on the downhill AT 
caught up with me and was amazed that I'd somehow passed him. Around 
3,000 feet, the snow stopped, but mist, wind and rain persisted.

The Virginia Creeper trail came close to us, tempting us with it's 
level path. We decided that while the Creeper was a few miles longer 
into Damascus, there was less climbing and a better chance at getting 
into Damascus fairly quickly. This is known by hikers as Blue Blazing 
- leaving the White Blazed AT for an alternative route. I considered 
leaving much of my wet heavy pack at a road crossing for the 
AT/Creeper and US-58, but decided to carry on. Almost There was 
slowed down by foot/boot problems with a swollen painful ball of his 
right foot. Yet we continued to make good time, even when almost run 
down by 3 bicyclists.

At 1PM, we were back to Damascus, sitting in the Do Duck Cafe, 
ordering bacon cheeseburgers, coffee, milk shakes, onion rings and 
fries. We had been flying as we walked this trip, with adverse 
weather, plenty of climbs and several distractions. I figure I 
averaged near 2.5 mph, and hit a bit over 3mph several times, 
especially on our way into Damascus on Tuesday. While we were wet and 
uncomfortable, there was no hypothermia, at least until I started 
drinking my milk shake.

We visited the Lazy Fox B&B for the evening, sharing a room, 
breakfast, TV and great conversation with Ginny, the 81 year old 
proprietor. She is a very young lady, who serves as chamber of 
commerce for Damascus, Abington and surrounding areas as she 
encourages repeat visits, especially with my girl friend and her 
daughters. For supper, we headed out toward Abington for Bella's 
Pizza, which was a pretty good pizza, but didn't quite hit the spot.

The drive home Wednesday was uneventful but slow as I took detours to 
visit Miss Janet and then to a Christmas Tree Farm for this year's 
tree. We hit Waynesville and Fat Buddies BBQ and got the ribs, taking 
extra home "for the dog."

But a 5 day planned trek took 3 1/2 days. It is very nice to be in 
pretty good shape, especially in bad weather. This time, I absolutely 
promise I won't go further north between November and April.

OrangeBug 


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