Campsite to Damascus - our first 20 mile day!!

Day Six
October 5, 2013
Buzzard Rock to Damascus
20 miles

Another fitful night for us in the hammocks.  We just don’t have it down-pat yet but will keep working on getting it right so that we can enjoy our sleep.  What is nice about the hammocks is that there are no pressure points causing pain like there is on a sleeping pad. 

The hike this morning was through some beautiful country.  Lots of pastureland again, some common cows and bulls, streams and rhodo thickets.  Not hard at all. 

 

The plan was for two more days of hiking, but sometime during the morning I got to thinking about trying to make it out today.  So as we were hunched beside a small stream getting water, I said to Wait-up, “If we could do 20 miles today, would we make it to Damascus?”  Ummm, he looked at me as if I had lost my mind.  But he started figuring and said, “Yes, it will be just about exactly 20 miles.”  I said, “Let’s do it.”  So we did!

Thru-hikers like to talk about their first 20-mile day.   Most of them build up their stamina and can get to the point that most of their days are 20-milers, but not us! We have to start over building up our stamina every time we do a section.  Today seemed like a good day to try it though since we had been doing several 15 miles days and lived through them.  Plus, the terrain is pretty moderate in this area most of it
being in the 2,000 and 3,000 ft range.  My feet had gotten to where they were hurting most of the time now, so I took some Advil and kept on trucking. 

Our highest point today was Straight Mountain at 3500 feet.  One interesting thing there was that there were two entrances to Saunders Shelter which was off the trail about 1/4 of a mile.  You could access it from the north or the south and didn't have to backtrack to get back to the trail.  That is unusual as far as we know.     

One of the Creeper Trail bridges

Ten miles north of Damascus, we joined the Virginia Creeper Trail for a short distance.  This trail stretches 33 miles along an old railroad bed from Abingdon to the Virginia-North Carolina state line.  It began as a native-American footpath.  Later, it was used by pioneers, including Daniel Boone, and beginning in the early 1900s, by a mountain railroad.  It has 100 trestles and bridges.   The AT crosses one trestle with the Creeper Trail, then goes back up the side of the mountain, but parallels the Creeper along the river for a little while.  Then right before Damascus, the two trails merge again and go into town together.  We saw many people on bicycles enjoying the beautiful weather.  It is a popular tourist attraction in Damascus. 

So we reached Damascus right at 5:00 p.m.  Sure was good to see the Dairy King again, which we went into and had a good dinner.  The owner was there and was very friendly and attentive to us, making sure we had enough home fries to share.  And when we finished eating he said he wanted to give each of us a complimentary 16-ounce cup of soft-serve ice cream.  I certainly took him up on that offer, and we walked down the front street of Damascus for the last time to go to our car parked at Mt. Roger’s Outfitters parking lot. 

We completed 75 miles in 5 days of hiking.  Good job!  That will be it for us until the Spring. 

Zero Day in Damascus

Day Four
October 3, 2013
Zero Day in Damascus

The Comfort Inn had a very nice continental breakfast which we enjoyed very much.  Then we waited outside for our shuttle.  Nigel Collins from Fort Bastian arrived promptly at 10:30 and drove us to our car parked at Grayson Highlands State Park.  He is a “True Brit” and we enjoyed talking with him.

We drove our car to Damascus back down the winding Music Trail road.  On the way, we found a couple of loaded apple trees beside the road and raided them.  We wanted to take a few home to make apple butter (which we did and it turned out very well). 

First stop was Mt. Roger’s Outfitters to line up a shuttle for tomorrow morning back to Grayson Highlands State Park to hike south this time.  We had booked Ruby’s Rest for the night, so we went there to check in.  Jeff and Nicky Buckley were very hospitable hosts.  Their accommodations for hikers were a little cottage in back of their house.  It was nicely furnished and had LOTS of books!  We appreciated the coffee and pot the next morning.    

We enjoyed eating lunch on the porch of In the Country Eatery and Bakery.  There were lots of bicyclers coming and going on the Creeper Trail which ran in front of the restaurant. It was a beautiful day for bike riding.  Damascus is in a great location for The Creeper Trail. 

Dairy King was our choice for dinner.  They have some good home-cooked meals.  Then back to Ruby’s Rest for the night.

 

Campsite to Damascus, VA

May 29, 2013
6.5 miles
6:15 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.

We were up early for two reasons.  One – we weren’t sleeping anyway. Two – we were excited that this is our last day of hiking for this trip.  We took down camp and got on the trail at 6:15 a.m.  As we went up the trail a ways, we heard the boys as they left their campsite just ahead of us getting there just before 7:00.  They were obviously excited about that breakfast.

We crossed the Tennessee-Virginia State line and had 3.5 more miles to go.  We hustled down the mountain and celebrated when we entered Damascus, this time from the trail. 

Damascus is a nice little, hiker-friendly town. In fact, it is called “the friendliest town on the trail.”  They have been hosting Trail Days in May since 1987.  The trail runs right along the main street where the Trail Days parade is held.  There are no chain stores, restaurants or hotels; but several folks have turned their homes into bed and breakfast establishments.  Also the First United Methodist Church offers a hostel for a small donation called “The Place” and Mt. Rogers Outfitters has a hostel called “Dave’s Place.” 



Entering Damascus

 

The trail passes through this sign in Damascus

 

Crossing the bridge going into Damascus

The trail goes right down main street

Dave's Place Hostel

We walked through town to our car and then went to Dairy King for breakfast.  Guess who was there?  Yep, the three guys were sitting there with big smiles on their faces enjoying that breakfast. 

We said good-bye to Damascus and the trail for now and headed to Knoxville.  We have been on the trail for 21 days and covered 225 miles.  Our longest section to date.  

Tennessee 91 to Campsite before Damascus

May 28, 2013
15.6 miles
9:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The staircase leading to our bedroom at the Hiker's Inn.

We were up early and headed to the Dairy King for breakfast. We enjoyed French toast, eggs, bacon and home diced tators.

We had arranged for a shuttle from the Mt. Rogers Outfitter in Damascus. When we got there, we discovered that a man we had talked to in Dairy King was our driver. We left the car in their parking lot and he took us back to Tenn. 91. Today’s section must have been what folks told us about and we were expecting yesterday. From Tennessee 91 north into Damascus is a very pleasant hike; not too challenging, mostly along the ridgeline.

The main street of Damascus.

We leapfrogged with Tails, Chief and Lightening all day today. They were planning to camp in the woods tonight and get up early in the morning to be in Damascus for breakfast. We told them about the Dairy King breakfast and they said that’s where they were going. They were ahead of us as we took out from Abingdon Gap Shelter. We stopped at a campsite for the night and they went on a little further to another campsite.

The bunkhouse at the Hiker's Inn.

Early in the day, Wait-up discovered that he had inadvertently left his bed roll in the car this morning. Oh, well - too late now. “It’s okay,” he said, “I’ve slept on the ground before.” When we reached the campsite he began to stuff leaves into my bivvy sack to make his bed. It was a good plan – until he discovered that with those leaves came acorns. We didn’t sleep much that night.



A sign at The Dairy King.

Mt. Rogers Outfitter

The trail goes into a cow pasture north of Tennessee 91.



Our tent and make-shift sleeping pad.

Wilbur Dam Road to Tennessee 91

May 27, 2013
16.1 miles
9:45 to 5:00

Maggy the hiking Picanese/Chiwawa

Today we have to do 16.1 miles to get to the next gap. We looked at the elevation and talked to lots of folks who said it was not a hard hike at all.  So we took our car up to the road at Tennessee 91 and the shuttle driver brought us back down to Wilbur Dam Road to hike north to the car. 

 

 

 

Thank goodness we are slackpacking again today.  I was somewhat surprised at the number of uphills we had considering what we had been told about the terrain.  It was not rolling along the top of the ridgeline as much as we had thought.  We did go from a low of 2250 to a high of 4125, which is really not bad, just more than I expected.  After we passed Iron Mountain Shelter it got easier – but I was sure glad when that 16 miles was over.  I was very tired.  This is our longest mileage ever.

Our last look at Watauga Lake as we headed north.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Nick Grindstaff monument on Iron Mountain

Atop Iron Mountain we encountered the gravesite of Nick Grindstaff, born December 26, 1851 and died July 22, 1923. Epitaph on the chimney reads, “He lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone.”  Reportedly he lived more than 40 years alone on Iron Mountain after traveling west to win his fortune and being robbed of all his money during the journey.  He became one of the region’s most famous hermits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before Tennessee 91 Highway we had a delightful surprise.  The GAs  and RAs (girls and boys) of Nelson Chapel Baptist Church had left a Trail Magic box beside a tree with a nice note.  They had snacks (which was all gone), drinks in cold water (which use to be ice), a garbage bag for our garbage, first aid, a journal and maybe a few other things.  We helped ourselves to a Faygo drink and an RC.  It was very refreshing.  Thank you, boys and girls, for thinking of the hikers. 

 

Wait-up taking the loot from the Trail Magic box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The king size bed at The Hiker's Inn in Damascus

From Tennessee 91 we drove up to Damascus where we had reserved a room at the Hiker’s Inn.  It is a beautiful old home with three bedrooms upstairs that are rented out.  They also have a bunkhouse behind the house with two bunks and a private room.  We had the room at the top of the stairs with a king size bed.  Nice!

We had a burger at the Blue Blaze Café before retiring for the night.