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.