Day 55
Start: Abingdon Gap Shelter
End: Saunders Shelter
Miles Hiked: 19.7
Miles on AT: 480.4
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Last night, I didn’t sleep too well. I don’t know what it was, but my mind was restless. Well, now that I’m thinking about it, I did have iced tea yesterday, so maybe I should avoid caffeine altogether.
Despite my grogginess, I left camp at 8 am. I wasn’t the first person to leave camp, yet all morning I had to fight my way through spiderwebs. I guess they work quickly to get their webs up and repaired in the morning.
To all of the inventors, tinkerers, and applied mathematicians out there, I would like a method to visualize and quantify how many spiderwebs are stuck to one hiker’s body after just one hour of hiking in the morning. There must be some way to take an image of a hiker and have only the spiderwebs glow so you can see where they are on the body. If you can’t tell, I really hate walking through the spiderwebs. I do it because I love hiking the trail, but feeling them slide along my face and arms every two seconds gets old very quickly.
Okay, that’s enough spiderweb slander. Today’s hike was pretty easy. I wanted to reach Damascus, VA, for lunch, which was easily doable since a lot of the trail was flat or downhill. I flew down the trail and reached the TN-VA border without even realizing I had come that far. I thought I still had 2 miles to go, but there I was. Another state down!
Virginia’s a big state, so I might as well get used to being here for a while. I made it to Damascus right at 12 pm. First stop: the Damascus Diner. It was odd seeing the town so empty after being here for Trail Days. Before, the town was crawling with hikers and bustling with activity. Now, it seemed almost like a ghost town.
There were a number of working men as well as bicyclists having lunch in the diner. I had the BBQ sandwich and a side of baked beans and was not disappointed. Afterwards, I made a quick visit to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, picked up an AT wall map to send home, and then continued on.
It was a little after 1 pm and I had about 8.5 miles and 2 climbs ahead of me. The shorter climb I made quick work of; my legs were feeling so strong as I pushed myself up the mountain. Instead of my muscles burning, they were working well within their comfort zone.
On the way down, I saw a little toad, but he was shy and didn’t want to show his face. Soon, I was hiking parallel to the Virginia Creeper Trail, a cycling path that also goes through Damascus. A wide river separated us at certain points. I stopped to cool my hands in one of the small cascades flowing into the river and discovered that I had upset someone by accidentally moving a rock. Sorry, Mr. Water Snake!
My last climb was to my target shelter. I felt good going up initially, but about a mile before the shelter junction, I started feeling a little woozy. I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat since lunch except for Smarties and it was already 5 pm. That wasn’t a good idea.
I could’ve pushed myself that last mile, but I didn’t want to pass out just before the shelter. After a snack on the side of the trial, I felt so much better and was at the shelter in no time.
There were a few tents set up around the shelter, but no one was yet in it. I got dinner started and then tried my hand at making a fire, but this time it didn’t go too well. I would get the fire going, but then it would start to fade after a few minutes. I guess I didn’t have the best fuel to keep it going.
Over dinner, I chatted with a section hiker, but everyone else stayed in their tents. Now, it’s lights out!
And that’s day 55.
A version of this post originally appeared on TheTrek.co.