US 91 to Damascus, VA.

This labor day weekend I had fully planned on crossing off a 30 mile section of the AT, but when Boo asked if he could come out backpacking with me, I jumped at the chance to make it a family event. So on Saturday morning, we loaded up the car with our packs, changes of clothes, last night's left over pizza, and two very excited dogs. I had picked a nice and easy 20 mile section for us to do over the 3 day weekend, where we actually crossed into Virginia and into the trail town of Damascus.

We pulled into Mt. Rogers Outfitters around 10:50am, just in time for our 11am shuttle ride out to US 91 in NC, our starting point. Our shuttle driver was Dave of Dave's Place/hostel. He was by far one of the nicest shuttle drivers I've encountered. On the trip up, he gave us lots of local history, trail knowledge, and water updates. I would definitely use him again for any other sections up in the area.

As we step out of the van, I'm slapped with a wall of cold temperatures. It's 62 degrees out! and it's windy and chilly for my short sleeves. I always seem to forgot how cold it gets up in the elevations, but it makes for great hiking weather. I've got my pack all set and am waiting on Boo to lace up his boots, when I glance over at the trail head. I can see the trail winding up over nice rolling meadow/pasture and I can't wait to step foot on the trail! The dogs are just as antsy as me. 10 minutes later at 12:15pm, we enter the turn stile and are officially hiking the AT!! The first .5 miles are nice, wide, gravel trail. The open meadow made for some amazing views of the surrounding valley's and mountains. It was just so pretty and picturesque. Let me tell you, the NC and TN section of the AT, or at least the sections I've hiked, have had some stunning, beautiful views. I'm really proud of the AT through my state :)

As we climb up the rolling pasture, we hit another stile and enter the woods with a nice climb up to the ridge. And for the rest of the trip that's where we will be, ridge walking. At the top of our gradual climb, we see Double Springs Shelter and decide to take a quick lunch. We meet a hiker sitting at the picnic table, her name is Green Bean and she is hiking from Harpers Ferry, WV to Springer Mt. GA, southbound. Damascus was her 1/2 point. I congratulate her and wish her the best. After munching on left over pizza, we hit the trail again, and hike on til 6pm. The trail is nice and rolling, nothing to steep or long, just enough to get your heart rate up. We cross over highway 421, hike a couple miles in and stop right before a spring and figured we had done a nice 8 miles at a good pace. At the campsite, we find a couple of good trees and begin hanging up our hammocks. I've got a new tarp that I'm eager to try out, it's made by OES and of Spinn material, so it's really crinkly sounding, and I'm hoping it won't be loud tonight. I get my tarp and hammock set up and go to hang the bear bag rope. When I get back, Boo is chilling in his hammock and the dogs are passed out. I unpack a poncho liner from the dog's pack and lay it down for them. They immediately get up and plop down on the poncho. I wonder if the grounds going to be to cold for them. I then pull out the alcohol stove and start preparing dinner. It takes forever to boil two cups of water for our dinner, and the wind is picking up, making it extra chilly tonight. We finally eat dinner and Boo likes the chicken pasta dehydrated recipe I got from Kellye. (Thanks Kellye!) We finish off with a small size Snickers, then bear bag the food and call it a night. While in my hammock nice and toasty warm, I wonder if Boo's going to be warm enough with just his poncho liner underquilt. I hope so, but we are definitely buying him a new underquilt soon.

I woke up the next day and found both dogs still curled up on the poncho liner. Boo was still snoring away, so I got up, watered the leaves and went to take down the food bags. When I got back, both dogs were up and stretching and Boo was slowly making his way out of the hammock. We packed everything up pretty quickly, ate a breakfast bar and hit the trail by 8am. Last night I had figured we had hiked 8 miles and new we had 13.5 left, so I thought we would take it easy and just hike 8 more and leave the last 5.5 til Monday.

About .25 miles into our hike, we finally find spring and it's a great flowing spring, so we top off all of our water bottles and bladders. (Usually I don't carry a water bladder. I hate drinking out of the tube and I hate the weight of it in my pack. In my mind, it's heavier than the two liter nalgenes I carry. It may not be true, but in my head it is! hahaha! Anways, I carried the extra 3 liter bladder for extra water for the dogs and in case this section happened to be dry.) So fully loaded up, we continue on and hike up and down small hills til we cross a forest road and gradually climb up to Abingdon Shelter. Around 10:30am we reach the shelter and I see a two dogs playing around. One is a giant St. Bernard and he just looked so funny to me. My chocolate lab snuck up behind him and scared the crap out of that giant dog. It was so funny to see a dog that big jump up and run away. hahaha! We see an older, bearded guy in the shelter and I ask him if he is Heavy Metal. He said he was, and I told him that Green Bean told us we would run into him in at this shelter. He is a character. He's NOBOing it to Harpers Ferry, so he's hiking around 1,000 miles and as soon as he gets to Damascus, he'll of completed 500 miles. While he was in the Smokies, he fell off the trail down a steep incline and lost his tent. So he's been hiking shelter to shelter ever since. He also had the gift of doing some serious Yogi-ing and guilted me into giving up some of our food. haha! Boo and I decide take a short water and snack break. All of us chug a ton of water and I volunteer to filter more to top us off. Well, an hour and a serious hike later, I made it back to the shelter. The trail down to the water source (sketchy water source) was steep and loooong. I seriously had more elevation gain on the jaunt to get water than I did the entire trip! haha! Reminded me of getting water on top of Standing Indian Mt., far and steep. I finally, breathlessly, climbed back up and joined Boo on the picnic table. Seems as if he and Heavy Metal became fast friends while I was gone. I told him I was ready to get back on the trail, so we threw on our packs, said goodbye, and headed NOBO. I waved to the St. Bernard owners and do you know what that big ass dog did? He spotted us, barked, and charged me and my lab! No joke. I ran down the trail screaming OH SHIT!! thinking I was about to become Bernard Bait and Boo just laughed at me. He said the big dog was just getting us back for scaring him. haha!

So we plodded on til 2pm where we found the nicest little camp spot and decided to stop for lunch. I pulled out all the fixings to make our black bean and ground beef dehydrated burritos, (another recipe courtesy of Kellye.) I got the water boiling and Boo lounged while I put out the tortillas, taco bell hot sauce packets, and cheese. In about 10 minutes we were feasting on some really good trail burritos. And the beans and meat reconstituted back up perfectly. I knew this recipe was a hit when Boo says it was the BEST trail meal he has ever had. (THANKS Kellye!!) After another hour and 1/2 of lounging, we set off around 3:30pm and I noted to Boo that we only had 5 more miles to go til Damascus, so if he wanted to take it easy or find a camp spot we could. He said that lunch really made him feel better, more energetic and he wanted to just finish up our hike. I was surprised and thought, surely, he would want to stop soon. He's known as Mr. SS7 (Slow and Steady 7 miler). But I put on my pack and we pushed on. I think just knowing that civilization was right around the corner made him more determined to make it into Damascus, cause he took off at a nice fast pace. Faster than I have ever seen him hike. Maybe this will make him more inclined to come out in the woods with me.

We got to the TN/VA state line and posed for the cheesey photo op. It's actually nice to say I've hiked both into NC and now out of NC/TN into VA. So it was a nice feeling. Now I just need to do the middle of NC/TN. haha! We knew we only had 3 miles left, so Boo kicked it into gear. We stopped to load up the dogs with water, then hiked the last mile down into Damascus and by 6pm, we were coming out the woods and into the town park! We walked under the AT "Welcome to Damascus" sign and through the park til I found a nice open area that I could sneak the dogs down into the river. I let them splash around and cool down before I joined Boo on a park bench. My feet ached so it felt good to sit for a bit. I looked over at Boo and said, you know you just hiked 13.5 miles today. He just grinned. I wonder if he wanted to get into town, or just not spend another night out in the woods? hmmmm..... I was so proud of him. All in all it was a great weekend. I realized that Boo could really be a great hiking partner, as long as I cook well on the trail. hahaha! I remembered how much I loved having the dogs out on the trail with me, and I enjoyed spending time with my little family out in the woods. Til next time... GET OUTDOORS!!!