Trail Days in Damascus, VA

“Well, we got home about an hour agoe. We have lots of unpacking and drying of wet gear to do. I'll have to do a trip report and post some pics later. We had a great time this weekend and I really enjoyed meeting everyone there.


Some Highlights:


It only took Jerbear 3 days to take over the town. Seeing him seated in the Mayor's seat during Cody Lunden's (sp?) survival lecture was a real treat.

Poor Jeff and the Absolute Worse Luck and Timing In the Entire World. I think his visit to Trail Days pretty much sucked this year. But now he has a "The time I spent the night in jail..." story.

Watching Jerbear doing a build-your-own-Pepsi-can-stove demo for Backpacker magazine.

Watching Jerbear win the Backpacker mag. Boil Off with his homemade stove.

Meeting Miss Janet and all the thru-hikers.


What a great weekend!”

“And the Irony of It All award has to go to Bitpusher, G00SE and myself. We managed to sit through a Backpacker mag. sponsored lecture wearing our "www.thebackpacker.com T-shirts. They didn't throw us out, delete our comments, or ban us!

LMAO!!!”

“I got back about 3 hours ago, I think. In case you guys saw me pick up the hitchhiker, you'll be glad to know that he did not rob me or kill me. He just needed a ride back to Alabama. I'll go into more detail when I post my full trip report later.

I had a great time at Trail Days, not sure if I'll go back next year, but this year was pretty much fun.”

“Cool. We were hoping you'd give him a ride. We figured you could take him farther toward his destination than we could. He looked like a hiker, was he?


We're thinking of parking a few towns over, hiking in next year and staying on the trail at night. Thoughts on this?”

“So, after being immersed into a subculture I never even imagined, I am elated. While I was never able to locate any TT'ers in Damascus, the people I did encounter were genuinely warm and thoughtful, and I am sure I have made a few friendships that will last. THANKS to Matt and all TT'ers for making me aware of such an awesome event and group of people. Oh yeah, I also got in my first 15 of the AT yesterday.”

“Just got back. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I had such a great time. I really fell in love with that town. I'm going to go back in June and go fishing and relax. I'll post more tomorrow.”

“why does it have to be so far?”

“you fell in love with that town?? come on, they are all related to each other. did you not notice?”

“It sounds like Jer finally got the recognition that he deserves! =D”

“for anyone that went to Traildays but missed the pictures, here they are again. Trail Days Pictures”

“Trekkingirl rode down with me on Wednesday night. We arrived in Damascus about 4:30 am. We drove around til a gas station named Cowboys opened up at 6:00. They have the best biscuits I have ever eaten in my life.

We got to tent city shortly after that and spotted jerbear's tent and decided to mess with him.

Jerbear and I went to the local hardwear store where we were to buy supplies to put a banner up. Thanks jer for all the help with that. It really looked good and I couldn't have done it without you.

The people of Damscus were so friendly and helpful. I went to the town hall to pick up some packages and they carried them out to the car, gave me t-shirts,cups, and stickers. They were so friendly and very welcoming. I had forgotten a price gun and the local grocery store owner gave me his and just told me to return it whenever I was done. The locals were great about directions.

Meeting all the Thru-hikers was a great experience as well. It was great to talk with them and just hear what they had to say. Lots of vendors there. Lots of food and good music.

It rained for a bit between the 4 days but it was still a great time.

I packed up around 5 pm on Sunday and headed home.

I'm going to go back very soon and just hang out in the town and do a little fishing. Definately going next year.”

“Those are nice pictures Gemini, thanks! I'm afraid we missed the parade, I'm glad you got some pics of it. I didn't know you were so sick before coming up to Trail Days. I hope you're feeling better! And I'm glad you were able to come afterall. It was really good meeting you!”

“I am home. Where is that? LOL HAd a good time and nice seeing yall. Traildaze have changed lots just not the same anymore. but its a nice place to "HAng Out" Peace to all Jer.”

“Skully, yes he was a hiker. He had made it from Springer to Damascus and had decided to get off the trail. He flagged me down at the gas station, and told me he was going to Birmingham. I told him I'd take him as far as Huntsville, and he said that was okay, his mom lived there. He paid to fill my tank when we got to Huntsville, so it worked out great.

My wife was less than pleased, though...”

“Cool. We figured it was either that or he had gone to Trail Days on a shoestring budget.”

“There was a photographer that took that guys pic...he was up on the road holding a sign , glad he got a ride... The parade was cool...I really enjoyed getting sprayed by waterguns while trying to throw water ballons. Of course hiding behind Gemini didn't help me much, it was good to meet everyone..you are all a great bunch...! Next year I only stay for Sat..and maybe overnite. I actually like your idea skull cap about hiking into town from the AT.. could park at Grayson Highlands for 2 dollars a nite they watch your vehicle then hike to town.”

“It was nice to see you all, too”

“Hello all,
We had a very good time with everone,seeing the town,meeting everone,violet can't stop talking about everone,and that she is glad that we met some backpackers, that where cool.i enjoyed it,but am more of a small,group type setting,loved talking to the tru-hikers,and other backpackers,,but the townies got on my last NERVE, I think it was just an excuse to party,, yelling and playing really bad southern rock till 3am was getting old,,,i agree with the hike in next year,i must thank skullcap,bitpusher,goose,jerbear,bbinkely, and everone else that we forgot, thanks for a great time,, will post pics in the afternoon,,,,”

“Great pictures Gemini,really cool bear can,uh!Too bad you didn't get a picture of the little twirp at the gazebo.Missed getting to hike, but it was an experience of a weekend in so many ways.Good to see old TTer's and meet new ones. :~ )”

“Trekkngirl, I thought the same thing when I looked at the pic. Too bad! No worry, I'll see you again, next time we will make sure that we don't drink the night before. LOL”

“hey trekkingirl he would only be good in a photo if he had a black eye!! or two even.”

“hiking in sounds like a good idea to me too, although it was nice to have my truck in town sometimes.”

“And this is a very important one! Saturday afternoon G00SE and I ran into Inchworm! You know, Karen from TC I. She's living near Damascus now and she's an AT Ridgerunner for the Mt Rogers section. How cool is that?”

“Oh, another data point concerning the hitchhiker. He said that he had been by bbinkley's booth when bbinkley cooked up the alfredo Enertia meal, and had been one of the two guys bbinkley shared it with. So you might have met him too, bbinkley.”

“oh god..an inchworm siteing..let the Hounds out!!!”

“do the out of town trip and use one vehicle to ride in on..
I really did dislike the big huge crowd things which for the biggest part they were thru hikers meeting up with everyone they had passed or spoken to on the trails in their hike”

“I dislike large crowds too, but it's the non-hikers that show up just to party that make it unbearable for me. Most of the hikers I met were really good folks.”

“Yeah, same here. It's a shame when something turns into an excuse to get drunk, stay drunk and cause as much trouble as you can while you're at it. I talked with several thru hikers that were likewise disappointed.”

“The only way to remove that element is to put the thing far out in the backcountry so they won't bother to come. But then you lose the convenience of being in a town, as well. Nothing's perfect.”

“That's just it. Most of the locals were awesome. Most of the thru hikers were awesome. It seemed to me to be a few (very loud, very highly visible) bad apples spoiling it for everyone. How do you prevent that?”

“People have been asking that question since the first time Ogg drank too much fermented antelope milk and tossed his loincloth in the fire while singing "Free Bird". Still no satisfactory answer...”

“You forgot about the part where Ogg's mullet caught on fire.”

“That's it, ban mullets!”

“It's a debateable issue...but some people use that type of setting just to be loud and crazy..
Course I am all for banning mullets!!!”

“LMAO, that's it! Ban Mullets!!!”

“Let's get 'em!”

“We'll start with my brother-in-law...”

“OH gosh... he will be an easy catch you know where he lives...lol”

“Heeheehee, he'll never know what hit him.”

“Hey Clem, I could give him two right now.Cool meeting you. :~ )”

“Cool meeting you too trekinggirl!!!
Oh keep an eye out for my photo album I am working on getting my trail days photo up!!”

“We can have a get together and invite the mullet king along...lol”

“My Trail Days Report

Thursday
I left Huntsville at about 4:30 pm to try and make Damascus, Virginia, before midnight. It was the perfect time to leave, because I missed all of the Huntsville traffic, and all of the Chattanooga and Knoxville traffic as well. I had good directions from my friends Hummingbird and Dutch Treat, who were saving a spot for my tent in their camp. I had very little trouble finding the place where they said they were, even in the dark. I only missed each turn once, lol. When I got there, I found them fairly quickly, and set up my tent in the dark. Unfortunately, I set it up on a slope, so I spent most of Thursday night trying not to slide into the foot of my tent.

Friday
I got up around 8:30am Friday morning, after only a few hours of sleep. There was a small group of thru-hikers next to my tent, one of whom I had met at the Gathering last year, Leanna. They had stayed up a little late talking the night before, and while I could hear them through my earplugs, I didn't hold it against them that they kept me up.

I walked over towards the area where the port-o-lets were, and I saw a familiar-looking dog tied up to a car. I started looking around a little bit more, and I recognized evergreen and trekkngirl at their campsite, and went over to say hello. Introductions were made, and I continued on my trip to the port-o-lets.

I went back to my tent, filtered some river water, and fixed and ate breakfast. After that, I noticed Dutch Treat and Hummingbird had gotten up, and asked them what was going on that day. They filled me in on a few things, and Dutch Treat said he was about to take Hummingbird into town so she could do a few things. I told him that I would take her into town, as I needed to be shown around a bit, and it would give him the opportunity to rest and practice a new song that he had written. They both agreed, so Hummingbird and I got into my truck and I drove her into Damascus.

She showed me around the town a little, then we went down to the vendor area and started looking around there. Every couple of minutes we would have to stop for Hummingbird to greet and hug a friend she saw walking around. I got my turn when I noticed a familiar-looking, attractive blond woman walking in the opposite direction. I recognized her as Gemini, and called out to her. She was a little apprehensive until I identified myself as bitpusher, then she relaxed and asked me about other TT'ers. I told her that I had seen evergreen and trekkngirl back at the campsite, and she said she'd look for them, and she left. Eventually, Hummingbird and I worked our way down to bbinkley's BackpackingDeals.com booth, where I said hi and asked him how he was doing. evergreen and trekkngirl were there too, as well as bbinkley's dog, Trail Snack.

We then made our way up to Rock School, for a talk being given by one of Hummingbird's friends, Model T, about his AT hikes and why he does them. We were a little late, but it was still good. After the talk was over, I saw Paw Paw, the oldest living thru-hiker, whom I had met at The Gathering last October. We greeted each other, and I noticed he still looked to be in good condition, although not on the PCT as he had planned to be.

The rest of the afternoon I spent going to talks, and going back to the campground at one point to re-pitch my tent. I saw part of Dan Rogers' (Sheltowee) talk on his Walk Across America trip, and all of Jojo Smiley's talk on her 11-month ECT trip. Both very good. I also saw Nimblewill Nomad's talk on why hikers want to hike, and absorbed some of his wisdom on this topic, as well as enjoying some of the poetry he's written about hiking. My friend Dutch Treat had put some of these poems to music, and he performed them. Great to hear him play, as usual.

After Nimblewill Nomad's talk, I decided to go back into town and check on my truck, which I had left parked on the main street in Damascus. Also, I wanted to try and call my wife, since I hadn't yet informed her of my safe arrival. My truck was okay, but even though I could see a large cell tower nearby, my cellphone didn't register any reception at all. I suppose digital service hasn't made it to Damascus, Virginia yet. I got some change from my truck, and after visiting the grocery store to get a little more breakfast food, I called my wife from a payphone and let her know I was okay.

Then, I wandered back down to the vendor area to see if I could get some dinner. As I was walking through there, I heard voices calling towards me, and I turned to see skullcap, G00SE, nomad1, and Vasque Violet, along with their huge but gentle bull mastiff, Angel, calling me. We exchanged greetings and I joined the group as we further explored the "midway" of the Trail Days vendor area. We ended up eating dinner, then going back into town to hear Cory Lundin's (the Abo-dude) talk on Survival Situations. We went to this talk, which lasted about two hours, at the Damascus Town Hall. There was very limited seating there, so some of the attendees sat in chairs normally occupied by the mayor and town council of Damascus. Jerbear took the mayor's chair, of course. After Mr. Lundin's interesting but very basic talk, everyone piled into my truck and I drove them back to the campground. I dropped everyone off, then went back to my campsite, and sat for a while and listened to Dutch Treat and another hiker guitarist play and sing. After too short a time, they turned in, and so I did too. Before drifting off, I put in my earplugs and tied my extra bandana over my eyes as a blindfold so I wouldn't be awakened by people passing my tent with their headlamps on.

Saturday

Apparently, I slept so well Friday night, I missed all the hoopla that occurred at the campground. At some point, either the Damascus police or the Washington County sheriffs had raided the campground, maced and arrested 23 people. There was also apparently a drum circle, and much hooping and hollering going on. My fellow TT'ers apparently had had some trouble getting to sleep because of some rowdy campers, and were in less than jovial moods because of it. There was also a helicopter flying over the campground, and this didn't improve their moods much either.

After eating breakfast, The TT'ers got together and planned out the day. I packed my daypack with my raingear and other stuff I might need for a hike, and we walked from the campground back into Damascus. It spat rain on us one and off during the morning, but finally the rain let up most of the way and the sun even came out a little. I walked up and down the vendor area with nomad1 and Vasque Violet, and discovered that a large dog is a good way to attract attention.

We had heard that jerbear would be doing a short presentation on making your own alcohol stove under the auspices of Backpacker Magazine's "Homemade Gear Contest", so we ended up going down to the Model AT shelter to wait for that. This was very near where some Civil War re-enactors had set up their area. While we were waiting, I felt the need to answer the call of nature, so I went to the port-o-let near there to take care of business. As I'm sitting in the port-o-let, I hear the commander of the re-enactors start to call out firing orders. Since I knew what was coming, I was prepared for the volley of fire from the black-powder arms which was called forth by his command, but it was still very loud. They fired two or three times while I was in the port-o-let, and when I emerged, I realized that they were no more than about 30 or 40 feet away from me. They asked me if I was alright, and I assured them that everything was okay.

After my experience under fire, Backpacker Magazine began the Homemade Gear Contest. One of the benefits of attending this meeting was getting free Thorlo socks. I snagged a pair of wool-silk light hikers, and sat down to watch the contest. There were some interesting entries, but there wasn't really a contest in most of the categories, since there was only one entry per category for all but two.

Finally, the alcohol stove demonstration began, and in about 10 minutes, jerbear made a working alcohol stove from a couple of Pepsi cans, using a pair of scissors and what looked like a small pair of pliers. He passed this around the crowd, to the awe of many and the chagrin of some, who had purchased similar stoves from someone who was selling them at Trail Days for $5 apiece.

Then came the boil-off. One of the Backpacker Magazine people was showing his homemade stove, which used fiberglass insulation as a wick, and bragged that he had never lost a boil-off. Well, he met his match in jerbear's stove that day, although jerbear claimed, Buddha-like, to be uninterested in the competition. He nonetheless happily accepted the award of a Gerber multi-tool for winning anyway.

I was pretty hungry at this point, and so were the other TT'ers, so we decided to go back to the campground and have lunch. I had planned on only eating breakfast at the campground, so I went back to bbinkley's booth and purchased an Enertia meal to eat for lunch. I got the spaghetti meal for a very reasonable $3, and walked back to the campground.

We set up next to skullcap and G00SE's tent, and all fixed our lunches. The spaghetti I fixed was very tasty, and fortunately for me, skullcap had brought along some excellent homemade herb bread which complemented the spaghetti very well. It was either at this point, or before we had left the campground that morning, that we were interviewed and photographed by a free-lance writer on the nature of trail magic. The writer asked us our trail names, how we had gotten them, our thoughts on trail magic and a few other things, and we answered him. I have no idea if our answers will appear in a publication or not, but it would be interesting to find out.

After lunch, we decided to go back into town on a mission to locate earplugs for the other TTer's. It had gotten sunny enough to need sunscreen, so we all applied some, then started back into town. Rox (clem35yeah) asked me to fill her gallon water jug, so I took it with me. I don't know if she realized we would be gone so long. If not, sorry it took me so long to get you your water back, Rox.

We went back into town, and searched high and low looking for earplugs, but there were none to be had. The one place that was most likely to have them, the drugstore, was closed on account of Trail Days. Although there is significant town support of Trail Days, apparently not all of the residents are exactly keen on it.

It was beginning to get late now, and clouds were also moving in, so we went through the vendor area again, and I bought another Enertia meal from bbinkley, this time the Max Patch Max & Cheese. It was at this point that skullcap noticed Inchworm walking around, and we all stopped to talk with her a little. Then we all headed for the campground again. We fixed and ate dinner, and again, the Enertia meal was excellent. This time, I fixed it in the pouch instead of in the pot, which would have worked better if the pouches had larger openings. I believe in the future, I'll repackage Enertia meals in larger ziplock bags to help with this problem.

Storm clouds were threatening, so we all gathered under skullcap and G00SE's siltarp, which had been strung up next to their tent to help protect us from the intermittent showers. Fortunately, the rain pretty much held off until after dinner, then began to fall lightly. We sat under the tarp talking and joking until dark, when it began to rain a little more seriously. I changed into warmer clothes, but still couldn't stay warm enough in the cold wind and rain, so I headed back to my tent to get into my sleeping bag to warm up. I got there just in time, because the heavens opened and it began to rain in earnest. Bundled up in my sleeping bag in my Clip 2, I was warm and dry all night.

Sunday

When I got up Sunday morning, it had finished raining, and so I began to pack up my stuff and wait for the others to arise. I was standing around waiting and watching the campsite, when I noticed jerbear about to leave. He saw me too, and got out of his car to come over and say how good it was to meet me. We shook hands and he got back into his car, headed for home.

Soon afterwards, the whole TT crowd was up, and packing their things. We took group pictures, then planned for breakfast. I had been eating some Pop-Tarts I had gotten on Friday, but of course that wasn't enough. Skullcap, G00SE, nomad1, Vasque Violet, and myself decided to first go into Damascus to see if the coffee vendor who had been there the morning before was still there, then to go up to the Interstate to see if we could find a McDonald's for breakfast. We drove into Damascus, and sure enough, the coffee vendor was there, so we bought coffee, then drove up to Abingdon, and had breakfast at a McDonald's, why nomad1 regaled us with his Idiot Sam stories.

After more conversation and some goodbyes, we went our separate ways. I drove to a nearby Chevron station to fill up for the trip home, and as I was pulling out, a hiker flagged me down, and asked me where I was going. I told him "Alabama", and he said he needed to get to Birmingham. I told him I could take him as far as Huntsville, and he said that was good enough. I pulled into a parking spot, and made room for him in the front seat of my truck.

Having someone along to talk to certainly made the trip home a lot faster. Papa Bear (his trailname) is a good conversationalist, and we talked about many things on the way back to Alabama. His son had thru-hiked the AT the year before, and this spring, he found himself with an opportunity to do the same, so he did. This spring has been very hard on the thru-hikers, what with snow and record amounts of rain, so by Damascus, he was just a little tired of it, and decided to go home. During the course of our conversation, he told he had lived in Huntsville for a long time before moving to Birmingham, and that his mother still lived there. Also, in an amazing coincidence, we found that he had attended the same private school that my daughter and son now attend. It truly is a small world.

We pulled into Huntsville on US72 around 2pm Sunday. Papa Bear made good on his promise to fill my gas tank, and then I took him to his mother's house, which is less than three miles from my own place. After dropping him off, I went home to my wife and kids.

Conclusion

Trail Days was a lot of fun, but it's changing as more and more people become interested in hiking and backpacking. If I go again next year, I will probably only stay one full day instead of two. There's not really a lot to miss on Friday; Saturday is the big day for Trail Days. But it was a good time, and one I hope to repeat.”

“Ok I have my pictures up still editing hope you enjoy!http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=73879539”

“clem, post a link to your community page. We can't get to your edit page.”

“Ok got it this time I hope...http://community.webshots.com/album/73879539LDeQpU
let me know if this works...
thanks
rox”

“thanks Ewker!!!!!”

“bitpusher. Awesome report. I wish I could get into that much detail.
so a little apprehensive, huh?? sorry about that!! I did not mean to, that's just me! I should've known if someone calles me Gemini, it's someone I know!

I still wish I would've not missed Jerbears pepsican stove demo. But Clem had her dog locked into the car, and it started to get hot. We had to get back to the campground. So it was either dead dog or pepsi can demo.

Next time I will make sure I won't miss it.
On my way back I gave a couple hikers a ride to down town. Ha, nothing to bragg about because they both would've been faster walking. Traffic was bad.

Anyhow. Great report!”

“Great pics, Rox!”