Trail Days in Damascus, VA

“Fantastic pix Rox! Does pic # 14 look a bit suspicious to anyone else? Exactly what are you checking out there Bitpusher? Hmmmm???”

“I'd say, but it might get me banned...”

“Heeheehee! I'll have to be sure to point that one out to G00SE. He'll get a kick out of it. Too funny.”

“Let's just say you're a lucky woman, skully...”

“This wold be goooood times. I gess I will go ther and my hubsand Gissmo.

Look for me and Gissmo. I am a perty yeller lab and Gissmo is a hamsom ferrat terrerrerr. We will prolly be warin our pakpaks to.”

“great report Bit...but...where was all the free sex goin on...you didn't report on nekkid women...and that Gemini...she's a hottie...did she get nekkid???”

“LOL... well not nekkid...but she did flash for a free gear guide book!!!
I saw that...hehehhe”

“gosh forgot about my water..but it was good I was so tired on Sat. nite I hit the hay at 7pm... got up one time for a potty break for me and my dog then back to sleep...”

“I finally got G00SE's pix uploaded to my Webshots album. Enjoy!

I'll have a trip report for you in the morning.”

“I love the tent city--looks like a refugee camp. Sounds like y'all enjoyed.”

“Great pictures..Skully and Clem.
Thanks
A quite discriptive report Bitpusher.I enjoyed it. :~ )”

“Great photos skull cap!!!! I really like our group photo think I will have to order one from webshots,,,,”

“That's the one he used the timer for. It turned out, Yeah!”

“yeah I didn't see Goose running over to get with us....wooooo hoooooo”

“Well, after getting a slightly late start we were on the road by 8:30 Friday morning. We had a pretty pleasant and un-eventful drive and made good time, getting to Damascus at 3. We decided to check things out and see who we could find. First order of business, buy my our new siltarp from Bbinkley. So we headed off to find his booth. On the way we got waylaid by a really good honey booth. We tested every variety he had, decided on a favorite, and then decided that we would come back for it just before he packed up to avoid the risk of a glass jar full of honey getting broken in the Liberty. We ended up forgetting to go back and I’m a little bitter about that. It was really good honey.

We proceeded on away from the touristy end of the concessions and into the outfitters’ end. On our way again towards Binks’ booth, I spotted a guy on the far side of an outfitter’s booth trying on a hiking kilt. He had his back turned but there was something vaguely familiar about him. I remarked on it to G00SE and on we went to Backpackingdeals.com. While I was checking out the tarp, I heard Jerbear’s familiar voice behind me. When I turned around, there he was in that hiking kilt! It had been him! The kilt becomes him quite well, I hope he gets one.

Well, we met everybody that was there then and rushed off to set up our tent while there was still open space down at the campground. As it was, there wasn’t really much high, dry empty space on which to set up a fairly large floorless tent. Most of what was left was obviously marshy. A thru-hiker was nice enough to move his truck, which opened up some space on slightly higher ground and we set up the tent and hoped it would stay dry. More on this later. We also realized that we had managed to leave our usual ground cloth at home. How did that happen? Then, off we headed back to the park for more meeting and greeting.

Somewhere in there I had spotted Bitpusher and he; Vasque Violet; Nomad1; Angel; G00SE; and I embarked on a quest to find something to eat before Abo Dude’s lecture. It was only after we were almost through with an amazingly good dinner acquired from the food court that we realized we had completely forgotten about and missed the 5PM rendezvous at Binks’ booth! D’oh! Ah well, nothing to be done about it. As soon as we were done eating it was time to head off for the City Hall. Once we got there we had a bit of time so I scored us a lovely shower curtain from the Dollar Store to use as a ground cloth and in we went for the lecture. We all found seats with Jerbear taking his rightful place in the Mayor’s seat ; ) . Although we were all a bit disappointed that there was no new info in it, it was a very good lecture. It must be nice to have people pay you gobs of money to make them eat grubs and sleep in plastic sheeting lean-tos!

Eventually we headed back to camp and off to bed. G00SE and I normally travel with earplugs, especially if we are going to be staying in a campground. Apparently the earplugs decided to hang out with the ground cloth in the attic that weekend because we didn’t have those either! Well, there was quite a bit of revelry going on but in spite of all the hooting and hollering, and amplified sound systems competing for decibels, I was able to fall asleep and I slept pretty well through most of it. Unfortunately G00SE cannot say the same. I did wake up when Wild Child (Jeff) passed out on our tent. He mostly landed on G00SE who was not amused. His friends Wicket and the guy who moved his truck (I really wish I could remember his trail name, he was really cool!) tried to convince him he really needed to sleep it off in his tent. Well, you know the rest of it. I’m sure he wishes he had listened to them. Let me take a minute to tell you about Wild Child; Wicket; and his dog Flash. Flash also has a trail name but I’m afraid I don’t remember it either. Flash is a 2000 miler. As far as Wicket knows, Flash is the only dog to have hiked the entire length of the AT, excepting the Smokies. And that’s where Wild Child comes in. Apparently he hiked Flash around the Smokies for Wicket. Pretty cool friend there.

Anywho, Saturday morning while we were breakfasting, a very nice fellow took some pix and asked us some questions for an article he was writing on trail magic. He’s a freelance writer so I don’t know if we’ll ever know if it’s been published. Then, we packed out daypacks and off we went back to the park to check things out again before Jerbear’s stove construction demo. The make-your-own gear contest was fun and interesting even though it wasn’t really all that competitive. Or maybe it was because of that. As you know, Jerbear ended up winning the boil-off. I scored some wool/silk blend day hiking socks. Angel had been totally traumatized by the Civil War re-enactors’ weapons firing so we opted to go back to the campground for lunch and skip the parade.

We put up the tarp so we could have some shade as the sun had definitely come out. After lunch we rode back into town on the Laughing Dog shuttle (because they allow dogs!) to look for earplugs. No luck on the earplugs, that was a shame. Jerbear had asked me to pick up a couple Enertia meals for him so we headed back to Binks’ booth and then back to the campground. Not too long after dinner we were really glad we had the tarp because it had started to rain in earnest. When the rain got really heavy and water started to collect under the tarp, we all called it a night. That’s when G00SE and I discovered our sleeping pads and ground cloth floating on about 2 inches of water. That wasn’t really a surprise considering what we had had to set it up on. Luckily everything was still dry, just floating. We gathered up our things and headed off to sleep in the Liberty. Jerbear had been kind enough to let us trim some of a foam pad for earplugs and we used them. Thank you Jerbear!!! I think the rain dampened everybody’s spirits though because it was really pretty quiet for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning we packed up what was left and headed out to Mickey D’s for breakfast. Nomad1 really should post some of those Idiot Sam stories they’re priceless! Then we said our goodbyes and headed for home. We passed a guy on the accel lane for the highway holding a sign that said Alabama. He was wearing a large capacity backpack and carrying a hiking staff. He looked like a thru-hiker to us and we almost stopped for him, but we would only be able to take him halfway to his destination. We passed him by, hoping Bitpusher would give him a lift. I’m glad he did!”

“awwww no mention of me? LOL

Did you meet evergreen too? I wasnt' sure if you guys missed meeting her..before she had to go home.

I did think it was pretty cool that you and Goose are pretty close neighbors to my sister..makes the world seem alittle smaller every day?

I like what you added about Wildchild and Wicket cause those 2 were very intersting and the fact that Wildchild gives hiking tours to older couples six times a year in Asheville. HOwever I have also forgotton the 3rd guys name it's like a mystery to me and I am going to seach the trail registry to see if I can find a photo of him I do believe that all 3 of those guys did thru hike the AT... Wicket in 2000, Wild child in 1999 and the other guy I am not sure... hate when I forget things.”

“Yes, I have met Evergreen before. I didn't mention everybody by name because I couldn't remember when I had met whom--it was all kind of a hodgepodge that day so I threw everyone in together. I named everybody I met on the Who Have You Met? thread so I figured it would be ok. Sorry if it wasn't.

Yes, all three were thru hikers. I thought one of them thru hiked last year but I thought it was Wicket and Flash? Maybe it was the third guy?

It really is a small world!”

“It was really nice seeing Evergreen again. It's a shame she couldn't stay longer but it's very exciting that her daughter got asked to the prom. I hope it went well for her!

I also left off the Inchworm sighting. On Saturday while we were looking for earplugs and Enertia meals for Jerbear we ran into Inchworm. G00SE spotted her first but he couldn't remember her name. She never saw us until I hollered at her. I was really cool to see her again, I had no idea she was back in the area. It was very nice meeting her friend although I'm afraid I don't remember his name. She's an AT Ridgerunner in the Mt. Rogers area and she invited us to go hiking with her sometime soon. I believe we will take her up on that. It would be really cool to hike that section again with someone who really knows it well.”

“it's all good skully... :o)”

“...got my pics developed and scanned. Here they are.

I'm pretty sure I'm going digital in the near future. Sheesh.”

“Great pics Bit!”

“Thanks, karo!”

“Thanks for posting ...nice photos..yeah I am really leaning towards a digital also...soon.
rox”

“I gotta go to Trail Days sometime. Nice pictures dude.”