Trail Daze 2008 trip report

“I have a few minutes of free time so I’ll try to write a little bit of a trip report. There are some things that I won’t be able to go into detail about in order to protect the innocent. (haha who am I kidding, there are no innocents at trail daze) … So I won’t be talking about windygirl coming out of the dark woods with the fiddle player from our makeshift band. (I had wondered why the band had stopped playing) or of a certain someone unloading all over smokygirl’s butt. And most of the best lines are lost in a mind full of smoke and alcohol haze. At any rate here we go with the basic details.

Thursday I was supposed to get oysters in Wilmington and wildbill would pick up the rest of the seafood down in his neck of the woods. I couldn’t find any in Wilmington, so when wildbill got home with the seafood he discovered he had to drive back out to get oysters from his connection. I feel bad for that guy for having to have me as he hiking partner to ride to the mountains with. I suppose if he were more likeable more people would hang out with him. Anyhoo, at 5pm I left to drive south to pick up him and all his gear. Then I drove north again and 2 ½ hours after I left Wilmington, I was driving back through Wilmington on the way to Trail Daze 2008. yeaaahhhhhh!!!!! Of course, it rained all the way there.

We arrived in Damascus around 2 am. The place was already packed. We had read the emails earlier from JB that our old spot had already been taken and he had selected a new one for us. We quickly threw up a tent near where we parked then looked around a bit. I was at trail daze less than a ½ hour before I stepped in a hole and fell on my ass in the mud. Wildbill said I did a complete 360 trying to simultaneously stay out of the mud and save my beer. I failed at both. We didn’t find JB or any other trail talkers so we turned in for the night.

Friday morning dawned overcast and it rained some. I left wildbill sleeping, I must have really worn him out the night before, and went to check out our old site in the daylight. The whole wood was already filled with tents. I guess people are figuring out where the cool out of the way places are and getting there earlier to lay claim to them. When I came back to our tent, it was gone. “damn, I though. Freaking thieves are getting braver”. Turns out Wildbill had found JB, Dub and Troy and had already moved my tent. JB had staked out a very cool site for us. It was at the end of a wide grassy field with the creek at our backs. He had also already found smokygirl and some of her friends. She had already put up her tent and disappeared, but I met the other peeps. I am terrible with names, but I think one of the girls was Boo boo, and the guy was called Chad. They fit in with us perfectly. You would have thought Chad was a TT oldtimer the way he immediately became part of the group.

Anyway, both Chad and JB were cooking up breakfast and it was fantastic. Thanks for the breakfast burritos JB (or whatever you called them) I needed something long and roll shaped from you so badly. JB’s set-up looked like he planned to homestead the site. He had a house size tent, a pop up tent, a huge grill, a door on saw horses for a table, a wood splitter, several large items that looked like ammo cases, and a huge stack of wood. Turns out that along with the wood he brought, the police were selling huge piles of wood for $10 a load. He he he selling wood to Trail Talkers is like selling white trash to Brittany Spears. We bought another $50 worth.

A little while after breakfast Creek Dancer came waltzing in. I think she told her boss she was going to the bathroom and never came back. Whoohooo, it was no longer a sausage fest. I am sure I will get the order wrong of when people showed up, but next I think it was stomper, windygirl and her son Fire B1tch (or abba gold, dancing queen or the other names that he earned lol). He’s 20 years old and a pretty cool kid. By this time the rest of the field of tents was starting to grow toward us so we moved JB’s Thursday night fire pit out into a wide open space between our, at the time, three easy-up shade tents and several cooking stations (which later grew into 4 or 5 cooking stations) and the encroaching tents. We were like old time Land Barons staking our claim to more land than we were allowed while the rest of the peasants put their backpacking tents 2’ apart. (Later on we proved we deserved that space)

Now that we had our real estate claimed some of us went for a walk around the campgrounds to show Chad (our new honorary TTer) the Riff Raff camp. The guy who had staked that site out for them is called Superman. He isn’t a very big guy but he certainly fits his name. He had arrived Monday, but they wouldn’t let him camp there yet so he spent the week developing the site. He dug a 2’deep, 6’ wide fire pit and lined it with boulders. I don’t know how he carried some of them back there. Then he broke up some of them into gravel to spread around the pit to fight the ever-present mud of trail daze. He cut back all the vegetation along the creek bank (a strip about 10 feet wide) to give them more space and easy access to the swimming hole. He lined the path to his tent with smaller stones like something out of Home & Gardens. Very impressive.

When we got back to camp, Gojo was there with sarabelle and gismo (I can’t remember the spelling of the name, sorry) Our group was steadily growing. I decided it was time for a fire, so we built a fire ring and I started playing with twigs and sticks. JB and everyone else kept telling me to use the fire starters and the wood from the woodpile, but I am hardheaded and just like playing with sticks. Eventually I caved in and used the easy stuff and we soon had a good fire going. I don’t remember what we had for lunch, but I am sure it was fabulous. All the food this weekend was incredible. I think this might have been the time when Stomper grabbed a handful of nuts, but it could have been later. Jb’s friends also showed up about this time. Again I am terrible with names so I’ll let JB tell you who they were. They brought a lot of good gear, too including a picnic table.

#####

Well, time to cook dinner. Someone fill in all the good stuff I forgot.”

“my friends name is robert and his son oakra and his girl friend and another guy.
this was a great trip...”

“Everything's a blur to me too, I just remember being forced by an evil Land Baron Overlord into turning our fire pit into a caldera, and then the overlord burned a huge pile of toxic waste, after that everything went down hill. Our neighbors were drunk and annoying and somebody stole those poor kids game and burned it in the fire, jerk.”

“I started my trip report but after 15 minutes and only having one paragraph I gave up.Should have taken typing in school!”

“We made it home. What a great time!
Dub - where's your pictures???
last edited: 5/20/08 7:06:13 PM”

“I think this year must have been more fun than last year due to the fact that I remember much less of it.”

“I can't remember when I've had a better time!”

“Without a doubt, the best Trail Daze I've ever been to!

Spam, your rendition of Amazing Grace still runs through my mind.”

“I haven't taken all the stuff out of my car yet because I like smelling the camp fire smoke when I drive around.”

“

Here are my pics. Just click on the image.”

“Great pictures bill, thanks for sharing!”

“hyway - what the hell kind of blouse are you wearing in the last few of wildbill's photos?

Does JB = chili or JB = jb2638?”

“Thats not a blouse. They had a tattoo tent and I got the whole shebang.”

“You should have just opted for the tat bodysuit.

Google "tattoo puff magic dragon"”

“I just opted for the pirate tattoo shirt. It was funny how many people thought it was real before they got a close up look at it. Somebody told me that one girl at the saturday night fire wanted to know how I could stand it out there without a shirt on (supposedly it was cold away from the fire that night).”

“wow!!.... :(
..I missed it!!


thanks for the pics & TR”

“Hey people,
It was nice meeting you all at trail days. I was the guy playing violin with Waldens Way Ramblers Sat. night.
What's up Spam? Great pickin with you and mandoman!
love the website!
check us out at www.myspace.com/waldenswayramblers
last edited: 5/21/08 5:55:53 AM”

“Thanks for coming by. You guys were awesome. I was the idjit in the form fitting tattoo shirt”

“The impromptu bluegrass concert was the highlight of the trip! Thanks so much guys for rambling by!”

“The Kindred Spirit of the Campfire called us together Saturday night. Like a mother gathering up her children, her warmth pulled together friends and strangers alike around her gentle glowing embers and roaring flames.

�You do not all know each other�, she said, �but you will gather around me and be together tonight. My energy will flow through you and bind you to one another. You are, after all, brothers and sisters who share the seed of love for the trail. You will hear string instruments and harmonicas played by brotherly musicians who are strangers to you. The musicians will play and you will sing out �Rockytop� to one another. Their music will make you sway in your camp chairs and you will dance around my sparks. My love will help heal your broken heart over your recent loss. You will not dwell on the things in your life that you do not like; you will take joy in the here and now of me. My smoke will get into your lungs and permeate your clothing so that long after you leave me, you can smell me and remember this time. So gather around me and make this memory together.�

And so we did...and so we did.
last edited: 5/21/08 6:16:49 AM”

“Hey there drinkingwater! Thanks for coming by and playing your music. You guys were great!”

“Great week-end. It was great to put faces to the trail names and party with you guys. I'm still catching up on my sleep.

Great food, great music, great company.

Doug”

“Very nice, creek dancer.”

“Very nice, creek dancer.�
Agree! It was so nice seeing everyone. We are still talking about everything here in our house. Abba gold aka dancing queen aka fire b!#@$ is telling all his friends what a great time he had. He's ready to go again. Aaahhh youth. lol.
The bluegrass music was awsome. We had to listen to some on the way home to get our fix. It wasn't as good as what was by the campfire. That was magic.”

“I was talking about her post "The Kindred Spirit of the Campfire". she's very nice, too”

“Thanks guys. Yup, the time was indeed magical.

Windigrrl, you have a very cool kid for a son. You can tell he has a good mom in you.”

“Drinkinwater whats up? I just checked out your songs and they rock or should I say "THEY GRASS"!”

“

I did LOL at this one.”

“

Is Dub ever not going to look like a teenager?”

“I saw a camera pointed at me and immediately had to suck in my gut. The next picture is of me passed out on the ground”

“They both look sooo innocent in those pictures. lol”

“I am innocent. pure as the driven snow”

“Wow, light reflecting from a bald head really can blind people, sweet!”

“Not only that, everything Hyway wrote in his TR is absolutely true. I have met the guy and I know he would never lie.”

“I only have a few pictures from trail days, but they are from the sleeping bag race. There are also pictures from our trip after trail days.
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/wqv81hd1.php
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/h1ylssdx.php
http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/wo8ndeb0.php”

“Dub-where's your pictures?”

“Thanks for coming by. You guys were awesome. I was the idjit in the form fitting tattoo shirt”
~hyway


And I was the idjit asleep in his truck.”

“Hey dub were are your photo's”

“Nice pics there windigirl!”

“I like the one where it shows you taking the lead in the sleeping bag content. Have you gotten your bag yet?”

“Cool pictures, windigrrl!
Thanks for posting, unlike Dub! ;-)”

“No not yet. I did get my new boots Friday though.”

“glad you won this year spam.. also do you like the beef jerky hot or mild?”

“Yes JB, Yes I do!!!!LOL!hot or mild will be just fine!”

“JB-I need your receipe for jerky, please.
last edited: 5/25/08 5:04:05 PM”

“Iffin he tells ya...he'd have ta kill ya!”

“RockSee here- Thank You Creek and Windy for pickin up the GRL Thang! Nice try Hyway!
Spam- yea!”

“...just wondering....no one mentioned Fridgy...how are him & his family....
...and how is Sarabelle????
...and where are Dubs pics???”

“Sorry, I never finished the TR. Though I am sure he was still feeling crushed, Fridge made a strong effort to find some joy in the weekend. I think he found it mostly in trying to kick my butt. He missed and I still have the bruise on my shin where he kicked me.”

“Div -
Sarabelle is doing great. She has been on antibiotics for lymes disease and a urinary tract infection for a week, and is *almost* 100% recovered :)”