Damascus to Marion

5/8/15 - I didn't sleep well last night, even though the Hikers Inn has very comfortable beds.  It's a really nice place.  I either had too much to drink last night or middle age is catching up to me.  Either way, I had to go every two hours.  Plus, my right knee is aching quite a bit this morning.  Bleh.

The birds woke me about five, so I rolled over but finally gave up at six thirty and got out of bed.  Said goodby to Just Dave who got in yesterday and headed out.  I stopped and had a town breakfast, two eggs and pancakes, and hit the trail.  

I blue blazed the Virginia Creeper Trail for 13 miles instead of taking the official junction 0.4 miles outside of Damascus.  The VCT is a converted rail line for bicycles and is a constant 2% grade.  The AT crosses it at several spots, so I hiked it to avoid some pointless hill climbs and aimed for Lost Mountain shelter, 14 miles from town.

My right knee started twinging again as soon as I turned off the VCT and hit a moderate elevation gain on the AT.  I'm beginning to wonder, is it tendinitis or have I damaged my cartilage?  I ordered a new knee brace for delivery with my shoes next week, but I don't want to hurt all the way to Maine.

Shinner showed up, haven't seen him since before Erwin.  Snail says he saw Chipmunk in Damascus today.

5/9/15 - From Lost Mountain shelter to Wise shelter is about 17.5 miles.  The last seven or so are awfull.  The trail up Mt Rogers and over the Grayson Highlands is pretty much not really trail, just paint marks on a talus slope.  It took me from 7am to 5:30pm to get to Wise shelter.  'Course, that includes an hour break for a late lunch at Thomas Knob shelter.

The ponies were shy today at Grayson Highlands State Park, I saw only three and those at a distance.  The sky was clear though, so the views were good.   Or would have been had I not been cussing the rocks. Despite that, there were many more dayhikers out than AT hikers.

I was setting up my tent and realized I might have swipe the spot from a woman who walked up and picked up a nearby water bladder I hadn't seen, but it turned out she was the leader of an all women empowerment camping group called Trail Dames and was setting up to cook dinner. We got to talking and it turned out we had both hiked the AT in 2007, and knew the same people such as Tony the Tiger, Kokopelli, Chuck Norris, Tiger, and others! She hiked under the trail name Certain. I remember seeing her name in some of the journals.  Such a small world!

As we were finishing supper and the sun setting, the ponies visited camp!  Came right up looking for handouts.  The day was finally complete!

5/10/15 - I left camp near Wise shelterat 7am in the mist.  Bit of dew on my tent, I'll need to set up and air out later.  The mist was cool, but without much breeze it was tolerable.  The trail wound around in those hated Grayson Highland rocks some more.  The mist and my exertions made my glasses fog over. 

The mist burned off about 10am, and the day heated up fast.  I had three climbs to make and they were all tough due to the heat.  I finally made Trimpi shelter at 6pm, a distance of 19.1 miles.  My knee feels tight but hurt only a few times.

A couple hours into the day, I came upon a Konnarock trail crew.  They were doing a superb job of repairing the trail.  Then the trail crossed VA 603 and I ran into Hiker "Mr Don", a teacher from Maine.  He explained he had gotten off trail to attend the college graduation of Hiker "Tank". Hiker "Onward" passed me, she's being slack packed by her husband Anchor, who's now going by Shipwreck, since he's off trail with gout.  She's about a half day ahead of me.

When I got to camp, it was packed.  Tents everywhere. Hiker "Not a Bear" showed up, he's slacking from Marion back to Damascus for Trail Days.  Trixie and Gertrude, Flash, McFly (from Munich, Germany) and others are also here tonight.

5/11/15 - I left Trimpi shelter late, about 8am today.  The temps didn't fall very much last night, it was already warm by 6am.  Had a slow breakfast, said goodbye to Mr Don, whose trying to make up miles he lost getting off trail last week.  McFly is gonna be very slow today, he pulled his shin muscles yesterday and is hobbling around in pain.

The heat got bad by 9am, I was sweating buckets.  Today has a fair number of small elevation gains, which don't help.  I finally pulled over at 11:30 and draped my smoked short over my hiking poles and let the breeze dry me out and cool me down.  McFly caught up, his left shin just at boot top is red and swollen.  He's going to catch a ride into town and find a doctor.

I'm feeling very discouraged in this heat.  I have greatly reduced energy and strength and the elevation gains slow me to a literal crawl.  Fortunately I ran into a hiker headed south to Damascus who has done his thruhike, Double-Check.  He stated he did his in 200 days and told me to ignore all the kids passing me.  My schedule has me doing mine in 180 days, so I guess I can take a bit more time and relax.  Sending home my winter gear on Thursday will help as well.

My knee started acting up again about mile 8.  This is not good.  I reached Mt Rogers Headquarters and Partnership shelter a little after  1pm.  The area around the shelter was full of tents and the picnic table covered with food items.  A couple of hikers told me people were camping out in anticipation of a Trail Days and the food was an informal Hiker Box, take what I wanted.  Sounded like an invitation to suite norovirus so I passed.  I decided to call the Econolodge where I had a reservation and extend the zeroes while waiting for Diane and Tail Days.  

I ran into McFly after he finished his trip to the doctor.  He said the doc suspects not a shin splint but an infection caused by his blisters.  It's hard to keep stuff clean in the woods.  With medication, he should be okay in a couple of days.

5/12/15 - Zeroing in Marion for a couple of days before Trail Days, trying to heal my knee and improve my mood. It started to rain at supper time last night, the squall line was impressive as it moved into town.

Unfortunate town supper didn't sit well with my system, my outraged gut woke me several times last night in revenge.  As did the horns of passing trains, the tracks are between the hotel and I-81, about a ¼ mile away.

McFly caught a ride back to Partnership shelter late this morning.  I walked down to the local WalMart to resupply and looked at Verizon service plans.  AT&T is my current provider, but on the AT, it lags behind Verizon in terms of connections.  Both are subject to line of sight issues but Verizon seems to have more towers, especially in small towns.

Today was a good day to be hiking, once the morning drizzle lifted and the skies cleared.  I walked the four blocks to the Walmart and did most of my resupply for after Trail Days and talked to the Verizon folks next door.  Hiker Blackout and some others were at the Little Caesar's Pizza for lunch, they'll be at Trail Days too.  My knee is still tight.  Tomorrow I'll stop at Walgreens and catch the bus to do laundry.  I'm bummed and bored.