Damascus, take two

EDIT: Wanted to point out I added some links, to Snap+Snack's blog, and to a link to a site that displays some photos of my trip.

Yeah, I'm back in Damascus. I woke up last Saturday to find that Kevin, AKA K-Bomb (newest member of the crew, who joined us about two weeks ago when the last member of his group left the trail with an injury), had made a deal with a guy to shuttle us up to US-11, near Atkins VA so we could hike south-bound to Trail Days, a hiker festival here in Damascus. I was originally going to skip it, in fact so was everyone else, or at least we hadn't decided, but it became so easy to get back that we figured why not. We're camped at a park that for the weekend is called "tent city," in probably the soggiest place ever. It's been rainy and we're near a creek; I wasn't there when the site was chosesn, I was busy jogging back to town as I'll explain below; but the whole park is pretty wet so I guess that's just life.

Anyways, Virginia is a damn beautiful state. Up by the Greyson Highlands and Mount Rogers, there's a lot of huge open expanses, like the balds I mentioned before; lots of grassy fields dotted with little trees and shrubs. The views are amazing, some liken it to Montana. I loved all the rock formations and outcrops, they reminded me of Lord of the Rings scenes of Rohan. And there's actually herds of feral ponies there; you can walk right up to them, and they like to try to eat your pack.

Still, you don't get good days without bad ones, and I'll admit I've had plenty in the last week. First day was great, second day was a stormy one in a very small, VERY full shelter. The third day I had a migraine and a 9 mile hike in freezing, damp, and very windy weather. Only 9 miles because I stopped at a shelter for a nap, threw up, and decided I wasn't budging. Fortunately everyone else was happy to stay, seeing as how we had a lot of time to get to Damascus and didn't want to get here early and spend money. I felt better nearly right after I puked; and being the only ones at that shelter, to stay occupied we were wrestling and throwing each other's shoes down the mountain, then played cards. Later that night Snap taught us some yoga, which I'm glad we finished before those two guys showed up because some of those moves were pretty ridiculous looking. Fourth day was the awesome day in the Highlands and sunshine, fifth day my left ankle decided it had had enough of all these Virginia rocks and was going to start aching again, this time in the tendons in front, also my right foot on top again.

Today was a short hike into town, but painful. I got a shower at The Place, a hostel, and left my wallet there. Thank God for good people, though; Rambo picked it up and gave it to someone else, who was there after I jogged back from Tent City once I learned of my idiocy. It's not often in my life I feel like a lucky man, but I sure did today. Not sure if it's a good omen, though, or if I'm ready for 3 days of straight up partying. I started thinking I should have skipped Trail Days, that I should just thumb it back up to Atkins and hike short days until my crew catches back up to me. Sad thing is, Snap and Snack are getting off for a week, for a wedding Snap is going to be in, so the crew won't even be the crew; I'll sure miss hiking with them. Funny how this Trail experience keeps changing.

Well, I'm about out of time here at the library, so I'll have to leave it there.