Damascus, VA

Made it to another new state! The hiking of late has been excellent, I'm feeling much better than when I wrote last time, the walks are often incredibly beautiful, and the terrain has been pretty easy. The land has changed slowly as I've been walking. The views no longer reveal seperate mountain peaks, now the mountains are long, mostly level-topped ridges, with the occasional higher knob along the way. Makes for easier walking--most of the time. This will never really be easy; just when you think it is, either you're doing more miles, pushing harder, or you get hurt, or it rains... best leave your pride at home.

And it's true, a huge number of people have recently dropped out, including many of the guys who were doing the big miles early on, all the ones who one would think would have easily made it. Injuries can happen to anyone. So can discouragement, and boredom. So I'm just trying to do my thing and not feel too big about it. It does suck, though, because much of the group I had been loosely hiking with the last month or so are gone; on the plus side I'm meeting many new people.

Had a great night on Tuesday. We were up on Iron Mountain, a long ridge that parallels Lake Watauga, formed behind Watauga Damn. One of the most beautiful views so far, and it didn't diminish one bit come nightfall. The stars came out over the lake, and for once we could get a good view of them, through a large opening in the trees. The mountains across the valley, before inflamed by the setting sun, were now so dark, though you could still make out seperate ridges; they pale in the distance so that it almost looks fake. There was a little town directly down below us, close enough to hear the dogs bark, but I guess it was a few miles down and away. There were lights all around the lake too; the whole sight was beautiful, jewel-like. Here we were, way up on a mountain, so far from that world down below, with everyone watching TV, with flush toilets and showers close at hand, more food than they can eat. You miss some of it sometimes, though not all of it by far, and not all the time. I didn't mind that I was sleeping in a sleeping bag with only the stars for a roof; I guess I prefer it that way.

Well, anyways, the last couple of days we've been doing big miles, so we could push into Damascus early the third day (today). Tuesday we did ~18, and did a 22 miler yesterday. Hiking miles like that just isn't much fun, not the 22 at least. You don't feel like you can stop and enjoy anything, I even felt rushed at our lunch break; I wanted to take a nap, but had too many miles to go. But everyone seems agreed there, I think we're going to be staying in the teens for a while. It the terrain stays like this, 16, 17 mile days aren't bad.

Lastly, I wanted to make sure I didn't offend anyone with my comment about the Protestant church I visited. Didn't mean the service was bad, just that they stumbled through it a bit. Maybe I was just expecting something different. But the sermon was one of the best I ever heard; had to do with not staring at the sky after Jesus ascended, not only focusing on only the life to come, but to get to work HERE, in this life. There's a lot we need to do Saw a sticker at a hostel today that summed it up nicely: If you care for the Creator, care for the Creation. Which of course fits right into what I was saying before about war, nukes, and pollution. Environmentalism, war... these are NOT political issues. They are first and foremost moral issues, and people need to realize that before any progress is going to be made. And I don't mean some kind of strict moral code from some high authority. Just simply look at what pollution and war do to each other and the world we and our children live in; it should be clear that they are wrong, for anyone, whatever their religious persuasion might be.