6/5 Because of our 19 mile day the day before, we decided to take a zero day in Damascus as a reward. Luckily for us because that morning at about 7 it flat poured for about an hour. People hiking in that day were soaked! We resupplied, and stuffed ourselves at Pizza Plus. They have an all you can eat pizza and salad buffet for 7$. There were about 8 of us hikers there for about 2 hours. We even got to catch up with Geo Sandwich!! We snuck in a build your own 6 pack to the Hostel (you're not supposed to bring liquor in) and relaxed.
Later we went to Damascus Brewery, met the brewer and sampled some fun named beers (like sweet beaver). The girls (Pickles and Skipper) even joined us!
The next day we headed down main street on the trail. We stopped for cheap breakfast and coffee at a little place called Mojoes. The trail was washed out in a part so we joined the Virginia Creeper Trail (a reformed railway track now used for biking).
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| Pretty area on the way to Mt. Rogers. |
We still managed to hike 15.5 miles. The shelters are pretty nice in Virginia. Rob can actually stand up in them and not hit his head!
Day 49 we hit 500 miles!!
Day 49 we hit 500 miles!!
We sort of summited Mt. Rogers (Virginia's highest peak. The first shelter we hit was a cool 2 floor shelter. The campgrounds were packed with people and boy scouts (it was a Saturday). I chatted with a couple who were section hiking and gave us food they weren't going to use. They also gave us their water, mostly cause the man wanted to go get more so he could play with his new steri-pen. We pushed on to the next shelter and past a herd of wild ponies. The ponies were really cool. Most of them politely ignore you like the cows. But one baby pony came Right up to us and tried to eat Rob's pocket.
What's silly is that after we passed them there was a sign on the opposite side of the state park that said not to feed or pet them. Guess that's government for you.
Day 50 (6/8) dawned foggy, gloomy, and gray. We only had 5 miles between the next 2 shelters. Made it to the first one and the rain looked like it would hold off. We got about an hour into our walk to the 2nd shelter and the sky started drizzling. The drizzle turned into a full downpour in about 5 minutes. We got to the shelter soaked (you won that round, rain). Since the next shelter was 10 more miles, we decided to call it a day and try to dry things out. We figured we'd hydrate and push the next day to the Partnership Shelter where we could order pizza right to the trail.
We had a very restless sleep in the shelter that night. Something big sounding woke us up crashing through the branches. And then there was an eerie flapping noise that accompanied it. The big sounding thing we never determined what it was, but the flapping was a nocturnal social group of birds that were nesting in all the eaves of the shelter. They were flying back and forth all night long.
In the morning we set off on our 2nd 20 mile hike. We passed through a cow pasture with no cows but lots of cowpies. We came across some amazing trail magic when we were getting ready to take our second break. A church group had a permanent box stuffed with Hiker needs! Ramen, crackers, sodas, treats, a first aid box and even a box marked 'lady items'. It was all set up under a canopy and there were chairs. Truly incredible!!
We made it to the Partnership shelter a few hours later and took a shower (there was one at the shelter)!!! The shelter is right by Mt. Rogers visitor center (even though we passed Mt Rogers 2 days ago). We used the phone and ordered pizza (there's only 2 places on the trail where you can do this). So after gorging ourselves on greasy, cheesy, happiness,(other people at the shelter ordered pizza too), we retired to the 2nd floor of the shelter.
Day 50 (6/8) dawned foggy, gloomy, and gray. We only had 5 miles between the next 2 shelters. Made it to the first one and the rain looked like it would hold off. We got about an hour into our walk to the 2nd shelter and the sky started drizzling. The drizzle turned into a full downpour in about 5 minutes. We got to the shelter soaked (you won that round, rain). Since the next shelter was 10 more miles, we decided to call it a day and try to dry things out. We figured we'd hydrate and push the next day to the Partnership Shelter where we could order pizza right to the trail.
We had a very restless sleep in the shelter that night. Something big sounding woke us up crashing through the branches. And then there was an eerie flapping noise that accompanied it. The big sounding thing we never determined what it was, but the flapping was a nocturnal social group of birds that were nesting in all the eaves of the shelter. They were flying back and forth all night long.
In the morning we set off on our 2nd 20 mile hike. We passed through a cow pasture with no cows but lots of cowpies. We came across some amazing trail magic when we were getting ready to take our second break. A church group had a permanent box stuffed with Hiker needs! Ramen, crackers, sodas, treats, a first aid box and even a box marked 'lady items'. It was all set up under a canopy and there were chairs. Truly incredible!!
We made it to the Partnership shelter a few hours later and took a shower (there was one at the shelter)!!! The shelter is right by Mt. Rogers visitor center (even though we passed Mt Rogers 2 days ago). We used the phone and ordered pizza (there's only 2 places on the trail where you can do this). So after gorging ourselves on greasy, cheesy, happiness,(other people at the shelter ordered pizza too), we retired to the 2nd floor of the shelter.
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