#11 Damascus to Atkins

5/9: After taking a zero, where we did absolutely nothing in Damascus, we were ready to get back on trail. The trail goes right through the town, so we grabbed our packs and walked down the sidewalk to the edge of the woods. Before we left, we weighed our packs and with a full resupply and water, and Hawk’s weighed 30lbs and Survivor’s weighed 31lbs. And we were carrying extra water because it was humid! We were sweating as soon as the trail hit a slight incline. The good news though, is that the mosquitos aren’t out yet, so it’s still not as bad as it could be. There were a few steep parts at the beginning that kicked our butts, especially with our legs just coming out from resting, but we made it up. About 7 miles in, we hit a campsite with trails to the river. We filtered water and Survivor soaked her feet. Hawk, on the other hand, is a weenie when it comes to cold water, so she sat on a rock and ate snacks. We hiked for about 3 more miles to get to the shelter, which had lots of open space for tents around the area and the shelter was a nice structure too. On our way there, some of the rodademdrum plants were in bloom with beautiful pink flowers on the sides of the trail.

We are so happy spring is here! It was a 10 mile day in total, and we ate couscous for dinner (or tried to, we didn’t finish it all- which means we’re eating couscous for breakfast too), played some cards, and then went to sleep.

5/10: We’re waking up earlier and earlier now with the sun rising sooner, so we were out of camp by 8. I would not recommend cold couscous in the morning though because it’s too much garlic. That’s not going to stop us in the future, but still. We hiked and filtered water, and then hiked some more. We stopped at Lost Mountain Shelter for lunch and someone wrote the entire Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax on the privy, so that was neat. I guess? Anyway, after a long lunch and more water filtering (it’s so humid) we hiked on. We hiked up a large mountain, which went up gradually, and then we had some awesome views on top.

It was still tiring though, and the last mile or so to our chosen tent site seemed to take forever. We finally got there, stretched, ate Knorr Rice Sides for dinner, chatted by a fire, and then went to sleep for an early morning tomorrow.

5/11: We woke up early because there was a possibility of thunderstorms and we didn’t want to get caught in an exposed area if one got too close. So we started hiking around 7am to beat the rain. It held off for a few hours, but then it started coming down. At first it wasn’t too bad, and we hike quicker in the rain anyway. As we sloshed down the trail, Survivor stopped and pointed out two deer. Then we saw a pony. We knew that there would be wild ponies in the Grayson Highlands, and the park was still ahead of us, so we didn’t expect to see any so soon. We tried calling it over, but it was munching on grass and ignored us. Then we turned the corner and there was a heard of wild ponies! One approached us and started licking our hands. There were two foals that walked up to us, but when we reached out, they backed up. The one pony that approached us was trying to eat all of our gear- our backpack straps, our rain pants, our rain mitts that we keep over our hands, and anything it could try to nibble. We eventually left so that we didn’t get holes in any of our stuff, but a few minutes later, we ran into some more ponies! This time it was just a mom and her foal, but the foal came right up to us and started licking our hands again!

Survivor kept hiking, but Hawk got trapped because the mom started trying to eat everything too! It was cute, but we were worried about our gear, so Hawk said goodbye to the ponies and started hiking again. We made it to the shelter for lunch and met some hikers who stayed the night before and said that the ponies came around 1am and started licking the rocks. Apparently it made it hard to pee in the middle of the night because the mom and the foal follow you as you try to go. Yikes! Anyway, we needed to resupply so we spent an ungodly amount of time trying to get and keep service to make a call to the general store and inn so we could get a shuttle. We finally did, and hiked on. At this point though, we were boulder hopping and it was windy, wet, and miserable. We went slow because the rocks were slick underfoot. It was a tough 3 miles in exposed ridges, but luckily it didn’t thunder. We finally made it to Massy Gap where we shuttled to the inn and got into dry clothes. The only room they had open was the laundry room for us to sleep in, but that was fine! We dried our wet clothes, took warm showers, and ate a hot meal. It was wonderful! Tomorrow is also supposed to be bad weather, so we’re planning on slackpacking for 10 miles. Today marks the point where we crossed 500 miles! And had the song by The Proclaimers stuck in our head the whole time. It’s an incredible achievement and we are so happy with our progress! On to the next 1,700!

5/12: We ate egg sandwiches for breakfast at the general store and then got a shuttle back to Massy Gap where we got to slackpack for the day! We shared a pack, so for the first half, Hawk carried it around. We only packed rain gear, snacks and lunch, water bottles, and an emergency blanket, so it was super light. The ground was still wet from the rain, so sometimes we had to hop from rock to rock where it was flooded.

As we neared the first shelter for the day, we saw a wild pony grazing in a small field! It was gray with a black mane and we said hi and kept walking.

About 5 miles in, we stopped for a quick lunch break and traded the pack over. We then saw a longhorn that we first thought was a horse, but we couldn’t get a good picture of it. When we were about 3 and a half miles from the gap we were getting picked up at, we called to say we’d be there in an hour and a half. Except we were going slower than expected, so for the last 40 minutes, we hustled wayyyy hard to get to the gap. We made it just before pick up time, and there was a little trail magic, which was amazing, but our shuttle was 40 minutes late picking us up anyway. C’est la vie. When we got back to the general store, we had a real room this time! We watched the latest episode of Gray’s Anatomy, took showers, and ate salmon burgers before going to sleep (in beds! What a treat!)

5/13: We ate another delicious breakfast of egg sandwiches and french toast before heading out. We shuttled to the gap we left off at yesterday and started hiking in the cold. Of course it warmed up quick as we got moving, so after that it was a beautiful day for hiking, not too hot and not too cold. We went quicker than usual- probably because we had two easy days in a row, so we hiked 6 miles in under 3 hours to stop and take a lunch. We then hiked over a bridge that was closed because it was kinda broken, but it held up for us fine. Sometimes it got really windy, and then we would turn the corner and the mountain would block the wind again. We felt pretty good until the last two miles where our feet started hurting, but we still made it 12.5 miles in less than 6 hours, including a lunch break. The shelter, Trimpi Shelter, had a fireplace built in, so Otter made a fire which kept the shelter nice and warm while we ate ramen bombs and chatted before bedtime.

5/14: Our group challenged ourselves to hike as far as we could, so we tried to get up early but got up at a normal time anyway. It was a chilly morning and the wind was blowing on the ridge line, so we ended up adding layers as we hiked. We were feeling good though! We hiked 10 miles to the Partnership Shelter in a little over 4 hours! We were cruising. We ate lunch and then got water and a Dr Pepper from the vending machine at the visitors center that was close by. They also had heated bathrooms which was a welcome respite from the cold. We then hiked on and we saw a field a ferns, which was cool, but besides that, it was an uneventful day.

We hiked 16.8 miles though- which is our biggest day yet! We got into camp and went to bed early because it was cold and we were pooped.

Now we’re in Atkins for a quick stop to resupply and eat some food. We’ll hike out later today to keep on pushing miles. The trail community is grieving the loss of the hiker who was attacked, so we’re thankful to be in a group with friends.

Happy trails everyone!