| May 15, 2005 |
| This
May 15th I believe, the weather is rainy, drizzly and everything is
clouded in. So far the trail had been fairly smooth and down hill
with some rocky areas. |
| The wild
strawberries are in bloom along the trail, no ripe ones yet! I
just past US421. I thought about Simon and I going into Shady
Valley to the restaurant and the convince store to get him some dog
food, he out, but decided to put that 6 miles toward Abingdon
Shelter and be much closer to Damascus. |
| Rain, rain go away
come again some other day. It's warm, miserable, rainy for the
last 3 miles I've hiked and it still raining. It's a good
think it is not very cold. |
| Hey, E.J.,
I'm down here in the fog - you can't see me, he can't catch me. |
| The rain started
pouring again and Simon and I ducked under a hemlock, had some beef
jerky, a little bit of a snack and continued on after the rain let
up. |
| It looks like
I might clear up, there's a little bit of blue sky and I can see
more that 5' in front of my face now. |
| I'm standing
on top of McQueen Knob At one time there had been a fire tower up
here, there's a cement embedment that says 1932. Also on the
other side it looks like there had been a fire warden's cabin, with
a cement foundation. There's an old log shelter just of
McQueen's Knob. Some people use it, it's called the Holiday
Inn, It's one of the older shelters that they built years and
years ago, but no longer in use. However, there is a register
book, so I think Simon and I will sign it and at least say
that we've been here! |
| Where I'm
hiking now is definitely the old tower road, I'm seeing stone catch
basins to catch the water, I've seen 2 of them and they're made out
of cut stones. Most of this area is open hard woods, lots of
may apples, stinging metals and jewel weed. |
| The fog is
beginning to lift, it looks like smoke rising and I can off into the
distance, probably 10 miles at least. |
| I made it
Abington Gap Shelter and there was 2 couples here waiting out
the rain storm. I'm glad they were here because my fingers
were cold, but I didn't realize how cold they were, but whenever I
stopped at the old shelter that they don't use anymore, and was
trying to write in the book, my fingers didn't want to write very
well. By the time I got here I couldn't unsnap the snaps on my
backpack. The unsnapped the snaps for me and I got out my
cooking pans and had some hot tea and oats for lunch. |
| I feel pretty
good right now, the sun is out and the kids were telling me that is
was going to be 40 degrees in Damascus, so it's going to be colder
than that in the mountains, so I'll hike the 10 miles to Damascus.
I hope I can get a room because this AT festival week there. |
| It amazing how
a little sun will change your attitude, coming down through here is
fairly easy trail and my foot's a lot better now. I caught
my self singing 'what a beautiful what a beautiful day. When I
was getting discouraged with all this rain I reached up and would
rub the little cross that I'm wearing and know that a lot of people
out there are hiking with me and thinking about me. That's a
lot encouragement for me and also to know that a lot of little
babies are depending on me to get well. I also hear that
baby Logan is making good progress and that he's up to about 4
pounds. |
| What happened
to the sunshine, it's clouding up again. I just met a section
hiker named Work-out from Louisville, KY. I can look over into
the valley and see horizontal clouds stuck between the mountains.
It's really pretty! I just met Isis, and Waterfalls coming out
of Damascus. They had been to trail days festival. Isis
was hiking barefooted! |
| Today I've
seen my first orange honeysuckle in bloom! They are absolutely
beautiful. I just met Mellow a through hiker last year that
was coming up out of Damascus. He's just section hiking this
year to Hot Springs. |
 |
|
|
Hip - Hip - Hooray! I just
made it over the VA line. Damascus is 3.8 miles from here
and I'm hiking in the Jefferson National Forest |
| Arriving at
Damascus at 6:45pm. The last half mile was straight down hill
and the hardest part of the last 3 miles. I went searching for
rooms, I could find some, but one would take Simon. The 2
gentlemen on the porch who were watch Simon's and my backpack
suggested we go to the Baptist Church. When we got there they
were having services, so Simon and I walked in and sat in the back
row. After service I waited for the Minister, but before he
came out, someone stopped and asked if we needed a place to stay and
I told I needed a place that would take Simon, she went back into
the church and contacted another person. With that these 2
people said sure we'll take you home and your dog too. I told
them I like to sleep with my dog and would it be ok to bring him
into the house also. Sure, we like dogs they said. She
said you can sleep in Bill Erwin's room. (who wrote 'Blind Courage')
And Simon can sleep on Orient's rug. Blond and Betty Duncan
said they would wait for me to go back and get my gear, then we
would go to their house. That is where Simon and I slept.
Before I left I was told that there would be room in the Hiker's Inn
for the following evening. |
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