Virginia is for lovers
Today I was not focused on hiking or on the scenery of north eastern Tennessee. Today, I was focused on reaching Damascus, Virginia, which will represent the symbolic start of my march through the Appalachian mountains of Virginia.
The sunrise this morning was delightful. I packed up quickly and hit trail at 7:50AM.
There was nothing noteworthy about today's hike except that 3.8 miles south of Damascus I crossed into Virginia, home of roughly 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail.
I rolled into town at 10:50AM, and immediately checked into "Dave's Place Hostel". This hostel is nice and simple. They key thing is that I can lock my door with all my gear in it, you can't do that at "The Place", leaving your gear vulnerable to being stolen.
Once I was showered, I hit Pizza Plus for their lunch buffet, which is all you can eat pizza and salad for about six dollars. These places loose money on hikers.
I then proceeded to do laundry and update my journal at the library.
Outside the library I met Lone Wold. This man raises a ton of hell on Whiteblaze.net, but he is in fact a very nice man. We talked for a little while about trail related things.
I then walked the trail to the outfitter, where I determined what hiking shoes I shall buy tomorrow. I was also told to buy Super Feet insoles for my shoes, but we shall see.
At around 6PM I went to dinner at Dot's. Along the way I met The Only Wanderer, I chatted with him for a little while about trail related things. He also invited me to his house for breakfast tomorrow morning, which I gladly accepted.
At Dot's I bumped into Lone Wolf once more, I also met Gypsy, Lone Wolf's other half, and Wonder. We chatted about random trail subjects for a while as I ate a delicious dinner.
I am now at the hostel, relaxing and preparing to go to sleep.
Tomorrow I shall finis my town chores and relax some more. Damascus seems like a good town to take a zero in, and that's exactly what I shall do.
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
"It was a creed written into the founding documents: Yes We Can."
United States Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois.
Ga>ME 2008.
