A quick update, and Virginia!

Hi folks!

I have made it into Virginia! Currently, I’m waiting around in my room at the Dragonfly Inn, as the Damascus Diner does not open until 8:00 AM. I don’t know what kind of diner doesn’t open until 8:00, but I am looking forward to some breakfast and coffee.

Damascus is a nice little trail town that welcomes hikers to Virginia. With 544 miles of the trail in VA, almost one quarter of the entire trail courses its way through it. Hiking culture has coined the term “the Virginia blues” to describe the glum feeling of being in VA for a very long time, but I am looking forward to this part of the hike. The last time I was in VA, I ran the Blue Ridge Marathon in Roanoke – a beautiful race, in a neat little city. My green shirt that you see in many of my photos is from that race! Western Virginia is beautiful.

Some good news bad news here: I bought a new tent, but it won’t arrive in Damascus until Wednesday. This means that I either have to sit around for a couple of days, or hike on and shuttle back when it arrives. I believe I will do the later, as I’m not the biggest fan of sitting idle. Also, as the Damascus Trail Days festival is this upcoming weekend, I’m sure I’ll have no problem finding a ride back. What’s more, I have heard that Big Agnes (the manufacturer of my broken tent) will be at trail days offering tent repairs, so I could stand to have my busted tent mended so as to serve as a backup. I’ll keep y’all posted on the ongoing tent drama. For now, I’ll continue to hunker down each night in shelters or hostels.

Interestingly, some observant hiker realized that the total distance from the Iron Mountain shelter to the Marathon gas station in Damascus was exactly 26.2 miles, making it a marathon to Marathon. Coming to know this, I, of course, had to endeavor that. That is exactly the sort of wily nonsense that I can get behind. That is how I came to be in Damascus yesterday, making for my longest day of hiking yet. The best part was I had no knee or ankle pain whatsoever; just a strong day of hiking. It was a good sign to me that I have really acclimated well to walking these hills!

Lastly, I’ll fill y’all in on some travel plans I have up and coming. You see, my brother went ahead and planned a wedding right in the middle of my thru hike. I know, tamp down your anger; I was upset, too. What this means for me is that I had to devise a way to get off trail at the end of the month to get to Dickinson, ND. My plan is to get to Roanoke (roughly mile 710 on the AT) by May 28th, take a train to Baltimore airport, and fly on out there. I’ll be spending a week with family, and get to be in my brother Deric and soon-to-be sister in law Claire’s wedding. Between now and then, I’ll have to maintain an average daily mileage of 16.5. Pretty doable, I think. In future posts, I’ll fill you in on how I’m doing against that countdown.

That’s all for now, folks! I’m going to go enjoy some delicious breakfast food!