Roan Highlands and Into Damascus

Ahh.... I'm sitting in Damascus at the lovely and friendly Hikers Inn in what is my SECOND zero day in this small town.  I will leave tomorrow for the Trail about noon, but until then I'm going to continue to relax and enjoy the beautiful day with fellow hiking friends outside on the porch.

I don't think I've written since Hot Springs, which seems like years ago.  Time on the Trail is very slow, and each day passes like many.

Most importantly, Stew got off the Trail again.  His knee gave out on the walk out of Erwin, TN where he planned on picking the hike back up.  I was really proud of him though, in that he completed a 17-mile hike, which was his largest-mile day ever.  On top of that, and for many reasons, we are going our separate ways now, and I wish him the best on his adventures cross-country.

I will also add that sadly I've lost my camera.  It fell out of my pocket on that very same (and horrible) day out of Erwin.  I tried backtracking for a mile and a half to look for it until I realized that it was only going to be a futile search for a needle in a haystack.  I am hoping that someday someone steps off the Trail a few feet and kicks up a muddy old Canon Powershot, sees my name on one of the pictures (the pic of me as a little girl which I posted on this blog a while back) and turns it in to me.  I had three beautiful weeks' worth of pictures left to upload - all of the Smokies, Hot Springs, Erwin- which meant a lot to me.  I could care less about the camera itself... but the pictures are as good as gone forever.  At least it happened early on in my hike and I still have 4 months to take pictures of me in the woods.  :)

But oh how I wish I'd had my camera to show you the beauty of the Roan Highlands and Laurel Falls!  If I could recommend any hike out of the entire Trail I've done so far it would be from Roan Mountain to the Falls.  Simply beautiful.  Most notable were the balds, which are mountaintops without trees in which you get a total 360-degree view of the surrounding peaks and valleys.  This is really America at its most beautiful.  Spring is in full-force now and the mountains (and forest interiors) are electric green.  On a day with a deep blue sky and puffy white clouds, the green looks almost fake it is so bright.  Add to that the snowy dogwoods in the treetops and the carpet of multi-colored forest flowers and  you get  a picture of what I see every day.  Again, it is a shame I don't have my camera, but even photographs wouldn't do it justice.

There was one intensely terrifying moment that occurred about a week ago, and it happened to be the night of that terrible storm in which hundreds of people died.  Believe it or not, I was sleeping (or TRYING TO SLEEP) in an old barn which had been converted into what is probably the most unique and beautifully set shelter on the whole trail.  It's called Overmountain Shelter, and you should search for it on Google in order to see it.  Anyways, it's in the crook of a mountain valley, and all night we heard the wind howling up the valley and felt as it slammed into the barn.  The barn shook all night long, and I was SURE it was going to collapse... it easily could have!  If I had known that people were dying as I lie there, I might have fainted in my sleeping bag.  :(

As for the hiking, I am doing great.  My blisters are gone and I'm doing much better with the uphills.  I think I've finally gotten my trail-legs. BC and I have really upped our miles this week- we did two 18-mile days, a 17 and a couple 15s.  Not bad when you look at the terrain we're walking on.

Still looking for those bears!   There have been many sightings around us but we've seen none.  It's also becoming snake season, and BC and I must have walked right past a rattler that others behind us said was lying on the trail.  I guess it's good our paths didn't cross...

As usual, the computer is limited and I can't post as good of a blog as I had hoped.  All apologies.  But everything is going well... looking forward to getting to the Greyson Highlands and Shenandoah National Park.  Then after that it's a huge milestone: Harpers Ferry... the symbolic half-way point.  :)

Love you all!  I'll write again when I can (and maybe have a new camera by then with pictures...)