5/1/2014

May First                            Damascus, Virginia

     It's been a long week wince I last wrote a journal, but then again, isn't every week? I need to find a better spot in my pack to put my journal. every time i think about writing it's, "Aw man, I don't wanna dig through my pack, it's buried in there!" and figure I'll just write tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next day... Well a week IS technically later, just a lot later than the initial intention. The only problem is anything after yesterday is a year ago when it comes to the trail.

     Last I wrote, I was about to get back to the hostel Mountain Harbor in Roan Mountain, Tennessee. or it was the closest spot to the trail when it started thunder storming (4/24). 

     The next day (4/26) after it stopped raining, four of us (Me, Wrong Way, Fromage, and Rocky Mountain High) decided to slack-pack since a guy Swashbuckler was going to get a shuttle 25 miles north regardless. He had gotten seriously sick by the time he got there and desperately needed to come back into town to see a doctor. That was about a week before i had got there and he was nearing 100% and ready to get back out there. The four of us were going to slack-pack and meet him at Kincora hostel for that night. Seemed like a great idea until Wrong Way and I took a blue blazed trail to see some pretty awesome waterfalls. I got some neat pictures, but my boots also found the most slippery rocks. I mistepped and all of a sudden my feet flew out from under me. I hit said rock with a loud THUD and got the wind knocked out of me. As i was on the ground, Wrong Way first made sure it wasn't too serious, then just sat back down and laughed at me for climbing over wet rocks in the first place. He also was initially taking pictures for/of me and proceeded to take pictures of me fallen down. When i regained the ability to breathe, I got back up and was alright enough, nothing broken for the most part but my pride. My knee was pretty swollen and I had probably bruised my ribs as well. It also didn't help that this was six miles into our 25 mile day. Oh boy, here come 19 loooonnnggg miles. Luckily i had shoved my first-aid bag inside the modified day pack I was carrying, but it was still a DAY PACK. i had to hike the nineteen miles to get back to the rest of my gear. That was a pretty big motivating factor. Long excruciating hike later and I made it to Kincora. It was past 8p.m. and getting dark quick, but i still made it, even if i did have to limp down most of the mountain.

     The following day (4/27) a largeish gorup of guys were going to get a shuttle to Damascus because one of the guys (Forest) was sick and needed to get into a town and he didn't feel like going backwards. My ribs and knee were still killing me and i was going to zero there anyway, I figured I might as well be in a real town, too. Besides it made the cost of the shuttle go down to split it an extra way; and it was only a fifty mile jump and can be done in one day (The fifty mile challenge on the Tennessee Turnpike). If skipping that much ever does weigh on my conscience I know exactly where to do a section hike later in life. 

     Since then (4/28 - 5/1) I've stayed up here in Damascus, with a few more milestones out of the way. I've hiked over 450 miles, as well as finishing off three states. Woo! But for now I'm getting off the trail seeing as my ribs hurt just as much now as they did five days ago. Hoping it's nothing serious, but my mom was going to come out in two weeks to hike with me anyway. Seems like a reasonable time to heal up before moving on

-Sam