Damascus: or an Interview with Gravity

It has been an interesting couple of weeks since my last lengthy post. From the Mountain Harbour hostel, I made the transition over to Bob People's famous hostel "Kincora" and enjoyed the harrowing ride to Elizabethton with 13 other hikers packed into a capped mini pickup bed down a windy mtn road. The morning hike out Through Laurel Fork Gorge is among the most breathtaking of the trail so far; a winding creek, steep stone walls, mountain laurel exploding into bloom everywhere, an a three teired curtain falls about 50 feet across dropping about 50 feet. On the climb over Pond Mountain I stopped for a bit to help Bob and his trail crew including a couple of folks from the Appalachian State trail club (Thanks Maura and friends for your work!) Pulling a two man saw for a while definitely worked different muscles than hiking. I camped that night on the shores of Lake Wautauga after a swim and that night our camp got buzzed by bears. Thank you "Bear Blaze" for earning your name that night and luring the bears to another shelter by leaving. Only lady I ever met who had a bear pink blaze after her so I renamed her.
Then came the mileage down the Tennessee Turnpike a 40 mile ridge with nothing in particular to notice. At the end though is the promised land Damascus, Virginia "The Friendliest Town on the Trail" It is a beautiful little town in extreme southwest Virginia that sits along the AT and the Virginia Creeper Trail a very popular mountain biking and horse packing trail through some gorgeous country. I came through Damascus last weekend and headed out, planning to return at the end of this week for Trail Days, when 30,000 AT fans and hikers decend on the town for the biggest party on the trail. All of the guidebooks say that the section from Damascus to Troutdale is among the most beautiful on the trail. I headed out slowly, (took us til 11:30 to get out of town) and made the first shelter and spent a crazy cold night. Then made our way up the Mt. Rogers massif  to Buzzard Rock and Whitetop a bald up over 5000 feet. it was a day of 3000+ feet of climbing and I turned my ankle a bit before the climb. We camped in a grove on Whitetop and woke in a pea soup fog. I couldn't see "Mad Mike's" tent. I didn't want to walk this beautiful section in 0 visibility so we caught a ride back to Damascus. I wanted to do some hiking today but arranging shuttles to the trailheads I'd need has proved difficult, so I may not make any more progress until after Trail Days, which would be OK, just not ideal.