We went the entire first month of our trip without a drop of rain and it seemed like during the week leading up to our arrival in Damascus it rained every day, but during this hot and humid time of year we welcomed the cool rains. It only gets bad when you are in a thunderstorm with rain severe enough to get through your pack cover and soak your clothes, sleeping bag, etc (which luckily never happened). On our way up from Watauga Lake we got rained on again - another bad thunderstorm where the wind blows the rain in from the side. We again found ourselves in a risky situation about 1 mile from a shelter walking high on a ridge with high winds and lightening. Luckily we made it safely to Vandeventer Shelter and found it dry and cozy. We were even able to use the water coming off the roof to bathe and top off our reserves which enabled us to skip the .6 mile steep slippery trail to the closest water source. Vandeventer was great as it had an amazing view of Watauga Lake from the rocks not 20 feet behind the shelter. The following is a picture of the lake (which we couldnt see at this point becuase it was fogged in).
We were told that the next section (from Vandeventer to Damascus) was one of the easiest stretches of trail on the entire AT. This by no means meant that it was easy and flat, but in comparison to what lied before and what lied beyond I would say that its safe to call it easier. When we started the day we had not planned on going all the way into Damascus. After we did the first 10 miles with relative ease we joked about how funny it would be to go all the way in and treat ourselves with a nice greasy meal. We hiked fast as the slight ups and downs didn't slow us down much and stopped for breaks at each shelter we passed. At the next to last shelter it started to get dark but it wasn't raining so we decided to move on. And as fate would have it we got stuck out in another bad thunderstorm. After getting soaked we really thought it best to stay at the next shelter but when we arrived someone had completely trashed it. We took a break - ate the next days snacks (because at this point we wouldn't need them) and hauled ass down the gradual nicely graded trail over the Virginia border and into Damascus. We had made it the entire 33 miles and we only had to use our headlamps for the last 15 minutes of our journey. When we arrived in Damascus it was dark - around 9:00 - the same time the entire town shuts down. We were tired and sore so we finished off our instant potatoes and slept like babies. This marked our longest day and was followed by a much needed zero day filled with delicious food and laziness.
We could see the clouds building before the storm.
The State Line
No comments:
Post a Comment