Damascus, VA Trail Days...

So, what do thru hikers do when they want to take vacation from the trail? We go camping of course! Since camping doesn't involve moving your tent for a couple of days (and might also include ice chests with beverages in bottles) it's vastly different than backpacking! Ahhh... the joy of ice!

This past weekend was the annual A.T. Trail Days celebration in Damascus, VA. Each year, this town of 3,000 residents swells to over 20,000 hiking enthusiasts.

Originally I'd planned to skip Trail Days, intending rather to stay on the A.T. to make forward progress, but everyone's enthusiasm about how I shouldn't miss it swayed my opinion .. so I decided to see what all of the hub bub was about.

I had to "yellow blaze" (AKA: drive) a chunk of trail in order to get here ... so that means I'll have to return to that section and finish it before my thru hike will be deemed complete. That said, I'm more than happy with my decision, since this past weekend was something I'll remember forever.

I've been to plenty of fairs and festivals in my day but I've never been to one that catered to and focused on nothing but backpackers! It was so cool!

All of the major gear manufacturers were present. The best thing was the event's organizers set those booths up near Tent City which was where all of the thru hikers were camped. Since "Tent City" was about a mile from the Main Street activities the reps could focus exclusively on hikers while the rest of the event's attendees enjoyed the booths set up in the more public area.

I visited the manufacturer reps and to my surprise received some outstanding customer service. My Lekki trekking poles were cleaned, free of charge, and received new baskets and tips. My Gregory backpack was repaired (sewn) where the stitching had come undone, also free of charge. I was able to trade my Petzel headlamp for a better and brighter Princeton Tec headlamp, just because they want their brand to be carried, used and "advertised" by thru hikers. The best interaction I had was with the Thermarest rep. My new Neo Air mattress has been leaking air for the past few weeks. It was a slow leak but pretty annoying regardless. They tested it and determined that the issue was a manufacturing defect and replaced it, free of charge!

I also got a great deal on a 30 degree "summer" bag and a lighter, smaller backpack so I'm pretty sure my days of schlepping a 50 pound pack days are over. The tradeoff was having to send a lot of cold weather gear home ... But summer is coming so hopefully I won't be too cold between now and then.

Trail Days was a great opportunity to make new friends as well as catch up with others I've met on the trail. There were updates regarding those who have left the trail due to injury, illness, life circumstances or simply due to the fact that they got sick of hiking for one reason or another. The "Three Musketeers" also known as Boston Dan, Hemi and Zenon broke up this weekend. Dan headed back to Hot Springs, NC to pick up the trail where he left off, Zenon is headed back to Texas and Hemi continued up the trail, from here. I wish them all continued success.

Well it's getting late and I want to get an early start tomorrow. It's time to walk through the 460+ miles of Virginia AT. It's such a long section hikers sometimes get the "Virginia Blues." As of right now ... I'm really looking forward to it.

Happy Trails everyone!

Yahtzee













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