Day 55, Saturday, April 7. Damascus, VA, Broken Fiddle Hostel—19.5 miles

I tried to make it all night without getting up to pee. I really tried, but it’s just not possible. The rain never let up and I finally gave up hope of falling back asleep until the bladder got emptied. I unzipped the sleeping bag and started moving. Usually, this is when Bunny gives me a disgusted sigh, but she didn’t object. When I got back, she was waiting to borrow my crocs so she could go. Just as we got settled back in the bag, the mysterious stranger in the tent’s alarm started going off—it was 6 am.

I fell back asleep and didn’t hear anything else. We had intended to get up by 7 but it was freezing and pouring still so we slept. I got no objections from Bunny about staying in bed (not that she ever objects to sleeping longer). I woke back up just before 8 and the tent was gone. We will never know who we were sleeping beside.

I extracted enough water from my bladder (the drinking one and not the contaminated warm water one) to make coffee. I got the bear bag down and we ate cold breakfast while packing up. We were on the trail by 9.

Bunny immediately started complaining about this being the worst day of hiking on the trip. I will agree that we were dealing with non ideal conditions (freezing rain and foggy), but how quickly they forget. The Smokies were crap almost daily. This was slightly uncomfortable.

We made it to Abingdon Gap Shelter at 1. Play by Play and Pit Boss were already gone; sometimes they can procrastinate about getting up, but we must be too close to town to dawdle. We had a quick bite and checked the log book. (Imagine Pit Boss as Andy DuFrane, me as Red, and Damascus as Cewateneu per the Shawshank Redemption) “Easily Forgotten, you’ve made it this far. I’m going to ask you to take one more journey. Do you remember the name of the town we used to talk about? (Damascus). Come join me there. I am waiting in the sun to see my friend once again.” Only he forgot to leave me $10,000 to get there like Tim Robbins did for Morgan Freeman—cheap bastard.

Only 3 nobos and 1 sobo passed us all day. No one with any sense was out in this weather. Once we hit the TN/VA state line, we had an immediate weather change—the rain added some hail and then quickly turned to snow. I called Wood Chuck and confirmed our reservation for a room; we wanted to make sure we had someplace to get out of this crap.

As soon as I turned the phone off of airplane mode, Stickers sent me an update on how far they made it yesterday. They pulled the plug at Low Gap about 15 miles short of Damascus because Lady Bug started having pain in her leg. Urgent Care decided today that she was getting shin splints and that they had gotten off of the trail before things got bad. She’d be good to go in a couple of days. We agreed to meet at the Damascus Brewery later for Stickers birthday.

The minute we got to town, the phone died leaving us without a map or directions to the hostel. It was raining and cold and no one was out. We walked down the Main Street but no businesses were open. We ended up walking all the way through town without seeing a single person or seeing any place open that we could ask directions. I thought this was supposed to be “the Best Trail Town in the world” but instead, we were in a ghost town.

We finally saw a guy (Franco)outside of Broken Fiddle Hostel. We asked where Wood Chuck Hostel was. He said come inside out of the freezing rain and he’d explain. We had passed the hostel almost a half mile back. I was so cold, I couldn’t even consider going back. We asked who was staying here and if they had any room left. He told us Donut and Mizman were here. Hallelujah, we’ve finally caught up with Mizman after more than 5 weeks of chasing him. We immediately said we’d stay if they had room for us. We got a private room for $10 less than we had agreed to at the other place. The only condition I had was that Bunny call Wood Chuck and tell him—I never had wanted to make a reservation in the first place.

Wood Chuck was upset as expected. We later heard that he is probably going to change his reservation policy and require a deposit because of us. We also learned that he has ordered a sign to put out on the trail because we are not the first ones that couldn’t find his place. In reality, it was just a little inconvenient for him because his hostel was otherwise full and has been all week; the room he had for us was in an outside, unheated building. We made the right call to stay at Broken Fiddle.

We had to wait to do laundry and shower until later. Switch is the temporary house manager doing work for stay because of a stress injury (we met him just before Nature’s Inn). We had time to drink a couple cups of coffee before our ride to the brewery showed up. Once again, food and drink overrride hygiene. We were brewery bound.

Not Today, Zz’s, and Sour Kraut were inside and waved to us as soon as we walked in. We got a dog update (Zz’s mom had told us Not Today had rescued a dog on the trail). I turned around to see Geo (that’s the guy who stole my hair), Summit, and Bear Foot ordering beers to go. I talked to them a bit and then we ordered some pork sandwiches. After the sandwiches, I ordered a flight of beer and called in an order for two pizzas for delivery. Now that business was settled, we could relax.

Stickers and Lady Bug showed up and joined Mizman, Hawk, and us at our table. There was a bluegrass band playing and Lady Bug got them to play “Happy Birthday” for Stickers. And yes, Bunny gave Stickers a kiss on the cheek from Stickers’ mom, Miranda. I assume fun was had by all, but my memory is a little foggy from that point on.

EFG