Damascus - 460 miles and counting

Hello Everyone,,

So I have reached the safe-haven of the wonderful trail town of Damascus. This past week or so since Erwin has been the best week of hiking that I've done yet. Out of Erwin, as I mentioned I did a 20 mile slack pack South back to Erwin and then the next day I headed 19 miles Over Roan Mountain to a converted Barn called Overmountain Shelter. Nearby was a route that the Overmountain men took in during the Revolutionary War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Men . There was a plaque out in the woods that described how the men walked over the mountains in "boot high snow" to makes it to a battle. Anyway,, sleeping in a Barn was pretty neat.

The next day I did Nine Miles to Mountain Harbor Bed and Breakfast,, which was perhaps the cleanest Hostel I have stayed in so far,, I got in early and we watched Commando, Dances with Wolves and Back to the Future.. in succession. As far as taking your mind of the trail and having a moment to relax.. there really is nothing better then a Classic VHS. The breakfast there the next morning.. despite being 9 dollars was well worth it.. they had everything homeade and I filled up throughly. Thas same morning I did some slack-packing and Hostel hopped to Kinkora. The guy at Mountain Harbor Took myself, TinTin, Hightower, Thin Mint, Three Bears and D'boua's packs to Kinkora and we all hiked 24 miles to the next hostel.

Kinkora was not as clean as Mountain Harbor by any means but it made up for that in Character and Warmth. The atmosphere at that place was what the epitome of Trail Community. The first night there we played cards and then Monopoly,, and then after a 9 mile southbound slack pack the next day we all Had a Community Dinner of Chicken Parmesean and Salad and Cake and Ice Cream and White-chocholate covered Strawberries. Afterwards a few of us played Risk as well. Kinkora was everything good about the Appalachian Trail and the group of hikers that I spent time with there were a fantistic group of people.

I'm still hiking with most of them and after 50 miles of hiking we made it to Damascus.

more to come later.

Kashmir