4/8-4/25: Sam’s Gap/Johnson City, TN -> Damascus, VA

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

I’ve crossed off two more states and made it into Virginia! I’ve been without a hiking partner for about two weeks now, which has been a different but still very enjoyable experience.

Where I last left off, I was rejoining the trail at Sam’s Gap after a lovely day with my parents. It was surprisingly hard for me to come back on trail that day; mostly, I was sad to leave my parents. I love them so much! And, for the first time, I was alone on the trail.

It was a rather gross day, but not as bad as the previous morning; it got worse as the day went on and I reached higher elevations. The cold, rain, and my extra heavy pack made everything more difficult, even using my headphones to listen to music. I slipped and slid around in the mud a lot; it was brutal.

After a completely viewless day, I had no expectations for the summit of Big Bald, but to my delight, when I got up there, I found myself above the clouds! It was truly stunning with the surrounding mountains poking through the clouds. It turned my day around; it was one of my favorite spots on trail so far!

At the shelter not long after, I found everyone deathly quiet, to my disappointment, but once everyone warmed up, I had fun chatting with new friends and old. “I’ll be ok on my own :)”, I wrote.

That night, I had another late-night “bathroom” adventure. No vomit this time, but unfortunately I had to go retrieve my pack from the bear cables to get what I needed (I had hung the entire pack since I had too much food to fit in my bear bag!). Lesson learned: keep toilet kit near person at all times. It was a rough experience on a freezing night. Thankfully, this shelter was the very last one with a privy until Virginia! I was very glad to have that; once again, it could’ve been worse.

In the morning, I enjoyed talking to my new trail friend Leaf while taking what felt like a veery lazy morning – and I still left at 9:30! It was another frigid morning, but a beautiful one, and I loved hiking through the trees thick with frost in between clear blue skies and green grasses. It was truly magical.

I barely saw anyone all day, but had a great day anyway! I decided not to bother trying to listen to music after the previous day, and much preferred this; I was happy alone with my own thoughts. I ended up stealth camping atop a ridge overlooking Erwin, TN, and it was my first time camping completely alone. I loved it! I felt very peaceful and content in my solitude. It was Easter, so I treated myself to a fancy backpacker meal that a section hiker had gifted me a few days earlier for Easter dinner. It was delicious! Since it was supposedly going to be a clear night, I crossed my fingers and slept without my rain fly. I watched a beautiful sunset from inside my tent, and hoped to see some stars, although the moon turned out to be too bright to see many. At least I didn’t get rained on!

I saw the sunrise from my tent in the morning too, and then enjoyed the roughly three mile descent into Erwin, with dramatic views of the Nolichucky River below. That’s when I got the news about Gramma (see my previous post).

I had a very nice week off trail, considering the circumstances. It was great to spend time with family, friends in Boston, and of course Macy. I felt like I made the most of the situation. I indulged in my other passions that I had been missing on trail: board games, music, baseball, and baking/cooking. But I was eager to return to my other big passion: hiking.

After a wild and frustrating travel day featuring numerous delays and rushing through airports, I made it back to the trail on 4/17. My shuttle driver, Steve, with Unicoi Shuttles, was incredibly accomodating and helpful on both sides of my week off; I enjoyed his company immensely.

That night, I hit the trail at 6:30pm and hiked an easy mile to a campsite. It felt a little odd to be back and doing all of my trail chores: setting up my tent, hanging my bear bag, and the like. As I hoped, the next day felt worlds better after getting back in the swing of things over a full day! The ground had bloomed into fuller green in my absence; it reminded me of the Smokies in the best way.

Coming back on trail after a week off, I had no idea if I’d know anyone around me. I was prepared to start at square one with making new trail friends, and I would certainly miss my trail friends that were now a hundred miles ahead. I wondered if now’s when being alone would feel like a concern. But right away in the morning, I ran into someone I knew, Big Biggy, which was a relief. I also met and briefly hiked with some new friends Dapper Dan and Matt. Since then it has been a good mix of reuniting with familiar faces and lots of new, friendly hikers.

I enjoyed the fun, varied ascent up half of Roan High Knob, where I stayed at an absolutely idyllic campsite with Matt. It was probably the prettiest place I had camped, and I had a relaxing evening after a good warmup day to get my trail legs back.

The only problem with my first full day back on trail was that, unfortunately, my trowel lost its virginity 😦 I knew this would happen in this privy-less Tennessee section, but that didn’t make it any more pleasant! It was a pretty gross and miserable experience, especially the first time. I’ve had to use it twice more since then (including once in the middle of the night – oof), and I’m grateful to be in Virginia where privies are once again commonplace.

The next day I traversed over the Roan Highlands, which was absolutely gorgeous. I got so many good views over many balds, and lucked out with a clear and windless day. It was one of, if not my favorite section of trail thus far, and it was all the more exciting since I didn’t really know what I was in for! I had heard the highlands were nice, and was excited for them the previous day, but they blew me away with their beauty.

The Roan Highlands reminded me of the Presidential Traverse in NH in some ways (although this was much easier). On the first ascent, I didn’t know what I was getting into; when I got up on the ridge the views were breathtaking; and there was also the feeling of seeing the distant summits and thinking “wow, I’m going all the way there today??” Except this time, instead of horror at that thought, I was like, cool. Can’t wait.

I also stopped by several notable shelters during the day: Roan High Knob Shelter, the highest shelter on the AT, and Overmountain Shelter, an uncommonly large one in an old barn. It had a spectacular view – easily the best view from any shelter I’ve seen – but sadly it is currently decommissioned (controversially: apparently the ATC has the money and some legal obligation(?) to restore it, but won’t do it…it’s a whole thing).

It was such a fun day on trail and such an incredible section. Even the final descent from the ridge was cool and beautiful. That night, I camped juust before the true NC/TN border in another nice campsite and enjoyed talking to Matt again.

Immediately the next morning, I hiked out of North Carolina for good! (There was actually about 500 more feet that I would do the following day, but there was a sign here and everything.) It was exciting to finally finish off the state after playing jump rope with the border for over 200 miles, but I was again sad to be leaving NC, which I had really liked.

It was a short day, but relatively tough as I descended the rest of the way from the Roan Highlands to Rte 19E and then continued on (and up) a bit to the Refuge Hostel. The Refuge was an adorable, cozy venue in a beautiful location nestled in the mountains. Our hosts, April and Robert, were super friendly and informative. Robert gave me a ride to town to pick up my first mail drop, which was exciting. Later, he drove all of us staying there back into town, where we could resupply and we got BBQ and ice cream for dinner. I had a really fun time with the eclectic crew of hikers, which includes some old friends we had met at Standing Bear Farm as well as new faces. A new trail friend, Texas One-Step, even cooked steaks for us on the grill there to celebrate her one-month trailiversary! It was wonderful trail magic from a fellow hiker. In all, it was a very pleasant day (mostly) off, and probably my favorite hostel experience since Georgia. (It was also cheap!)

After resupplying, I was still shocked when my pack weighed 37 lbs when I left in the morning! Oof. I honestly hadn’t realized just how heavy it was getting with carrying more food to eat every day. Nevertheless, I was excited for the upcoming section into Virginia, which some people (including April and Robert) called the “Tennessee Turnpike:” supposedly, the relatively flat and easy terrain of the section made you able to really fly. I was excited to try to push more miles to finish off TN.

The character of the trail certainly felt different; the terrain was indeed noticeably easier, and the highlights of the section were numerous waterfalls! It made for a cool change of pace after not really seeing many waterfalls on trail since the first couple of days. I especially loved tall, magnificent Jones Falls.

I also crossed 400 miles that first day!

We had heavy rains that night, which I avoided in a shelter, and in the morning it had mostly calmed down. The sun even came out that afternoon, which was a delightful surprise! Laurel Fork Falls were large and beautiful, and immediately preceded a treacherous and exciting little section of trail right in between the river and a rock face.

That night I reached the shores of Watauga Lake. The next many miles traveled up and alongside a ridge overlooking the lake, which was nice. The Tennessee Turnpike was as straightforward as advertised, though a little boring. After about a week on trail alone, I finally started to really feel Sophie’s absence during the day, and listening to music or my audiobook while hiking helped.

The next day contained several milestones, as I both crossed into Virginia and did my first 20-mile day sans slackpacking! It felt good to hit that mark, although by the end of this section of sustained increased mileage, my knees were definitely feeling uncomfortable. Crossing into VA was both exciting to finish off TN, and also a little foreboding knowing just how much Virginia there was to come.

Virginia contains an entire quarter of the AT, over 500 miles! It’s the longest state on the trail by far. To put it in perspective, there are more miles in VA alone than miles I’ve come so far.

That night, I camped at a surprisingly packed campsite a few miles before the town of Damascus, VA. It was a pleasant evening with new trail friends, including a cool couple from Ireland. I was excited to get into town the next morning; for the first time, I was most excited for the opportunity to rest. My knees needed it.

I descended into Damascus in the morning. Proudly proclaiming itself “Trail Town, USA,” Damascus is the site of Trail Days, a huge festival/reunion/party for hikers in late May. I haven’t decided if I’ll be returning for Trail Days yet. In the meantime, I found Damascus to be a lovely little town!

I spent a nice double Nero there. That first morning, I had a good, filling brunch at the Damascus Diner; I actually ended up going there three times. It helps when you’re basically the only restaurant open in town (plus the food was good). I spent the night at The Place, a hostel run by a local church that claims to be the oldest hostel on the AT. It was an interesting place: very barebones, with lots of specific rules that are enforced by a caretaker who let’s just say is very into his job. It was, however, donation-based and very cheap. I had a perfectly pleasant time there. I met a ton of friendly hikers and had a lot of fun reading Trivial Pursuit questions with a big group of them in the evening.

Four of my new trail friends and I returned to the diner for dinner and were amazed when someone anonymously paid for all of our food!! That had never happened to me before and felt really special. There were all kinds of new trail magic in Damascus. Earlier, someone had given my trail friend Samurai and I a ride back to town from the grocery store half a mile away, and while I was having an entertaining breakfast with my trail friend Blazes the next morning at the diner, the owner gave us free cookies! It made for quite the heartwarming time in town, and an excellent welcome to Virginia.

Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. I’m sorry to report that Sophie’s knee injury will keep her off trail for good, and her 2023 thru-hike attempt has to come to an end. Sophie is heartbroken, and I’m crushed for her; it’s an awful situation and I’m so sorry that Sophie is going through this. It seems I will be riding solo (with all my new trail friends, of course) from here on out. No matter what, I will always cherish the ~300 miles we hiked together this year.