Day 36, Campsite at Mile 462.7 to Saunders Shelter

I woke up early, just as the sun was rising above the ridge where I was camped.

It didn't take me long to get walking. I was on the trail by 7:30.

The trail remained easy to walk this morning, though it was surprisingly rocky in a few spots.

After just under 2.5 miles I reached a sign and a line of rocks arranged across the trail. They marked the boundary line between Tennessee and Virginia.

As I walked through the park I was approached by a friendly young woman. She introduced herself as Pogo, one of my followers on Twitter.

She started on the trail a couple weeks ahead of me, and now was taking a couple zeros in town while she waited for a pair of shoes to arrive in the mail.

It was fun to meet Pogo and I thought it was really thoughtful of her to look for me. I think she must have seen a tweet I sent when I was at the state line and guessed when I'd be arriving in town.

I then continued on through the park toward the downtown area. Crews had already begun to set up for Trail Days, which starts on Friday.

During the festival, this town will swell from a population of about 800 residents to as many as 20,000 hikers and other visitors.

I made one stop during my walk through downtown Damascus, at the Dollar General store. A large, nice grocery store is located just outside of town and would be a better place to resupply, but it was too far out of the way to stop there today.

Besides the usual purchases of rice sides, mashed potatoes, trail bars and candy bars, I bought a new connector cord for my phone. Even though I was able to recharge my phone again last night, I didn't have confidence in being able to do that consistently. I still wasn't sure the cord was the problem, but it seemed wise to have an alternate cord, just in case.

I also made one impulse buy. I have never carried peanut butter-filled pretzels on the trail, but when I saw them in the store I just felt a need to buy them.

The sidewalk through town is the trail, and much like the sidewalk in Hot Springs, N.C., the citizens have embedded AT symbols into the pavement. Commemorative bricks with the names of trail supporters are also part of the sidewalk.

As I walked down the street I saw Yard Dart again. He told me Miss Bobbie would be arriving soon. They planned to stay at one of the hostels in town.

The AT isn't the only trail to follow the main road through town. The Virginia Creeper does that as well.

The Creeper runs for 34 miles, starting in Abingdon and going up to Whitetop, near the North Carolina state line. Damascus is about half-way between the two ends.

The trail was originally the path of a railroad that began running near the turn of the 20th century and continued to operate until the 1970s. It was at that time the state, the towns of Abingdon and Damascus, the National Park Service and the National Forest Service partnered to turn the rail bed into a foot path.

The trail gets its name from the long slow climb the trains had to make up the mountain to Whitetop, and from a leafy vine that is native to the region.

Because of its railroad origins, the grade is smooth with a gentle slope, making it a nice place to ride a bicycle. Outfitters provide shuttles for bike riders up to Whitetop, from where they can practically glide down to Abingdon with little effort for pedaling.

From the road, the trail climbed nearly a thousand feet in two miles. It wasn't a steep climb, but it was enough to get my attention, thanks to the heavier pack I was carrying after my resupply stop.

In a few spots along the way I saw people camped off the trail. I guessed they were there to be in close range of Damascus until the Trail Days campground opens in a couple days just outside of town. As the day went on I saw fewer and fewer hikers on the trail.

Then, as the trail always seems to do, it immediately gave up all of that elevation gain by heading downhill.

Reaching the bottom of the other side of the mountain, the AT joined with the Virginia Creeper Trail again. Though walking on this trail was much easier, I had to stay alert to bicyclists.

Because the Creeper is a continuous, smooth descent down to Damascus and then on to Abingdon, it's easy for cyclists to roll quickly down the trail. Sometimes they don't pay attention to obstacles ahead, such as hikers.

The AT was actually making a detour as it turned back onto the Creeper. That's because a bridge up ahead was washed out by flooding four years ago and still has not been replaced. By taking this detour, the trail could make use of a bridge on the Creeper.

The trail next made another climb. The highlight of this ascent was passing through a clump of rhododendron bushes with brilliant pink/magenta blossoms.

Someone had written on a floor brace, "Watch for snakes!!" Assuming a snake does live around here, mice should not be a problem tonight, so I decided to sleep here.

In truth, the main reason for sleeping in the shelter was because it would help me get a faster start in the morning. I won't need to take down my tent.

Three of the hikers who were camped nearby came over to chat with me as I set up in the shelter. They were section hikers, Pothole, Tweety and Trapper Lee, and were heading south to Trail Days.

When I started eating my Subway sandwich, they admitted to being jealous. Being a man who has been successfully and happily married for 38 years, I have known it's not wise to annoy a woman. It stands to reason to not annoy three, even if they are being good natured about their annoyance.

I won them over by sharing the bag of peanut butter-filled pretzels I had bought on a whim this morning.