AT Mile 1715.1 October 22, 2009 Damascus, VA "Take Two"

What a difference a few days can make in hiking conditions!

Zombie / Andrew arrived in Damascus (once again) mid-day Thursday. This time, arriving on foot, after enjoying a wonderful week hiking from Mt. Rogers Rangers Station...where he had hopped off trail for 3 zero days the previous weekend. Zombie hiked with Mr. Freeze and Trudger until Tuesday night. The other two hike faster than Andrew, so when they arrived at Hurricane Mtn. Shelter late afternoon, they realized it would be too crowded with 4 Section Hikers who had already settled in, plus the SoBo hikers that had joined them. The two went 5 miles further to Old Orchard Shelter. Andrew arrived after 6:00 p.m. and would have had to hike in the dark to catch them. "Ledge" and "Country Runner", two other fellow SoBo hikers he's seen several other times on the trail a few states back, were at the Hurricane Mtn. Shelter also, so these two hiked into Damascus with Andrew. Mr. Freeze and Trudger are at least a half day ahead by now. It will be interesting to see if they meet back up before Springer Mtn.

Resupply, laundry chores and a call home, Andrew reports that the weather had been "perfect" all week. It had been as warm as the low 70's some days. He said the snow that was on the ground on Monday wasn't bad, and his feet were fine... Zombie did appreciate his new shoes. No, his feet didn't freeze, get cold or wet from the snow that had fallen last weekend. He also appreciated his warmer gear that I had taken to him since the nights are getting "chilly". Zombie had a few hours to meet up with some other SoBo hikers that had come into Damascus the day before, so he was off for a bit of a reunion in town.

OCTOBER 23: ON TO TENNESSEE....AT Mile 1718.6
By late Friday afternoon Zombie arrived at the Abingdon Gap Shelter in the Cherokee National Forest, 8 miles inside the Tennessee state line.
11 states down, 3 to go... 451.1 miles in the next 4 weeks!!!

Notice the new map link in the upper right corner? I have found the postholer link very helpful, especially when the ATC Interactive Map was "down" last month. The lady at AT Headquarters in Harpers Ferry told me about it. It's easy to navigate. Click the center drop down space to 'Shelter/Campsites' and you'll see all the shelters on the AT. Zoom in, unless you have the book to know the shelter names. (I've given you some of the shelter names above 'to play with' how it works) It's fairly easy to figure out and cross reference The Spot GPS tracking info. (click his link "Where I am" on the Blog) I've really liked this map because I can pull the shelter info up, and then click the weather link to get the current weather and the week's forecast. The weather link is how I was able to realize last week that by Mt. Rodgers Ranger Station, he was heading into more rain, turning to sleet then an early snow storm last week. It was fortunate that I could reach him with a text message, and have him call just as he got into Atkins, VA. If interested, go to the drop down on the top left part of the link, and you can see all the big trails in the US, not just the AT... Enjoy :-)

Hope your Fall days are blessed and beautiful,
Mom/ Harriet