april 30 - may 1 - kincora to damascus

April 30th i finally got back on trail. Bob gave us a ride to the trailhead early in the morning. It was a pretty nice hike, but was all uphill for the first 8 milles of the day. The views were great though, as the trail took us up and around a lake. At 8 miles in i got to the first shelter. A few other hikers were there taking a lunch break. I met monk, han solo, sticks, and coach. Theyre hiking together and call themsellves the goat herd. I joined up with them and hiked with them for the rest of the day. By the end of the day i had done about 16 miles. I had planned to shelter hop and take it slow to damascus, so i had 6 days of food and my pack was heavy. But i was pleasantly surprised by the high mile day. We stopped at the vandeventer shelter about 26 miles away from damascus. When i got there i learned of the damascuthon. A 26 miles hike from the shelter to damascus, and one of those trail challenges that many hikers try to complete. I wanted to try but i didnt think id make it, my ankle was still hurting from the slackpack i did two days before. ....... I woke up pretty early on the morning of may 1, About 730am. I got readyy to go pretty quickly, and left the shelter a few minutes after the goatherd. The thought of a damascuthon still sounded cool, but difficult. I caught up to the goatherd a few times over the course of the day, i was hiking pretty quickly but my ankle was hurting bad, i was expecting to find a campsite about 12 miles in and take it slow. After my lunch break i took 2 ibuprofen and continued hiking, just barely keeping up with them. Since i had started so early in the day, it was still early afternoon and i had completed more than half of the damascuthon, at the pace i was going id be able to make it there just before sundown. The ibuprofen helped alot, the pain in my ankle subsided and as long as i didnt stop for too long my blisters wouldnt hurt too much. I continued, keeping up with the goatherd, and 11 hours after i had started the days hiking i found myself in damascus. I had completed the damascuthon. The words "achievement unlocked: damascuthon" floated past my field of vision. And the pain in my feet was insignificant compared to the feeling of triumph that i had. We walked into town, and found a bunch more hikers hanging out near the bar. I was surprised to see austin, now six7. I hadnt heard from him since i met him in knoxville. He had been hiking really fast and had gotten ahead of me. Me and the goatherd got some food and then went to go find someplace to stay. Sticks has his dog with him, and many hostels dont allow dogs. So we wandered around town looking for a place that would let us stay. The best option we could find was to go to the virginia creeper trail and pitch tents. Seeing as there was no time constraints on tenting, we headed back to the bar and hung out there for a while. I had eaten alot since arriving in town, and i had drank a pither of beer too. I began to feel kind of sick, dizzy, nauseous, i wasnt drunk yet but i knew i was probably going to throw up anyways. I spent a half hour in the bathroom at the bar throwing up. While another hiker, shady, would come by every few minutes to see if i was ok. I had hung out with shady a little earlier in the night, we had wandered around town with some other hikers looking for a place to chill that was out of sight. It felt like being in high school again, and it was pretty funny. When i finally was able to stand up and leave the bathroom i found out that the bartender was going to let us camp in his yard. It was great news, free campsites, and right on the river. We headed there, i set up my tent and fell asleep pretty quickly.