may 2-3 - partying in damascus

May 2 in damascus was a pretty fun day. I pickeed up my new lighter sleeping bag from the outfitter i had it sent to, adventure damascus. I also sent home my winter sleeping bag. The new one is two lbs lighter, but much less warm. After that i Spent most of the rest of the day at the bar, since happy hour was from 3-6pm. hanging with monk, coach, han solo, and sticks. then was karaoke night in the evening. I rocked it of course, i think. Well at least everyone told me i did. I was pretty drunk by the end of the night. Drunk enough to dance along to the chacha slide and that other dance song, and i never dance. Then we went back to the bartenders house and played poker til about 230am. I won, and it was my first time winning a poker game. ...... May 3 i woke up feeling pretty hungover, and with a cold coming on. The day started really slow. I got breakfast, then went to the dollar general to resupply. I went back to the campspot at the bartenders house and packed up my stuff. Then i went to the outfitters to see if i can get a lighter backpack. When i got there the guy there told me that my load was too heavy for the lightweight packs, and that id need to cut weight before i got a lightweight pack. He said a lightweight wouldnt be comfortable with that kind of load. With 6 days of food and a liter of water my pack weighed 44.4 lbs. I managed to take a few things out and get it to 43.5. Still too heavy, as most light packs are made to handle about 30lbs. I gave up on the pack and decided to get to the trail. It was already 230pm and the first shelter was 8 miles in, so id need about 4 hours. Monk, coach, and han solo had already gotten to the trail, and sticks was staying in town because he was too hungover to hike. Being a little sick made the hiking much harder for me. Tiring me out faster and making my hiking pace really slow. But i eventually got to saunders shelter and met coach and sinner there. We were the only ones in the shelter, though another thru hiker, an older guy named steady, camped right next to the shelter.