Slackin’ It
After my zero day, which was glorious, I did a slack pack with S.’s help. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in case you don't know what slack packing is, it's when you get a ride to a spot further down the trail with just your most basic gear — so, not your tent or your sleeping bag or night clothes — and then hike back to where you are staying that night.
[Wife note: For breakfast, we drove over to the Damascus Diner, but when we pulled up, we saw a young guy walking away from the door, looking dejected. I rolled down the window and asked whether the diner was closed, and he said that their grill wasn’t working, so they couldn’t open yet. I told him we were going to go see whether the other restaurant, Wilson’s Cafe, was open and invited him to jump in the back if he wanted to join us.
He seemed relieved to not have to walk and said “his feet thanked us.” He said he was hiking NOBO, too, and that he’d gotten the trail name Ghost because he tends to keep to himself. We ate breakfast separately but finished up at the same time, so we gave him a ride back to his hostel afterward.]
After breakfast, we drove about 20 miles north of Damascus to a spot called Whitetop, and I hiked back from there. It's great to be able to slack pack now and then, and it's a very common practice among thru-hikers. I felt a little bit bad about doing it, like I’m supposed to always be hauling my entire gear, but I'm trying to work on that. Or trying to work on applying standards to myself that I have no trouble applying to other hikers. I am completely happy for other people to slack pack!
Anyway, S. had brought me a smaller daypack from home, and I’d loaded it up with water, some snacks, my first aid kit, and that was about it. Oh, and my phone. I picked this particular spot because it was pretty much the furthest I thought I could comfortably get back to Damascus from in a single day. The whole thing would be about 20 miles, but this way, I’d at least be going down the mountain, rather than hiking up it. [Wife note: Whitetop is the second highest peak in Virginia at 5,500 feet!]
I’d asked S. to bring me my Merrell trail runners so I could see what those felt like on a long hike, compared to my boots. And I'm glad I did, because I now know that they definitely won't work for me. They're just a little bit too light, and you feel every rock and root through the soles. I also kicked a few rocks, accidentally, of course, and there's just no protection there.
Right after I started hiking, I bumped into Beans, who I've mentioned before. And then I passed Rooster, who is ridiculously fast, and then almost immediately after him, I saw Lost Boy, who I'd just met in the past few days. So that was kind of fun. As I proceeded down the mountain, I ended up passing a lot of hikers who were hiking up, and it just reinforced my decision to do this particular slack pack, because everyone looked completely miserable.
This was definitely not a schadenfreude situation, though. I certainly wasn’t taking any pleasure in their struggle to get up the mountain, but I was taking pleasure in the fact that I was going down — and that I wouldn't have to do that nasty climb the next day.
After about 10 miles, maybe nine, the AT hooks up with the Virginia Creeper Trail for a little bit, so that was interesting. I passed a ton of people out on bicycles. It looks like a great way to spend a day. Maybe S. and I will come back sometime and cycle along the Creeper Trail.
Along the way, I passed a place called Hellbender’s Cafe that I’d seen in an AT video, and I’d planned on stopping for some food, but they were closed. Maple Leaf and Asstronaut were there, sitting on the porch. [Wife note: I’ve now learned that Asstronaut’s trail name is spelled with two Ss like that.] They said the owner was there, but she was inside painting. She told them they were welcome to hang out on the porch if they wanted, so they were just taking a break. The place had WiFi, so I got on for a second to check in with S.
But really, there's not much to report from the hike. It just was very nice and kind of relaxing, even. That probably sounds funny in the context of a 20-mile hike, but not having much gear and going mostly downhill certainly makes life a lot easier.
When I finally got some cell signal, which I did not have for most of the day, I got in touch with S. to let her know my timing. She was actually walking toward me on the Creeper Trail with Thistle, and we met up about a mile outside of town and walked back together.
After a long hike in fairly warm weather, nothing is better than a nice cold beer, so we headed straight to the Damascus Brewery, which hadn't been open the previous few days. I ordered their light lager (The Lightest Thing We Have), which took me approximately five seconds to finish. I just stood at the bar, chugged it, and immediately ordered a second beer. I’d really hoped their beers would be impressive, but they were just okay.
S. got their hefeweizen, and I ordered their hazy IPA — though I think they actually served me their imperial red, which was odd, because those aren’t beers you’d normally mix up — and we went and sat down for a bit. I was a little disappointed in the brewery's offerings. Definitely could use some improvement there, though the space is super cool, and the guy behind the bar was very nice. I think I might have gotten spoiled in Hot Springs, with the Big Pillow Brewing Company there. That was just outstanding. But you know, just personally, I don't think a small town that is recreation based has any reason not to have a top-notch brewery.
After we went back to the house and I’d cleaned up from the hike, I needed to pack my backpack and get ready to head out the next morning. S. had brought approximately the entire contents of a backcountry outfitter in terms of the kinds of foods people would want to take on the trail with them, so I had a lot to choose from. I carefully selected the items I was going to take for the next few days, and since there was so much, it was hard not to overpack my food bag, but I managed.
Wife addendum: First of all, that drive down from Whitetop was no joke. Nasty rocks and huge potholes and steep drop-offs. But we made it, obviously (we being Thistle and I). I was so glad that it wasn’t raining!
I knocked around the rental house for a few hours, and then at about 4:30, Thistle and I started walking on the Creeper Trail to meet up with Rob. I tried to get a happy reunion video of when Thistle saw Rob coming toward us and realized who he was, but it didn’t play out as expected. She’s an odd dog sometimes.
Rob said he’d been craving these Indian meals we get from Costco, so we had some of those with rice and avocados for dinner, followed by our third beer from Sebastian: Nelson Effects from The Answer. Delicious!
The internet was finally working again, so we watched an episode of Seinfeld we’d been talking about recently for some reason (“The Beard”) and some more “Ghosts” while we totally housed a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Good stuff all around.