Day 31 May 13 - Damascus

Day 31 May 13, Days miles 18! AT Mile 452.2
Hiking time 8.5hr
Pass plus/minus 1
Critter Rescue -  12

Our day started at 6am and we hit the trail at 7.  The days terrain looked gentle and we hit the trail running. We made great progress in the morning hiking over 2.5mph at times.
Then the trail became a long gradual down grade all the way into Damascus, and my knee started to say bad things to me.  Our speed plummeted because of my knee and at the end I was barely moving forward.  Once out and on the road walking to the hostel we were going to stay at it felt fine.  So odd that the slightest downward slope for a long time makes it hurt grrr!

So some info on the stats we are noting at the top.  It gets boring at times walking endlessly and seeing similar views all day so started just tracking things.  The first which I started noting yesterday is how many other hikers we either pass or we get passed by overall for the day.  Up till returning to the trail this time we were always passed more than we passed others.  Yesterday was a huge day for us!  Today we ended with a +1 which is still great to not have a minus number.

The other stat is the number of critters we help off the trail, today they were a mix of millipedes, centipedes and red efts which are little salamanders like critters.  Anyhow our small way of giving back!
We also saw a lot of bear scat on the trail!

We also saw one of the original shelters, holds 2!


One notable thing that happened is we crossed out of Tennessee into Virginia, where the shelters WILL have privys!

Made it to Damascus and went and stayed at a hostel run by a church, it was cheap and basic but good to be dry and have time to dry our stuff out.   Going to take a day off and see if my knee feels better before the next section. Tomorrow we are going to stay at a nicer place that has laundry too!

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