Appalachian trail, day hiker brings along his car for backup/ draft 1

Appalachian trail , day hiker brings along his car for backup

fiction
Edward w Pritchard


Three quarters of a dozen years ago I had a burning desire to walk, walk and walk some more. Twenty five miles a day sometimes on paths through the woods.

I went down to Damascus Virginia in early April and spent five or six days day hiking the Appalachian trail. I would drive the car about thirty miles from town either way north or south and then park at a trail head and carry a light pack and walk back to town over two days. Fifteen miles is a long way to walk through the woods on the Appalachian trail, even on the stone packed creeper trail near Damascus. The creeper trail was built on an old railway line and ran along a beautiful plunging river which descended down a steep Mountain slope back into town.

First I would drive along the beautiful mountains of South western Virginia and find the two trail heads mentioned in the trail guidebooks. At the first farthest away trail head I would park the car and hike back toward the second trail head where the small wooden shelter was for through hikers going all the way to Maine. If no through hikers were about I got to sleep on the wooden floor after walking all day. If through hikers were about they got priority in the wood enclosure and I slept on the ground in a light sleeping bag, just me and the bears. When I stiffly awoke in the morning I would eat a cold breakfast. A banana and a couple of milky way bars and a bottle of ice tea or monster energy drink. Then it was day two and time to walk back to Damascus, the trail town. Damascus billed it's self as the friendliest town on the Appalachian trail and it had all of the modern conveniences. Restaurants and hiking stores. It was a long hot walk to Damascus but I was driven.

Although I had only been in the woods a few days I felt deprived of modern conveniences. I longed to splurge on food and drink in town. In town I would clean up at a camp ground and then take a long nap at a park on a pic-nic table and then go out for a fancy meal. That night very tired I slept in a local park in my sleeping bag. Other hikers were about sometimes with campfires and no one hassled me about sleeping in the open in town. In Damascus there was a hushed excitement for the trail days festival to start and the town was friendly and informal with visitors.

At dawn day three it was back to the middle shelter where I had slept at on day two. If no through hikers were about I slept on the wood platform. I was very tired for that days walk had been a bit monotonous. Waking I just wanted to get to my car, fifteen miles away. I made it in about four hours at double time.

Once in the car, which started royally I was off to Marion, Virginia to my favorite tacky hotel and weird little town. Sleep, food and then back on the highway home. With a few stops for more half day hikes on the Appalachian trail in very inaccessible places in Virginia or North Carolina.

By then I was an experienced day hiker, a veteran of the Appalachian trail. Make your own adventure in life. Design your own Appalachian trail hike. It's time to go again. Creeper trail days in Damascus Virginia begin in early May of this year. See you there, I'll be the old guy sleeping on a park bench and joyously happy to be there.