I’m being lazy and skipping blogging each day for my last section of hiking from Damascus VA to Hot Springs NC. Rather, I’ll just write a quick summary.

Leaving Damascus was tough as leaving town always is. It had rained/snowed overnight in Damascus but not stuck on the ground. However, once I gained elevation after the first mile or two of the day, there was an inch or two of snow on the ground. Thus I walked through snow all day and my feet got pretty wet by the end of the day. Since we were slow to leave town, I had to squeeze 18 miles in starting at 11 am. I only took one quick break and the rest of the day I was kinda rushing to try to make it to the shelter before dark when it’d get even colder. The overnight low was forecast to be 17 and I was staying at 4500 feet so I think it ended up getting down to single digits. It was by far the coldest and most miserable night I’ve had on trail. Once I stopped walking my feet got so cold that they went numb and didn’t regain feeling for almost an hour. I set up my tent in hopes of it providing extra warmth but setting it up on top of snow was not warm. I felt like I was laying on a bed of ice all night and probably only slept two hours. By daybreak it was still freezing and extremely tough to motivate myself to get out of my sleeping bag. Once I eventually got moving I felt better but boy was that cold tough to deal with.

One day in this section we met a SOBO we hadn’t met yet, Afternoon Delight. We hiked with him for a few days which was nice to have new company. Another day delta and I were hitching into town when a giant semi truck stopped for us. It was bringing Christmas trees to Connecticut. He offered to drive us to CT if we wanted. We did not take him up on that offer but it was the best hitch and so hilarious that I still laugh thinking about it.

We climbed Roan Mountain, which is supposed to have beautiful views, but on the day we did it we were in a cloud. The mountain has open bald ridges but we were being blown by extremely high wind gusts and then later sideways blowing rain. The visibility was very low and it was a cold, wet, windy few hours. The shelter we stayed at that night was the highest on the AT and luckily had four walls and a door, keeping us warm and dry from the howling wind and rain outside.

A major highlight of this section was trail magic from Mr Rob Bird. The day after Roan, I was feeling kind of miserable. The weather had cleared but I had to put on my still wet clothes in the cold morning. Also lately I’ve found the mental aspect of the hike to be more difficult. The cold weather all the time makes it hard to stay motivated. It can be tough to enjoy everyday when all I want to is be warm in my sleeping bag. I’m getting so close but it still feels so far in many ways. Anyway I was having a tough day mentally when delta and I crossed a road with a sketchy white van parked on the side of the road. We both made comments about getting in and getting kidnapped. Then, the front door of the van opens and a man yells to us, “want some snacks? Come hope in the van. It’s warm!” And, like the smart girl my parents raised, I hopped right in that van. It really was warm and there was a cooler full of sodas and plenty of snack food. We met Rob Bird, who had run a hiker hostel in MA for over ten years but recently retired and moved to TN. Now he drives up to trail crossings waiting for hikers to walk by so he can give them snacks and such. After a few minutes of chatting (and being relieved that he wasn’t a kidnapper when he talked about meeting other hikers we know), he invited us to stay at his house for the night. We accepted his offer and waited for Afternoon Delight and the three of us and Rob were off! It was the most unexpected trail magic at a low point in my day/week/hike. Robs kindness was yet another reminder that things will work out and get better and the trail has mysterious ways of working. Rob let us shower and do laundry and then took us to a Chinese buffet. He then slack packed us twenty miles the next day and we got to sleep in warm beds two days in a row. Most of all though Rob was a truly generous and fun person to be around. He was full of stories and made us feel so welcome, inviting us to come back anytime. It’s people like him that I’ll remember from my hike even years down the road.

The next three and a half days were cold again and cloudy and one day rainy. I had one pretty miserable night where the shelter was so incredibly infested with mice that I opted to tent in the rain rather than be kept awake by mice all night. Yet it was equally or possibly more miserable in my tent, where everything got wet and it was still raining in the morning. I had to pack up all my wet stuff in the freezing cold rain and ugh the weather just sucks lately. Luckily I was going to town that day so it helped motivate me.

I’m in hot springs NC now with only 272 miles left. This town is tiny but awesome and we opted to take a zero because the high for today (Sunday) is about 30 which would’ve made for cold hiking. Unfortunately the weather for the next week is supposed to stay unseasonably cold with overnight lows in the low 20s. But I’ll be entering the smokeys where I’ll remain at about 5000 feet throughout the park, making for even colder temperatures. I’m actually really nervous for the cold and it’s also supposed to snow and rain. I’m sad my hike is drawing to a close and would want it to continue even longer if the weather were nicer. Yet the cold is so miserable that I am kind of at the point where I just want to finish to get it over with and be warm inside all day. I’m trying to enjoy my last two weeks or so though and looking forward to thanksgiving which I will spend with shuffle at her house with a mini reunion with wolf bird and cool blue.