AT 2025 🥾🏕️

Wow! What a day! Our gang of 3 (me, Trickshot, Little Foot) decided to do the Damascus “Marathon” so we left early in the AM from the Iron Mountain Shelter and planed to hike 26.2 miles, generally trending downhill to The Marathon gas station in Damascus VA. This is our longest distance covered in a single day together so far.

Let me start with something good- I slept very comfortably in my hammock overnight- cool and no bugs! I broke down the hammock at the perfect time - just missing a pesky morning deluge.

So yes, we are in the shelter, waiting for a break in the rain, which ultimately arrives- and when it’s time to go my headlamp battery 🪫 cuts me off 😤 ah! Dawn is still about an hour’s wait, so I start charging enough to get going and keep my charger attached (which is more awkward than you would think).

Within the first 5 minutes I slipped on a wet root and fell forward (downhill) landing on my hip and my face kissed a pile of rocks 😘😘. Yikes! I sat for a minute and did a sensory inventory- I’m good! But that was scary. Need to slow down. My fellow hikers were far ahead with no notion of my struggle. Anyway I’m fine, just slow.

In my haste to pack in the rain all of my stuff was disorganized so I fixed that- needed electrolytes for the marathon which were in my food bag at the very bottom 😩

I also had two unplanned bathroom stops (last night’s dinner was not agreeing with me, let’s just say that).

All of this amounts to not seeing Trickshot and Little Foot until the finish line in Downtown Damascus . It was a joyful reunion! We compared notes of our great day hiking and ate all the snacks we could muster… and Trickshot was very interested in scratch-off lottery. He is currently up $6🙄

Some other highlights of today: hiking through some beautiful mountain fog, strategically placed cold drinks as trail magic, getting some new shoes at the Damascus outfitters (my boots are DONE with splitting in the side panels 🪦). We met with some fellow hikers for dinner at their Airbnb which was fun and chaotic but mostly fun. A few people there I had not seen in a couple weeks.

We were still hungry though so we went to a gas station for snacks and then got a ride to the grocery store. Ride to the store was rather uneventful but the ride back to the hostel: oh boy! We quickly realized that our driver was absolutely DRUNK😂 and his stories of getting kicked out of every bar in town tracked. He was a slow and deliberate driver but we were on edge until the last moment when he tried to share a joint with us 😂😂 in the parking lot! “Tell ‘em you met Grub. Hell no, I’m not the mayor but I know the mayor personally- the sheriff too”. What a character.

Okay! So back to the safety and sanity of our hostel. Lady Di is a through hiker (class of 2019). Amazing hospitality and thoughtfulness. Property has chickens, a bee hive, a sweet dog, and lots of charm. We are promised hot breakfast!Read more