Damascus, VA 1723.6* to Edge of Town 1724.1 (.5 miles, 1723.6 total miles)
I woke up a little before the others at The Place, but felt rather tired as it was still dark, waiting for everyone else to begin stirring, not wanting to be the one who woke anyone up prematurely. The alarms went off at 7, and sometime after that Hippy Gandalf, KT, Rudolph, and The Bard began getting ready for the day.
While they all had coffee in the dining room, I packed my things almost entirely, checking on my phone to see if my blog photos were going to upload this morning. It had been a problem for the last couple days, and only by turning my phone on and off multiple times and trying all sorts of loopholes had I succeeded the day before and caught up on two posts.
Now the problem was continuing, and my heart sank as I realized my workarounds weren’t going to work anymore and I was at a loss of what to do from here. This had happened to me one other time in a different way, when I was unable to post at Hikers Welcome, and had required the use of a computer and multiple days to figure it out with no help from customer service.
Trying not to become upset, I sat with the others in the dining room while they chatted with Bayou. I drank coffee, had yogurt and poptarts, while I tried to fix what was going on. I realized I’d have to make a decision to either hike out with the problem still, or take the time to try to solve it before leaving.
I chatted with customer service for my web host on my phone for a while, as everyone else finished packing up. Bayou was kind enough to extend our check out time to 10AM instead of 9, and KT and Bard played a couple original songs for us in the common area.
The chat with customer service had not gone well, and the app I post on was working much worse than before. I vacillated, sitting with Bard after the Chimps hiked out, deciding what to do. White Walker was long gone on his 40 mile day to Boots Off, and Bard was staying in town for a week or so.
I’d posted about my hike every day I’d been out here, and this project was extremely important to me for various reasons. I’d made a rule for myself long ago that nothing on this hike was allowed to interfere with my writing. I knew what my priorities were, I just needed to overcome the mental barrier of knowing it was going to take more time than I wanted it to.
Bard and I walked over toward the library that I’d been to with Slice the day before, though he stopped in a park to play music on the way. I phoned customer service in the lobby of the library, and talked with a representative for 25 minutes, who attempted to see what the previous agent had done and rectify it. When the call dropped with no warning, I was too frustrated by the automated system I’d have to navigate a second time to want to speak with someone again.
It was time to get on a computer and see what I could figure out for myself. The first time this happened I’d been panicky and felt totally out of my depth. This time I felt resolved that I would solve the problem, and believed there had to be a solution. I’d been googling all morning, so I sat down to see what I could figure out.
I created a backup of my website, updated all plugins, completely cleaned out the unused media stored on my account, and had to redo the headers of my site as well because those photos got deleted, but all the other ones in use stayed fortunately.
After two hours sitting at the computer accomplishing all that, I was still getting an error code in my app, the same one I’d only gotten after chatting with the first rep. After more googling, I realized the first person had changed my url to http instead of https. I switched it back and, with everything else I’d done, the problem seemed totally solved. Uploading photos and posts was a breeze again, and I was cautiously optimistic that I’d figured it out.
I was also exhausted by then, having spent roughly five hours working on fixing things, and it had taken a lot out of me mentally. It had turned into a beautiful day, but I wondered if I should hike out or not. I’d received a generous offer from a local trail angel to stay in his home, and he’d also offered Bard a place to stay while he was in town when I told him the situation.
I thought it might be nice to decompress and spend more time with Bard and Mary from Woods Hole, who would be arriving for a visit later that day. I messaged Bard that I was all set with the site, and he met me outside the library, where we walked a block over to Bojangles house.
Bojangles’ beautiful dog Charlie greeted us out front, and Bojangles welcomed us right into his home for trail conversation and to get to know us. We spent a while talking, before Bojangles had to run out for errands, telling us we were welcome to hang outside while he was gone. I found out he knew Spider, Sprocket, and Doc Holliday well, and many other members of the trail community.
Bojangles was a very kind person who’d hiked around 3,000 miles on the AT, helped with trail maintenance, and had lived full time in Damascus for 10 years. He had a passion for the trail and his town, involved in local politics and hiker advocacy.
Still unsure if I was going to hike, I asked Bard if he wanted to get some cheap food in town. We walked the half mile back to the Damascus Diner. While we were waiting to sit at a table, a kind looking gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to Sprouts, who was looking very fresh in town clothes, waving at me from a table nearby.
I waved back enthusiastically, happy to see her, thinking the man was someone she knew visiting her on trail, until he turned to me and told his name was Fresh Grounds. He said he was happy to finally meet me, and wanted to buy Bard and I lunch.
I gasped in shock and happiness when I realized I’d finally ran into Fresh Grounds, the notorious trail angel feeding and doing trail magic for SOBOs that I’d been just missing for weeks now. Ever since I’d hiked with Shrek recently, I kept missing Fresh Grounds by a day or mere hours, and always heard when he’d been nearby. Apparently the other hikers had been telling him about me, as well, which was very touching.
Slice and Hippy Gandalf had both offered to give me his number, but I was adamant that I wanted it to be an organic thing, and a surprise when it finally happened. I was convinced and determined that I would naturally occur, and here I was, my hunch proven correct and him appearing at the exact moment when I needed a pick me up the most. It also affirmed that I’d made the right choice to prioritize my writing today.
Fresh Grounds insisted we not be shy, and order whatever we wanted. He said the budget was fixed for the season, and it was generous. Amazed, Bard and I ordered cocktails, queso, and a burger for him and a steak and cheese for me. Fresh Grounds and Sprouts came to sit with us for a bit, Sprouts telling us an amusing story about her food bag getting stuck in a tree, and Fresh Grounds explaining more about how he’d be out for another seven weeks following the hikers. He also told me Rude was in town, which pleased me to hear, but didn’t surprise me in the least as he always caught me in town.
Before he left, Fresh Grounds told us he’d bought us one more round and the tab was all set. We thanked him profusely, and he said he’d see us again. Two margaritas in front of me, I knew the day had fully turned into a zero, but as I talked with Bard for an hour nonstop, I was glad for this time with a very good friend who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. I knew at lunch I’d know if I should hike or not, and the universe was telling me to rest and relax with my friends, a reward for putting in the work on my passion project and not giving up.
Bard and I had great conversation about my writing and his music, our childhoods, cultural differences (he is from Quebec), religion, and more. It was a great time, and we walked over to the Broken Fiddle after eating and drinking, because Mary was arriving there soon.
We said hi to the caretakers, and I met a SOBO there named Little Cave that Bard and Fresh Grounds knew. He seemed mildly familiar to me, and we both thought we crossed paths and said hi at one point when I was going north earlier in the season.
It was Little Cave’s birthday, so Bard and I went across the street to the gas station where he bought drinks for everyone. Back at the hostel, we started a game of darts while Little Cave showered, and when Mary arrived I gave her a big hug and the three of us sat together for several minutes catching up since I’d last seen her.
We played a game of darts, which I somehow managed to win, then Little Cave taught us how to play cricket on the dartboard and wiped that board with us. Bojangles had invited us to a live music event and cookout for the mayor down the road, so we met up with him around 6:00, and he brought us to the gathering of a few dozen people, all of whom seemed very friendly.
The music was excellent, featuring a cello and a guitar. The cello player had apparently played with all sorts of well known musicians, including The Who at one point. We had burgers, drinks, and stayed until dark, sitting around the fire on swinging bench chairs and playing cornhole before hanging out with the musicians for a bit. It was one of those times on trail I couldn’t believe how I’d landed into such a fun time with awesome people.
Bojangles left before us, inviting everyone to come over and hang out for a while. We took the Creeper Trail to walk back to his house, with beautiful lighting in a couple spots that seemed quite magical as we walked under it.
We hung out with Bojangles till rather late, when the others headed back to their hostel around 11. Bojangles showed me to his lovely guest room, urging me to make myself at home. He’d been a wonderful host, and I couldn’t believe the luck and magic I’d run into today. It felt like a reward for working hard at the things I cared about the most, and made me want to keep trying my best to follow my dreams.
*Damascus has a mild mileage discrepancy between map sections, the same as Daleville did. Updated to new mileage.