Day 58 - Saturday, May 8, 2021

It was raining when we got up but thankfully it stopped soon afterwards. We are leaving the Airbnb today and going to a campsite the next few nights so we are doing a “Nero” to give us time to set up at the campsite.

Today we are hiking from  US 58 Straight Branch Footbridge (476.3 NoBo) to Damascus, VA  Laurel Ave & Shady Ave (470.9 NoBo) for a total of 5.4 miles. Remember it was a “Nero”, we’re slack packers. 

We started hiking at 10 am and it was getting nice out; sunny skies and the temperature was 44°. 








Following the AT through Damascus “Trail City”, Virginia. It was village “Garage Sale” Day. Next weekend is “Damascus Trail Days”, the annual thru-hikers party. No, we’re not coming back for it, lol, but a lot of thru-hikers that have already passed through Damascus do.




The rhododendrons are finally blooming...





Just making our way along the trail.




Crossing local unnamed stream. 


We met “Snowman” and “Polaris”. They started in Springer March 23rd.We ran into “Captain Jack” and “First Gear” again, and we also met “Zeus”. “First Gear” renamed our slack packing as the “platinum thru-hike package”... we totally agree with that 😉 and have no shame in that whatsoever; nada, none, zero, nil, zip,  😂. 





Chillin at our campsite. Chef Turtle Power at the grill. I can’t wait for his next gourmet meal 😂.

We finished hiking at 12:30 pm under partly cloudy skies and the temperature was 54°.  

Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋


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