Day 33: Back to the REAL Trail Days...

Morning chat and pack. Early again. More than a few kids were a bit hungover. And the place was a mess... As we packed up tents and backpacks, we cleaned up cans and styrofoam coolers, plastic beads and empty Doritos packages... A few broken tent stakes, cups, lawn furniture and random socks... The fire was still smoking... All evidence of a good night.

Jessica was going to give Still Steve a ride back to Kincora on her way back to Atlanta, so they got a move on while I stopped to take a shower. Bye Steve! Met back up with Xan and Brian (who has officially accepted his trail name as "Neutron" for how his hair gets after a few days without shampoo) at the general store as they organized their food. We caught the trolly shuttle into town with our packs and headed to the outfitter (to buy a tent stake). Ran into the Connecticut kids and Little Foot. Stopped in Dollar General to fill in the holes in our food schedule, then finally walked up to laundry, which was on the way out of town. Brian and I were gonna do a final load while we did all final organizing before leaving this town. The laundry finished. I did my final ointment and blister bandage applications and wasn't sure about my left foot. There seemed to be a few new couple of poison ivy patches. Ugh! Luckily, there was am ER nurse hiker doing laundry next to me and listening in, and she gave me some advice. Basically, her advice was: if it gets much worse, go get antibiotics. Xan was next to me and realized that Brian had gotten/brought those antibiotics proactively from his doctor at home in the event he ever did rub up against the wring plant leaves... Brilliant!! Not sure why none of us had thought about this before, but Brian gladly offered his antibiotics to me. Huge thanks and smiles!!! I can't start the meds till tomorrow (can't wait), but it should, according to the nurse, clear up in a few days. Yay!


After that exciting exchange, the three of us were mulling around about leaving. I was a little uncomfortable about my foot, and the boys were still a bit lethargic and tired from the weekend's festivities. After hemming and ha-ing, we packed everything up and sat outside the laundromat. Powder made a poncho for Russell. It was 1:30. It started to rain. We will be staying another night.

We waited for a break in the weather and walked to a hostel called The Place. There were bunks still available and it was only a $5 donation per person per night, so we threw our packs down and walked about a mile to Food City to get some produce and dinner items. I was hoping to run into Backwards somewhere since I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. His plan was to section-hike from Springer to Demascus only. Then he was headed to Portugal for two months with his sister, but was now thinking about coming back to the trail to finish. It can be hard to try to contact someone who doesn't have a phone and the library (internet) is closed on Sundays. Boo.

Anyways, we hitched back to town and had snacks while talking with other hikers at The Place. Found that we could use the wireless from the outside of the library, so I was finally able to upload a few blog entries. Hung out and ate more, then Fields showed up! More hanging and eating, then the sun went down and it is now time for bed. It's been raining all afternoon, so we're pretty glad we stayed in town (though the forecast is calling for rain all week...).

Said goodbye to Fields. He's still back the Smokies, so we are not sure when we will get to see him again. It's a shame you can't make all your favorite people have the same pace as you. But you've gotta hike your own hike, I guess.

We WILL leave Demascus tomorrow!!

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-- Posted from the trail...

Location:E Laurel Ave,Damascus,United States