Day 1-Trail Days/Leaving Damascus, VA - 14.7 Miles

 Ole Rayford and Chris Soaking in their Trail Days Experience

Ed meeting the so called "Living Legend",  Bob Peoples at Trail Days

Mike in the Hotel in Knoxville: Thumbs up and Ready to Go

         Whats up world? We have had quite an adventure in the past 11 days in Southern VA. Our first computer experience was 162 miles into our journey so we are very sorry for the lack of posts. Ed and I are still alive and will inform you of everything we can possibly remember from our first 11 day section.

Day 1-Trail Days/Leaving Damascus, VA - 14.7 Miles

        After a wonderful ride listening to the well-known Bill Bryson's, Walk Into the Woods, and meaningful advice from Rayford and Chris, we managed to make it to our launching off point, Damascus VA around noon. After Ed and I walked around for a bit looking at different vendors and what not, we decided  we were ready for the big time....ready to hit the trail. Much of our decision based on beating the rain that night, we set off from Damascus around 2pm. We set out for Lost Mountain Shelter, which was 14.7 miles away, quite a feat for our first day, but we knew we could handle it. Changing elevation was some what of a difficulty at first as we went from around 1900 feet to 3500 feet in the first 5 miles. We beat the rain and settled at Lost Mountain around 7:30p. We met a few random people that night, actually believe we disturbed one gentlemen who left in the pouring rain when we decided to settle. Maybe he was just a true bad ass, but more likely he had a few screws loose. Overall, it was a great first day, all we could think before going to bed was eating & man I hope it stops raining.
     

Rayford, Ed & I after eating Lunch in Damascus

The Beginning in Damascus with Chris!!