Day 51

Weather:
Rain.

Today’s Hike:
Damascus, VA – 0.0 miles

When I woke up this morning there wasn't a single part of me that felt like hiking today which was kind of unusual; I've always been ready to hike after a zero day. So, I gave myself a pep talk, and slowly crawled out of my sleeping bag. I got dressed, packed my pack, and got ready to head out. After I finished packing, Muster and I walked down to Dairy King for breakfast with the Tag Team, then headed back to the hostel to wrap up some last minute chores.

While I cleaned up the room, Muster headed to the Post Office to mail some currently unneeded items to ourselves several miles up the trail. When she returned it was around 10:30, and the storm clouds were rolling in. Joining Muster were four of the Diva girls (Rocket, Storm, Grommet, and Egg) all of whom were just as thrilled to hike out as I was. It took about 25 minutes between the six of us to decide to take another day off.

We spent the day actually doing much of nothing (since zero days are always crammed with doing chores and no free time). We hung at the coffee house, the library, and ate lunch at a place called Fatty's that served vegan burgers (contradictory but strangely satisfying).

In the evening we discovered the one and only local bar (Dots) was open and the six of us decided it was time for beer. When we walked in it became obvious that every other hiker in Damascus had the same thought. We spent the evening mostly with each other, but did our fair share of fraternizing with other hikers. After an all bar solute to Pond Flats which "had no pond and was definitely not fuckin' flat", Egg did a little dance, we spread a little love, and we got down for the night. By 10:30 Muster and I were back in the hostel and I was downing a bag of Cheeto’s Cheese Puffs (definitely not vegan) and were sleeping by 11:00pm.

Now that's what I call a day off :)