It rained very hard last night starting at 6:30 (I was in a shelter) and on and off throughout the night. I got an early start at 6:30am in a damp fog but not too cold. It was nice to not pack up a went tent. This picture has a hiker I met named Little Kiss from Helena, MT. He’s almost 65 and is killing it on the trail. He started the same day I did and stayed at the Hiker Hostel the same day as well.

  
The sign is a little hard to read, but I just crossed into Virginia…

  
The trail is in VA for the next 500+ miles !
Damascus, VA is is known as Trail Town USA. Not only does the AT go right down Main St. but the Trans America bicycle route does as well. Their annual Trail Days festival starts in about a week, when this little town of 800 will swell to almost 30,000 !

The sidewalks are very welcoming 🙂

  The Hikers Inn is a great place to stay…a beautiful home built in 1847.
They even loan you hospital scrubs to wear while doing your laundry (a fairly common practice in the hiker-lodging community). The town looks like it’s hosting a Surgery Convention with everyone walking around in scrubs (or rain gear…another common laundry day outfit)

  This is from a great art studio in town, Matt has some other very unique work…check it out here: AsTheSawTurns.com

I found a beard trimmer and took about 15yrs of gray off my face.

   I’ve reworked my rough schedule since I was about 5 days early arriving here. This is what it might look like depending on how things go.

A couple quick videos to give you a taste of the trail in Tennessee:

Much too late now…good night.