Made it to Virginia!!!

    We made it to Damascus, Virginia and we are fueling up to get over Mount Rogers tomorrow.  The guys I'm with have been going pretty fast and I've luckily been able to keep up with them.  For the past 8 days we averaged a little over 24 miles per day from Hot Springs to here so its nice to take a break for the day. 
     A little recap of the past weekish, we (3 stoves, Bundy, Gadget, and I) did something really dumb by leaving Hot Springs with a 10 day supplies of food.  All of our packs weighed 50+ pounds which made our days of hiking extremely strenuous.  When we got to a road crossing near Erwin, TN a few days later we decided to hitch into town which completely defeated the purpose of leaving Hot Springs with such heavy packs.  This upset me a little bit until I was able to scarf down a huge Mcdonalds meal and I forgot that lugging such a heavy pack for the first few days was completely useless. It was also nice to be able to make some phone calls on my own cell phone because I had service for the first time since before the Smokies.  AT&T stinks.  We hitched a ride back to the trail and were going to embark on what we called the Super Moon Super Saturday hike because the moon was supposed to be really close that night, but it ended up being cloudy and we slept in until 6:30.  Fail lol.
     The next day or so, we hiked to a shelter only to find that a crazy homeless man had made it his home so we decided to hike a little further to stay at a hostel that night for the safety of our belongings.  From that hostel, we hiked to another hostel named Kinkora Hostel that is a famous hostel on the trail because of a man named Bob Peoples.  This guy had some has been running the hostel for 17 years and had housed over 17,000 hikers over the years.  He has dedicated over 6000 hours of service to the trail and has some great stories about people he has met, his military service, and his own adventures that he has taken over the years.  I was so glad to meet such a legendary person of the AT and enjoyed reading some comments on shelters nearby like, "Bob Peoples gives his boots blisters" and "the mice bring Bob Peoples food at night".
     The next few days involved heavy mileage and interesting weather.  Two days ago was quite an epic day as we walked through a short but intense storm.  The weather had been threatening rain all day and around 5:00 it got really dark and started lightening.  The rain began and then we started noticing the rain began bouncing off of our jackets.  It was definitely hailing.  In about 60 seconds the small hail turned into large nickel sized hail that was pelting us and felt like a bunch paintballs hitting you all over your body.  We were all laughing at first at how crazy the situation was until the hail kept pouring down and it really started to hurt to get hit in the head and the hands.  Bundy attempted jumping into a mountain laurel for shelter and I would have followed him but the tree provided him no shelter from the hail whatsoever.  We didn't really know what to do so we just continued hiking.  If it had gotten any worse, 3 stoves would have pulled out his ultralight tarp and we could have taken shelter (hopefully that would have worked).  About 10 minutes after the onslaught of hail began, it ceased and we couldn't help but be amazed at what just happened lol.  It was exciting and miserable at the same time.  When we made it to the shelter that night after walking through a mix of rain and sleet, I couldn't have been happier.  We had a great story to tell and now we were a day away from the TN/VA state line and Damascus.  The hail came again later that night while we were sleeping in the tin roofed shelter and was so loud that it hurt my ears when i didn't have the sleeping bag over my head.  I couldn't have been more thankful for shelters on the trail.  The next day involved more rain and small dip n dots sized hail, but nothing could stop us from getting to Damascus by the end of the day.  We made it by 4:30 and took shelter/dried our stuff at a hostel last night.
     I still don't have cell service in Damascus but at least I have access to a computer for a while.  I have had some great adventures once again and I look forward to more along the way.  I can't upload pictures here, but hopefully I can in the next town I come too with Internet access.  I really can't believe I have come 460 miles, but it's exciting and I can't wait for the next week of travels.  I get to go to Grayson Highlands State Park where there are miniature ponies roaming around and I get to climb up and over Mt. Rogers.  I plan to teach one of the ponies to carry my pack to make the next few days a little easier in case anyone was wondering haha.  I hope you guys are doing well back home, thanks for the continued support and I will hopefully talk to ya soon!