Trail Days!
5/16/14
Damascus!
We made it to Damascus for trail days around 4:30. Trail days is a huge hiker/backpacker festival with free stuff, vendors, films, a parade, a talent show, music, and more. We set up our tents in tent city. My bubble has a fantastic set up. Everyone hit up the thrift store so they’re in costume. They have a keg and a piñata filled with chicken nuggets. We ate free chili for dinner. We have thousands of dollars worth of gear and clothes but we wait in line with our pots and spoons in the rain for free food. Oh yeah, it was raining. I didn’t really think about rain. This threw me off my game so I went to bed early. I woke up to a police vehicle outside my tent at some point in the night. Someone was yelling at the cops and I think he mooned them too and I think he lost his glasses or something because after the cops left he said about a million times “I can’t see anything! I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING.” Someone else got arrested right outside my tent at some other point in the night but I slept through that one. All in all I got about 10 hours of much needed sleep, so I had a great night.
5/15+16/14
The rest of trail days is a blur. Highlights: The hiker parade was surprisingly fun. I went to the Appalachian Trials Booth where I finally met the one, the only, THE Zach Davis (blush). So exciting. I did some polish dancing or something with this group of people that were like half Amish. It was soooo fun! I love organized dances. Everybody holds hands and does foot stuff and is in a circle and then sometimes you kick a leg up and yell “HUH”. I looked for my bubble but I only found Brother Nature, so I dragged him over to Polish dance and he loved it too! Solitude cooked cheeseburgers over the fire for dinner and they were really good. We went to hiker prom that night which was kewelio, but really crowded so we left and listened and danced to a band in the park. Black Beard and I were going to walk back together but he got tired of waiting for me to finish dancing so he left. And then I got tired of waiting for Solitude, Brittany, and Jessie to stop dancing so I left. I hitched a ride to go back to tent city with some locals and they asked if I wanted to come over. Yes. So I partied with the locals at their house and then walked with a few of the girls back to tent city. They wanted to party with the hikers and I wanted to go to bed. One of the girls gave me a hula hoop which I will carry with me FOREVER. Or until I get tired of carrying it.
Video featuring Solitude, Bear Claw, and Swiper.
In Boone again tonight and then hitting the trail tomorrow. Trail days…it’s been real but I’m ready for things to go back to normal
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