“We’re Back!” 8 Months After Hurricane Helene Devastation, Damascus Shines in Trail Days 2025

The thru-hiking world looked on in horror last September as scenes of flooding and devastation unfolded in AT trail towns like Damascus, VA, Erwin, TN, and Hot Springs, NC in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Images of washed-out roads, collapsed buildings, and much of Damascus underwater made us wonder whether the town’s annual Trail Days festival would be canceled this year. 

But eight months later, Damascus has just wrapped up Trail Days 2025 — and organizers and attendees say the event was a shining success. “We estimate that we saw another good big crowd of 20,000-25,000 people over Trail Days weekend,” said Julie Kroll, the town’s Recreation Director, in an email to The Trek.

A Triumphant Return

Destruction in the wake of Helene. Photo: Bobby Marshall

“Trail Days felt like our grand way of saying, ‘WE’RE BACK!’ to the greater trail community,” Kroll said. “We missed our peak fall season so Trail Days was our next really-big-thing post-Helene and a huge benchmark to show off Damascus’ recovery efforts.” 

Although the event area was largely spared from the flooding, Kroll said fixing up the town has been “an uphill battle.”

“Repairs to the brick sidewalks on the Appalachian Trail along Laurel Avenue just finished up in early May right before Trail Days and other projects are still ongoing.”

Still from done footage showing extent of flooding in Damascus. Photo: Tyler Eugene

But attendees have said you might not guess, when looking at the town today, how badly the hurricane affected Damascus. “Damascus has done an excellent job of mitigating all the damage from Hurricane Helene. In town proper, there are no signs of the devastation, at least that I could see,” Trek contributor and festival attendee Clay Bonnyman Evans told us via email.

“On the outskirts of town, along the Virginia Creeper Trail, the scars from overflowing Bear Creek are still highly visible,” he added, citing bridges that had been destroyed and weren’t yet rebuilt, as well as rows of trailers that he guessed were serving as temporary housing for displaced residents.

The Long Road to Recovery

Indeed, Kroll said that while Damascus has already made significant progress, full recovery will likely take another 3-5 years. Government employees are still working in temporary office space while renovations are underway in Town Hall, which flooded during Helene.

“To even find everything we needed for Trail Days this year was an ordeal, but also a big win,” said Kroll. After all, the event materials had been hastily packed into a shipping container along with other town supplies during the storm.

Festival organizers reported robust attendance at Trail Days this year. Photo: Jess Stone

“The Appalachian Trail is quite literally a lifeline in Damascus.”

Despite the challenges, Damascus knew early on that moving forward with Trail Days 2025 was non-negotiable. “It was important to us that we announced Trail Days was still a go as soon as we knew we could pull it off,” Kroll explained. “The Appalachian Trail is quite literally a lifeline to the Damascus economy and our locally owned small businesses, and quickly restoring trail access has been so important, both to our downtown recovery and to the success of Trail Days.”

Preparations for this year’s festival had already been well underway when the hurricane struck. “We posted an update on the Trail Days Facebook page on October 17, less than a month after Helene,” announcing that the festival was still a go for 2025. 

Community Support

“We’d be remiss not to highlight the incredible amount of community support we’ve seen in recovery,” she added. “We wouldn’t have been this ready to pull off a successful Trail Days without the help of many donations and volunteer groups, both downtown and on trail.

“From the start, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy coordinated with USFS and NPS to get skilled sawyer crews on the ground and get the trail cleared. The local trail clubs, Mount Rogers Appalachian Trail Club and Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club, have spent thousands of hours restoring trail conditions north and south of Damascus.”

A large swath of freshly cleared blowdowns further south on the AT. Photo: Steve Combs

The ATC and local trail clubs even hosted a trail maintenance event last Sunday in conjunction with Trail Days. During this event, 50 individuals contributed a collective 350 volunteer hours toward trail projects in the area.

All of this hard work paid off. Trail Days weekend saw perfect weather, robust attendance, and an action-packed program. Damascus still has a long road to recovery, but one thing is certain. Even as recovery efforts inch forward, the town already has its sights set on Trail Days 2026.

Featured image: Crowds of hikers look on at one of the many events hosted during Trail Days 2025. Photo: Jess Stone