Roanoke, Va.

Hello from Roanoke! I’m back on the A.T. after six days off for Damascus Trail Days and a trail maintenance project. I don’t know if I lost all my strength in six days, but the past few days of climbing have been kicking my butt. Hopefully the terrain or my endurance will improve in the coming days.

Trail Days was a trip. I got a ride back to Damascus on Wednesday from Hyway and Chin Music, two guys from a Web forum called Trail Talk (Hyway is thru-hiking this year). Driving down 81, we passed so many hikers trying to hitch back. I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with standing on the side of the interstate. The Trail Talk folks let me crash at their camp, and basically fed me delicious food all weekend. Barbecued chicken, peppers and sausages, pulled pork, fajitas, macaroni and cheese, etc. Great people, better cooks.

Beyond all the free food at Trail Days, it was good to catch up with hikers I’ve left behind or been passed by. Long Shanks and I got to catch up (he’s almost a week ahead of me now), and I saw two people (Sue and Soul Patch) that I haven’t seen since we started out together from Springer back on April 1. Other highlights from the weekend include renting a bike to ride the (entirely downhill) Virginia Creeper Trail, getting poison ivy from Tent City, seeing a funny and at times poignant staged reading of a play about thru-hiking, and being told by some former thru-hiker that I “reminded him of a Southbounder.”

On Sunday I got shuttled with 100 other volunteers to Pond Flats near Watauga Lake, Tenn., for two days of trail maintenance. The volunteer project is called Hardcore, and it really is. In two days, we cut 4,000 feet of new trail (at Pond Flats and Roan Mountain) and saw the first thru-hikers walk along it. I even got to paint my own white blaze to mark the new section! Having done some trail work before out West, Hardcore really made me appreciate the volunteer clubs that keep the A.T. passable. The soil we were working in was just filled with rocks and roots. Very hard work. We did eat well at night though. Baltimore Jack made a huge spaghetti dinner on Monday night, after which we had a fun time casting the soon-to-be-produced “A Walk in the Woods” movie. The best thing Jack came up with was Jeff Daniels as Curtis from Standing Bear.

On Tuesday, I got a ride back to Pearisburg from one of the volunteers with a car and hit the trail (post Dairy Queen, of course). I started off slow–6.5 miles the first day, 16 the next. Yesterday and the day before were both 21 or 22 mile days, which caught up with me as I came over the Dragon’s Tooth to catch my ride into Roanoke. I need to make up some miles for my days off, but six days off and I’ve gotten a little soft.

Things to look forward to coming up on the trail:

-The Home Place, Catawba: all-you-can-eat country cooking. For the past week, this restaurant has been like the El Dorado of the trail. We talk about it all night.

-Ming Garden, Waynesboro: the best Chinese buffet on the entire trail. I’ve heard this place has waterfalls inside of it.

-Shenandoah National Park: There are supposed to be plenty of food stands at the waysides along Skyline Drive, meaning you can get through the park in six days with three days of food.

My next resupply is coming up in Glasgow, maybe five days out. Till then, Happy Trails.

-Ichabod