Tornado Watch at Trail Days?

Before coming to the AT, I didn’t even know what Trail Days was. Since I learned about it from the group that I hiked with in the very first week, I have been extremely stoked to go. Trail Days is an annual festival in Damascus, VA where gear vendors, trail magicians, bands, and hiker trash crowd into this small trail town to celebrate their hikes, reunite with friends, and party. We made a pact week 1 that even though we all got separated we would meet up this weekend, and I was so looking forward to reuniting with old friends we’ve shared the trail with for a couple minutes, days, or even weeks.

Shuttle Ride from Hell
After hiking four 20+ mile days, we made it to Pearisburg, VA where we planned to catch a shuttle ride back to Damascus. These days were challenging – not because of the long miles, but more because each day rained hard nearly the entire time. We joked we were “aqua blazing” since every day we would put our wet socks and shoes on and walk right through the river that is also the trail. It was a mental game, morale was low, and the only thing keeping our spirits up was our triple zero that was coming up at Trail Days.

Continue reading to learn more, written by Lauren “Mothra” Mullen.