4-19-15 Mt. Rogers

I hiked out of Damascus at around 10 am in clear weather and by noon it was overcast and by 2 pm down pour. I stayed at the first shelter I came to which was about 9 miles out of town. There was about 9 other hikers and we all collected wood for a bonfire when the rain stopped. I managed to take down a dead pine tree by throwing a piece of cord over a limb and making it sway back and forth until it snapped. The next morning the temperature dropped to 40 as I climbed white top and the winds became gale force, it was hard to keep on my feet. Then on my way up Mt. Rogers I slipped on a rock and my toe caught under a root and I fell forward twisting my ankle badly. By the time I made it to the shelter on top of the mountain I was near hypothermia and my ankle had doubled in size. The rain was violent all night and cleared by morning, I was never so tired in my life.

4-18-15 Damascus Virginia

I got a ride back to the trail from Sutton early in the morning and hiked over night from Watuga Dam to Damascus. I arrived around 4 am and camped on the edge of town. I slept a couple hours and went to breakfast and walked around town a while. I got a spot at Woodchuck's hostel for the night, showers and breakfast included for $10. I bought new shoes at the outfitter and got rid of my not so waterproof boots. The new shoes are mesh vented so when they get wet they will dry fast. The weather was good , I stocked up on food and went to sleep early I was running on a few hours of sleep.

4-16&17-15 The Braemar Castle

Sutton Brown the owner of the Braemar Castle is a cool guy, he told me about the history of Hampton and the property. The castle had been a post office and a base of operations for a logging company in the early 1900s. And it had been in Sutton's family since the 1940's. I asked him where the nearest laundromat was and he said the next town maybe 15 miles. I told him about my long walk in the rain and he said he usually doesent let hikers use his washer but he'd let me. He said his dryer was broken so I would have to hang them to dry and told me how to get in the basement where the machine was. While I was down there I fixed the dryer by rewiring the heating coils and dried my clothes. Sutton appreciated it a lot and let me use his tools to make a new stand for my stove in his shop. I got a bad head cold from all the hiking in the rain so I stayed 2 nights.

4-15-15 The Barn Shelter

I woke up to cold rain and my "water proof" boots were still wet enough they squished when I walked, it was going to be a long day..... I decided to hike to hampton Tennessee so I could stay at the braemar hostel and dry my boots. I left at sunrise and could not stop it was so cold, there was no cover it was open field and high winds until noon. In the afternoon it it was downhill with tree cover so the wind was not so bad. I got to the highway crossing around 5 pm and the rain had slowed to a drizzle. I hitched to town and found the hostel, it was a nice old stone building. I couldn't find the owner so I called the number on the wall. Someone answered and said the owner was unavailable make yourself at home. Later on I went to the local grocery store and realized the owner also owned the hostel. I paid him for my bunk and got some food for dinner.

4-14-15 Cherry Branch

I woke up at 6 am and it was overcast and wet. It began to rain about 9 am and it got cold around 55 degrees. Everything was covered in a thick fog, visibility was down to 200' or so I was told there was a hostel on a side trail about 7 miles from the shelter but I missed it in the fog. I climbed Roan mountain around 2 pm this is the last time the AT goes over 6000' elevation until mt. Washington in NH . As I reached the summit a heavy rain fall moved in and soon the trail became a river. I decided to hike to a shelter that was converted from an old barn because the book said it  sleeps 24 people. It would not be fun to set up camp in the rain. By the time I arrived it was an hour before dark and I was thoroughly soaked to the bone and tired. I found some room on the upper level and set up my bed and hung my gear to dry. I made some hot chocolate and potatoes for dinner and called it a night.