Damascus

Well the last few days we have been movin right along and also seeing some more of Gods beautiful creation! On Monday we saw a breathtaking waterfall and river that we followed for a few miles! Part of me wanted to sit myself down and just take it all in for an hour or two! I'm just constantly amazed by the glorious things that our Lord creates! On Monday we were able to walk 18.5 miles. We had walked 17 by around 3:00 when we arrived at a pretty little beach. Since we didn't have that far to go we decided to just hang out for a little while. It was very relaxing and we were even able to partially clean ourselves off a little in the extremely cold water. On Tuesday we decided that we would get up early and try to get in a longer day of hiking. We were on our way by 6:38 and it felt simply wonderful to hike in the cool of the morning since the last few days have been getting quite hot by the afternoon! We hiked about 15 miles before stopping for lunch around 1:00. After convincing ourselves to get moving we got back on the trail, only to come across trail magic about 30 min later!! We were very happy to say the least! We plopped ourselves down on a log and enjoyed a cold soda and some snacks and then once again convinced ourselves to get moving. After hiking several more miles we were met on the trail by two paramedics and a cop on fourwheelers. We asked if everything was ok and if they needed help with anything. They said everything was fine but then proceeded to tell us not to stay at the next shelter. As we continued moving we came up with numerous scenarios about what may have happened at the shelter. We arrived at the shelter and not seeing anything unusual we continued moving. We hiked a total of 25 miles before stopping for the night. We ran into several other guys and asked if they knew anything about what had happened at the last shelter. They said that apparently there was a "crazy guy there who was doing meth". Mystery solved, it wasn't someone who was dying of dehydration or cancer, just a crazy guy doing drugs I guess. Anyways, today (Wednesday) we once again got up early and hiked the15 miles into Damascus Virginia by 12:30. It's a cute little town and we were able to find a hostel where we could camp, shower and do laundry for $6 a person! Thank you Jesus!  It is now only 2:30 and it feels amazing to have the rest of the day to simply relax and give our feet a break! We plan to walk to the dollar store shortly to re-supply on food and hopefully find ourselves some oreos and milk:) 

- Zae 

Goodbye TN. Hello VA

The hostel in Damascus 

Trail Magic