Day 39 Damascus to Lost Mountain Shelter

Today's miles 15.6.  AT miles 483.2

We awoke to another fresh covering of snow this morning, it had been forecast.  We said our goodbyes and thanks to Lee and Paul at the Hikers Inn, great hosts and hostel and headed to Mojoes Coffee House again for breakfast.  We had an English Joe each plus two Blueberry pancakes and syrup, delicious and kept us going a few hours. We left the coffee house at 9:40 straight onto the trail which runs past it.

Iron Man and Extra Miles were ahead of us and the Germans, 'Team Berlin' from now on, left later.  We all have the same schedule for the next four days which is great so will see each other each evening at the shelters if not on the trail.  The trail was pretty easy today even in the snow, uphill then downhill then repeat. At one point we had to take a short AT detour, a bridge had been washed away on the trail so we looped around via the Virginia Creeper Trail. We had 3 or 4 short stints on the Creeper Trail, an old railway line converted into a cycle trail.  In Damascus there were lots of cycle hire shops so it must be a popular tourist trail, the hire companies shuttle people and the bikes to the start of the trail and they cycle back.

It was a cold day today, it took a long time for the sun to burn its way through the mist and clouds, but it did do eventually.  We arrived at Lost Mountain Shelter at 4pm, it was a sunny evening but still cold with a bit of a breeze. IronMan and Extra Miles were already there, Trish and Jesse arrived about half an hour later and Team Berlin a couple of hours later.  Two young lads came in even later too, Mime and Doc who we've met previously, so a full camp!  We're tenting again rather than sleeping in the shelter, there wouldn't be room for everyone in the shelter anyway and it's warmer in our tent, more protection from the wind. Another cold night we're looking forward to the temperatures rising from tomorrow.

We could see Whitetop Mountain glistening white with the snow in the sun through the trees where we'll be heading over tomorrow, shame it just looks like white cloud in the photo.