Trail Days in Damascus

I have no idea where these pictures were taken, but they came off of the most recent CD of photos from Lyle.

Trail days in Damascus turned out to be a lot of fun. Lyle estimates that there were 5,000-7,000 hikers in town. There was free food, games, slide shows, vendors, and lots of sharing of stories. One of the bonuses was a free medical exam. They weighed in, listened to heart and lungs, checked over the feet and tested blood. Lyle has lost 17 pounds since he started the hike and his "numbers" are excellent. He is good to go for another 50,000 miles! :)

Lyle enjoyed the three days of resting, eating and talking with other hikers. He's met a lot of new people. And he had an opportunity to call Ken at home (mentioned earlier in the blog). He did come back to the trail after his rest at home but it just wasn't right. His body wasn't really ready and he didn't find any other hikers that he bonded with like he had with Lyle and company. So he finally left the trail and went back home. It seems that he didn't have an actual heart attack, but his calcium was critically low. This causes your muscles and system to do strange things so I guess you could say his system started to shut down on him and it felt like a heart attack. He is confident that he has the problem stabilized now and wants to get back on the trail next summer. Good luck Ken if you are reading this. We're all glad that you are well.

Lyle is leaving Damascus today and will ride back to where he left the trail (120 miles north of Damascus). Once they get to the launch point, there are only a few miles to the next shelter so they don't expect to leave town until around noon today. They want to take advantage of the free food and fun for as long as possible!

Plugger will be staying with Lyle until Harpers Ferry. I didn't realize that he had been planning to leave the trail about now but when he met Lyle he wanted to continue to Harpers Ferry. Originally he was planning to come back to the trail with a couple of buddies in September and finish the hike to Harpers Ferry. But, he decided that it would be better to stay and finish now because it might fall through in September. So he called his very loving and understanding wife and pleaded to stay on the trail for another month. Well, she agreed and now they are heading off together. This is great because they are very compatible and enjoy each other's company.

They had some rain during the trail days but because Lyle and Plugger were in a hostel it didn't matter much to them. They were really glad they weren't in tent city! They are hoping that the rain will go away now but who knows? The rest of the trail should be very scenic and less difficult. They've been told that they can make about 20-25 miles each day but I guess that really depends upon how much Lyle stops to take pictures! He has a chip full of pictures to send home but can't find anywhere to download them. He's not sure what he is going to do, but hopefully I'll get some pictures before long.

Judy, Tom, and Leon--Lyle really appreciated your letters! They caught up to him in Damascus. I guess when the mail service knows you are a thru hiker, they forward the mail until it catches up to the hiker. The next mail drop is Troutville, VA 24175. He expects to be there in two weeks (approximately June 2).

That's all for today.