Started the day walking through the other half of Damascus. Its always neat to have the trail go right through a town.

Seeker, Hooch and Dingo decided to slack pack and went on ahead to do a 22 mile day then get picked up and brought back to town. I packed a normal load and hiked off on my own.

The skies were grey and it was very windy out. The forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms and hail by the evening. I had 15 miles to make before it hit.

After leaving Damascus the trail climbed a little series of small switch backs that caught me off guard a bit and made for a rough start.

The wind really picked up for a while and you could hear branches snapping off and falling all around.
I came upon a sign making a detour on the trail. Apparently a bridge had washed out several years ago.

The sign looked old, so I stuck with the original trail thinking the bridge may have been rebuilt by now .  Well, it turns it had not…

Instead of walking a mile back to the detour, I just forded through a foot and a half of icy water.

Later on, I came across a small spring fed pond.  Didn’t see any fish but it was loaded with tadpoles and frogs.

Shortly after, the trail joined the Creeper Trail for a bit.  It was an old railroad bed that was converted into a bike path

Eventually I made it up near Lost Mountain Shelter. Luckily the storm held off and I was able to set up my hammock, eat dinner and lay down to sleep before the rain came.