Mother's Day sunday

Well first of all, Happy mom's day to all the mothers. Of course this
probably will not post for a couple of days and will be a little
behind the times. I have not had AT&T service for a while. Damascus is
another communication black hole. That's okay, because it is by far my
favorite little town I have seen yet.

Today's hike was great. It was near the river for quite a bit,
paralleled the Virginia Creeper trail for a while, full of gorgeous
Rhododendron blooms, and topped off by meeting all kinds of new
people. I stopped 5 times to take my boots off and let my feet breath
and apply new dressing, moleskin, duct tape, or anti-friction goo. My
new accidental trail town hobby has become to seek out any type of
store that has any kind of first aid supplies and carefully examine
their blister care selection. The treatment of the day today was an
exquisite combination of gel pads, wrapped carefully with sports tape,
and a side order of my recently purchased "Body-Glide" (the above
mentioned anti-friction goo). Oh and an evening treatment of some of
that red stuff my mom used to put all over cuts when I was a little
kid, that another hiker let me use. And just like I remember from way
back then, because I think they outlawed it because it contains mercury
(???), it still stings like hell.

I somehow managed to squeek out a 15.8 mile hike here to the Lost
Mountain shelter. Tomorrow I will be hiking past Mt Rogers, at 5,729'
in elevation, Virginia's highest peak and through the Grayson
Highlands that I hear is full of hiker friendly wild ponies. Cool.