Tail Dazed

I have so many conflicting adjectives to describe Trail Days that I don't even know where to begin. Exciting, dirty, excessive, exhausting, happy, sad, weird...I could go on but I won't. 

After a fairly painless but nevertheless excruciatingly long flight into Tri Cities (with yet another mile long cross-airport run to catch my connecting flight) I finally was reunited with Survivor Dave's Gun Crew (Jolly and Tie Dye). God it was good to see them. TD squealing in excitement when she saw me and giving me an impressive bear hug was maybe the greatest way to arrive back to the trail of all time. Jolly arrived shortly after and the reunion was blissful. 

The whole drive into Damascus my heart was pounding I was so excited to see everyone. As we drove through the center of town I scoured the crowds for anyone I even remotely knew. As we crossed the bridge to Crazy Larry's I saw a familiar face (well, familiar beard) and I did everything short of jettisoning myself from the moving vehicle screaming, "Barbarossa!!!!!!"

Thankfully Tye Die's husband had the good sense to pull over the car which I threw myself from to go and give him a big hug. He informed me that the Tribe was down in Tent City and that they had some prime real estate staked out for me. I felt bad to leave Jolly and Tie Dye but I could not wait to see more of my hiking buddies. 

As we were walking into tent city (TD's hubby, Co-Pilot had driven us over) who do I see but Headstand, Candy Pants, Two Pack and Goatman. I just about got arrested for trying to attack hug them before paying my $5 due to get into the camp grounds. Bliss. A few hundred yards away by the tents were Beetlejuice, Red Knees, Animal, Scarecrow...everybody. More aggressive hugging ensued. 

The next 3 days were a blur of walking through all the gear vendors, catching up, inebriation and attempting to find free food at any expense. 

Tent City is one of a kind. It is divided into the prairie (an open grassy area) and the forest which is directly behind the prairie. In the forest many past and current through hikers set up huge mini-cities with music, grills and chairs. They had names like Poundtown (their slogan was "go big, get some"), Riff Raff, Billville and of course there was Ms. Janet's tent with the bonfire to end all bonfires. Not only were there flames at least 10 feet in the air but there was a drum circle that played into the wee hours of the morning so that hikers could get back to their roots and dance around the circle, often throwing in articles of clothing to feed the fire. 

Apparently what happens in Tent City stays in Tent City. 

The car accident at the parade rocked the city (no one died - the woman who was pinned under the car only suffered a broken pinky toe!) as did the hundreds (I would surmise) of arrests for public intoxication and possession of illicit substances (read: marijuana). For a small town that is a hell of an event. 

I was not even a little sad to depart from Damascus by the time Sunday rolled around. It was time to hike again and test out this foot.