After having decided not to go to my first Trail Days this year because I'm also going to Raleigh for Smoked Butt (two long-distance trips in one month is a pretty big chunk outta my budget), I was fortunate enough to be approached by a local outdoor lifestyle and gear company, Terrapin Outfitters, to join them for the trip to help them out in their booth. I anxiously jumped at the chance, because I got to un-cancel my trip and see for myself what went on at this magical Disneyland for trail hikers.
First of all, I can officially call myself a section hiker - I OWNED that 200 yards of Appalachian Trail that runs through the little festival area of Damascus. I hiked the heck out of that little section of trail for the time I was there. My pedometer logged near 6000 steps just today of me hiking that little gravel section. It wasn't a big section, but it's the section I did (over and over and over again).
We got there Friday night around 6:00, after most of the vendors had broken down for the day so Scott (one of the partners of TO and a member of PSH) parked the truck full of gear and swag and we moseyed over to the festival area to see where TATO's booth was, because he'd graciously agreed to share space with TO (there are vendors who wait years to get vendor space at the event). Having found it and nothing else really to do but wait until tomorrow, we found some vittles (a really surprisingly great chicken burrito), listened to whatever band was playing for a few minutes, and then meandered slowly back to the parking lot, where we'd decided to camp for the night (well away from the party central that was Tent City, where most of the hikers and festival-goers were camped for the night). We hung our hammocks up, Scott using a TATO stand and I beside a creek right behind the parking lot:
It was picturesque and the sound from the creek drowned out nearly every other raucous noise the festival-goers could throw at me (with the exception of the occasional "WHOO" or some dude blowing a shofar) and I slept the sleep of a thousand rests.
Come about 8:00 Saturday morning, Scott and I both rolled ourselves out of our hammocks and scooted the truck over to the vendor area, where we set up alongside TATO and peddled shirts, stickers, and other wares to the folks who were out to offer their custom. We'd sell some stuff, then take turns moseying about. I made it a point to visit the vendors who were there that had contributed to the PSH raffles and personally thank them for their contributions - a thanks to your face is worth a thousand e-mails, in my opinion. I dropped in on Hammock Gear, Jacks R Better, Bonefire Gear (who was generous enough to offer some delicious smelling hot dog chili he'd brought and some MUCH-appreciated water) Hennessey Hammock (who threw rather a good bit of swag at me to go into the raffle at Fall Sprawl this year, including for the first time a full HH kit), and Dutch who turned out to be rather a cool guy despite all the hard time I sometimes give him.
In meeting Dutch, I was fortunate enough to be able to get a quick little few videos and pictures of his new bit of gear, the Rain Skirt:
(If the sound doesn't work, and I'm not sure what happened, imagine Dutch saying "Hello everybody, I'm Dutch, and this is the Rain Skirt. Thank you, everybody.")
How convenient it was that Dutch had and was sporting his Rain Skirt because come about 5:00 Saturday, the rain came in and Terrapin Outfitters and I decided to pull up stakes and make for home. In my short time in Damascus, I really enjoyed meeting all the folks that I could from dirty, dirty hippies, to pretty normal (a relative term) trail and outdoor enthusiasts, to legitimately crazy people and seeing all that the much spoken-of Trail Days had to offer. I couldn't have had a better time and I can't wait to go again next year, if asked.
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