Day 69: 58 miles, Jul 26

This qualifies as one of the best days of the whole tour. The weather was perfect: 75 degrees and dry. The scenery was the best that the southern Appalachians has to offer: the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area. And, it was all very familiar to me!

I lingered in town for quite a while. Damascus is a very cool little town of about 1000 people who, because of the annual Trail Days festival held on the summer solstice, are very likely to know a bit about what you're doing when they meet you.

My destination today was the lovely city park in Wytheville, VA. The picture is self-explanatory, though I'll point out that the white stripe, or "blaze," on the tree in the upper right-hand corner of the frame is the way the Appalachian Trail is marked for its 2167 mile length. And, no, the AT is not covered with gravel. This is just a place where it crosses a road with an area for parking. You don't really need a map to do the hike, though I did manage to get lost once....

That hasn't happened on this trip. Yet.