20 miles away from Damascus - 16 miles from TN-VA border. Yesterday Patches & Chipmunk saw a big huge king snake - 6 ft long - 1 1/2" diameter. (Chipmunk was very scared) The last few days we met new hikers - they are hiking 15 - 30 miles a day (that is what I call running hikers) - hike from sun up to sun down - no fun (if you don't take time to enjoy what you see).
There is also a few slack pack hikers (they get dropped off at a road with a day pack and hike south 10-20 miles). Flamethrower and Smurfit has been doing that the last 3 days (+/- 50 miles), Chipmunk and Patches give them a hard time we will meet up with them in Damascus.

Today was a spring day - we did 14 miles in relative short time. It was a nice hike - no view (foggy and wet) - we need the rain (will help allergies, pollen and dust). Nice to hike in rain that is not so cold. We are having so much fun!!!