Good times at a backpackers’ paradise
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Adam Bridges is tearing through Damascus, Va. After weeks of hiking the Appalachian Trail and 10 days without seeing a town, he’s back on the grid. He has just devoured a large pizza topped with broccoli, pepperoni and hunks of ricotta cheese, sharing it with his hiking partner, Plunger. Now, sifting through the contents of a small brown box he picked up at the town post office — duct tape, cell phone charger, wallet-size picture of his two nieces — he asks Stumpjumper about the hikers’ bug that’s been going around. At the library across the street, he updates his online trail journal and waves to Bill E. Goat. Then? Beer, where he’ll find Yield. |
From Friday through Sunday, Damascus will stage what has become probably the largest single gathering of hikers anywhere: an annual festival called Trail Days. Last year, despite a steady rain, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people showed up for the celebration in a town with an official population of 1,094. It is during Trail Days that Damascus, a place shaped by the walkabout spirit of the Appalachian Trail and all the nicknamed hikers who pass through, puts on its brightest display. The festival is a backpacker’s Mardi Gras. It’s an alumni reunion for anyone who has ever hiked the 2,159-mile Appalachian Trail, a moment in time when America’s most famous long-distance footpath goes nonlinear.
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