Sarah and I woke this morning to a miserable rainy day. Everything was soaked and it was a cold day. There's nothing fun about breaking down my tent and packing up in the wet, cold rain. Despite that, we packed up and pushed on. We stopped only twice. Once was a at a dilapidated shelter on the side of the trail. After we arrived, a few from the Busch Light Crew packed in with us and started smoking cigarettes which annoyed me since it was already a confined space and it was the only refuge from the rain. I decided to leave and keep pushing on. I stopped once more under some rhododendrons which did little to protect me from the pouring rain. I was already soaked, so I just sat on the ground. Another few miles and we made it into Damascus. We did 13 miles in about 5 hours.

The town was very lonely in comparison to how filled it was for Trail Days. A family friend got us a room at a local Econo Lodge so Sarah, Bullet, Nick, and I drove in Nick's car out to it and stayed the night. We ordered some local Italian food, had some good laughs, and celebrated making it into a new state.

We woke in our motel room this morning and headed to the grocery store for a resupply. For some reason I felt incredibly anxious while I was resupplying and felt like I was going to puke the whole way out of Damascus. The trail starts off quite easy. It follows the historic "Creeper Trail" for a while until the AT veers off into the woods. Once we were back in the woods it felt amazing and I started to feel better. Everything was so green, the air was cold, and I felt again at peace. Sarah and I hiked together again. We opened up to each other again about some difficult things in our pasts. It was nice to have someone who would listen to things that were hard to talk about. It feels like we're already good friends despite only hiking together for a few weeks. Time out here isn't like time in the real world.

After it was dark we caught up with Nick and Bullet. We night hiked for a few hours and finally made it to the shelter. As usual, I lit us a fire and we relaxed around it.

I woke again today feeling anxious. I left camp alone before everyone else so I could clear my head. It was the most beautiful day yet. A few hours in I stopped for a break and everyone caught up. We took a midday nap on a grassy hillside and in the sun. We were headed into the esteemed Grayson Highlands. The climb was a bit grueling and slow but everything around us was vibrant, green, and beautiful. When we made it in we were met by a herd of wild ponies. We stopped and fed them and tried petting some. They were so cute but also terrifying since they would bite and kick each other while we took photos. After our break with the ponies we hit the 500 mile marker which feels unreal. I remember feeling so cool when I'd hit 100 miles and now I've done five times that. We made a video of us linking arms and walking across the 500 mile marker while "I would walk 500 miles" played. I feel elated.

We hiked on a few more miles into the sunset and set up camp overlooking a valley. It's probably the coolest campsite yet. We made a fire and laid down around staring at the sky. We saw so many shooting stars. Today was amazing.