http://www.traildays.us/
Last year I made a long day trip out of this and could tell there was much missed in the way of evening activities, music, and socializing. This time I spent the night Friday. I made the 6 hour drive down from Maryland and got there about 3PM. I was able to find parking in the grass lot next to One Way Ministry and it cost $20 for the weekend (in and out privileges). There was no parking in the gravel lot across the street closer to Tent City. I went over to the check in tent at the right gate to Tent City and paid my $5 for access to a camp site. The person there said that the quiet side was the open field on the left, medium activity was the woods in the middle, and the party side was on the right. I snagged a field spot and set up my tent and then explored the area. There were lots of very cool woods spots to camp, and many people hanging. Everyone was "tightly packed" to say the least. The right side looked to house very well organized camps of group affiliated hikers. Some of the camps sponsored evening activities like chili cook-offs, others had 'beer-bat'. Yellow Deli had an area to drink tea, eat food, and listen to people playing music. Everyone seemed to have a fire ring. With the weather being hot and humid, the smoke hovered in the woods and drifted around with the droves - literally hundreds, possibly a couple thousand, hikers. I spent quite a bit of time over at One Way Ministries (to eat their most excellent free food Friday night). They had chili cheeze (not to be confused with cheese) dip, all sorts of brownie like things, and ice cream on cobbler. Tables were set up inside and there were plenty of great people to talk to. Got to meet and talk a little with 'Optimist and Purple Mist' who have an outstanding YouTube site 'Harper's Tarry' for their 2016 hike! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBLpcrrFJ25jo0uZ1pVG3g
I also ate 'all you can eat $5 pancakes' there the next morning. Once the sun went down, things got crazy. People were partying everywhere, and the songs, cheers, music, and 'odd smelling smoke' filled the air. The giant camp fire ring for the super crazy tribal bongo dancing was set ablaze (in a fairly unsafe explosive manner) and the dwindled as what looked like senor fire starters had to bail the rookie crew out. Saturday was vendor and parade day for me. Plenty of parade spirit to go around, as well as at least three drones. I'm looking forward to finding the drone footage when it gets posted. Half way through the parade it rained hard. A persistent rain cell crept over our area and it became nasty (and thankfully cool). I ran into Dollar General, who happened to have $6 golf umbrellas!! It was time for me to finish up and drive back home. Just as I got to the car, it started to hail...and hail pretty hard. It pretty much hailed hard the whole way on the drive to I81.
It's always fun to recognize and meet people I know from YouTube, or have met on the trail in the past, at Trail Days. Big hello to Optimist, Purple Mist, Logo The Blackalachian, Odie, The Real Hiking Viking, and Red Beard.
Don't forget to order your hiker yearbook!
http://hikeryearbook.com/
In memory of Joe Moraski, a friend of mine who passed unexpectedly last week. He was an antenna god, an artist, a technician, a sculptor, a great chef, a writer, a sailor, a philosopher, a hunter, a fisherman, a Mensa, a mentor, and a friend.
http://www.traildays.us/
https://www.facebook.com/onewayministriesdamascus/
https://onewaydamascus.com/outreach/trail-day-ministry/
