VA Appalachian Trail - Section 45 - Bear Tree Gap to Damascus Town Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/22/2022	12.5 miles	6 hours 39 minutes	1,603'	2.0	845.9

Parking: 

• One car at Bear Tree Gap, one car at Damascus Town Park

Maps:

• FarOut app
• Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Southwest Virginia Maps 

Directions:

• Take side trail from Bear Tree Gap to the AT. Follow the AT southbound from Bear Tree Gap to Damascus Town Park

We missed out on our Wednesday club hike because the windchill was 5 degrees in the mountains! And they had snow! What happened to fall?

We headed out for the second weekend in a row to Bristol, Virginia. I've finished what I want to do in NC and TN for the year, so now we're trying to get a few miles done in Virginia. Virginia is a big state, and we have a lot of work to do if we hope to finish it next year. At the end of the year, I'll calculate how much of its 550 miles we've done.

We stayed at the Red Roof Inn again - not particularly nice, but its inexpensive. Krumm tried running up to the room we stayed in last weekend lol. We woke up pretty early because it was going to be a longish day. It was 34 degrees in the morning. But it did warm up to around 70 degrees in the afternoon - a beautiful day for hiking. What a difference a week makes. Leaf color is now past peak. Walking through the leaves was a challenge as expected. We made decent time considering how slowly I go downhill. Near Damascus we talked to a man whose girlfriend had fallen and twisted her ankle. I felt bad for her and wondered if they were going to hike back into Damascus. We started walking next to the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail. I was envious of their non-rocky path. On the way into Damascus, the AT actually coincides with the bike path. The bike path is very, very, very popular. As a result, we walked in the grass so as to not get run over by bicyclists! When we got back to our car, we were hungry! Damascus is a tiny town, and there was a diner a 4-minute walk away. We decided 4 minutes was too far to walk at that point, lol. So, we drove to the diner. Fortunately, they had outdoor seating and 1 vegetarian dish, so we sat outside and wolfed down our black bean burgers. Still hungry! So, we stopped by an ice cream shop. That gave me enough energy to drive back to Bristol.

The new ATC building! It wasn't here when I was in Damascus in 2019.