Hot Springs Trailfest

The lead paragraph in the Asheville, NC Citizen-Times story on 17 May 2012 that's headlined "Hot Spring celebrates 17th annual Trailfest" reads:

The Hot Springs Community Learning Center hosted the 17th annual Trailfest in downtown Hot Springs Friday, April 20 - Sunday, April 22. Traditionally this festival is centered around the hiking community stopping hikers for a day or two as they travel through Hot Springs on their Appalachian Trail journey. This year the celebration extended to the greater community calling everyone to get outside. Over 250 people heard the call ....

The rest describes the fun events.

Damascus Still Cool

"Damascus: Coolest Town In America? Damascus Is Finalist For The Title Of Coolest Small Town" is the title of Drew Hinesley's piece on the WCBY.COM News 5 web site, posted on 19 January 2012 and updated on 20 January.

Either through editing or, well, something else, the item does not explain whence the "coolest small town" contest. Nor does it make clear (to me, at least) whether the 'Bill Leonard, owner of Adventure Damascus' quoted in the opening paragraph is the same person as the 'Detroit transplant Serial' quoted in the third paragraph.

Still, Damascus is a pretty cool town for hikers and others passing through.

Cool Damascus Virginia

The Tri-Cities.com site carries the 16 January 2012 story titled "Damascus among 10 coolest towns in America". The top ten list is being put together by online voting sponsored by Budget Travel Magazine, with final results not to be published until the September/October issue.

The Damascus -- A.T. connection is highlighted:

Damascus is a one-time logging town on the Virginia-Tennessee border, nestled between swaths of national forest and reborn in the last decade as a home to Appalachian Trail through-hikers and Virginia Creeper Trail bicyclists.

With the Appalachian Trail running through the middle of town, Damascus plays host every year to the Trail Days festival, huge weekend gathering focused on hikers.

Very interestingly, too, one resident is quoted as saying that "We don’t want to be too discovered" and lose their small town appeal.

Post Offices Not Closing . . . Yet

The Smoky Mountain News, Waynesville, NC has Quintin Ellison's 4 January 2012 article titled "Fontana Dam gets a temporary reprieve from post office closure".

The Postal Service had earlier included Fontana Dam on its list of post offices likely to be closed in budget cutting efforts. Now the Congress wants to slow things down (big surprise there, eh?) and consider other options to pull the USPS out of the red.

As readers of this blog probably know, "reliant on the post office in Fontana Dam are the legions of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers who stop to pickup supplies as they traverse the famous footpath, which spans from Georgia to Maine. Many AT hikers, before leaving on their treks, mail themselves food and camping items to various drop points along the trail. Fontana Dam is the last re-supply point before hikers hit a tough stretch of the Smokies."

It could yet happen that the post office (and others along the Trail, like Caratunk, if I remember correctly) will close anyway. Pay attention if you use mail drops. The decision and closings aren't due until after 15 May, which means northern post offices could disappear after you leave on your thru-hike this year.

Virginia AT App Funded

I found two paragraphs especially of interest in the 5 January 2012 NVDaily.com (the Northern Virginia Daily, Strasburg, VA) story by Kim Walter headlined "Town growth a priority".

They are:

Another grant of $5,000 was given to Front Royal, Waynesboro and Abingdon for the Virginia Appalachian Trail Smart Phone application. Once the app is fully developed, hikers on the trail will be able to find out which town is closest to them, and what shopping, dining, recreational and lodging options are available.

Additionally, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy has awarded a $1,000 grant to the town towards a ceremony to designate the area as an Appalachian Trail Community. The ceremony is planned to take place on April 21, Earth Day, and will also coincide with the 100th Anniversary Celebration of Girl Scouts.

Pretty cool.

And get those Girl Scouts out on the Trail, too.

Hot Springs, NC and Trail Mentioned

There's a passing mention of the Appalachian Trail in a 31 October 2008 piece by Stacy Smith Segovia's "Four-day whirlwind exhausting and exhilarating" on the web site of the Clarksville (TN) Leaf Chronicle. She meets family at Hot Springs, NC for a family wedding, and says this of the famous trail town:

"I'll tell you about some other attractions of the tiny mountain town, ones you can check out yourself. We had heard that Hot Springs was on the Appalachian Trail, and that is more true than we suspected. Stylized "A" symbols are stamped on the sidewalk running through the town's thoroughfare, Bridge Street. And that IS the Appalachian trail.

"A cool al fresco bar sits on the street, serving a wide selection of specialty beers to appeal to through-hikers' granola sensibilities. Across the street is an adventure gear shop. Walk a mile and a half along the trail and you can scramble up a hillside to scenic Lovers' Leap."

Let's hear it for them 'granola sensibilities'!

The Homeplace, Catawba, Virginia

Remember eating at 'The Homeplace' in Virginia? There's a very favorable review of the Catawba, VA restaurant in the 22 October 2008 Collegiate Times under the headline "The Homeplace dishes out classic Southern cookin'." (Collegiate Times is owned by the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.)

Most of the review sounds like a "regular" restaurant review, and then we read:

"Speaking of location, The Homeplace is a popular stop for hikers on the Appalachian Trail.

"'If you're in our parking lot and you look back south at the mountain behind the restaurant, the trail runs from the top of the mountain,' [owner] Wingate said. 'Hikers have said The Homeplace is the best restaurant on the Appalachian Trail, which is over 2,000 miles. It's hard for me to imagine, but we don't mind taking the credit -- it's quite interesting.'"

Read the whole review to get some history of the place, a quick profile of the owners, and either a recollection or a preview of the great food.

You Want Fries with your Trail Towns?

Now several miles off the Appalachian Trail, Fries, Virginia is hoping for a revitalization, according to the Rex Bowman article "Will Fries' ship come in? A Grayson mill town sets its sights on the lure of the New River" that appeared in the 20 October 2008 issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The town is on the banks of the New River, and Bowman points out that "the Iron Mountain Trail, once a part of the Appalachian Trail, runs along nearby ridges. With a river, mountains and trails, the town could try to seduce outdoor enthusiasts."

Could be that this will become a thriving new "trail town" near Grayson Highlands. It's worth keeping your eyes on it anyway.

Damascus, VA and the Virginia Creeper Trail

The 19 October 2008 article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution by Jack Horan, titled "Virginia mountain town a biking haven; Rail bed converted to natural bike path that can be coasted down," only mentions the Appalachian Trail in passing. But it's a worthy read for hikers because it adds to one's knowledge of the area around the friendliest town on the Trail. Besides, when you get near Damascus and find yourself on a gravel footpath with bicycles zipping past you, well, now you'll know why they're there and where they're going.

Kent, CT: Trail-Friendly Town

"The Unwashed and the Upper Crust in Connecticut" is the headline over the New York Times article on 29 August 2008, written by Christopher Percy Collier. It describes the scene when A.T. thru-hikers make their way through Kent, CT.

Collier draws a strong contrast between the high-rent look of the natives and the low/no-rent look of the hikers. But, he continues with some stories about the friendliness of Kent's residents.

Several thru-hikers are named in the article: "Bones and Mudbug (whose names off the trail are Andrew Simpson and Tyler Geymann) ... Six Iron ... Holly Hammond, a red-haired hiker in her 20s who had several states behind her ... [and] Clay Whitson, who had been on the trail since starting several months earlier in Georgia." And several businesses and their owners are highlighted.

Hot Springs, NC Highlighted for Californians

The Los Angeles Times published a travel story 6 March 2008 about three North Carolina towns that are attractive, yet small, destinations. It is "3 classic mountain towns in North Carolina; A backroads tour reveals the charm, rustic and otherwise, of three tiny Appalachian Mountain towns. This is what down-home really means." by Kelly Gray.

One of the towns receiving a brief profile here is Hot Springs, "a town at the junction of the French Broad River and the Appalachian Trail."

Hot Springs, NC Profiled

The Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel's 17 February 2008 issue has an article by Linda Lange titled "Expresssways may not lead to Hot Springs, N.C., but trails do" about that A.T. trail town.

There's more to the profile of Hot Springs than the mentions of the Trail, but Lange does say this:

"Hot Springs' heaviest traffic enters on foot. The Appalachian Trail, the 2,189-mile path stretching from Georgia to Maine, goes through the heart of town. In the spring, hundreds of northbound hikers emerge from the mountains and fill the sidewalks of Bridge Street. They refuel before crossing the river and disappearing back into Pisgah National Forest."

And then, later down in the article:

"From mid-March until early June, Appalachian Trail thru-hikers drift over the mountains. 'We might see 10 or 12 in a day in April,' says Wayne Crosby, part-owner of Bluff Mountain Outfitters. Hikers pick up parcels at the Hot Springs Post Office and cross the street to his store. He sells outdoor gear, clothing and groceries, including a large selection of organic foods.

"'Where's Elmer's?' hikers ask as daylight diminishes. They've heard about Elmer Hall's Sunnybank Inn, one of several accommodations that welcome thru-hikers. The town will celebrate its special connection to the AT by holding TrailFest on April 25-26. A chili cook-off, live music and hiker games will entertain crowds."

Other good stuff about food and housing opportunities -- as well as other things to do -- round out the article.

Abingdon, Virginia Profiled

I'm not sure how far off the Appalachian Trail a place can be and still be called a "trail town". If it's about 15 miles, then Abingdon qualifies.

Abingdon is profiled in the Louisville, KY Courier-Journal in an article by Cathy Summerlin titled "Enjoy life your way in historic Abingdon, Va.; Hike, see a play, visit The Martha" on 20 January 2008. The Trail is mentioned here:

"Then there's the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail, a rails-to-trails conversion at the western edge of the mountains. The trail crosses the Appalachian Trail about 15 miles east of Abingdon and enters Mount Rogers National Recreation Area farther east."

Sounds like there's a good bit to do and see in the area.

Pearisburg, VA Bicentennial

Joshua A. DeLung wrote the article "Pearisburg celebrates 200 years of history; Events marking the anniversary started Monday and will continue through 2008" in the 9 January 2008 issue of the Roanoke Times. It barely mentions the Appalachian Trail, but hikers who have passed by this southern Virginia town might like to read and remember.

Watch for Politicians at the Doyle Hotel

The Washington Post has a weekend adventure column called "Escape Keys" in its 9 January 2008 issue. The highlighted destination is Duncannon, PA which is only "about 2 1/2 hours from the Beltway."

Featured accommodations include the famous Doyle Hotel and the Stardust Motel which is 4 miles north. For food they recommend The Red Rabbit and the Espresso Yourself Cafe.

You may need to start calling ahead for reservations at the Doyle if this catches on in Washington.