yes. $5 for anyone entering campground. even if you're just visitingOriginally Posted by Fannypack
Thanks for the info. If at all possible, I will be there!
Tom
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose............................................ ...
Strong and content I travel the open road
~Walt Whitman Song of the open road
I'm gonna get hiking boots and trail runners thrown at me for this post, but I'm going to say what is on my mind anyway.
Trail Days isn't about hikers anymore -- it is more of a small town craft fair with some backpacking gear thrown in. The town wants the hikers to continue to come so they can suck up the $$$ they bring, but several of the policies they have enacted scream this event isn't about hikers anymore - like charging gear vendors far more than craft vendors for booth space, charging a fee to visit people in the campground, charging separately for parking and camping so thru-hikers will pay to camp (previously only those driving in were charged because this event was for the benefit of the thru-hikers), moving the homemade gear contest away from the main pavilion, moving hiker-related events to less desirable times and places.
The city campground is a place to be avoided if possible - it is one huge, drunken / smoked up, smelly party. Do not plan on getting any sleep if you stay there. Do not be surprised if someone falls on your tent in the middle of the night trying to find his or her tent. Do not be surprised if someone up-chucks right in front of your tent. Do not be surprised if you see a couple of folks doing the horizontal tango on a quilt right out in the open while you're making a midnight run to the oh-so-full and retching smelly port-a-potties. By the end of the weekend, you will be trudging in mud up to your ankles to go anywhere. Poison ivy is everywhere.
Being a portly female Dino walking with a cane and walking around with the clean-shaven and neatly coiffed (what is left to coif) He-Dino, I have gotten to talk to some of the townfolk who didn't realize I was part of the hiking community.... what they had to say about the tent city was pretty telling. Locals call the campground Sodom and Gomorrah. Several said they wish the town would put the campground further from where the town people live and shuttle the campground crowd in & out so they could get some sleep and their children would not see the things they see during Trail Days. They said they would not let teenage children go out alone at all during Trail Days for fear they would be given drugs and alcohol or lured into sexual activities because all have happened in the past to local children during Trail Days. One said she was the only person left on her street - all the others left town during Trail Days.
Bring cash and credit cards - you will need lots of $$$. If I had relied on the various food vendors and restaurants for food during the last few years, it would have been an expensive three-day weekend. The food from the vendors wasn't all that good and was priced too high for what it was (at a local church - cereal bowl of beans and cornbread with onion slivers was $4 - a 20 ozs soda was $2 Town square vendor was charging $8 for a plate of rice and beans with a bit of meat on the side and $3 for a large drink.)
I'm Damascus' worst nightmare -- I stay at a motel in Abingdon or camp in the National Forest so my lodging $$$ go elsewhere. I bring a daypack with lunch - no standing in line for half-an-hour to pay high prices for low-quality food for me. Dollar General is not 200 yards from the town park -- I buy a bag of chips and something to drink there to snack on.
Before I close, I want to say that Damascus is a really wonderful town -- one we visit to bike and hike at other times of the year. Come to Damascus when TD isn't in town and see for yourself. Just don't go there for TD and think you've been to Damascus. That town is so much nicer than the image TD will leave in your mind. If Damascus was like it is during TD, I'd never set foot in the town again.
Yaay Dino.
Thanks,...
FD for the warning. In my long-distant past the campground might have sounded like a raucous good time, but now I, too (57 y.o.) prefer peace, quiet and SLEEP at night. Nessmuk has been planning for us to stay at one of the more distant campgrounds, complete with our own food.
If we are not aren't happy in town (we like Damascus VERY much) that weekend we will hike.
PS: The Ramp Festival is that weekend, too, from what Nessmuk tells me. We are big ramp diggin', cookin' and eatin' folk.
Frau
http://www.blueridgemusic.org/Search...ord=56&Region=
Great site LW!
You can't fix stupid....
So...how do you really feel?
I have to agree to a point on a lot of those issues.
I remember (AND SO MISS) when Trail Days was tiny and on the river before the Mill was built and we had tents in town and the fire was there and the vendor booths were cheaper and there were only local cops and not the entire VA militia peeking into tents and what have you. (Not knocking all the Cops there as some are cool, some are not)
I remember when you could leave all your gear in your tent and not have to worry about some jerk from the surrounding towns coming in dresed like a hiker and stealing everything from out under you while you played a drum/danced a contra/wathced a presentation.etc...
Its still a fun time, its still nice to se everyone from over the last 10 years since I started hiking, but it has changed alot.
It is more 'commercial' (HE says as he prepares DVDS for sale), but there is always Hot SPrings fest if you want intimate and small hiker gatherings. For now.
I still like Damascus and I think Ill buy that house next to Lone Wolf and turn it into a Hippy Commune.
cool. i won't have to travel far at all to kick the *uckers
I still like Damascus and I think Ill buy that house next to Lone Wolf and turn it into a Hippy Commune.
I knew you'd like that!~
Trail Days is way over rated. Rate it right up there with the traveling carnival, after 15 minutes you've seen it all.
But yes it is a great little town, bring your bike or pack so you'll have something else to do the other 95% of the day. Or like it's been said, visit at other time of year like summer. It's nice and cool up there during hot summer.
IMHO, it is what it is.
I treat is as a social gathering. Like a lot of things, some like it, some don't. For those who don't, there is a simple solution. Don't go.
For those who do like it, roll with the flow and make the most of it. I see people there I only get to see once a year at most and enjoy a weekend of "festival" like atmosphere.
I am not saying anyones perspective is wrong...I am merely saying our individual perspective is our individual reality. My perspective is that it isn't the Sodom and Gommorah that others perceive it to be.
The most beautiful of vistas are only seen after a long uphill climb.
I love Damascus. Am starting to not love Trail Days. Been to every one since '94. It was a lot better back then.
I liked going last year just to see many of my hiker buddies who were on the trail. I thought the parade was tamer than the year before where people scooped up water from puddles on the road and dumped it on others (disgusting) But we have gone three yeas now and will likely sit this one out. But Paul Bunyan wants to be there. He was offered alcohol several times last year at the campground (and he is underage).
Why would anyone stay in a fenced-in, crowded, not-free, toxic waste site campground with all those beautiful free campsites just outside of town?
There are some quality, informative programs at Traildays but they won't be at the 'campground'.
Thanks for the info. I will be there if at all possible.
I'll pay $10 to join in on the fun for that.
''Tennessee Viking'
Mountains to Sea Trail Hiker & Maintainer
Former TEHCC (AT) Maintainer
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