Damascus, hit hard by Helene, is now ready to welcome hikers again

The town of Damascus is ready to get the party started for the 38th annual Appalachian Trail Days, eight months after Hurricane Helene’s intense winds and heavy rainfall wreaked havoc on the trail town, damaging homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.

Sections of the 34-mile Virginia Creeper Trail on the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area were impacted by the hurricane, causing some closures. However, about 17 miles of the trail from Abingdon to Damascus are open to hikers and bicyclists.

Despite facing a long road to recovery, the town is laying out the welcome mat, ready to invite visitors to the biggest event of the year in town and one of the world’s largest celebrations of the Appalachian Trail and hiker culture.

The Appalachian Trail Days Festival, scheduled for May 16-18, is expected to attract an estimated 25,000 people to the town of about 700 residents.

The event is so large that the town hosts a campground area known as Tent City to help accommodate the crowds. 

 “I feel like this is going to be the biggest Trail Days ever,” said Katie Lamb, mayor of Damascus. “We’re getting better every day, and honestly, I think we’re going to be better than we’ve ever been.

“We’re definitely prepared and excited for a Trail Days crowd,” she added. 

It’s also a big year for milestone anniversaries in the trail town.

It’s the 100th Anniversary of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy; the 100th anniversary of the American Legion Post 135 in Damascus; the 50th anniversary of The Place Hostel; and the 25th anniversary of the Trail Days Ministry Team.

The Appalachian Trail Days Festival is family-friendly and free to the public. The outdoor event, held rain or shine, will feature a variety of attractions, including more than one hundred vendors of handmade goods, outdoor gear, lectures, workshops and live music.

Local businesses offer event specials throughout downtown. Fan favorites include the hiker talent show at the Town Park stage, hiker parade and water fight along Laurel Avenue, and a drum circle at Tent City.

According to Julie Kroll, recreation program director for Damascus, the event footprint is the same as previous years, with 27 sponsors and 134 exhibitors. 

“However, with the spotlight on Damascus over the past several months, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bigger crowd than ever,” said Kroll. “Lots of people want to continue showing up and supporting Damascus any way they can, which has been a huge help already to the Damascus community and local businesses in our long-term recovery.”

Trail Days will look much the same as always, say organizers. The good news is Beaverdam Creek mostly stayed in its banks during the hurricane, sparing the Town Park and Tent City from floodwaters.

“Fortunately, the event itself hasn’t really been impacted by Helene, and we’ve been able to move forward with Trail Days as planned,” Kroll said.

‘A grand reunion’

The festival is a longstanding tradition and a big cause for celebration in the town.

It’s not just the festivities that draw the crowds. A grand reunion of Appalachian Trail thru-hikers past and present accounts for many visitors each year.

“The weekend is more than just a festival; it’s a grand reunion for the whole trail community and a highlight of the year for so many people,” Kroll said.

Volunteers travel from throughout the Southeast and beyond to help with the Trail Days Ministry Team, an organization that provides free hiker services during the festival, such as haircuts, showers, laundry and a charging station. 

Kip Redick, a philosophy and religion professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, has driven six hours to attend the festival this year. Redick, who’s been coming to Trail Days since 2002, brings his students to Southwest Virginia as part of a learning experience on the spirituality of distance hiking compared to a pilgrimage.

“We’re studying what it’s like to be on a trail for a long-distance hike. My students informally converse with long-distance hikers while at the same time experiencing the trail themselves,” said Redick during a phone conversation while hiking with his students at Dennis Cove Recreation Area on Wednesday before the festival.

“Damascus has always been a perfect place for this research, especially during Trail Days,” said Redick. 

The professor, a former thru-hiker, said the festival is a reunion with his trail friends. “This kind of fellowship found in Damascus gives insight into the spirituality of the journey.”

He added, “The highlight for all of us is the hiker parade. It’s just the best thing in all of America, I think.”

This is the first year Joshua Roe from Radford University has volunteered at Trail Days. Roe, a professor who teaches in the department of recreation, parks and tourism at the university, wrote his thesis on the town of Damascus and the Virginia Creeper Trail during the 2012-13 school year while a student at Appalachian State University. While visiting Damascus this week, Roe will continue his research work, writing a book chapter about the town of Damascus as a tourism destination. 

Trail Whiskey

At Appalachian Heritage Distillery & Brewery in Damascus, manager Tyler Irving is preparing for the big crowd this weekend by turning his parking lot into a food truck and beer garden spot. The business will set up a trailer with beer taps and offer fun activities like corn hole, ladder golf and a karaoke machine.

“From the business owner standpoint, I know a lot of businesses make a month’s worth of money from this one weekend. You got to make hay while the sun’s shining,” he said.

“I think I’m ready for Trail Days every year and then we learn a lot of new things every Trail Days,” laughed Irving.

“Simplifying menus is the biggest thing we’ve learned. Each bartender taking a little bit less time on each cocktail or beer is key to getting the next person in and out,” said Irving, who sold 888 beers and 700 cocktails on just Saturday last year, one of their biggest days of the festival.

Irving said all kinds of things go into motion during the festival weekend.

“It means having someone to empty the trash cans, bring more ice, swap the kegs when they go empty. Or, tapping a bartender every once in a while and asking them if they need a break. The bartenders will get in the zone and they won’t sit down for 12 hours sometimes.”

Irving said the first year they were open for Trail Days, they were tempted to use glass for serving drinks. “We did that for about 20 minutes before I sent somebody out to the store to buy every plastic cup they had,” he laughed.

For the event, the business was busy on Wednesday, making a new Trail Whiskey for the shelves.

“The goal is to make Trail Whiskey once a year. It’s a simple corn whiskey only aged a year to a year and a half depending on what we have in barrels. Traditionally, our other whiskeys on the shelves are a five-year bourbon and four-year rye whiskey,” he said.

“We wanted to put out something more simple and affordable, and Trail Whiskey was the answer.”

The manager is just glad to be up and running after experiencing damage from the hurricane that called for a big remodeling of the building. 

He faced 18 inches of floodwater and three inches of mud left behind in the storefront building last September, forcing him to remove distillery equipment to be cleaned. The brewery side of the business, made of concrete and brick, opened two weeks after the flood. The distillery side took more than a month to reopen, and no distilling was done for about six months.

“We are moving forward as if this is going to be the same Trail Days as last year if not a little bit bigger,” said Irving.

A brick sidewalk in front of the building that was destroyed by the flood has been restored. “Piece by piece, this town will become even better than before,” he said.

Recovery

Since the hurricane hit the Southern Appalachians last September, recovery efforts in Damascus have focused on reopening roads and trails and repairing and building homes and businesses, all with the help of FEMA Public Assistance funding and other local, state and federal resources. Community support has played a large role in the recovery process.

 “People love us and want to help us. They want to come and celebrate that we’re doing so well,” said the mayor.

“Our recovery and rebuilding has been phenomenal. We’ve got it going on,” she said with a laugh.

Although seventeen miles of the Virginia Creeper Trail from Damascus to its Eastern terminus at Whitetop on the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area are closed, the trail has reopened between Abingdon and Damascus, prompting the town to add new outdoor events to promote tourism.

The new Damascus Trout Days was held in April and is scheduled again in September. The Damascus Adventure Moto “DAM 200” is planned for June. In partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the town will host a Damascus Kids Fishing Day in June for youth younger than 15.

The Laurel Creek Confluence, which occurs within the town of Damascus, is the newest site addition to the regional Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail. The confluence refers to the point where Whitetop Laurel Creek, Tennessee Laurel Creek and Beaverdam Creek converge to form Laurel Creek. The confluence consists of publicly accessible river and stream locations in Virginia and North Carolina where residents can snorkel and experience the underwater world.