Harper's Ferry

Tuesday, May 26

Weather: Hot and sunny

Miles travelled: 11.5

Total miles on AT: 1002.4

We had a short day into Bear's Den hostel, so we left at 8 am. That morning South Pole shared some of her oatmeal with me and I remembered I really don't like oatmeal. 8 is much later than usual and it felt hot and humid from the first step. This was the day we entered "the rollercoaster", a 12-mile section of the trail with lots of little ups and downs, which slowed our pace considerably. After the first little mountain, we met two older women taking a snack break, Colorado Hiker and Mother Theresa. Colorado Hiker is (I believe) 74 years old. A couple years ago she biked around the world and she's thinking about going to Antarctica next (after a short thru hike, of course).

We hit 1000 miles! I remember reaching 1000 on my bike ride and being so happy about it, but now it's taken me just as long to reach 1000 as it did to get all the way across the country last year. It's a strange thought because I'm working much harder this time and taking fewer days off, but moving that much more slowly. I miss the ease of a bike and comfort of passing through towns daily, but I see more wildlife and feel challenged like never before (which I like).

We took many breaks and soaked our feet in a creek, which felt wonderful, like a spa day. Finally we made it to Bear's Den. It's an old castle made hostel, and it is awesome. Many hostels are dirty and run down, but Bear's Den is run by the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and they really take care of it. We showered and I spent a long afternoon working on my blog and listening to music, which was really nice. After laundry and a pint of Ben and Jerry's, Rick and Lorine arrived from D.C. to have dinner with us. They drove us to a BBQ place in town and we chatted away the time until it was almost 9, and then they took us to the store because I needed some snacks. 

We finally said goodbye for good (for now), and retreated to our soft bunks for the night.

Wednesday, May 27

Weather: Sunny and hot

Miles travelled: 19.9

Total miles on AT: 1022.8

Today was a special day: getting into Harpers Ferry! It's the metaphorical halfway point (80 miles short of actual halfway) and the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, where they take your picture and give you a hiker number of the season. 

We woke up at 5 and made pancakes in the kitchen, starting our walk at 6 to have at least a start in cooler weather and to get to the ATC before they closed at 5. It rained a little bit and I put on my useless rain jacket (it's full of huge holes now). I kept falling far behind South Pole and Andreas, but for some reason they kept waiting for me. We crossed into West Virginia and finally entered town around 3:30. On the side trail to the ATC we went through the old campus of Storer College, a school that taught black men and women when most schools wouldn't. There were plaques and historical signs left and right and I stopped to read all of them, letting South Pole and Andreas go ahead to the ATC. 

At last I made it to the ATC and had my picture taken and looked through the book of hikers that had come before us. Andreas started April 1st and by his count is the fourth fastest of everyone that has come through so far, making South Pole the sixth and me the eighth; the first two women for speed up to now. Not that it matters. We didn't examine it that closely so we're probably wrong, and also we haven't been going incredibly fast so we aren't breaking any records. In fact, I know of one lady behind me who is much faster than I am, but she just started the trail so I might not see her if she doesn't catch up.

We also met Carlos again, who was planning to go into D.C. for the day on Thursday. He told us he was staying at the Econo Lodge, and since it would be the same price split three ways as a hostel, we decided to stay there as well. After settling in, Andreas chose a nice restaurant for his going away celebration and we all went to dinner, Carlos and his friend Schmitty, a section hiker and meteorologist from Maryland. We had really nice food and Andreas insisted on paying for South Pole and I, saying we were the reason he'd gotten so far anyway and he'd enjoyed the time he spent with us. I just let him because the restaurant was really fancy for me and not someplace I would've normally eaten (out of budget). Dinner was fun and we laughed a lot and I had a yummy Strongbow Honey and Apple cider, which I hadn't tasted before. 

Carlos is kind of a wild character. He thru-hiked the PCT last year and loved it, he said he'd been dreaming about it for 46 years. He told us his daily mileage on the PCT was 30-35 whereas now it is 20-25, and the terrain on the AT is more difficult. At some point the PCT came up again and I turned to South Pole and Andreas and said, "PCT in two years?", and we were off planning our hike. Of course it's a long time from now and totally dependent on whether or not I'm able to have a positive money flow when I go back to school; enough to save $4000 for another crazy torturous hike (why do I do this to myself?), but Andreas and South Pole have the funds and time and were interested in the idea. They both said they would never do it alone but would consider it as a group.

We were debating between the CDT and PCT and Schmitty told us that the El Nino phenomenon was happening this year, which meant active hurricanes and more snow in the CDT areas. 

We walked back to our motel in the dark and went to sleep right away. South Pole and I planned to "sleep in" the next day to be well rested for our Four State Challenge. Oh, that's another thing I've forgotten to mention. We'd been planning our Four State Challenge for days, which was why we've had such low mileage recently. It's been a big topic for conversation with Andreas because he doesn't think it's smart and he says it's not worth risking injury for. It begins just before Harper's Ferry at the Virginia-West Virginia state line, and from there you go into Maryland right after Harper's Ferry and then Pennsylvania 30 miles or so later. It's 43.3 miles from Virginia to Pennsylvania, and the challenge is to hike all 43.3 in 24 hours or less. Overall we knew it would slow us down because we would be tapering our miles in preparation and then need some recovery afterwards, but we both wanted to see if we could do it (we are challenge junkies, after all). 

Thursday, May 28

Weather: Sunny and hot

Miles travelled: 0

Total miles on AT: 1022.8

We all woke up at 6:30, in spite of our plan to sleep in, and went to eat breakfast at the continental breakfast that was included. I had a yogurt and pastry but was only a couple bites into my waffle when I decided it would be more worthwhile to go back to the room and try to rest some more, so I left South Pole and Andreas to socialize with the hikers and lay in bed fruitlessly for a couple hours. 

The plan for the day was to lounge around Harper's Ferry until 6, and then get a ride to a road .6 of a mile away from the Virginia border and walk back to that point, then forward again a few miles to Harper's Ferry, where we would pick up our packs from someplace we could find to stash them, then walk through the night and into the next day until we got to Pennsylvania and the Mason-Dixon line (the same place). 

Andreas left at 10 to catch his train into Washington D.C. and we stayed in the hotel until noon, when we walked into town to the outfitter and bought permetherin to treat our clothes. It's an insect repellent that lasts about 6 washes and repels and kills ticks and mosquitos. We applied it to our hiking clothes and left them to dry for several hours. In the meantime, Andreas texted me to say his train had been delayed and he was at the train station, which was across the street (and air conditioned), so we went to sit with him for a while. 

We got ice cream and chatted until 3:30, when the train finally came (four hours late) and we said goodbye to Andreas for a second time. He ended up being so late that he missed his flight and spent the night in the airport, but he caught one the next morning and is back in Germany now.

We were now one member less and it felt strange, but it was business as usual. We ate a big dinner at a cafe, although I wasn't hungry in the slightest. My hands were clammy and I could feel the adrenaline, as though I were about to take a test.

The outfitter clerk, Potter, offered us a ride back to the trail when he got off work at 6. He thru-hiked two years ago and is from Indiana. He is going back to school in the fall, studying ceramics. We bought him a beer for his services, an ordeal in itself. We convinced a waitress at a restaurant nearby to sell us one, they aren't really supposed to let you take it out. It was only during the drive that he told us he'd graduated high school he year he thru-hiked, which would make him a year younger than me, which means it's possible we may have bought alcohol for a minor... whoops. Potter told us it was nice to be in a position to be able to help hikers conveniently, given how often he'd been helped during his thru hike.