Harper's Ferry, June 15, 2007

The Maineiacs Uno and Dewey reached Harper's Ferry yesterday at 2:30pm, crossing the Shenandoah River, marking the psychological half-way point in the journey. This marks 1009 miles since we started at Springer Mountain exactly 2 months ago. Although we know that the true half-way point for mileage is still 75 miles from here, it feels so good to have made it here and put Virginia behind us.
We had an uneventful 58 miles from Front Royal to Harper's Ferry. The terrain in general has become much easier and flatter. We were only rarely above 2000'. We stayed at the ATC center owned hostel, the Bear's Den in Bluedale, Va. This is a lovely turn of the century mansion originally built as a summer home for the wealthy high atop Snicker's Gap, on Bear's Den Rocks. This was a stone house with full showers, bunk rooms, internet access, free long distance telephone, and several other perks. We stayed there on a package which also provided us with laundry, 2 Tombstone pizzas and a pint of Ben and Jerry's. It's great to rough it!
Harper's Ferry is a beautiful town full of lovely old homes and rich with American history. It is known as a focal point for railroad and canal construction in the 1800's, while America was pushing it's frontier through the Ohio River Valley. It's also known for John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, who captured a building in town and held off the military as a demonstration, trying to raise support in the days before the Civil War. He was later captured and hung. The town was the site of several battles during the civil war, and traded hands several times between North and South, but at one point was captured for the South by Stonewall Jackson.
History lesson aside, I am chilling out today doing errands, while Dewey went to visit two Middlebury friends in D.C. We met up last evening with Steve Taft, my close friend from college and another Dartmouth Aire, who now lives in Potomac, MD. We were surprised to realize that the last time we had actually seen each other was right after Sean (Dewey) had finished the sixth grade. Time has a way of hyper-warping on fast speed. Steve gave Dewey a ride into the D.C. area, and he will return tonight on the evening Amtrak run, due to arrive at 5:08. Most people down here though, understand that one can't take the schedule too literally, as the train usually arrives plus or minus 2 hours. We will take another 'zero' day tomorrow then resume the hike Monday morning, just in time for the arrival of the three H's; hazy, hot, and humid with temps expected in the low 90's. The terrain through Maryland and Pennsylvania looks fairly gentle, with no elevation gain above 1500 feet. This is good and bad; good in that it won't be as difficult as the terrain we have experienced to date, but bad in that we won't get much elevational cooling. The upside is that the trail runs through several state parks with lakes and swimming, so we should be able to cool off occasionally. For most hikers, Pa. has the reputation of being the hottest state, and unfortunately it's the state where water is at times difficult to come by.

The Virginia Experience

With Virginia behind us I thought I would take a few moments to reflect on our experience in this state over the last four weeks. This is the state with the longest section of trail, almost 550 miles, over a quarter of the entire length of the trail . For us neophytes who had never done any hiking in Virginia, we struggled through the states of Tennessee and North Carolina, up and down tremendous elevation gains and losses, with the promise through rumors that the hiking in Virginia would be much easier. Others would tell us, "just wait till you get to Virginia, there are long flat ridges and doing 25 to 30 miles a day will be easy." I am here to tell you that nothing could be farther from the truth or realty of the AT in this state. We did run into a few, relatively flat ridges, easier to hike but nothing more than 14 miles long. The ups and downs were just as steep and challenging as the previous two states, and we found ourselves just as exhausted after a twenty mile day. There was nothing particularly easy about the hiking here. I wish that the people who had filled our heads with this nonsense and false expectations had been with us as we traversed Virginia. Had they been there and given my area of expertise, I would have gladly offered them a complimentary Leki Pole enema!

People talk about the 'Virginia Blues' as being a common experience for most thru-hikers. I don't think either Dewey or myself experienced this per se. The trail has to go somewhere; why not 550 miles through Virginia? You just take it day by day, and set your sights on the short term goals of each day's hike.

In general we found the trail to be much better maintained than in Tenn. and N.C. The shelters were much nicer; At least they all had privies (only 50% in Tenn.) We had our share of long climbs to 4000' and 5000'. The highlight had to be Mt. Rogers and the Graceland Highlands in the southern part of the state. Shenandoah was also outstanding and beautiful. There is however a lot of the trail in between that are just miles. It is mile after mile of woods, and what has become known as the green corridor. At times this did become tedious, as many days you just found yourself hoping that the day's miles would come to an end. You have to keep telling yourself that each step takes you closer to Maine, a strong motivational factor for us.

There were many miles with MUDS and PUDS; mindless ups and downs and pointless ups and downs. You began to wonder what motivated the trail boss as only a sadistic moron would choose some of these locations. We traversed Humpback Mountain in the Shenandoah, where we walked a trail 'relocation' (always read, let's make it longer) not yet on the map. This consisted of multiple quarter mile switchbacks over a very gentle slope which added at least 3 miles to our day. The epitome of MUDS and PUDS is the so-called Virginia roller coaster which leads you into Harper's Ferry. The trail takes you up and down 11 elevation gains of 400' to 600' over 10 miles. A sign at the start announces the beginning of this stretch and with tongue in cheek, admits the ludicrous nature of the course, wishing us luck in our survival. By the way, you must also be at least 3' tall to walk this ride!

The shelter critters have been particularly entertaining at times in Virginia . The shelter at Thunder Hill in the Blue Ridge is known for its shelter mice. These critters always appear at dusk, and carry on through the night. At this particular shelter, I twice heard the mouse on the ceiling drop acorn shells, which I believe were directed at Dewey's head! We avoided another shelter in the Shenandoah, as the trail network indicated it was overrun with several snakes, and you know how much I love snakes. At least that shelter did not have a mouse problem. At Catawba shelter a painted turtle tried to run us off from the picnic table area. Every time we would move him to the woods, he wound up back under the table. One thru-hiker who was doing the trail for a second time told us his story; last year he and a buddy were staying at a shelter where it was rumored there might be a snake. That evening while he was in his sleeping bag, his friend thought he saw something unusual in the rafters and decided to investigate with his pole, only to accidentally dislodge a copperhead, which landed on the sleeping camper and proceeded to dine on his arm. While obviously not a lethal bite, he spent most of the next several weeks nursing a gaping wound to heal.

Yes in all, we would label the hiking in Virginia as challenging and rewarding. If you are contemplating a thru-hike and someone tries to tell you that Virginia's hiking is easy, please refer them to me. It just may be their Leki day! It is quite an accomplishment to finish the state and to be moving on with the knowledge we may be back in New England within the next three to four weeks, hopefully just in time to avoid the really oppressive heat and humidity common in this area during the summer months. We expect that our next opportunity to update the blog will be Duncannon, Pa, about 140 miles up the trail.