Such Great Heights

They will see us waving from such great heights
"come down now" they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
"come down now" but we'll stay
The Postal Service

Greetings everyone from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia! I know that my dad has already posted an entry on our arrival here, but I wanted to share my own perspective on completing what was in my mind the most challenging leg of our trip so far. We arrived in Harpers Ferry this past Friday after a taxing twenty mile day from Bears Den hostel. Just as I was about to curse Virginia for the millionth time, we rounded a bend and were greeted by the beautiful sight of the Shenandoah river sparkling in the mid-afternoon sun as it flowed downstream to meet with the Potomac. We had made it to the half way point. We stopped at the Appalachian Trail headquarters where ATC volunteers photographed and informed us that we were the 304th and 305th thru hikers to make it half way.

I, for one, am overjoyed to be finished with Virginia. Among thru hikers, Virginia has the worst reputation of all of the states. It even has its own mental illness, the aptly named the "Virginia Blues" that afflict practically everyone who walks the trail. Virginia is for thru hikers what the doldrums were for sailors in the 18th century. It is a place where you never seem to move and you slowly go mad for your seeming lack of progress. At first we did not think much about the Virginia Blues. We thought that we were moving quickly and would be out of Virginia before the depression set in. We had heard that it was flat and that people typically do thirty miles in a day. Boy were we ever wrong. There was no place in Virginia that I would call easy. We on several occasions we found ourselves climbing up 4,000 ft peaks such as the Priest and Three Ridges. We would slog through the climbs, and I would look back to find Dad cursing and swearing that he wanted to "find whoever said that Virginia was easy and give them a Leki pole colonoscopy." As you can imagine we are happy to be finished with Virgina and moving on to states north of the Mason -Dixon line.

Shenandoah National Park was one the few highlights of our trek through Virginia. It was a beautiful stretch of trail that parallels the Skyline drive. The best part was that every ten of fifteen miles or so we could get off the trail and get a hamburger at a wayside restaurant. The fact that we could get ice cream every day really lifted our spirits. A downside to hiking in a national park are the tourists that you inevitably encounter while there. Every time we would get off to get something to eat, we were invariably delayed by some a tourist from Florida. I think that everyone on a subconscious level likes to harass wild animals (if you have ever seen a little kid repeatedly pulling the tail of some poor dog or poking a frog with a stick then you know what I mean.) Since it is a crime to harass wild animals in a national park, tourists make do by harassing the next best thing: thru hikers. At one point along the trail we were stopped at a wayside for lunch, driven by a insatiable desire for a bacon double cheeseburger, when our path was suddenly blocked by a sunburned motorcyclist with a shirt that read "if you can read this, the bitch fell off the bike." He kept us from our hamburgers for a good 15 minutes as he bombarded us with questions about the trail. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy talking with people who are unfamiliar with the trail, because, quite frankly I feel like a badass. However, when you get between me and food I get a little bit irritable especially when I have to answer the question "what do you eat" for the seventh time in a row. I have to resist the urge to respond with a snarky "Oh, you know sticks, leaves, small rodents...you can eat rocks but you have to boil them for a really long time."

Although the tourist can be annoying, I get even more annoyed with careless and disrespectful hikers. As a Boy Scout, I grew up having the Leave No Trace outdoor ethics hammered into me whenever we went camping (i.e. packing out your trash and leaving campsites better than how you found them.) Nothing makes me angrier than a campsite where people leave their trash in the fire pit. That being said, two days ago we came across a couple of section hikers at a shelter. I watched in horror as they threw all of their trash from dinner in the fire pit. Usually I will hold my tongue when something like this happens but this time I felt compelled to act. Perhaps it was the Virginia Blues affecting my judgement, or maybe the fact that I had just read Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang but I had to do something. While they lay in their sleeping bags, I gathered up all of their trash, put it in a plastic bag, and stuffed it in their cooking pot with a note:
Dear Fellow Hikers,

The ATC has a strict policy of pack it in, pack it out for everything you bring on the trail. The fire pit is not a trash can! Your mother does not live here, nor is there a garbage fairy poised to clean up after you. Please do your part to keep the AT clean and beautiful.

Sincerely,

Captain Planet

I swear it will be a miracle if I can get through this trip without getting beaten up or thrown off a cliff.


Sean


AT by Numbers:

Miles Travelled: 1009
Average Mileage per Day: 19
Pace: 2.5 Miles per Hour
Zero Days: Sean-6 Mark-5
Highest point reached: Clingman's Dome, TN 6643 ft
Days of Rain: 7
Days of of Snow: 1
Pairs of Shoes: 5
Backpacks: 4
Broken Leki Poles: 1
Deer: Too many to count
Bear: 7
Snakes: 5
Packages of Jello: 55
Snickers Bars: 110
Pop Tarts: 110