Date: 2015-05-19
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Blackburn AT Center
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: light rain

Slept in until 6 which I really needed. Generally like to start early but needed to recover from the past few days of no sleep.Passed Disciple early. 5his will be 5heat time we see him as he's getting off at Harper's Ferry and is stopping early tonight. Sad to finally pass him for good, it was nice continously running into him with our days off. As of this year he'll have finished half the trail. He's going to try to finish the trail next year as he figures he's getting too old to keep doing sections.Encountered trail magic a short while later as well as boys from Philly and another thru hiker, mammoth. Some hikers from a few years ago had passed this spot on the trail and decided it'd be a good place to do magic. They had fruit, hot dogs, burgers, candy, drinks, etc. Early for hamburgers but had some anyway. They told us of a huge ice cream challenge up in maine, as well as the half gallon challenge at the halfway mark.Also talked to mammoth. He's a 21 year old from Norway who is trying to continously hike 49 states, excluding Hawaii as you can't walk there. He started in new York and hiked west to the pacific, then down to the beginning of the PCT and hiked that, then from Washington down around the south to georgia, is currently hiking the AT, then down through RI and delaware, then out to the northern midwest. He's currently 11 months in. He had never hiked before, it just sounded like a cool idea to him.Hiked most of the rollercoaster today. It's a 13.5 mile section with many short ups and downs. Luckily a nice breeze blew away the humidity and the terrain didn't feel as bad as everyone had predicted. We're just badass thru hikers and tremble before us.We were going to stop at a shelter just before harpers ferry, but we met star trek, saffron, and some other chick who were flip flopping from Waynesboro who told us that the Blackburn AT Center might be a cool place to stop. We knew nothing of this but needed water so we went down to visit.Nobody was around, but it had a nice little cabin with four bunks, a big house, and a carriage house. As we were getting water the caretaker drove up. She parked, welcomed us, and promptly locked her keys in the car. She had no spare key, neither did her husband who was about 20 minutes behind her, and the groceries that she had bought - including raw meat - were now sitting in the warming car. The only spare was back in Alexandria near dc, she didnt have AAA, and we were in the middle of nowhere. The drivers side door wasn't completely closed however and goose and decided to give it a shot. She produced a coat hanger, but it was strong enough to press the unlock button. I went rooting through the kitchen and found some skewers, which I duct taped together and, with me using a crowbar goose found to help pry the window back he was able to jab the unlock button and open the car. The caretaker thanked us profusely. Turns out they generally offer hikers dinner, but she promised an extra special dinner since we saved the dinner. That convinced us to stay. She made spaghetti and sauce, had watermelon, and gave us all PBRs. Turns out she is/was the chairperson for the board of directors for the ATC, the organization that manages the trail. So we're just big damn heroes.