Date: 2018-06-06
From: Blackburn Trail Center

To: ATC in Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: light rain

It's an early morning courtesy of our human alarm clock cabin mate Tangerine! But I'm well rested, despite tossing and turning with hay fever. It's a bit nippy for June. Hero, who sent his sleeping bag home last week, had another restless night. He's planning to tackle the Four State Challenge tomorrow (hike from the Virginia border across West Virginia and Maryland to Pennsylvania in 24 hours) and get to Waynesboro PA where he can find an inexpensive replacement. I attempted the Challenge last year (on my first day) and came up a few miles short, so I give him some tips for success. Sage advice like don't waste an hour in Harpers Ferry looking for an open cafe to grab breakfast, and don't try it when it's raining! And maybe, just maybe, don't attempt to hike 45 miles on your first day! After a quiet oatmeal breakfast on the cabin porch Hero and I hike out about 6:30. It's a beautiful morning, low humidity, mostly clear, around 60 degrees. Perfect hiking weather. The twelve miles to Harpers Ferry go quickly over a relatively level if rocky ridge as we chat away. The steepest climb by far is that from the Blackburn Center back to the AT. We pass our earlybird cabin mate in the late morning but see no other northbounders. Nearing West Virginia we meet a man just starting his trek to Georgia. He confirms the bridge heading north out of Harpers Ferry has reopened, a major concern for those continuing into Maryland.We pass into West Virginia at the spot I started my hike last year. It's familiar, I can easily find where I stealth camped and remember the turns and rocks I followed out. But it's just one more stretch of rocky ridge, nothing special. Last year it was a whole new world. I can remember waking at 3am, giddy and anxious, and not daring to hit the rocky trail til predawn light. Harpers Ferry is bustling with traffic and hikers. We follow the AT across the 340 bridge over the raging mud-brown Shenandoah River to the side trail for the ATC. It takes us through the grounds of former Storer College, the first college in the south to admit blacks, and now a National Park Service training center. Later we see a crew of trainees peering attentively at a plaque on Washington St as a ranger points out its significance.A dozen packs are lined up outside the ATC office. A staffer takes our pictures in front of the building and enshrines us in the photo album. Hero is northbound thruhiker 599 for the year, I am section hiker 183. This is peak season. Over a hundred have come through in the last few days alone. Hero started on March 29 as number 1600 or so. Another who started weeks earlier was in the 700s. I was 2277 on April 16. With a 50% retention rate through Harpers Ferry, doubtless hundreds more hikers will be adding their pictures to the bulging album in the next few weeks.A woman in her fifties is devouring a huge burger in the hiker lounge. She's headed south. "Everyone assumes I'm a section hiker" she tells me. But she's not. She and her daughter started at Katahdin last August. Her daughter had to quit, but she slowly continued solo down to New York by December. Then winter cold and high motel costs pushed her off trail til spring. Northbounders are used to seeing southbound stragglers in Georgia in February and March. But in Harpers Ferry in June? It's no surprise to learn she is one of the first southbound thruhikers to pass through here so far this year. Her photo gets a blue 4.Outside hikers are shooting the breeze. A FedEx driver walks up to warn us the local post office will no longer hold "general delivery" packages. This is how most hikers receive mail drops since their arrival date is uncertain, so there is shock and some grumbling from those expecting a package. I wasn't aware local post offices could change that policy. It always pays to call ahead.Hero and I grab a bite at a pizza joint down the street. Our green and very attentive waitress comes over to check on us a dozen times in a half hour. Hero orders a "small" calzone, which turns out to be appropriately sized for a thruhiker and could feed 3 or 4 people with normal appetites. Even though he's loading up on calories for tomorrow, it's so large he invites me to help him finish it. I do, but regret it an hour later!We walk down to my car in the park service's lot. I drive Hero back across the river to the closest trailhead to the Virginia/West Virginia border where he will stealth camp and start hiking shortly after midnight. If all goes well he'll be in Pennsylvania for dinner tomorrow.My three-hour drive home is uneventful. After two other recent trips out this way for hikes with my boys it's starting to feel like a commute! Fortunately it's to the best job I can imagine. Once home I'm delighted to see Sara and the kids and hear about strawberry picking and share some big hugs.After a day at home I'll be heading back to Shenandoah, this time with my daughter, who hiked across Maryland with me last year before I started my flip-flop. She's a strong hiker and a great companion. I'm looking forward to finishing the park with her!