Date: 2009-09-01
To: Snickers Gap, VA
Miles today: 0.0

Woohooo!!! Finally made it to Harper's Ferry! After leaving Boiling Springs relaxed and somewhat pampered (all on my own accord) The breakfast buffet holding us over to dinner with tons of delicious food!Yum! After getting a little bit of a later start than usual we headed toward the half way mark. Just as staying at the Doyle Hotel is a hiker tradition, the half gallon challenge has withstood the test of time as one of the food traditions of the trail. At Pine Grove Furnace state park Brewer and I bought a half gallon of icecream each. When we arrived we found only 3 choices of icecream, Butter Pecan, Chocolate Marshmallow, and Cherry. I picked up Cherry and Brewer took the Chocolate. We both started strong and right around 40 minutes we were 80% finished. Looking at the 3 miles left to go and the fading daylight we threw in the towel on the half gallon challenge because we started to feel bad and we knew we would regret finishing the rest of the half gallon. Half gallon I've failed you but I'm alright with failing. After leaving Pine Grove Furnace we were looking for the actual half-way-mark. When we arrived at the spot we found a plywood sign stating that the actual sign was being relocated and would be replaced sometime in the near future. Bummer... Being halfway is a little bittersweet but more sweet than bitter.Our next day we hiked as usual and nothing exciting really happened. However when we pulled into the shelter we found a father and his son and a family that was staying in the shelter next to the one that we were in. In PA some of the shelters were actually two smaller shelters. We shared one of the shelters with the father and son and let the family stay together in the other. The kid was the epitome of annoying kids, especially from the perspective of a thru-hiker. He was really wanting to tell us how much he knew about the trail and how much he knew about gear, neither of which really interested us. We knew what gear we needed and we've hiked a good bit of the trail. He was willing to throw his dad under the bus to make himself look cool. I just felt bad for the kid really because he just wanted to have a place to belong. But he didn't belong in the woods. Not trying to sound arrogant but just saying how much we don't want to talk gear, or trail when we role into the shelter. We want to just be "normal."In addition to the annoying kid the family in the adjacent shelter was ridiculously disfunctional. The father got drunk and proceeded to yell at his wife all night about hot dogs and hot dog buns and his son was cold and took some of the blanket the family was sharing and we heard the father hit the kid and the kid started crying. Guess we can't get away from some of the things that haunts society even in the removed part of the AT.So after having a night of crappy sleep because of wanting to get up and say something to the family about being loud and abusive we got up early and got the heck out of the shelter and started to put on the miles. We'd found out from the dad and kid that some of our friends were only about 6 miles in front of us. So we set out with the intention of catching the Sibs. In making this decision we'd decided to pull a 33 mile day. This was our biggest day ever and will probably stand as our biggest day. We hiked from 7:30am to 10:00pm. So we were hiking in the dark for a little while. Since we made the decision after hiking only 6 miles we didn't get an early start on the day. The last 8 miles of the day were quite miserable, but we caught the Sibs and got to spend the next night or two with them! The 33 miler really did a number on Brewer and I physically and mentally. The following day we were moving slower and were quite sore. Despite our slow movement we did get to see the original Washington Monument atop a random hill in Maryland! There really wasn't much to it but it was still pretty cool to be surrounded by something with so much history. We'd been passing a lot of groups of college aged hikers from Johns Hopkins Univ. They happened to be on their pre-orientation for school. They stayed up late and made tons of noise, almost blew up a stove, and then got up at 5am to walk only 10 miles to Harper's Ferry. We slept in a little bit but then pushed into Harpers to the ATC office. We arrived, got our picture taken and hung out with the Sibs and grabbed some Pizza. The Sibs headed out, and Brewer and I only pulled another few miles to a really nice shelter (probably because it's the only one in the stated of WV, WV only has 2 official miles of the AT) After leaving the shelter we started booking it to the VA line where Brewer's were going to meet us at the Horseshoe Cafe.(aka the local biker bar) It was great to finally meet Brewer's family and spend some time with them! Oh man it felt great to actually spend some time in a Hotel, take a shower and sit in a hot tub. ahhhhh... His parents were gracious enough to take us out to dinner and put us up in a hotel! What wonderful people!The next morning we woke up, I chowed down on the breakfast at the hotel! Man I think about food a lot...maybe too much, but I'm always hungry. I called Myles and Quinton and found that they were on their way to play Volleyball so I met them accross town from Quinton's apartment at a really nice volleyball court. I met some of Quinton and Myles' friends from D.C. It was nice to actually play some V-ball, such a nice break from the trail! After getting a little turned around on our way back and stopping for slushee at 7-11 we made it back to the APT got cleaned up and Q and Myles took me to a great place where we got some yummy falafel! Yum!!!! Oh man I can't tell you how great it's been to spend time with Myles and Q. I've really been missing friends and family and hanging out with them is a great way to recharge for our final walk to GA. Thanks guys! It's still early in the morning so who know's what the day will hold! Until next time!