Date: 2003-06-11
From: Mark Z's House

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: overcast clouds

My intention here is to go from Mark Z¢s house which is just about at the David Lessors¢ Shelter to Harper¢s Ferry. The infamous Harper¢s Ferry. Not infamous..but famous Harper¢s Ferry. Very important historical site. Also, the ATC¢¦Appalachian Trail Conference Headquarters¢¦and what people consider the psychological mid-point of the AT even though it¢s about 150 miles short of the actual, physical midway point. Harper¢s Ferry is a very significant point for north bounders and south bounders as well as a psychological center. Very short hike this morning. Watched the weather channel last night at Mark Z¢s house. It said that we were going to get rain today and true to form..the clouds have formed. Getting back on the trail we had a very, very short drizzle but it hasn¢t continued. We¢ve been very lucky so far this morning. But, backing up to this morning. I woke up¢¦actually my eyes opened up just like they usually do¢¦at 5:30 in the morning and later on because the bed was so comfortable that I just kind of laid there and laid there and on about 6:30 I heard something upstairs. So, I knew that had to be Serge getting up. I went right ahead and continued to lay there for another 15-20 minutes and finally heard some more thumping and I knew Mark was up. I went ahead and rolled out of bed. I threw my stuff in my backpack and carried it all upstairs. Mark was already busy cooking breakfast. Bacon and potato pancakes and eggs and once again just going overboard being a host and feeding us. He cooked up a whole pound of bacon. Between Serge and I we managed to knock it off. We went ahead and yapped a little longer this morning and finally got packed up. I went through the ritual of putting on all the moleskin and all the layers of socks and the gaiters¢¦the whole works. Finally, Serge and I got moving out the door and we thanked Mark profusely for just going way overboard and being truly a trail angel of the best kind. We bushwhacked back up the hill, got on the trail and we got a little bit of drizzle. I walked with Serge for a few minutes discussing our experience and adventures back at Mark Z¢s house and then I told Serge I was gonna start running on ahead to get into Harper¢s Ferry because I called Kelly last night and I am due to meet her at 1:00. I got a message from her saying she was going to be there about 12. She is meeting me at Harper¢s Ferry this afternoon. She wanted to come up so I¢m just gonna take these 8 miles today and hang out with her for a couple of hours and then maybe decide to hike a little bit longer tonight. It all depends. The weather is supposed to turn but I am currently, right now, walking and within 5 miles of Harper¢s Ferry and will finish this tonight when I get into bed. Wherever I am, whatever I¢m doing¢¦if time permits. Total for Wednesday, June 11th is actually 15.8 miles. We went in to Harper¢s Ferry and got out of Harper¢s Ferry and kept on going all the way to Ed Garvey Shelter. So, it was from Mark Z¢s house (close to Dave Lessor Shelter) to Ed Garvey. 15.8 miles. Once we got on the trail I ran pretty hard. Left Serge behind on the trail. I had left him behind and ran into Harper¢s Ferry. Managed to make the 8.2 miles into Harper¢s Ferry in 2 hours and 45 minutes which is a pretty fast time. Met a couple of guys along the way who turned out to be 2 thru-hikers called Mud and Jug. Ended up coming into town. Basically pulling out of the woods at the same time. So, we hiked in together and talked a bit and decided the first thing we were gonna do was get a beer. Which we did. We went directly to the Armory Pub and ordered some of their special beers that they had there. One was the Appalachian Lager which was very good. It was made by the West Virginia Brewing Company. Another one¢¦I can¢t remember what the heck it was. Oh, a stout also made by the West Virginia Brewing Company. We sat there for awhile. I called Kelly and told her where I was and she headed over that way. The bartender was a pretty cool guy. He kept filling up my glasses when they got empty and I pulled out beef jerky that Mark Z had given me and passed it around until it was all gone. Everybody had some including the bartender. I went to pay the bartender and he managed to charge me for everybody¢s beer. Which is ok. It was 20 bucks. Mud left a big tip for the guy and we got out of there. Kelly agreed to take Mud and Jug over to the Super Walmart because they needed to do grocery shopping. I hung around there too. We shopped around a little bit. I ended up getting an 8 pack of lithium AA batteries and a bunch of candy bars. We left there with the intention of going to the outfitter but the outfitter unfortunately was only for paddle sports and rafting and stuff like that. I really didn¢t need anything that badly. I just wanted to visit the outfitter and check out the new gear. So, we all headed over to the Golden Coral all you can eat. The three of us pigged out. Kelly had a regular portion. Mud, Jug and myself had several platefuls of food. Then Kelly drove us over to the ATC Headquarters where there was a very excitable woman who had volunteered there for a week. She came from California and the reason she was doing this was that she wanted to get in on the excitement and see what it¢s all about. She¢s interested in a thru hike next year. While we were there we got our pictures taken. I ended up being hiker number 287 to come through which is surprising. Less than 300 people had made it to Harper¢s Ferry. Though that¢s not to say that¢s all that will make it because there will be more people walking through there. But I was the 287th hiker this year out of probably 3000 or so that have made it this far. I noticed while looking at the book there were many people I recognized. Spiderman was in there. Ultreya had come through in the afternoon. Grizzly was in the book with his picture and many others. Probably 2 dozen people that I¢ve met along the trail were in the book. So anyway, we spent some time there. It was very exciting. Very uplifting to actually have gotten to Harper¢s Ferry and gotten our picture in the book and talked to the lady. We finally decided it was time to go. Kelly drove us back over by the Armory Pub where we had stopped and I finished off another Corona. Kelly had bought a whole bunch of Corona¢s and soda¢s and all kinds of stuff. That was a real treat¢¦to have her actually come and see me number one and to bring things that she knew we would appreciate. But, it was time to go. Around 4:30 we finally packed it up. I said goodbye to Kelly and the three of us went ahead and started hiking. Quite a hike. We went for about 3 miles then the trail cut off into the woods. I started hiking straight uphill. Not a good climb. It was a very steep climb for a couple of miles and I didn¢t feel very good, in terms of....I wore out halfway up. I think mainly because my stomach was still trying to do the digestion thing. I noticed that I get into a low level of energy after I¢ve eaten a lot. My body¢s changing. It immediately starts to absorb everything that I¢ve stuck in my mouth. When I eat massive amounts it just drops me down to the point where I need to sleep. But I did make it to the shelter. We got here about a quarter to seven or so. There¢s a couple of section hikers that are here. One couple is headed south. They¢ve been out for 5 days and the guy was telling me that he was pretty sad that his 5 days were ending. There's another couple that I had never seen before. Section hikers also. Then later in the evening¢¦one of the Canadian couples ( I can¢t remember their name but I¢ve seen them a number of times along the trail) also showed up and did stay in the shelter. Then finally Librarian (that¢s his trail name Librarian) showed up too. I discovered as soon as I got to the shelter that my water filter was gone. So basically I¢m screwed in terms of being able to filter water. The only good thing about that is I know I can run from here and in seven miles there is a campground where I can use a spickett and then another seven miles after that there is another place. I¢m just gonna have to deal with it until I get to Maryland. I just got ahold of Laura and I asked her to overnight the water filter that I do have sitting at the house there. She¢s gonna do that. Just not happy about losing my filter. That was a good set up. But in the meantime I¢ve lost my platypus bag that I hang to do the gravity feed. That¢s about it. I¢m sleeping in the top level of the Ed Garvey Shelter. Named for a very famous AT hiker who recently died I believe. Really nice shelter. One of the better shelters on the trail. Two levels. It¢s got a nice porch on the front and a little porch on the back. Plenty of room and I¢m gonna sleep on the top level. I¢ve been trying to stay away shelters. Mainly because of the snoring thing and don¢t want to mess with people and have them lose sleep over me. But, it is supposed to rain like hell tonight and as it got dark tonight we could see a thunderstorm a couple of miles ahead in front of us. We really haven¢t gotten any rain from it but it¢s been flashing and thundering and lightening. Probably headed this way. That¢s it for today. I¢m going to go and try to get some sleep and get up early. I considered running 35 miles all the way to Cascade, MD to get it over with but it¢s a long day so I¢ll see what happens. There are too many stops along the way. There are a lot of roads and I might pull off and have a hamburger or a beer or something at the campground. So, all that will probably slow me down.