Date: 2021-05-21
From: Stealth campsite 

To: Stealth campsite 
Miles today: 11.7
Weather: broken clouds

David got up for his usual 2am pee break when he saw a bouncing white light in the forest. His first thought was ¢What the heck is that?¢. He noticed the bouncing light was getting closer and then realized it was a hiker. The guy had his headlamp on and was looking for the WV/VA border sign. David pointed it out to him. Tight across from where we were camped. He was starting the 4-state challenge. (This is where you hike through 4 states in 24 hours. It¢s a 44 mile hike to get through VA, WV, MD, and then to PA.)We got up when the alarm went off at 6am. There was a nice breeze still blowing. (It had started the night before and really cooled things down.) We had eaten breakfast and packed up the tent and were finishing up packing our backpacks. A hiker came down the trail southbound. Super friendly and chatty. He mentioned that he had retired the Friday before and got in his RV on Monday to continue section hiking the AT. (We told him about me retiring 2 weeks ago and getting on the trail the next day.) He had already hiked several of the north eastern states. He talked about how obsessed he was with hiking and with helping thru-hikers. He started rifling through his fanny pack and we thought he was going to give us some trail magic like fruit or candy. Instead he pulled out a crisp $100 bill and offered it to us. We were stunned! At first we refused but he insisted saying that he had just sold his business and done very, very well. He repeated that he was obsessed with helping thru-hikers. (I won¢t give his name or trail name or any identifying info for his privacy.) He told us about his business and about being approached by Home Depot and Amazon. He was ready to retire and hike so he sold the business. We profusely thanked him and then our hiker angel went south and we headed north to Harpers Ferry. We hiked to the ATC (Appalachian Trail Conservancy) center but it was closed. We talked to a couple volunteers, Poptart and Samurai Blue, and they said the ATC would open next week. Samurai Blue lives in Waynesboro, PA and offered to give us a ride to resupply when we hit town. Yay!After getting back on the trail we noticed rocks of all sizes being pulled out of the ground all along the trail. Some of these rocks were big enough that I could hardly lift them. We found out later that the bears were coming along and pulling the rocks out looking for insects and probably the tasty and rare cicada. We continued our journey and as it became later in the day we just knew we weren¢t going to make it to the shelter unless we really hustled. We came around a bend and there was Traveler. She was slackpacking and trying to get hold of her ride but her phone was dead as was her backup battery. Who goes on a hike without a fully charged phone and backup battery?? I pulled out my power bank and she started charging her phone. Then she called her ride and they got into a 10 minute discussion on the best place to pick her up. Meanwhile the daylight hours were fading snd we had over 3 miles to go to get to the shelter. Arghh!We finally got going again and made our own stealth campsite far off the trail. We had to clear sticks and dig out some rocks, but we got camp set up, ate noodles for dinner and then crashed. We hiked 11.7 miles today.