Date: 2005-06-11
From: David Lessor Memorial Shelter (tent) 

To: Hilltop House Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 9.4
Weather: light rain

Day #87 Hiking by 6:30am. 3hrs later we found ourselves crawling with the heat & humidity down to Harpers Ferry Wv. It's the proud home of the ATC headquarters and considered the psychological halfway point by thru-hikers. A little history for you. Harpers Ferry became a national historical park in 1963. Back in 1733 a trader by the name of Peter Stephens settled in harpers ferry then called "the hole". Personally, i would have kept that name, very cool. He eventually got squatters rights and ended up with the land. The C&O Cannal, B&O Railroad, and lots of industry made this a bustling little community. Ahh... but it was not to be War, fire, flood, and my favorite pestilence ravaged the town. Tourism now rules, though some would list that between war and fire. I left out the John Brown raid of 1859 and a whole bunch of civil war history. If you would like to know more may i suggest your local library. Most of what i told you i fleeced from the ATC trail guide. What do i know about the town? For starters it's bloody hot here! I hear they have a coffe house and i'm quite excited. We are staying at the hilltop house hotel and by the looks of it an entire baptist church will be there as well. Rooms are a reasonable $45. No tv, but the showers are top notch and there's a tap room. The comfort inn wanted $125 a night. I could stay here for three night at that price, maybe i will? We hop down to the ATC headquarters to have our pictures taken. I look back at my 1999 pictures, seems like just yesterday. I weighed myself and while i have lost 20 or so pounds i could probably lose another 20. I actually had mail there. Blue eye left a note to say capt. chaos was here. Red hat is getting back on the trail in waynesboro Va. and heading north. Steve & Sally my fellow '99 hikers sent me a wee tartan from scottland. In damascus they sent me handmade shortbread cookies. I believe my family's name "Forbes" is scottish/irish which explains my love for guiness. We have our own crest and everything. Time to time i tend to put on a skirt. I wonder if we have a castle? Enough of that, Rabbit and i have lunch at the hilltop. A tasty affair with huge salad, fried chicken, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cake, pies, and an ice cream. Outside Rocket and friends are back with more trail magic. They have sandwiches, kfc, fruit, cakes, soda & beer. There are too many names to list so they go by rockets posse. They were the same one's who showed up and bbq'd in the shenandoahs. Rocket is headed home for a couple days. We met naked sun who was starting the 4 state challenge tonight. Simply put, he's hiking in 4 states during a 24 hour period. A trail angel dropped him off who looked like he'd been hitting the bottle quite a bit....like the last 20 years. In what could be a first i'm not going to repeat what he said. Chuck showed up shortly after. He's up the trail a bit and visiting with his brother. We also met bonzo & his dog rio. He's another trail angel not to be confused with one earlier mentioned. There were two section hikers gazelle and i can't remember her mom's name. They have guiness at the taproom, happy, happy, happy, i'm dancing now Later on it's hard to believe rabbit and i strole down for a pizza.