Date: 2007-06-29
From: Bear's Den Hostel

To: Harper's Ferry, WV
Miles today: 19.9

I woke up early this morning and wandered out to the kitchen in search of a cup of coffee. I wanted to finish some journaling in the peace and quiet of the early morning hours before the crowd woke up. I started talking to one of the youth group leaders however, and eventually "Hopeful" joined us. We all had a good conversation as we sipped morning coffee. Each thru hiker made pancakes for breakfast and eventually we all packed up and got ready to hit the trail for the day. As I mentioned yesterdau, the hike to Harpers Ferry was 20 miles today. Fortunately, with the rain last night, the weather had cooled down, but was still a bit humid.The goal this morning was to complete the remainder of the "roller coaster" and stop at the Blackburn Center for lunch. This 8 mile stretch offered the same up and down hiking but was basically uneventful. I did stray from the trail at one point as I had my head down concentrating on the rocky trail, and had to back track to re-locate the AT.We eventually reached the Blackburn Center and had a quick lunch. The Center is an impressive complex of buildings situated in the woods, and like Bear Den Hostel, would have been a nice place to spend the night. The remainder of the day's hike to Harpers Ferry was not too bad and was filled with long stretches of level, rock free trail. Unfortunately there were long sections where the Gypsy Moth had basically defoliated a good swath of the forest. It made the area appear the way it would normally look in early spring, with the trees just beginning to bud and leaf out. Very strange looking and depressing.As we were about 5 miles from Harpers Ferry, I encountered a very rocky section of trail and felt a painful twinge along the achilles tendon of my left foot. I think I overstretched it as I bounded down the blue trail leading to the Blackburn Center, earlier in the afternoon. As I continued I seriously thought I would not make it over this rocky trail. I gulped down about 600mg of ibuprofen and slowly continued. That seemed to help and eventually I made it to the bridge that crosses the Shenandoha River, and walked across it into Harpers Ferry.Before my hike, I had been invited to stay at the house of Mike and Leslie Slover who live in nearby Charles Town. My wife had taught Mike as a 4th grade student, and we became friends with his parents when they lived in CT. Mike had said that he would not mind a few other hikers joining me, so I had asked him if it would be OK if Snake and Slick joined me as well. He was fine with that, and after making a call to let him know we had arrived, he picked us all up in front of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) office.We drove back to his beautiful home and were introduced to his wife Leslie and two young daughters Polly and Virginia. After we got the shower and laundry stuff done, Mike and Leslie prepared a real feast of grilled steak, baked potato, a garden salad, and bread. Mike even had a keg of ale on tap. We enjoyed their hospitality very much, and it was great getting to know them and answer all the questions they had about life on the trail. We are very lucky to be here.