Date: 2008-06-02
From: Harpers Ferry, West Va.

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

Arrived at Harpers Ferry last night. Glad to finally be out of Virginia. One fourth of the trail is in Virginia. On Thursday evening I stopped at Elkwallow Wayside a store close to the trail. An Amish family was there and I asked them in Dutch where they were from. They seemed amazed that this scruffy looking bearded hiker could talk Pennsylvania Dutch. Turns out they live about 3 miles from me back in Holmes Co. Ohio. Small world. One of the nicest things about the trail is the many people you meet. On Friday I met 3 people on the Trail from Luray. Jill Keihn her husband and daughter were out for a day hike. It was ironic because I had just written about my experience in Luray Caverns. Turns out the daughter actually had worked there and knew first hand how dark it is down there. After talking with them for a while every thru hikers dream came true when she opened her backpack and started loading me up with food. The apple was great. The granola bar was good and that bag of nuts was wonderfull. They must have been special because she got her husbands approval before handing them over. What were those anyway? The last thing she gave me was North Atlantic Seaweed. To give you an idea what it's like go to the market and buy a fish. Let it set out in the sun for 5 days, away from any cats. Then take a bite. That's Dulce Seaweed. It must be an acquired taste. In retrospect I should have wrapped it up tight and smoked it. Some days the miles go by quickly and other days it's just a struggle. Sometimes I think I just tell you the bad times. Well Satarday was a day when misery sat on one shoulder and despair on the other. I had planned on doing several long days to get to Harpers Ferry to rest. At noon I got caught in another thunder storm. It just absolutly dumped on me. I was so soaked I had to stop to wring out my socks. I was just starting to dry out when another storm hit. This happened 3 times. The third time I shook my fist at the sky and yelled, I'm cursed! Between storms a bird was chirping, I yelled at it to shut up, no happyness allowed. I was a miserable excuse for a human being. I decided to hike to a Hostel called the Bears Den. It was still 14 miles away and in between was a 10 mile stretch called the roller coaster. It's a series of hard climbs. On top of climb number eight I finally arrived at Bears Den. It was close to 9 o'clock and I had hiked 28.2 miles. They had a special for hikers. For 25 dollars you got a shower, bed, laundry, whole pizza, pint of Ben and Jerry ice cream and a can of pop. At ten o'clock I was dry and sitting at the table eating my whole pizza and pint of ice cream. A can of Mt.Dew and a can of Coke and it was off to bed. I even slept a little bit. While going over the roller coaster doing a jump from one rock to another over a creek I took my first flop in 2 months. In front of a lady with 2 dogs and a boy scout I managed to land firmly on my butt. I really stuck that landing. Sunday morning was a splended morning and the mountain Laurel was in full bloom. I picked out a nice white bloom to munch on. I was just deciding what it tasted like when my hiking pole got stuck on a root. I was going downhill at the time and ever so gracefully I took my first head over heels tumble of the trip. I had not fallen at all in 62 days on the trail and now twice in two days. My landing was helped by my hiking stick being caught in the root, however the pole now looked like a big letter C. When a hiker falls with that big pack on his back it's a lot like an up ended turtle. I was not hurt which is more than I can say for the hiking stick. I tool a rock and fixed it as good as I could. I will take it to the outfitter today to see if they have a vise where I can straighten it better. I need to go pay a visit to a little church located beside the trail here in Harpers Ferry. I will tell that story later today when I get back. As you can see I passed the 1000 mile mark. Almost half done.