Date: 2021-05-24
From: HarperÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Ferry

To: Crampton Gap Shelter
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: overcast clouds

We started out today from Harper¢s Ferry. We stayed in a hotel close by the night before and woke up. We went to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters, where we wanted to sign in to the guestbook. Unfortunately the headquarters was closed because of Covid still, so we continued to the parking lot by the start of the trail. We got out with our gear, and after taking a lot of pictures, my mom, my dad, Pepper, and I started hiking across the bridge. After the bridge my dad and Pepper turned back to go to the car so that he could head to Charlottesville where he was meeting some friends for lunch the next day. The forecast said the weather was going to be rainy all day, end it was lightly misting when we started off, but we were in good spirits and excited to get going. The first 2.5 miles were on the C&O canal path, so it was nice and easy and flat once we turned off the path the trail started climbing. After sweating an amount equal to the rain which had been soaking us, we decided it was time to put on rain gear. We passed Ed Garvey shelter, about 6 miles from the start, and kept pushing on. We kept hiking, taking short breaks on the uphills when necessary, trying to hide under tree cover to avoid the worst of the rain, but for the most part we focused on moving forward towards the shelter where we could finally lie down. We got to Gathland State Park, which was less than half a mile from the shelter we planned to stay at with relief. Our feet, legs, backs, and it felt like everything else hurt, and we passed the road where there was a field with a pavilion with a bunch of picnic tables under it. There was a sign there saying ¢shelter use by permit only¢, which had us confused, since it didn¢t mention anything about a second shelter, but it didn¢t say anything about needing a permit either. We decided to continue, but after going up another 5 or 10 minutes up the trail, we thought maybe that was the shelter after all, and decided to head back down the hill to the pavilion. There were two other hikers there having their dinner, who we¢d been playing leap frog with throughout the day. We were cold and wet and tired, but we got out our food bags and stove, excited to at least have a hot meal to warm us up some. We sat down (still in wet hiking clothes since we weren¢t 100% sure that we would stay the night there) and I screwed the stove top into the fuel canister. The fuel comes out with a hiss, so you know when you can light it, but it started hissing as I was still screwing it in, and the valve was closed. I unscrewed it a little bit and tried opening the valve, but no hiss. We tried for 10 minutes, but couldn¢t figure it out, so we thought, ¢cold dinner it is¢. Luckily, mom asked one of the other hikers for her help, and she screwed it in and kept screwing past when the fuel hisses out a little bit, since that only happens for a little bit. Beyond relieved to have hot dinner back on the menu, and crowding around the stove for what little warmth we could gather, we cooked our pasta. We discussed what we were going to do that night, and while the other hikers decided to push on, and try to find the shelter, we were just too exhausted and cold. We found a little cutout in the trees surrounding the field to set up the tent so it wouldn¢t be visible from the road and set everything up. Once we were in dry clothes (every layer possible), and curled up in sleeping bags in the tent, we started gaining some warmth back. It was only around 8:30, but after the hike and the cold, wet conditions, we fell to sleep almost immediately. In mom¢s the words, ¢today was a sucky success¢. I couldn¢t agree more. Our word of the day: rain.