Date: 2008-11-17
From: PA

To: Four State Challenge
Miles today: 0.0

So Phil and I have just completed the Four State Challenge starting in PA and ending in Virginia. This is a thru-hiker challenge that we have heard about from the start of our trip. The challenge is 44 miles through PA, Maryland, West Virginia, and ending in Virginia all in one 24 hour period. Here is a little time long of our day. Saturday (11/15)4:00pm- Phil and I sit down to our ¢pre-game¢ meal before the big day. We split a large pizza we ordered from a shop down the road and munch down a dessert of Little Debbie oatmeal cr me pies, trail magic we received from a local hiker. 5:00pm- We are both in our sleeping bags in our tent preparing to get some sleep for the big day. Both of us are nervous and also excited at the thought of the 44 miles.11:50pm- The alarm goes off meaning its time to get packed up and moving. I¢m already awake because I wasn¢t used to the 5 oclock bed time and I guess my body was too nervous to sleep. Both of us lie quiet for a minute hoping the other will try to persuade against challenge and go back to bed. 11:51pm- We both get out of our sleeping bags and pack up. Sunday(11/16)12:00am- We start on the PA boarder of the railroad tracks. Once the clock struck 12, we crossed the boarder line into Maryland. The Four State Challenge has officially begun. 12:10am- We cook up a huge midnight breakfast of oatmeal as we prepare our packs to go. The rain has stopped from yesterday but its in the mid 30s and very windy. 12:45am- Breakfast is complete and we begin to hike off into the dark. 2:20am- Our first break of the night where we sat down for a snack break. Each of us has one bag full of food to get us through the day. These bags consisted of GORP, beef Jerky, snickers, power bars, granola bars, tootsie pops, Oreos and my favorite, Little Debbie cr me pies.3:00am- We hike through a giant farm field. We notice there are a bunch of cows sleeping and we thought we would give cow tipping a try for the first time like we had seen in the movies. We quietly sneak up to this herd of cows and as we got near, we noticed these weren¢t the typical dairy cows with black and white spots. These were bulls with 3 foot long horns that the night had hid from us before we got close. As they woke from their sleep and started moving around wondering who was bothering them, we quickly ran off the farm field before we were going to get trampled and gorged by these beasts. 6:30am- the Sun finally rises and we turn off our head laps ending our night hike. 7:30am- We meet our friend Paul Wilson from Deerfoot. He takes us into his car for a break which had the heat blasting. We warm up as we eat a second breakfast of oranges and cheez-its. We are 19 miles down at this point and are both exhausted from hiking all night. 25 miles to go. 11:50am-Hit the 30 mile mark breaking our previous longest hiking day of the trip. Every step begins to wear on our feet and knees. Our breaks are no longer sitting down and resting up rather stretching so we don¢t cramp up. 1:00pm- During a break, I had convinced myself we had only 2 miles until the end of our day. My morale was crushed when looking in the book to find out it was 10 miles left. After fighting the urge to quite and enjoying a couple Oreos and a Little Debbie snack, we continued onward. 4:00pm- We reached Harpers Ferry, the psychological mid point of the trail in West Virginia where the ATC has its head quarters. We enjoy a small break. Despite to sore feet and knees, we continue south for the final 2 miles.5:00pm- Expecting a huge ¢WELCOME TO VIRGINIA¢ sign with flashing lights and music to finish up our day, we reach a small sign saying ¢Loudoun Heights Trail¢. We check our trail book and this was it, the West Virginia/ Virginia state line. The Four State Challenge has been complete. We paused for a minute a little disappointed at the finish line. But that didn¢t last long after we both gave each other a hug and looked back on the day that started 17 hours and 44 miles ago. And we both have to give credit to where it belongs, to our Lord God who gave us our strength and energy to complete this challenge who was watching over us every step of the way. Monday(11/17)We are in Harpers Ferry right now enjoying a day off at our friends Paul¢s house. We certainly feel the effects of yesterday with our sore and painful legs so it feels great to get off our feet today. Continuing South tomorrow.