Date: 2011-05-25
From: Manassas Gap Shelter

To: VA-WV border, 5.8 miles past Sam Moore Shelter
Miles today: 25.6
Weather: broken clouds

(In which I ride the roller coaster and finally get the Virginia Blues)After a thirteen mile morning hike followed by a ninety minute lunch siesta, River Rat and I enter "the roller coaster", a thirteen mile section of steep ups and downs. Since the AT essentially contains nothing *but* ups and downs, the sign warning hikers of the upcoming terrain is ominous. We've heard mixed reports of its difficulty from southbounding section hikers, with Notamoose calling it "the log ride", since she would get wet walking in the streams at the bottom of each descent, but unimpressed with is difficulty when compared to her PCT experience. In the hot, humid weather River Rat and I agree that, along with the stretch of trail near Dragon's Tooth, it is one of the two difficult sections in Virginia.Going up and down the steep hills I become irritable and covered in sweat. The closer we get to Harpers Ferry the more excited River Rat gets about meeting his girlfriend, but having ridden along on his enthusiasm, it sinks in that I don't actually have anyone or anything waiting for me, and that I will lose my hiking partner as well. The infamous "Virginia Blues", which I had managed to avoid for the first 480 miles of the state, finally set in during the roller coaster. Unlike most sufferers of the Virginia Blues, I am lucky to get them at a point when I have less than twenty miles of the state left to hike.Since his girlfriend won't arrive until Friday morning and he is ahead of schedule, River Rat decides to stop early and camp jut outside of town tomorrow. Eager to finish as much of the state as possible and reach town tomorrow, I say goodbye for now and keep hiking. Having followed him for so long, I pull ahead just before Harpers Ferry in true bike drafting style.I make it to the first stretch of the Virginia / West Virginia border just as the sun sets, where there is a campsite and spring. I set up my tent quickly in the dusk, and only realize belatedly that, being on the right side of the trail, my tent is still in Virginia, while the spring twenty yards away is in West Virginia. I drink my fill of cold West Virginia spring water. Having nearly run out of chlorine dioxide tablets, I've stopped treating spring water when I can see the source of the spring.Having avoided sleeping in shelters for the last ten nights, ever since the disastrous flea incident, I have grown attached to the comforts of tenting. In addition to not being tied to the locations of shelters, tenting offers a privacy rare on the trail and lets me stay up to write in my journal without disturbing others. I haven't had to set up or take down my tent in the rain recently, so maybe it will take such an experience to remind me of the conveniences of shelters.After flirting with the WV-VA border for a few miles, tomorrow I will finally leave the state of Virginia for good, pass the one thousand mile mark and enter Harpers Ferry, WV, home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters. A few days later I will reach the halfway point, and I feel ready for this new chapter to begin.