Date: 2019-07-14
From: David Lesser Memorial Shelter (VA)

To: Ed Garvey Shelter (MD!)
Miles today: 15.6
Weather: scattered clouds

We got up early this morning to get in and out of Harpers Ferry. The hike into town wasn¢t too bad. There were some rocky places, but also a fair amount of easy trail. There were a lot of day hikers, especially as we got close to town. We finally crossed completely into West Virginia about 10am. I would say we have finished Virginia, but we still have that 3ish miles south of Damascus yet to complete. We crossed the Shenandoah River on a busy highway bridge (luckily there was a separate area to walk) and then took a side trail to go to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters.Remember, we were the only thru-hikers at the shelter last night. Today we had not seen anyone on trail except day and section hikers. We figure we¢ll be the only thru-hikers at the ATC HQ today. Um, wrong!  We saw so many people we had hiked with recently in town! According to one of the people working the HQ, yesterday they had 20 thru-hikers come through. We had to do 2 things at ATC HQ: get our tags and our photo. They have binders of photos of hikers. Anyone who is doing a hike of any length on the AT can get one. They take your picture in front of the building and you write in some info about you and your hike. Disappointingly, Spike got cut out of the picture! He was in there but when the final one was printed, he was gone. If it hadn¢t been as busy as it was in there, I would have had them reprint it. Then there are thru-hiker tags. We had tried to pick them up from the ATC in Damascus, but they had run out. They said to pick ours up when we got to Harpers Ferry, and now we¢re here! The tag indicates that you¢re a thru-hiker. On the trail, I find myself looking to see if someone has a tag. It¢s a quick way to identify who is a section hiker versus thru.While we were at the HQ, we flipped through the pages to see who we knew had been through already. We found someone we met early on was only 5 days ahead of us. Someone we didn¢t like was 2 weeks ahead. It was fun seeing the many people we have hiked with over the last couple of months. After getting all of that done, we head to a restaurant we had heard good things about on Guthook. I ordered the nachos. As the waiter set it down, he said, ¢The only people who finish these are hikers.¢ It was an obscene amount of food. I did not finish them, even with substantial help from SC. I had them packed up to go.We then walked back to the ATC HQ where we found a hungry hiker who was happy to get leftover nachos. We filled up our water bottles, and then headed back to the trail. It was about 4:30 and we still had 7 miles to get to the next shelter. We walked down through the historic part of Harpers Ferry, and then crossed the Potomac River on a railroad bridge that had a pedestrian walkway. When we did that, we completed our first full state: West Virginia! I was disappointed that there wasn¢t a ¢Welcome to Maryland¢ sign.The first 2.7 miles of Maryland were super flat as we were following the former C&O Canal Towpath. It¢s a bike path so there were lots of people out on bikes. One guy asked if I was a thru-hiker as he rolled by. ¢Yes!¢ I answered. I realized that this was the first time I answered with an unconditional affirmative. Usually I say, ¢That¢s the plan.¢ I think getting my thru-hiker tag and taking the picture at ATC HQ made me feel more official.As we got to the end of the towpath, I saw a man carrying a cooler. ¢Do you have any sodas I can take off your hands?¢  He opened the cooler to reveal ice cold Coke! He apologized for not having alcohol, but Coke was exactly what I wanted. SC got one as well. We sat on a large rock to rest and drink our sodas. Next we had a climb up a hill to get to the shelter. It was tough after such a long day, but made it before sunset. There are two guys here: a nobo thru-hiker and a sobo section hiker. The section hiker was planning on tenting. The other was trying to decide if he should tent or stay in the shelter. SC and I are in the shelter. Anyway, apparently the shelter problem is that the shelter has both a metal roof and a hickory tree. When the hickory nuts hit the roof, it sounds like a gunshot. It hasn¢t done it since I¢ve been here though.