Date: 2014-05-20
From: Harpers Ferry

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: light rain

Harpers Ferry and AntietamI must confess that I write these entries, generally, with a great deal of hindsight. It seems that I cannot get myself within 10 days of my actual location, which is a little overwhelming when it comes time to write- and I am sure a bit irritating for those of you trying to track my progress. My apologies, and I shall attempt to bring you to my present location: the trail's official half-way point, Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA. But, I shan't jump ahead. The last update left me reuniting with my father in Harpers Ferry. We once again had a really pleasant time together. Both nights we were in town we stayed at the Harpers Ferry Hostel under the oppressive eye of its guardian, whom I shall dub Mrs. Misandry. But this lady was quite a turkey. She gobbled and clucked and complained enough to give any fowl a run for its money, and seemed to have a particular distrust in male company. She didn't pick on Dad much, but during our first night she lit into Elusive, a kindly, if slightly odd, older fellow that I've been leap frogging with for the last 600 miles. Perhaps "lit into" is a bit of an overstatement, but snide, obstreperous and short tempered is more to the point. She treated him as one would a flea-ridden, drooling dog. It infuriated me. Our second night there she kicked us out of the hostel entirely because a group of kids from a local school were there to take over the hostel for the night. We were instead relegated to the back yard to camp without benefits of shower, bathroom or kitchen access. Great place. Aside from the hostile hostel situation, however, my stay in Harpers was entirely satisfactory. We spent a good deal of time at the ATC headquarters talking to other hikers and checking the log to see who had already passed through. We found Geared Up sitting at the communal computer, quietly cursing the US postal service under his breath. He jumped up when he saw me and gave me a big hug. We hadn't seen one another since Waynesboro and we had much to catch up on. Apparently his homemade ziplock pack had only lasted about 80 miles before it exploded spectacularly all over the ground. He rigged together another makeshift backpack out of duct tape and a tarp he found on the side of the trail- which lasted him until his next mail drop, which included his original backpack which he'd forwarded ahead. In the process of trading out backpacks though some of his other gear had been destroyed and he was now in process of trying to replace and fix different items and nothing was showing up at the correct mailing locations- thus his quiet cursing. He sadly remarked that he would probably reach Kahtadin before he had his entire retinue of gear reassembled. What have we learned from this? Don't make light weight packs out of 5 gallon ziplock bags. Just carry your crap!I mentioned that Dad and I were planning to head over to Antietam National Battlefield to tour around a bit, and Geared Up asked of he could join. I readily agreed and the three of us took off. It was a glorious day. The sun was out and a steady wind pushed away the heat. Everything was green. What an oddly festive atmosphere to view a place where so many men lost their lives. For those of you reading who are unfamiliar or have forgotten the Civil War unit from your 5th grade social studies class, the Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history, was a political win for the Union Army, which allowed President Lincoln a politically strategic opening in which to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. There were more casualties by noon that day than had died in the entirety of the Mexican-American War. The loss boggles the senses and shrouds ones thoughts in sorrow and helplessness. We were there three days before Memorial Day- a reminder to me to be thankful for my freedom, my country, and the sacrifices made that I might enjoy them both. Geared Up and Dad got along well and chatted like old friends all day. I think they each genuinely amused each other, because later each sought me out and told me how glad they were to meet one another. I think Geared Up's actual words were, "Yeah, you're dad's real cool." I, of course, puffed with pride. For lunch the three of us split a strawberry-rhubarb pie topped with locally made ice cream. Yeah... Health food.