Date: 2015-06-12
From: Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Harper's Ferry, WV
Miles today: 0.0

Morning arrived too soon once again. Eyes heavy. My brain a second behind my eyes. Cotton mouth. Hungry.After showering I headed downstairs to take care of some continental breakfast business. The crew would follow close behind me and we'd all dive into plates of otherwise avoided biscuits and gravy, waffles, fried eggs, and sausage links packed with f'n grease.Why the f'n grease comments lately? Just a phrase Moosehead and I have been tossing around a lot lately, mainly due to a Gordon Ramsay video on YouTube. If you don't know what it is, chances are you can't afford it. In reality, trail life can suck for a guy. It's lonely. Most girls have longer armpit and leg hair than you do. If they don't, it means they find the time to shave while still smoking your your butt up a mountain. The trail is a tough place for tough people; it makes no exceptions for chicks. They're all the real deal out here. Thus many frustrated guys. Enter said video.After breakfast Moosehead would head out for the day to spend time with his uncle, visiting him for the day from nearby Leesburg, VA. I would meet them later in the day, but wanted them to first have a few hours to themselves. I hung out at the hotel with Rocky, Miami Vice, and Michaelangelo until 12:00pm before we had to vacate our room. Feeling a little bad for the way we left the room (not trashed, just messy) I did housekeeping a solid by stripping the beds, preparing the trash, and stacking the towels in order to save them time. As for all the hair left along the bottom of the tub, there was nothing I could do. Instead I wrote a quick note read,"Help yourself to beer in the fridge. Sorry for the skinned animal in the tub. Yolo. Thanks, 5 filthy AT hikers." The skinned animal, of course, is what resulted from Rocky shaving her legs. You're welcome for that image.I grabbed a photo with Rocky, Miami Vice, and Michaelangelo before parting ways to enjoy our individual versions of our afternoons. Michaelangelo headed to meet up with friends, both Rocky and Miami Vice headed back towards the old down town, and I headed west to the Harper's Ferry National Historic Park which would take me ~25 minutes of sweaty, ball-dripping walking in the hot sun to reach. I would soon find out that there wasn't exactly much to see around the immediate visitor's center, at least not without hiking or driving to see a few battlefield locations. With little time, energy, or resources to do so, I instead looked at a few informational plaques before sitting to wait for a shuttle that would return me to the old downtown area where I could, once again, walk amongst the Civil War era buildings. As I was sitting and waiting for the shuttle, a nice gentleman approached and offered me a Gatorade and a saucer-sized cookie. It was very much appreciated. Some civilians just get it.After another hour of walking through the old buildings, original to the period, and chatting with a nice National Park interpretor dressed as a Billy Yank and just as interested in the AT as I was the battle of Harper's Ferry. Tired of zigzagging through groups of sweaty, overweight tourists, I retreated out of the old downtown and returned to the ATC where I would meet back up with Moosehead and his uncle, an intelligent, talented, leader of a man who I'd have the pleasure of getting to know over the next several hours. He and Moosehead kindly waited at the ATC with me for ~30 minutes while I waited for the mail to be delivered.Finally the mail arrived and I was tearing through another weighted down care package from my mother. I was just short of swimming through small boxes of goodies like crackers, cheese, granola, lollipops, a variety of nuts - big, small, and packed with salt - and a ton of our favorite, 2-minutes worth of flavor gum. Well done, ladies. Once again I had to pick and choose what I could carry, but I assured both my mom and sister in-law that what I left behind would be appreciated by hikers and that they're contributing to good trail karma.I left with Moosehead and his uncle and we returned to the Harper's Ferry National Historic Park and literally sat on a wall surrounding the visitors center for the next few hours and talked. It was perfect. We didn't need to be spoiled or catered to. His uncle understood that simple pleasure of allowing both your body and soul to recoup through relaxing and good convo. Covering everything from trail experiences to the rich history of the Moosehead family, it was a pleasure being accepted into their quality time. The highlight would come when a park ranger, a gun on his hip and shiny badge on his chest, approached and asked a few questions regarding our hike. In the process of sharing information with us, Moosehead decided he couldn't hold a fart in. He must've thought it'd be silent, but it got louder. Doing our best to hide our 25 and 26-year-old giggles, the ranger did a good job continuing, despite a quick hesitation, most likely asking himself if that really happened. We've been in the woods too long. Also, we did end up being spoiled as his uncle treated us to a couple of beers and dinner back at Private Quinn's Pub. A Reuben would do the trick. We were then dropped off at the house of Harper's Fairy who graciously invited us to stay once again. I hope to see his uncle, as well as some of the other Moosehead clansmen towards the end of the journey. I've only met one of his family members so far, but I have a feeling it's a pretty good one.Just before 9:00pm and with the last of the daylight quickly fading, Moosehead and I entered the house of Harper's Fairy where we'd spend our last night in a very chill mode compared to the others. We packed our food bags, worked on catching up our journals, and just observed as 4 other German hikers enjoyed a lively conversation, switching between German and English in the process. A couple actually recently got engaged atop McAfee's Knob when the man proposed to her after deciding he didn't want to wait until Katahdin to do so. Well played, sir.Moosehead and I retreated upstairs a couple of hours before the noise downstairs subsided. Being so tired and with the thought of returning to the woods soon enough, falling asleep on the wooden floor below the bed of our host was no problem. If dreams came easy for me, I would've dreamt of flowing creeks of cold beer and mountain-shaped Reubens. It's time to get back to the trail. Normally I might say thank you to a town I'd visited, but in the case of tourist-loving Harper's Ferry, you're welcome.Here's to over-stuffed food bags, entering Maryland tomorrow, and poorly-timed farts.