Date: 2007-07-02
From: Blackburn ATC Center

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 12.6
Weather: clear sky

July 2, One Thousand Miles!Happy birthday, P.Vev!I wish every day on the trail could start the way this one did. I woke up and just relaxed in my sleeping bag and looked out the window for a while. Th sun was shining, the birds were chirping and it was a nice, cool, crisp morning. Very calm. And I knew it was a big day - 1,000 miles!I got packed up and headed over to the main building where most of the other hikers had stayed. Hopeful had made coffee and banana bread to share with us and we all gathered in the kitchen to eat. Hikelet, Hopeful and RedWing's baby, also joined in on the fun - super cute. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Golden Child when he got up and all just sort of lazed around for a while sipping coffee and talking. It was quite relaxing. I hadn't had coffee in a while so that was nice too.I started looking at the photos of Hikelet on the fridge and noticed a photo of RedWing and Hopeful in a very familiar looking place - Pyramid Point Trail, where Eric had proposed - so I asked Hopeful if that was where they were and sure enough, it was! Turns out that's where RedWing proposed too! How crazy!So, finally around 9 a.m., I put my shoes on and started the gigantic climb back to the trail. The trail was awesome - really, really flat and not too rocky. It continued that way for about three miles when I arrived at the David Lesser Memorial Shelter. It felt like I was just out for a morning stroll, a nice walk - definitely not a hike.I was at the shelter with Melk, Ronin and Tuna Bag and we decided we'd just hit the 1,000 mile mark! As we waited for the others, I built a 1,000 mile marker with sticks and branches. Team Average and Mayo, Cobweb, and Tuna Bag and I all celebrated the thousand mile mark with lots of shenanigans. Mayo decided we should build a human 1,000 so we went through that process about seven times - we were there for quite some time. I can't believe I've hiked 1,000 miles! It was quite exciting.After a while, we started hiking again. The trail got quite a bit more rocky and, at times, was nothing but a field of rocks and boulders. It was quite painful. I think it was for this reason I really started to slow down after a while - my feet felt pretty bad and I was definitely ready to be done hiking. It was not hard hiking and I was frustrated that I was so beat but on we went. I hiked near Melk for a while and we got to the Shenandoah River around 3 p.m. We waited to Youngle and then walked to the Comfort Inn. Youngle and I were both messes and Melk was roaring to go - talking rapidly and for several minutes at a time about the process we would use to do laundry. We handed over our laundry to the hotel and they washed it for us, amazing to have to sit in a thousand-degree laundromat for two hours! We ordered pizza and sat around for a while and later went to a pub where we met Mayo and Tuna Bag.You had to ring a bell to get into the pub and the whole place stopped and watched us. Odd.I was beat and was glad to come back to the room early.Post Trail Thoughts:More of the same fun and shenanigans continued on this day - a great time making a human 1,000 and celebrating in Harpers Ferry with everyone. I was so happy to be there!