Date: 2015-05-27
From: Bears Den Hostel - Mile 1,002.9

To: Appalachian Trail Conservancy - Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 19.9

After "make it yourself pancakes", we set out at 6 am trying to beat the heat. Still humid. But we had 4 miles of the Roller Coaster left and it was nice to get the climbs done early. We took a break at Ravens Rock and enjoyed the view while eating the last of the Utz potato chips I had from my husband's visit. After the Roller Coaster, the terrain wasn't too bad except for the rocky sections which pop up randomly and can be tedious to navigate. Crafty and I took the side trail to the Buzzard Rock "view" which wasn't much. We arrived at the shelter side trail to find Andreas waiting for us. Apparently Carlos whom we had not seen since Damascas and thought was a day ahead of us had arrived just 3 minutes before and had gone to the shelter for water. We didn't need to and it was a longer off trail detour so we hiked another mile until we found some rocks to sit on to take a break. Carlos walked by a few minutes later and we learned we had finally caught up to him only because he had slowed down his pace because he was waiting for his new shoes to arrive. We chatted and made plans to have dinner together. he took off and we followed a few minutes later. It looked like it was going to thunderstorm as the skies darkened and some big raindrops fell. But it wasn't much and it cooled down a little. We crossed Keys Gap where we saw "Virginia is for Lovers" sign to the east and "Welcome to West Virginia"sign to the west. It stopped raining after we crossed and would go back and forth between sun and rain clouds. Andreas and I waited for Crafty at the boundary sign for Harpers Ferry National Park. We hiked on to the final VA -WV a border sign announcing 1.9 miles to the ATC. It was an odd steep descent and climb but we finally went down under the Shenandoah River Bridge and crossed theShenandoah River alongside loud traffic. We climbed back into a ridge paralleling the river until we reached the side trail which took us up to the town and through some historical square to the ATC Headquarters. They had a hiker lounge and we got our picture taken, got our hiker #s (we are the 285, 286 and 287th thru hikers to check in!) and had a cold drink along with a delicious chocolate brownie Carlos' sister had sent him. Andreas found his picture from his 1995 hike. It's such a mental and physical milestone to be here! We are just under 72 miles from half way and still have the hardest terrain to cover. Statistics are half of the hikers who start drop out before Harpers Ferry. Then only half the hikers who make it to HF actually make it all the way. So we made the first cut but still have a big one to survive! We were planning to stay at the Teahorse Hostel but Carlos was staying at the Econolodge and it was about the same price if the three of us shared a room again. So we decided to eliminate the bunk room noise and snoring factors and stay at the hotel. Crafty and I need a better nights sleep for our 24 hour Four States, 43.4 mile challenge For dinner we celebrated at The Anvil with Carlos and Schmitty, a section hiker and meteorologist from Baltimore, MD whom Carlos had met in the trail and was checking in as we left for dinner. It is our last night with Andreas since he flies home to Germany for two weeks to see his daughter. He plans to catch up with us in mid June when he returns.