Date: 2016-07-02
From: Teahouse Hostel 

To: Marriot Spring Hill Suites
Miles today: 10.9

I woke up at the Teahorse Hostel around 5:30 and was like this is way too early. I went back to sleep finally getting up at 7 to have breakfast. The owner of the hostel had come upstairs and had both tables set and there was coffee, orange juice, bananas, waffles with butter and syrup. Yum it was delicious. Overall the hostel was a wonderful place in a fantastic setting in Harper's Ferry. There is also a bike path in town which is several hundred miles long. Half of us were hikers at the hostel and the other half of us were bikers. It was a nice mix of people. Many of us hikers were taking a least one or two days off for the holiday weekend, myself included. Jeff was driving down today to meet me somewhere on the trail. Some of the hikers staying last night were feather, gasket, free fall and dragon head. I met cup of tea and Alice and 2 more hikers who I didn't catch their names. Gasket, Dragon Head and I sat in the lounge area and chatted for a bit. I was waiting for the ATC to open so I could get my picture taken and find out what number NOBO hiker I was. About 8:30 I got up and packed up my gear. I left the hostel around 9:15 and headed back down the side streets to where we got off the trail. It was only a 1/2 mile to the ATC which is in a stone building. They have a hiker lounge with drinks, snacks and computers for hikers. One of the staff asked if I was ready for my picture. I said lets do it and we went outside to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy sign. She took my picture and then brought me inside to fill it out. We were to put our start date and today's date on the top above our picture. Then below we were to put our name, trail name, email and phone number. I was north bound from Springer thru hiker 1185. When I started at Amiacola Falls at the archway I was hiker 1320. It was so exciting to get to the ATC in Harper's Ferry. Hiker John was there right before me and was hiker 1184. While in the hiker lounge they have past books of all hikers by year. I found Josh (worm) who hiked in 2001 and found Jeff (lost boy) and Jessica (messy) who hiked in 2014. It was really neat to see how many hikers there have been before who have gotten to this point. I was at the ATC for about an hour and I then pushed off and started hikingnorth. The side trail back to the AT takes you down side streets and past national parks buildings. Once back on the trail you wander through the woods then come out to the rustic downtown with cobblestone street. With it being the Saturday of the Fourth of July weekend and sunny skies the downtown was mobbed. It took me forever to get through as people were stopping me to talk and to take pictures. I finally made it to the bridge over the Potomac and started over. The Amtrack train was also going over which had the Royal Couple on it as they were off to DC for the weekend. I crossed the bridge I descended into Maryland. The trail now followed the Potomac River and was a flat bike trail for about 3 miles. It then curved left going over the train tracks curving into the woods and then started a steep rocky ascent up to the ridge line. For this section of trail I was not expecting a steep climb like this and was a bit surprised at how steep the climb was for Maryland. However when you are starting at 225 feet and going to 1165 in about 1.5 miles it's going to be steep. Once on top it was relatively flat and I pushed the 6 miles to Gathland State Park where I was going to meet Jeff. Originally we were going to meet at the Washington Monument State Park but Jeffs drive down was taking less time than originally planned so I moved the meeting spot ahead. Finally he was there. Yay!!!!!!. I threw my gear into the car and we headed to Haggerstown to find a place to stay. Time for some relaxation and to load up on some calories. One quick edit, before I left the hostel The Dude showed up to pick up Feather and a group was going to Gettysburg for the day. It was nice to see Jake again as it had been awhile.