Date: 2007-09-10
From: Harpers Ferry Hostel

To: Bears Den Hostel
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: scattered clouds

I returned to the land of my birth this morning. I will be in Virginia for another 500something miles, and if the past 14 miles are any indication, it won't be fun.Today's miles were rendered much more enjoyable by the arrival of my iPod at the Harpers Ferry post office. I headed into the Wilderness in Maine reasoning that technology and nature do not mesh. I was hiking the AT to experience nature in its unadultered glory. After hiking 1,165.8 miles with Britney Spears, Alanis Morissette and the Backstreet Boys running through my head, I NEED my music. Disparage me if you wish, but I think we've already decided that I'm a terrible thru-hiker anyways, right?I hiked out of Harpers Ferry with the joy that can only come with knowing that I will never again have to hike with N Sync in my head or bear the silence that makes my ears yearn for real, not-in-my-head music, music that comes from speakers or jukeboxes or headphones, ANY real music, even if it has to be N Sync coming from the shoddiest speakers imaginable. 8 miles into Virginia I noticed that the battery on my iPod was already running low. Did this mean I would only be able to hike 4 hours with music and then carry the dead weight of my iPod in silence until I found a place to recharge it? As I pondered the implications, I failed to notice the large tree tilted across the path at forehead-height. My hat broke the collision but I hit the tree hard enough to throw me off balance. I stumbled to the side and tripped over yet another fallen tree I had failed to notice. Winded and aching, I recovered my iPod (which had been torn from my pack) and hustled to catch up to HP. I finally saw him at the other side of a rocky patch that I was about to enter. He turned and shouted a warning. My headphones muffled his words enough that I couldn't tell exactly what he was warning me about- loose rocks, perhaps? What- he didn't think I could handle a few loose rocks? Although I have shown time and again that I am an incompetent hiker, I was insulted. I stepped carelessly across the rocks. As it turned out, he wasn't warning me about loose rocks. He was warning me about bees.I stepped too close to the yellowjacket hole he had been warning me about. A particularly aggressive yellowjacket stung me through my Smartwools and liners. Already frustrated by my fall, this was enough to drive me to tears. I threw my poles and renounced my thru-hike. I yelled that I hated the trail, that I was quitting the trail immediately, that I was going to light the trail on fire. I killed the yellowjacket, which had continued to sting me during my rant (note to self: next time, kill bee first, move away from bee nest, then freak out). I picked up my poles and threw them again, then kicked them.And all of a sudden I felt better and more ready to hike than I have in weeks. I guess you have to break down every so often just to keep going. I hiked the rest of the way to Bears Den Hostel with an enthusiasm that I haven't felt in a while. Along with HP, Thorny, Salty Dog and Caveman, I indulged in the Hiker Special- $25 for a bunk, a shower, laundry, free internet and long distance phone, hiker clothes, a pint of Ben and Jerry's, a soda and a Tombstone pizza. Not too shabby. And now I am sitting, stomach full, in a pair of jeans. JEANS. I have my wallet in my back pocket. I have pockets! Life is good.