Date: 2018-07-29
From: Washington Monument Park 

To: Harpers Ferry 
Miles today: 20.1
Weather: broken clouds

We left the Teahorse Hostel this morning. A Trail Angel named Tumbelina picked us up at 10am and drove us 20 miles north to do a SOBO flip flop slack pack. I¢m not sure who or what I expected, but out popped this cute little 25 year old girl. She¢s a thru-hiker and opens her home to a limited number of hikers for a nominal fee. She says this is her way of giving back.  I am officially hiking in Maryland now! This is what they call the Tri-State area where Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland come together. As Tumbelina was driving us to Washington Monument Park we drove through all three states.  Getting ready to go this morning was lots of fun. There were folks from all walks of life at the breakfast table. Two young girls from California who are long time friends. One is a recent Harvard University grad currently working at a ¢think tank¢ in DC, and the other is a senior at Berkeley. They are just enjoying a few days of friendship in Harpers Ferry and the surrounding area. Another new college grad, trail named Moxie, is thru-hiking. I think she started May 13th. She¢s already at the halfway mark! There was a guy who did CDC work in Uganda recently, and an ex-Wall Street broker. One is just seeking a new path in life and the other is a section hiker. There were some bicyclers, and our morning chef/hostel manager Benjamin.  Breakfast was the exact same. Waffles, OJ, banana, and coffee. I ate it all...again.  Before Tumbelina picked us up I weighed my pack. 40 lbs. that¢s too much! I don¢t know what I can get rid of. No worries today though as I will be slack packing. She dropped us off near a camping site and we set out to find the trailhead. There was a bus parked in the camping section that looked like the Partridge Family bus. A lady came out and pointed us in the right direction. She even let us cut through her campsite to get there. Trail Angels come in many forms.  So we started walking south. Whenever I do a flip-flop it¢s like a family reunion. I get to see other NOBO¢s that I may not have seen in a while. Today started with Trail Walker. He¢s still trucking along, but says his money is getting tight. My money is tight too. I¢ve already spent my whole budget. Thank God for Papa Big Swig who is helping me. I had no idea how expensive it is to live like a minimalist!  Everywhere and Cyborg gave me a shout from up the road. Looked like they were thumbing a ride into town.  Today¢s trail section is not only the Appalachian Trail, but also known as the Civil War Trail. I enjoyed museums, historical markers, and more.  By ¢more¢, I¢m referring to TRAIL MAGIC!  Guy and Charlene who are trail runners decided to treat us to some tasty, cooked right before our eyes,  Quesadilla¢s!  They were delicious! We are both so grateful as our day lasted longer than expected. We would have been starving! They are today¢s photo. Thank you to our wonderful Angels!  I crossed paths again with the thru-hiker whose name I cannot remember. Hugs and I continue to call him No Name. He said he spent some time looking for my glasses, but also came up empty handed.  Our hike took us past picnic areas and restrooms. It was great!  I was ahead of Hugs so I sat down at a picnic area and opened up my journal guestbook. A message from a reader named Vicki brought tears of joy to my eyes. How ironic that I read her message right then. She had requested to meet me in that exact location today, but I didn¢t see her message until it was too late to set a time. My apologies Vicki, I wish I had seen it sooner.  To all of you who follow me, thank you! Your words of encouragement and faith really do boost my spirits and help keep me going.  I walked on over to the restrooms and ran into Sister Sticks. She directed us towards the free museums. I had a really nice educational time. This place would be a great day hike experience for young families.  Leaving the museums, the trail led us out of the park and back towards Harpers Ferry. The path was wide and lovely most of the way, except for the rocky areas. They were difficult in places, but overall it was easy peasy hiking.  I saw something in nature today that I doubt I will ever see again. Hugs called me over to witness it. There was a daddy long legs spider pulling a live worm. This worm had to weigh 10 times the spiders¢ weight. Another daddy long legs was trying to take the worm from the first one. He was unsuccessful. I had no idea that spiders kill and eat worms, but that¢s exactly what was happening right before my eyes.  That was a WOW moment, but we had to hike on. We started late with a 20 mile day planned and we had already taken our time through the historical section.  We came to a place they call the tow path...or toe path. I¢m not sure which it is. Anyway it¢s a gravel lane that runs right beside the Potomac River into Harpers Ferry. How nice! We made a left and walked and talked for a mile or so. It was then that we began to look for blazes. Not a white blaze anywhere! One look at our Guthook¢s app and we realize we had turned the wrong way. We just added two miles onto our day, and we can¢t even count them. AGAiN!  We turned around and headed back the right direction. My hiker hunger started kicking in. If I had not had that quesadilla it would have been ugly! Well uglier than it was anyway. The path actually had some beautiful moments. I heard bullfrogs croaking from the old canal side, and at the same time the Potomac was rushing by on the other side. There were lots of wild roses and even a goose.  We¢re back at Tumbelina¢s place tonight. Tomorrow she¢ll take us with our full packs right back where she took us today, but we will walk north. Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018)  Where¢s your faith?