Date: 2012-06-14
From: Rod Hollow Shelter

To: Blackburn ATC Center
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 84: Today was one of those days on the Appalachian Traip that we will never forget. After a very restful night in our tent, we awake at 6:00. Today is our 32nd wedding anniversary. The morning is sunny and warm. We pack everything up and walk over to the shelter picnic table to cook oatmeal and eat breakfast. There are several other hikers there also having breakfast. They all wish us us a happy anniversary.  At 8:00, we begin hiking, and within 0.4 miles, we enter the 13 mile stretch of trail known as the rollercoaster. Up and down we go over and over. Each climb seems to take us up 400-500 ft, followed by a similar descent. It is tough hiking since the trail is also very rocky, which makes for some rather slow going at times. After our 3rd ascent, we reach a gravel road crossing, where there is a cooler full of cold sodas sodas waiting for us. We enjoy this small piece of trail magic with Be One, Dewey, Animal, and Talksalot. Shortly after we start hiking again, Sparky catches up to us and we hike with him for the rest of the day. We notice in the guide book that there is a pub style restaurant coming up 0.3 miles west when we reach Snickers Gap, so we all decide to go there. Sparky gives Passion Flower a call. She is hiking southbound for a few days to cover some miles that she missed while her boy friend was visiting her. We discover that she is only 1/2 mile north of Snickers Gap while we are 1/2 mile south - perfect! We all converge at Snickers Gap at 1:00. Passion Flower is hiking with Squatch, who is filming a documentary of the AT. The five of us walk down to the Horseshoe Curve Pub for lunch. It takes a long time for us to get our lunch, but the food is good. We also see K2 there finishing up his lunch. K2 leaves shortly after we arrive. As I go up to the counter to settle my bill, I am told by the guy who served us that K2 has already paid our bill for us, wishing us a happy anniversary. We are incredulous about this act of kindness and generosity by one of our fellow hiker friends. He never said a word to us about doing this. There are truly many wonderful people out here! After lunch, we walk back up the road to Snickers Gap to continue hiking. Passion Flower and Squatch head south, while Sparky, SilverGirl, and I head north. SilverGirl leads the way and sets a fast pace. At about 4:00, we reach the VA/WV border sign, which is also the 1000 mile mark of our hike. Ranger Bill, Dewey, Roboticus, and Be One are also here and we spend several minutes taking pictures of ourselves at the sign. Moving on, we finally leave the grueling ascents and descents of the Rollercoaster. The trail continues to be very rocky though. Passing through the Devils Racecourse, we finally reach the Blackburn AT Center at just before 6:00. This place only takes donations, but they serve hikers a full dinner of spaghetti, salad, vegetables, fresh bread, and brownies. It is delicious. We also get to clean up in the solar shower on site. So many good things happened on the trail today. It was our anniversary (one we will never forget), we passed the 1000 mile mark, we entered our fifth state, had soda trail magic, had our lunch paid for us by K2, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with great company at the Blackburn AT center. What a day!  Tomorrow, we only hav 12.5 miles to hike into Harpers Ferry, where we will meet our son, Matt, at 4:00. Things just keep getting better and better out here for us and we are excited about the rest of our hike.