Date: 2015-05-12
From: Bears Den Hostel

To: WV 9, Keys Gap
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: scattered clouds

The Bears Den Hostel where we stayed last night is about 20 miles from Harpers Ferry, WV. Under most circumstances we could slack-pack that in one day. But I didn't want to push my leg too far too soon, so we split it up into a 14-mile day (about the same as yesterday) and a 6-mile day. The only reasonable point for shuttle access to the trail left us with a short hike tomorrow, so it should be an easy day. We started the day with a pancake breakfast, dear to the heart of most hikers. The Bears Den hostel has a do-it-yourself kitchen, and the refrigerator has plenty of pancake mix and fixin's - all included in the thru-hiker fare. We noticed that most of the folks making pancakes at 5:30 AM were on the older side of the bimodal hiker age distribution. The younger generation apparently are late risers. The Bears Den also offers shuttles and a reasonable slack-pack service to Harpers Ferry and we arranged to have our back-packs taken to the AT Conservancy HQ that is a short distance from where we're staying in town. We told some of the hikers and they seemed interested in the slack service too. So armed with lots of calories, we headed out in the early dawn. Our first challenge was to finish the Roller Coaster and we had a couple more climbs left. Somehow the hills seemed a little easier after a good night's rest and in cooler air. Before we finished the Coaster we passed a sign that marked the Virginia-West Virginia border. I need to check the map, the trail must flirt with the state boundary since we cross the border again before Harpers Ferry, WV. We also passed a sign that simply said "1000". The sign was more official-looking than the sign on the ground made of stones that we saw yesterday, but this sign seemed to be several miles north of the 1000-mile point in AWOL's AT Guide. The actual length of the trail varies from year to year as the trail clubs modify and reroute the AT, so maybe this sign is a little out-of-date?With the Coaster behind us, the rest of the trail seemed less daunting. Only a couple of small climbs and descents before our pickup point at Keys Gap. And in fact most of the trail was wide and clear, but there were some very rocky sections that slowed us down a bit. Overall we made it to our pickup point ahead of schedule. We were able to get a cell signal so we called to say we were ready. Our shuttle driver dropped us off at the ATC HQ and we spent a little time browsing and talking with the staff. We had a mail drop to pick up as well as our backpacks. When they took us to the backpacks that the Bears Den driver left earlier, there must have been 8 or 10 backpacks in the stack. Apparently others thought that slack-packing was a good idea. I heard later that Bears Den loans or rents small day packs to hikers that want to slack into Harpers Ferry. After finishing at the ATC, we headed down to the Town's Inn where we had reservations. We've stayed here several times before and like the staff, plus it's right in the heart of the downtown historic district. So the rest of the day was lunch, beers, ice cream, naps and dinner. There's a cool spell on the horizon, so it may be a little chilly tomorrow morning. But we're starting early again with only 6 miles to go, so we may be back in time for breakfast with a good appetite.