Date: 2014-06-02
From: tent site

To: harpers ferry
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: clear sky

This day to me is a major milestone in the history of me. With only a few more miles i would be at the unofficial halfway point of the appalachian trail. Its not really the measured middle but the appalachian trail conservancy is there and its where you get a picture taken and a new hiker number. This is the last big 'dropout' place for people too. I really cant believe im here in the time it took me and in the health im in. Im way further ahead of where i originally thought i would be and in way better shape than i thought i would be. We set off early without cooking breakfast. Just a drink and a bar would be enough to fuel us a few miles. The road was still rocky but it made no matter on this day. Down the long hill, across the potomac river, and up the trail to the atc. Hapers is a super historic place with plaques everywhere with blurbs of what happened here. Old timey buildings everywhere kept up perfectly, preserved for us to look back into history. It was actually like walking thru history in the old town section. From the AT it was .2 miles off trail to the atc. We got there even before they opened so we figured a coffe would entertain us till 9. Across the road a lady sat smoking on her porch so not knowing which way 'town' was, we asked her if she knew where we could grab a cup of joe. She said, 'oh come right up here and i will fix you some'. Captain said oh no, you dont have to do that, we just wanted to know where we could buy a coffee. She again said to come up on her porch and she would get some. Well twist my arm lady, we drank her coffee on her porch. Nice older lady that had run a b&b out of her house for a long time but was now retired and looking to move because she didnt like the small town anymore. Too many people know your business, and she proceded to tell us about all the town folk. Funny eh? We chatted for a bit till we saw hikers going into the atc. Thanked her for the drink and headed over to become bonafide half thru hikers. We got photographed and put into the book of 2014 hikers. I gotta say, im pretty proud of that right there. Then we hung out a bit waiting for my friends jim and jeanne kellogg to show up. They were coming down to visit for the day. I was excited about that too, its pretty cool for people to drive 6hours to see you and bring you food. They brought a whole pick-a-nick basket of food for us. She even brought a gallon of milk for me and a pint of maple syrup for captain to bring home. They are first class people and im lucky to have them as friends. We ate pulled pork sandwiches and cookies till we could eat only a little more. We ate blueberries and drank soda too, mmmm, sugar. After that we went to the hotel to check in. We unloaded everything from our packs to wash them. This was the captains last day so he wanted his clean for travelling and i was continuing on so i wanted mine clean for traveling too. I also had to deal with my phone issues so that and cleaning packs was the agenda. We went to verizon, my phone was 'working' but jean was concerned that once it got soaked it would soon give up the fight. The doofy salesman said it would work till it quit. Are you shitting me sherlock? It will work till it dies? That got a chuckle out of jimbo. So thinking my phone was ok we went looking for a carwash to clean the packs. There was one right down the road so we were in business. Packs clean we headed back to harpers ferry to resupply and check the outfitter. The outfitter was the only place IN harpers ferry to get food for resupply and the pickings were slim, note that if youre a future hiker. The rest of the outfitter was not impressive either, very small store, only the basicest of the basics. After all that we went to dinner and were lucky enough to go to a place that stayed open extra to serve us. They were moving their freezer food anyway so the waitress ran out once in a while to check on us. Pretty special to eat outside after hours. Then back to the hotel. I said good bye to the kelloggs and headed back to the room. In the lobby was a hiker we knew that said it was chuckles birthday and they had cake. Cake you say? I like cake. So cake was had and eaten on that night. On the way down to the very small party i thought i should charge my phone. Oh, thats when i found out it wouldnt charge. Crap. Ironically thats when jean sent a text that said uif i needed anything they could come back in the morning. I needed something, a new phone. I felt bad about asking for a ride back to the phone store but thats what we would do in the morning. My worries subsided and i focussed on what really mattered, cake. This is how i know i have it this good and better it could not get.