Date: 2018-06-26
From: Footbridge Campsite

To: Harper's Ferry, VA
Miles today: 21.0

I woke up a bit slated but rested enough. I checked our tents to find Rebel Yell's tent gone. He had left at 4:50 am in the morning. It was way earlier than I would want to leave in the morning. I might have to do it eventually with the days getting hotter and hotter. I got up around 7:30 am and ate my breakfast of cold oatmeal then headed out at 9 am. We still had another 4 miles of the roller coaster to finish and after that the elevation profile didn't look so bad. The remaining 4 miles of the coaster was still the same steep mess of rocks and bolders. It never felt like I could get a solid footing. It made my feet work extra hard. I was hiking together with Scissors when we saw the Virginia / West Virginia state line. We were elated to have finally left Virginia after so many miles. Virgina was not an easy state. It has the longest section of the Appalachian trail. Hiker's said it was flat which was a lie. Our minds were tested against pain, rain, sickness, and boredom. It was a huge milestone to cross that border. Shortly after the the border the roller coaster ended and the trail flattened out. Even though it was flat it was still covered with several rocks. They put my feet and ankles to the test. After about 5 miles I came to the shelter to eat lunch and grab water. A hiker was resting in the shelter. I ate some snacks for lunch then headed about .25 miles to a water source. It was a rough hike down but there wasn't any water for another 9 miles.  I left the shelter and hiked on to highway 9. Kazi and Scissors were taking a break. My feet were hurting by that point from all the rocks in the area. As we were hanging out, we saw two men with baskets walk by. I thought they might be foraging for something. Kazi left first but she soon returned. Apparently one of the men jumped out of the forest and started running down the trail. She said they were tweaking and didn't want to hike alone. Scissors and I hiked with her until we met up with the men again. They had been out picking chanterelle mushrooms. One looked like he was constantly itching himself. They walked back towards their car and we didn't see them again. As we got closer to Harper's Ferry we started getting strange vibes in the forest. This place had a lot of history during the civil war and many soldiers died in the area. Stealth sent the following text when he camped near the Manassas shelter:"It was at the stretch of woods at manassas shelter where the confederate army had a huge base and the energy was really heavy. It's hard to explain... but i had set up my tent in the woods last night and before I went to bed I was talking with my dad about my great great grandfather who was a drummer boy in the civil war for the New Hampshire volunteer army and how when he made it home he was so frail and small that his mom held him like a baby. So that was on my mind as I went to sleep. The moon was really bright and high up in the sky when for some reason at 3:20 am I woke up to what I thought was an animal sprinting out of the woods but turned out to be an enormous heavy energy that swooped out of the woods and began so encompass me in and around my tent to where I couldn't move or speak like sleep paralysis. And for about 4 or 5 terrifying seconds all sides of my tent were being warped and pushed in repeatedly and was on top of me with this heavy weight holding me down. And keep in mind that the moon was so bright I was watching all of this wide awake...So I tried as hard as I could to scream anything at all and all that came out was a forced, closed mouth groan and as soon as I did that whatever energy it was swooped back into the woods like a fucking death eater from Harry Potter. When I packed up my tent this morning the tent stakes were moved from the force of whatever it was pushing on and warping my tent."This area was definitely heavy from its past. Kazi and I hiked over the Shenandoah river then came to the access road to the quality inn. Kazi waited outside since we had to sneak Theo into the room. This hotel didn't allow dogs. The front clerk was missing and there was a sign saying he was helping another customer. I waited for about 20 minutes but the clerk didn't show. Scissors hiked in and also waited. Eventually the clerk came barrelling out of the restroom. We got our room keys then collapsed on the bed. We didn't want to go out and ended up ordering Italian food. Lit showed up an hour later then Rebel Yell an hour after that. We all gorged on salad, cheese sticks, and chicken parmigiana. I quickly felt sleepy and went to bed.Tonight I'm in a soft clean bed but my ankle is killing me from all the rocks today.