Date: 2009-06-27
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Pogo Memorial Campsite
Miles today: 19.9
Weather: few clouds

Another day of unexpected activity on the AT.We woke up a little later than normal, 7:00am. Last night we moved out of the shelter to our tent because it was getting a little noisy as more and more people started coming in. That proved to be a good move because we slept hard. The trail was very easy today in terms of profile...but there were some very rocky stretches which slowed things down. We are trying to get used to this as it will become more frequent in PA. We paced it out easy today and it felt like we needed to take more breaks than ususal. We're taking 3 days off the trail starting next Thursday and we are so excited. However, knowing that makes it harder for us mentally as we are both feeling a little burnt out. It seems like most hikers are in the same boat...either leaving the trail or taking a few days off to see family. A lot of hikers are now skipping sections of the trail on their quest north. While it is difficult, we know that this will give us proven character. Most of all, it forces us to rely more on the Lord while exposing our dependancy on other comforts and things that have no lasting value.We took a long lunch break at Dahlgren campsite and called my mom to see how the family is doing. Weekends are always great to catch up and we've had good cell reception on the trail.One great thing about today was seeing all the Civil War battle fields, memorials and monuments. The trail goes right through some great historical sites. During mid afternoon we made it to Washington Memorial- that was really neat! On our way down from the Washington Memorial we ran into a group of 4 going south: Paul and Jen with two children, Elizabeth and Dominique. They asked us a question about the trail and it turns out they were headed in the wrong direction for about 2 miles. Paul and Jen were planning to grill out at a nearby lake and they hauled all their food, charcoal and other items with them- someone told them they needed to get on the AT to get where they were wanting to go. Feeling bad for the couple and the kids who were growing tired, we helped lighten their load by downloading the bag of charcol in my pack, along with a duffle bag attached. Berry helped carry a bag full of goodies and tryed to cheer up the kids. We walked with them back to where they needed to go and got to know them a little bit. They were so generous to offer us some grilled steaks but we said goodbye as the trail was calling.As we were saying goodbye a Domino's Delivery man saw us in the parking lot and asked if we were thru-hikers. "Yep," we said. He then handed us a hot medium pizza and two RC cola's! Now that's some good trail magic!From there we pressed on to Annapolis Rocks. That was a great view. It is a perfect place to watch a good sunset. We stayed there for 20 minutes and then finished out our day hiking to Pogo campsite. The last stretch is always the hardest. We were relieved to see Hatchet and Holdout at the campsite. We hadn't seen a thru-hiker all day. We are camped next to Hatchet and Holdout, along with, Doug, a section hiker with a good story.I'm hurting folks... my fault... I set a goal for myself to match every mile after Harpers Ferry with 10 push-ups throughout the day. So far so good, but I am hurting! It seems that hiking the AT has destroyed my upper body strength. Hopefully it will get easier or I may just have to quit (push ups, that is)!