Date: 2008-05-03
From: Sam Moore Shelter VA

To: David Lesser Memorial Shlter VA
Miles today: 14.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Day 76 ¢ Saturday May 3 ¢ David Lesser Memorial Shlter VA ¢ Miles Today: 14.1 Total Miles: 1002.1We were up at 6:00 a.m. as we had 6 miles remaining of the infamous roller coaster and we wanted to get them done before the heat of the day arrived. It was already 63 degrees and we could tell that it was going to be another warm day! We were on the trail about 7:00. As we passed by Chris sleeping in the shelter by himself, we left him a piece of candy so he knew we were thinking about him as we headed on out.   We made it through the remaining sections of the roller coaster! It was not too much of a challenge but we were definitely thirsty and sweaty. We were thankful for the nice breeze!Chris passed us about 2 hours into the hike this morning and we said our goodbyes. He was rushing to get into Harper's Ferry today, a 20-plus-mile day. He had to average over 3 mph for the entire day to get there by his 4:00 scheduled meeting time. Since he¢s a cross-country runner, I'm sure it will be no problem for him. Hopefully we can at least keep up with each other via the shelter registers or e-mail, as it is not likely that we will see each other again. Around 10:15 we passed a group of northbound Boy Scouts stopped alongside the trail. As we always do, we asked where they were headed for the day. Unfortunately they are staying at the same shelter as us tonight. I say unfortunately, not because I have a dislike for Boy Scouts, but rather because I have a dislike of large groups that tax the existing space and resources at a shelter. Now we know tonight's going be a busy and crowded place. In this situation, we always try to arrive before the large group so that we can secure a decent tent spot. Typically we have no problem as a large group can only hike as fast as their slowest hiker, which believe it or not, we can still top even at our ripe old age!We have crossed over the 1000-mile marker today!! Wow, is all we can say! To think we have made it that far is just unbelievable. We are amazed and proud of ourselves.We arrived at the David Lesser Shelter at 3:30 p.m. A Boy Scout assistant was there, pacing back and forth, wondering where the Boy Scouts were. He had a truck at a nearby trailhead and was supplying food to them, but he needed them to help carry it in. We shared our thoughts that they were running slow and would be pushing dark before arriving. That did not make him happy. We weren¢t far off. They arrived at 7:00 p.m., 3.5 hours after us!Looking out the tent door, we can count about 12 tents, not counting ours, scattered on and between 6 tent platforms. One of the tents is literally 3 feet from ours! We even had to help them pitch the tent, as dirt clogged the tent pole sleeve preventing the pin from being inserted. The boy just laid down on the collapsed tent too tired to figure out how to resolve the issue, until we went over and helped. There were only a few leaders for all the boys, so assistance was not readily available. I think the scouts are pretty exhausted and should be crashing soon. They had a pretty long and hard day, which is another issue we frequently see with the large groups ¢ they fail to tailor the difficulty of the hike to the ¢weakest¢ link.The water source was .2 miles down a huge steep hill, but once down there we found a nice cool pool of water and were able to freshen up and cool our feet. We had the place to ourselves, as the Boy Scouts had not arrived yet. I hate to think how many cuss words they let fly when they had to hike down the .2 mile hill to water after their exhausting day! Some kids did go down for water, but the adults of the group fetched most of it.Unfortunately, it's quite breezy this evening and we've already had 2 sticks hit our tent. Luckily nothing has punctured a hole in our rain fly as far as we can tell, but it's not a good feeling when we hear the sticks hit our dwelling. It¢s our home for the next 1000 miles. Believe it or not, we have not had any rain yet today! However, they are calling for a 40% chance of rain tonight so perhaps this will be our first rain since we left Front Royal. It's been quite pleasant so far on this segment of the trip. However, the bad news is the number of ticks we see continues to grow. Grasshopper had one that had started to embed in her thigh but we got it removed before any damage was done. It's now 7:30. It's about 70 degrees and we're going to call it a night here soon. We head into Harper's Ferry tomorrow to have lunch with Brakeman's brother!   Goodnight from just shy of Harper's Ferry. We actually entered into West Virginia for a brief moment today, but as of tomorrow, we leave Virginia for the very last time. Yahoo!! Good night.