Date: 2016-04-20
From: N of Weverton Cliffs

To: Warner Gap Hollow
Miles today: 29.0
Weather: clear sky

Before I jump into today's hike, I just wanted to spend a couple of minutes to add my two cents about Harper's Ferry.   We usually try to leave the days events to whoever has that day to journal.   In this case Will. But I have a few quick things to say. You won't mind just this once will you? Okay, thanks.I have been looking forward to getting to Harpers Ferry for a few weeks now. It's the symbolic halfway point, so that is cool, but the true half point is more meaningful. But I think having the ATC there and a trail that passes through the town, and all the history, significant history that happened there. It was just really awesome and I was super happy to be there and to pass through Harpers Ferry.   We were making our own small bit of history. The trail is offering us more and more looks at historical places. It runs near or through them. With plenty of markers and signs to explain its historical value. This morning on our first break we stopped at the War Correspondents Memorial.   There were multiple original buildings and 7 or 8 placards telling about them. Very interesting.       While we were sitting there, a hiker whose trail name is Bones came up and introduced himself.   He lives nearby in Virginia and had taken several zero days at home. He is on a sabbatical and has until August to finish, so a little more relaxed time frame than we do.As we hiked along we kept bumping into a bunch of new hikers. These were the flip flop hikers. Pretty much all of them said they had been on the trail for two days. They had started out at Harpers Ferry and planned to hike to Maine. Then back to Harpers Ferry and hike to Georgia. We must have passed 17 or 18 of these flippers. So, very cool for them and we wish them well. It must have been people day today. Because there were two large high school groups out as well. Backpacking 101? If it was, that would be really awesome. The younger you can be exposed to the wonders of backpacking the better.The other historical building and grounds we went by today was the Washington Monument.   As you walked up the hill to it, there were all these little President George Washington factoids on wooden signs.   The stone monument itself was erected by the people of Boonsboro in the 1830s and refurbished by the CCC in the early 1930's. There's a picture of it at the top of the page. Being exposed to all these lands and buildings and monuments really gives you pause to think about our country and it's birth and struggles. First struggling for its own freedom as a nation, and then struggling to give freedom to the African American slaves. In the process ripping itself apart.We are walking through this history every day on this trail. I think it is one of the main things that sets it apart from all of the other long distance trails in the country.We had a nice surprise. HoHo and Chicory caught up with us. So good to see him and to meet Chickory. They couldn't talk long though, they were slack packing and their packs had been dropped off at a library in.   But it was good to see them however shortly. We pressed on until late in the day as we were trying to get closer to Waynesboro. The rational is, if we get close enough we can get into town earlier and therefore get more rest. But what I find funny is, the last town we were in was Waynesboro (VA) and the town we are going to is Waynesboro (PA). Sort of a town deja vu all over again. I'll be interested to see how they they compare. Twilight Zone anyone? Lol. I'll let you know. Catch you later!RoadRunner