Date: 2004-06-22
From: Harpers Ferry, WV - Holliday Inn

To: Ed Garvey Shelter
Miles today: 6.4
Weather: light rain

After a morning swim in the hotel pool, it was time for breakfast. There was plenty of cereal, muffins, fruit and juice at breakfast. Buick and his mom joined me. Later his dad showed up after having gone for a bit of a drive to check the area out. I joined them on the tour of morning errands. First we went to the supermarket to resupply.Next we headed for the Appalachian Trail Conference Headquarters. We each signed the register. The volunteer running the place this morning took us out front and took our pictures with a Polaroid camera. Buick's folks took pictures too.As instructed, we wrote on our photos our name, address, start date and todays date. The photos go into a photo album and get numbered with a color code that differentiates thru-hikers, section hikers, flipfloppers, northbound and southbound. We were number 401 and 402 thru-hikers for the year. That seemed like an impressively low number. A cool note adorned the inside of the restroom door. It said, ¢In about 40 miles the Appalatchin Trail becomes the Appalayshun Trail. If you still love it just as much thank a volunteer maintainer.¢ This felt like someplace we should hang out for a while but the call of the trail was loud.There was lots of cool stuff there but anything I bought would have to be carried so there were no purchases for this guy. I'll order stuff by mail or on the web later. There were other hikers and folks milling about.We left the ATC and went to the outfitter just down the street. This place was a bit disappointing. We both needed new boots but there was little to choose from. The place was tiny. People were stepping all over one and other. They only had 2 brands/models of boots to choose from of the type and size I needed. Only one fit my foot comfortably. It was a trail running shoe. Another hiker in the store warned me that he had tried a pair of them before starting his hike and his feet got beat up. There wasn't a choice for me though.Buick's folks took us to lunch next. We ate in a quaint touristy part of town. We went to the library to check on email. There was a time limit of 20 or 30 minutes. Some one was waiting so Buick had to get off when his time was up. He was going to spend a second night in town with his folks. He had been talking about going to the movies for days now, so that's what they did. They left me at the library to finish my email. They also very kindly took my warm puffy jacket and mittens to mail to my home.After sending out my email AT Update 7 and AT Update 7a it was time to repack my food. My pack had been waiting outside on a bench. There was a picnic table that served as a staging area. It started to sprinkle while my stuff was still strewn about. This got me a bit frantic for a minute but then it thought better fortunately. All packed up I headed for the main drag and stuck out my thumb in hopes for a ride to the other end of town where the trail headed north. Oh that's right, I needed to stop at the outfitter for a refill of Coleman fuel too.Hitching in town is always rough but this time it worked. A sporty red car stopped. The guy said he was just back from a tour of duty. I thanked him. He also said he had hiked the AT in the winter. Coming from NH I always wonder about that. It's tough back home in the winter. He dropped me at the outfitter. It was hot out. With my fuel in had I headed across the street to an ice cream shop. A guy came into the shop. He said this was his last treat before shipping out in the morning to serve Uncle Sam. I thanked him too. That was strange to run into these 2 guys in such close proximity.My departure from town began at 6:30pm. The was kind of late even if the shelter was only 6.4 miles away. It was just a few short blocks down the hill to the trail. It headed across the Potomac River on an old railroad trestle. Strangely, here in the home of the ATC, at the far side of the trestle there was no sign of a blaze. This was the old C&O Towpath that was now part of a park used as a nature and bike path but no blaze or sign to tell the thru-hiker to turn right or left. This thru-hiker stood there like a deer caught in some headlights for a bit. Then he turned one way and then the other probably looking like a dog chasing his tale. Finally for no particular reason he turned right. Eventually there was a blaze.The trail followed the towpath for about 2 miles which was plenty for me. Then it crossed the canal, the train tracks, a road and finally headed into the forest and up at last.It was a good climb up to Ed Garvey Shelter. There were 2 or 3 guys in the shelter but plenty of room for me. It was even still light out. The water was 0.4 miles down some serious switchbacks. Boo, hiss. The stars were shining brightly by the time I returned with the water. Everyone was asleep too. My skills at quiet meal prep had been greatly honed. This was not a first. No one woke. It was good to be back on the trail. It was hard to believe that it had only taken 50 days to get to Harpers Ferry. That felt great.Ed Garvey was quite an impressive shelter. The front looked fairly normal for a log shelter except for the expansive glazed windows at the peak. There was a second floor all right. It was fully enclosed with a door serviced by stairs up the back of the shelter. The outhouse was of log construction too. Several Fresnel lenses in the walls let plenty of daylight in. What a strange concept.