Date: 2022-09-15
From: Crampton Gap Shelter

To: 4-Mile Tentsite
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

She did a double-take as she walked in the door when she saw Baxter and I, preparing to shoulder packs in the lobby of the Weis grocery store. Then she came full-stop mid-stride, her hands still on her buggy ¢Are you hiking the Appalachian Trail?¢¢Yes we are.¢¢Thru hiking?¢¢Yes. My wife and two other sons are waiting for us in Harper¢s Ferry.¢Baxter and I had split from the other 3 as we arrived at the old tow path three miles downstream of Harper¢s Ferry. There is no good resupply in the town so Baxter and I had volunteered to turn away from Harper¢s Ferry and follow the railroad further downstream towards Brunswick and the Weis Grocery Store there. Our 2 mile walk found us train dodging (not nearly as exciting as it sounds) and country-road walking. Fifty minutes later we were eating boneless wings and drinking chocolate milk in the breezy, yet air-conditioned lobby of the store, sitting in the carpet next to our packs as the morning customers pushed their carts into the store to be filled. After finishing our second breakfast I left Baxter to guard the packs while I went in a second time to get our food for the next 3 days. As we were unpackaging everything and throwing away unnecessary boxes and wrappers (there¢s a lot of this in grocery stores) we were each silently dreading the 2 mile walk back to the AT followed by 3 miles of trail before our rendezvous with the rest of the fam who were now enjoying coffee and sweets at Battle Grounds Coffee Shop 5 miles away. That¢s when Lovey walked in and did her double-take.¢Do you mind if I ask you guys some questions? Thru hiking is a dream of mine.¢We told her we had all morning. Ask away!¢Do you need a ride to Harper¢s Ferry? I could take you there and pepper you with questions as we drive.¢Baxter¢s face said it all. Absolutely she could drive is to HF! We were loading packs on no time. We all three really enjoyed the 20 minutes we had together, mostly stuck in traffic. We swapped stories and questions and answers for the length of the trip. Joni was sitting in a bench in the sun as another unfamiliar car pulled up to the curb. She didn¢t notice me in the passenger window until o was directly in front of her. We piled out, said our ¢thank yous¢ and ¢goodbyes¢ and joined Grayson and Jasper who were lounging at shades picnic tables on the deck nearby. We sampled the culinary and confectionery offerings for the better part of 3 hours as we let the late morning and early afternoon drift by. I ran an errand to the nearby outfitters to swap out our defective JetBoil for the new one that the company had sent to us on Harper¢s Ferry. We are now the proud owners of a working JetBoil Sumo 1.8 liter cooking system.We satisfied all the cravings that Harper¢s Ferry could satisfy before climbing the hill on the AT south and heading for the ATC headquarters. We recorded our presence in all the logs there and got our picture taken - a thru hiker rite of passage. As we were headed out of town for good I realized I didn¢t have my hiking poles. I left my pack at the ATC building and walked the road back down to the coffee shop (maybe half a mile?), retrieved the poles, and walked the steep hill back to the ATC headquarters building. The rest of the fam had left town while I dallied so it was ¢catch up¢ time now. I found my fast gear and set out to catch the crew, now probably a mile or more ahead of me. I passed Jasper first, waiting on a rock inside the woods for me. He had watched as I crossed the Shenandoah River on the long road bridge. Then we came in Baxter, making his way up the hill with a hitch in his step. He¢s been nursing a hurting calf muscle for the last 40ish miles. The rest in HF had left it stiff. I took out KT tape and spent 20 minutes taping him up. We later put a compression sleeve on it. I¢m afraid the leg is getting worse instead of better. We¢ll start rest, ice, compression, elevation as often as we can. Rest generally means slackpacking which the 4 of us can do for the 5th.We gained the ridge called ¢Loudon Heights¢ and soon crossed into Virginia. We¢ll be here for awhile! VA has 550+ miles of trail and will take a month plus several days to finish. We camped next to the trail at 4-mile campsite. We¢ll start chewing through Virginia tomorrow. We set a goal to be in Damascus by October 20. That¢s about 16.5 miles daily for the next 35 days. We think we¢ve got it in us when we¢re all healthy!