Date: 2018-08-10
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Sand Springs campsite
Miles today: 16.6

Today was a pretty productive day. Left the hostel in a breakfast food coma. Then, stopped by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy on my way out of town. I visited the ATC my first day on trail, so going back there felt like an episode of the Twilight Zone. I got my picture taken in front of the sign for a 2nd time to prove that I flipped the flop! They take every thruhikers picture and add it to a big binder with their name, trail name, start date, hiking direction, and contact info. I pulled out a binder on the shelf from May of this year and looked up my original photo. I looked so clean and naive. Lol. I started thumbing through the pages and saw SO many familiar faces. All NoBos that I eventually met along the way. And some people that I had almost forgotten about. I took pictures with my phone of all the pages, so that I could finally have their REAL names (not just trail names) in hopes of looking them up online later. Got to pick up my new hiking boots that I got mailed to the center. They¢re so shiny! It¢ll be nice to walk through a puddle now and not have your socks get immediately soaked through all the holes in your shoes. LolAt the ATC, I also chatted it up with an older guy named Dave who works there. He didn¢t remember me (because he meets thousands of hikers a year), but I remembered him. He was super chatty, but super nice. He asked me so many questions: What was your favorite day? What was your worst day? Favorite trail town? Etc. I decided that my favorite day was either hiking Mt Katadhin or Mt Moosilauke, or the moment I realized I could hike 26 miles in one day and not die. Lol. My worst day was probably the day I got lost going down Mt Madison in ¢The Whites¢ of NH and fell 6 miles off trail for about 5 hrs. That was a day. My favorite town stop was definitely probably staying at The Yellow Deli in Rutland, VT. With all the hikers he talks to everyday, he seemed so invested in MY hike. It was nice to relive some of those moments with someone, especially someone who had been through all the same trail. Left town around noon. It feels SO good to be back in the woods. Everything is extremely different though. I¢m used to watching gradual changes through the trail, while slowly moving state to state. But to jump from Maine to West Virginia, it¢s like night and day. The trees are different. The bird songs are different. The HEAT is so real. Like it is capital H.O.T. And the trail, OMG. It¢s like walking through Central Park. No more giant mountains, root hurdles, rock walls - just rolling hills baby. I knocked out 16 miles in 6 hrs. It¢s amazing! However, South Con: lots of insects that will sting you! I got stung on the back of the leg today by a wasp. Or maybe a hornet. I didn¢t really turn around and look. Just felt my leg light on fire and started sprinting down the trail screaming obscenities. Another kind of downside is that it feels like no one is really out here. I only met 2 thruhikers today and they were headed north, so it was for like half a second. Dave told me I¢d probably run into some late NoBos. These are people that intend to do only half the trail this season or people that will soon flip up to Maine and hike south from there. It¢s just weird now staying at a huge campsite by myself. Like this would have never happened before. It¢ll take some time getting used to it for sure.