Date: 2007-04-26
From: Hilltop House Hotel, Harper's Ferry, WV

To: Crampton Gap Shelter
Miles today: 11.1
Weather: moderate rain

Awoke to an overcast day. May have showers in afternoon. Oh well. Gotta get outta town anway.Breakfast in the hotel. Surprisingly cheap, and quite good. French Toast, Bacon, OJ, coffee. Mmmmmmm.Hit the Post Office and MAILED HOME the last of my winter gear except my sleeping bag. Gotta wait to get my summer bag first, else I might be pretty chilly. Biggest weight savings was my Synthetic (non-Down) Insulating Jacket, which is very warm for it's weight so I thought I might keep it the whole trip. It weighs just over 9 oz's I think. But that's HALF A POUND! HUGE weight savings in hiker world. Guthook got rid of his crocs switching to flip flops, saving a 4 oz.- a quarter pound. I'll probably do the same soon. For now still carrying my Waldies. Great town/camp shoes. Your feet luv getting outta your shoes ASAP and if need be only wearing something much lighter and less restrictive with different pressure points.Grabbed some resupply food & snacks at the 7-11. Didn't feel the need to take a bus to Super Walmart just for that. Spent a fortion though. $48!!! Yikes. For about 4-5 days snacks. Not counting the meals I already bought. Back to the ATC. I weighed my now lighter pack. Started out with Base Weight (no food or water) ~19 HEAVY pounds day 1 in Georgia. 25 lbs with 1.5L H20 and what was then 4-5 days food. I doubt it would last that long now.Base pack could be much less for short hikes but "essentials" for thru-hiker add up. Sooner or later you need to use them, or it just makes life better.Afer dumpin lots of stuff, switchin out stuff and adding lots of food..... Base Pack 13.25 lbs?5days Food 5.00 lbs 3L H20   7.25 lbs (Water more scarce now)-----------------------            25.25 lbsSame weight - BUMMER!!! but what a different stuff. FOOD mostly. And that & water goes down as I consume it. Still much better than those days pushin outta town when my pack pushed 30 lbs. Uggh..Anyway, it's time to go now. Guthook hit the trail late morning, and I've got 11 miles to go to naptime at the shelter. Looking forward to leavin VA behind. Wasn't that hard. but wasn't that exciting.Shenandoahs were nice, but they've got nuthin on the Smokies! The much harder climbs were well worth the views. Though the roadside restaurants in the Shenandoahs were fabulous and made the miles go by.Gonna use Bleach to purify my H20 for a bit here until I can buy what I want. Gotta return the Aquamira I bought at the outfitter. It works ok. But I ditched it before cuz I didn't like waiting 5 minutes for the chemicals to mix THEN adding to water and waiting 15-30 minutes before I could drink it. Still gotta wait 15-30 like all chemical (lightweight!!)options but at least I jut dump it in, no 5 minute wait.Gotta go!!FedExps-I fixed Guthook's placement to his correct earned status- # 16; He earned it and I'd have felt kinda burned by the ATC staff if I were him!pps-As an added benefit to gettin outta town late I grabbed another lunch-at the Southern Smoke BBQ-Mmmmmm!UGGGH. I forgot to grab a milkshake! Across from the RR station. Bummer.Got outta town @1400. Pretty cool feelin walkin outta Harper's Ferry - 1008.5 miles! and headin north. Soon to cross outta WV and quickly through MD to PA!Overcast in the 50's, sligh breeze. A little chilly til I got walkin, but great afterwards. Nice view of cliffs by RR bridge coming outta town. New treads are GREAT! Like new feet! Same shoes as Guthook bought, so we look like twins. Not So good, but oh well. He got 12-1300 miles outta his first pair, so can't be so bad. They feel great. Especially the most important part-the heel cup-snug, no slippage. My dogs are SO much happier already. But our feet have been beaten up so long, heels and balls of my feet still pretty sore when I stomp on jagged rocks, etc.Got to Crampton Gap Shelter by 1800 hours. Not as nice as Ed Garvey Shelter (a palace, newly built). Of course. We always stay at the ancient built shelters from the '40's. We take breaks at the really nice ones. Bummer.HEAVY Rain & fog all nite. Hope it stops by morning!FedEx