Date: 2007-06-25
From: Front Royal, VA

To: Pen Mar Park, PA
Miles today: 95.3

"Gypsys and Milestones"            Ranger Jan Reporting   My days in Virginia were numbered. After completing the Shenandoahs with my friend Chert, it was only about 50 miles to Harper's Ferry. While not quite half-way, Harper's Ferry signifies to most thru-hikers the midpoint of their journey. From Front Royal, a night at the tarpaper shack of Dick's Dome Shelter and another at the elegant stone mansion of Bear's Den Hostel would see me to Harper's.    The trail was changing. The dreaded "rocks" were poking their pointed heads here and there and Virginia wouldn't go quietly. A section of trail nicknamed the Roller Coaster dares hikers to pass it's 9 miles of pointless up and downs (PUDS) without uttering an explitive or two and the Gypsys (moths) were everywhere. We first saw them in Shenendoah Park, but now they came like a snow storm. Huge swaths of forest were leafless, allowing the sun to shine in just like winter or early spring. A blizzard of moths flew before me as I walked these devestated sections of trail. (through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania I encountered their destruction)   Yet on I walked and I felt good. Virginia was the fourth state to be completed and the trail's personality was changing. Pockets of civilization and many points of historical interest were ahead.   Harper's Ferry was particularly dense in Civil War lore. (John Brown's saga being only one of many historical moments occurring here) Its also the headquarters of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and most thru-hikers stop by to chat, sign the register and get their picture taken. (Ranager Jan was 369th thru-hiker to pass through in 2007) Again this year the number of thru-hikers was down. Backpacking nationwide has declined steadily in the last decade. (Real adventure has lost its appeal while virtual adventure mesmerizes the masses) Oh well, it's just more wilderness for me and my hiking companions.   My stay in West Virginia was short and now I had finished 5 states, but before leaving I made a special detour (backwards) to spend a night at the Blackburn Trail Center. "Hopefull" a 2005 thru-hiker from Traverse City (yup, you read it right, my TC) manages the center with her husband and they had invited me to stop by. Since I passed by earlier that day, she arranged to have me picked up in Harper's Ferry and shuttled back to the Blackburn. It was a great place to stay and I hated to miss out on their free dinner.   Heading out of Harper's Ferry the next day on the famous C & O Canal, Maryland's trail miles would only take me 2 days to negotiate. Weaverton Cliffs, Gathland State Park, the (original) Washington Monument, and Annapolis Rocks populated the relatively level and increasingly rocky Maryland trail. The milestones were (rocking and) rolling by. Maryland was my 6th state (only 8 to go) and over 1000 miles of trail were behind me now. Soon I would be counting down miles remaining instead of miles hiked. A subtle psychological point had arrived, everything was going to change in Pennsylvania.   (These were my trail companions: Tigger, Chuck Norris, Buffalo Bob, Iceman, Spock, The Breeze, Dr. Ninja, Stealth, and Bloody Nose.)