Date: 2003-07-01
From: Harpers Ferry, WV

To: Ed Garvey Shelter, MD
Miles today: 7.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Awoke in our Hilltop House Hotel room, having enjoyed our 5th night in a row in a comfy bed, but very ready to hit the trail again after our trip to NYC. But first, we participated in an exciting event w/ the Child Welfare League of America. We walked the couple of blocks over to the ATC w/ Moo's folks, Bob & Roberta, to meet the wonderful crew from the CWLA. It was fantastic to finally meet face to face Joyce, Shay & Tegan -- and great to meet Tiffany, Jeremiah, Mike & Mark. What a wonderful team of people! The media event went well & will hopefully lead to more $$ for kids. A huge thank you to the CWLA crew for all the encouraging words & support -- we appreciate all you're doing to help kids. Hey Tegan -- awesome rice krispy treats -- they were great &, in fine thru-hiker fashion, they went fast! A big thanks to Jennifer for putting together an amazing photo collage -- we loved it!!Most importantly, thank you to the CWLA kids from Burlington (WV) United Methodist Family Services -- Carrie, Stephanie, Ryan, Matt -- & to the Children's Home Society of WV & the hard-working counselors, Brenda & Janet. Those kids provide us w/ the inspiration we need to keep putting one foot in front of the other.After the media event, Moo & 42 & Mom & Dad Moo had a delicious lunch @ the Mountain House Cafe on High Street in old downtown Harpers Ferry.Then on to the outfitters for resupply of denatured ethyl alcohol for our stove, then out to the Food Lion to resupply w/ food. Moo's folks then saw us off as we headed back on the AT from the ATC blue blaze. Always sad to say good-bye, but hey, sometimes you see people again long before you think you will.Great to be back on the trail -- out in the woods. We've left the luxuries of everyday life behind, or so we thought. Just over 1/2 a mile into our return to the woods, the AT crossed over the very end of High Street, the main drag in HF. We had a good laugh because as we crossed the street & looked to our left, there were Moo's folks, window shopping & eating ice cream. We did the only proper thing -- we had them buy us ice cream & drinks & spent another 1/2 hour w/ them, receiving what we are calling our 1st trail magic of the 2nd 1/2 of the journey. Then we said goodbye once again & set off on the trail -- @ 5:30pm, w/ 6.5 miles to go.We walked across the Potomac River on the Goodloe Byron Memorial Footbridge & officially entered Maryland -- our 6th state. We enjoyed being back on the trail. About 2 miles from the shelter, we took a short side trail to Weaverton Cliffs, where we took a break & had a fantastic view back to HF. We arrived @ the shelter just before dark & set up our tent next to Thirsty, his dad, bro & the family dog.Sleepy Floyd, who loved his road trip to NYC w/ us, was glad to see us @ the shelter -- he had hiked out of HF a bit earlier & was beginning to wonder if we had taken another night @ Hilltop.We met Willet & his 2 kids, Hannah & Turtle -- cute kids out w/ dad on an overnight hike. We spoke to Willet, Floyd & Viking while we ate way too much Ramen noodles for dinner -- 4 packs are definitely too much.Then on to sleep, feeling good about being back on the trail for our next 1000 miles.