Days 53-62

Sky Meadows State Park through West Virginia and Maryland to Boiling Springs, PA

Day 53

Back on the trail again! Mallory dropped us off at a trailhead off of a sketchy road call Fire Trail Rd (VA 638). We decided to get back on here because it was a mile south on the trail before the Sky Meadows park where we got off a week earlier. We were ok with hiking that mile over again because we didnt want to start back at where we left off and climb the 2 miles back up the steep, steep mountain, out of the state park and back on the trail. It was an easy climb coming down it. 

Mallory was awesome for driving us there, it was indeed sketchy and she probably had better things to do.

Within a few miles in we were rediscovering our rhythms and were going great. It rained for about an hour pretty hard but it was hot so we didnt mind.

We made it to Rod Hollow Shelter at about 6pm. Theres  section hiker here carrying a cello on her pack. Shes carrying a total of 65lbs (about double the weight of my pack) with the instrument going on a 100 mile section. She played for a while tonight we tented further in the woods from the shelter but could hear the music filling the forest. It was beautiful and relaxing.

We think that after all our time off, we have fallen behind the large bubble of hikers that we were in. Some others coming up behind us said we're now at the end of the bubble, hikers are becoming fewer and further between. We look forward to catching up with some people we know.

Day 54

Today we took on whats known as "The Roller Coaster" - 13 miles of nothing but ascents and descents, no flat ground. It's feared by many and our last obstacle to finally escape out of Virginia. We found it to be way overhyped and no more difficult than any other section of the trail we've hiked. Just the good 'ol up down, up down. Cathrine's knee seems to be back up and fully operational which is very good, she's already talking about busting out some more 20 mile days.

We hiked 10 of the 13 miles of the roller coaster to Bears Den Hostel where we will be staying the night. Bears Den is in the town of Bluemont where Cathrine spent a part of her childhood.

We had the pleasure of meeting up with Darryl Markham, who was a friend of Cathrine's and er family. He drove up to the hostel and we talked for a bit, then he agreed to drive us to see the house that Cathrine lived in as a child. It was fun to have her reminisce. Darryl then took us out to eat at Tropical Smoothie Cafe, it was delicious and very appreciated. We also hit up Taco Bell on the way back to the hostel where he left us.

We got a room at the hostel, the "private" room we went halfs with another couple- Jeff and Jenn who are from Seattle and come hike a section of the trail for a month every year. We got our own bathroom so it was worth the extra few dollars. Tomorrow we are planning a 20 mile day so we can finally hike into Harpers Ferry.

Day 55

We finally made it out of Virginia! We hiked 20.8 miles from Bears Den Hostel into Harpers Ferry, WV.

Last night we laid in bed for hours trying to fall asleep. The girl with the cello played for like an hour, which was nice for awhile, until someone else tried to jam along with her on the piano. The pianist wasnt as skilled as the professional cellist and significantly brought down the quality of the music. The lack of timing was very stressful. We suffered through that for a while until it was the guy with the guitars turn. He played and played and sang and yelled, well until midnight.

We were up early at 6:30AM and we're ready to go shortly thereafter. The couple we stayed with insisted Cathrine slackpack into Harpers Ferry and that they would pay the $10 that the hostel charged for this service.

Slackpacking is a common thing that hikers do to cover alot of ground. It involves carrying a smaller backpack with things that you would only need to carry for a dayhike (like snacks, water, water filter, and a rain jacket) The hostel transports your main backpack to your final destination that day. So instead of carrying a 30lb pack all day, youd be carrying a 3-5lb one.

Being young and healthy, and because I'm out here to backpack the trail, I've never really understood why others are so into slackpacking, but to each his own. Since Cathrine has had troubles with her knee I also encouraged her to take the couple up on their offer and she reluctantly agreed, they offered to pay for me but I politely declined. She she got to rock a Strawberry Shortcake backpack all day.

We had a good flat and very rocky 20 miles today. We got to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which is the mental halfway point for hikers, at about 5pm. They took our picture to put in their log, they keep track of all the hikers coming thru.

We then walked down to the Potomac Grill in downtown Harpers Ferry, stuffed some burgers down, and then went over to the train station to wait on our shuttle. Chris and Mallory are out of town for the weekend, but were nice enough to let us stay in their home for a night. So we got an overpriced $30 shuttle to take us the 7 miles to their house. Back on the trail (hopefully) early tomorrow to make our way into Maryland.

Day 56

We were out of Chris and Mallory's at 11amtoday. We just went down the AT shuttle list and went with the first guy who answered the phone. We regretted it immediately, just from the conversation on the phone we could tell he was an odd fellow. But he was punctual. Our main topic of conversation on the way to Harpers Ferry was how he thought his car might break down on the way there. It was a bumpy ride. Cathrine had a theory that he might be high on anti freeze.

We got to Harpers Ferry safely. We filled our bags with a weeks worth of food that we had boxed up and had Mallory drop off at the ATC. 

We hiked 11 miles to Crampton Gap Shelter. Very flat, almost too flat, it seemed to drag on. We got here at about 5:30 and set up our plan of attack to our next resupply and spent the rest of the evening doing what we do best - relaxing and eating.

Day 57

We knocked out 15.7 miles today. Maryland is too flat. We went and checked out the Washington Monument at Washington State Park. We were craving pizza all day and trying to scheme up ways to get it delivered to us at one of the road crossings. We had no luck.

We also checked out the Annapolis rocks that had an awesome view. We were able to sneak up on 2 vultures who were chillin on the rocks. I got some really good photos of them.

We made it to Pogo Memorial Campground at about 6:30, we were hoping someone else would show up and stay here too, but no one came through the whole night. I made a fire, we ate dinner and I hung the bear bag just as a huge storm came rolling up the mountain. Now it's pouring rain and the thunder sounds like the mountains are falling. Hopefully we stay safe and warm tonight.

Day 58

Light nights storm was crazy, we could hear trees crashing all around us, it was a little unnerving that we were the only ones at the campground. We stayed dry though.

Today we walked about 5 miles to the first shelter, but before we got there we stopped at the road that was .2 before the shelter and I ordered a pizza and a 2 liter of orange soda. We waited on it at the road and it came pretty quick. We finally got the pizza we'd been craving.

We carried it in to the shelter so we didnt have to eat in the dirt. It was delicious, we saved our crusts for dinner. We shared a piece with a fellow hiker, "Chubby Bunny", from Germany.

Shortly after lunch it began to pour. It rained for atleast 30 minuted. When it was done Cathrine and I made a break for it, 5 miles to the Raven Rock Shelter.

Spotty storms were in the forecast for the day and we got hit by one about half way there. And it didnt stop until shortly after we got to the shelter.

When we got here, there were 9 or 10 kids in their late teens jamming on instruments, drinking, and just generally being really loud. We set our tent up away from the shelter in the rain and got into some dry clothes We made dinner and talked to some cool section hikers. Our friends that we met at Bears Den who paid for Cathrine's slackpack showed up later in the evening. 

Tomorrow we plan to hike a quick 5 miles to the road and hitch into Waynesboro, PA where we plan to meet up with my friend Jordan, who I know from when I went to school at SVU.

Day 59

We hardly slept at all last night, the teenagers who stayed in the shelter were up until about 4ish being loud and whenever I did fall asleep, apparently I would snore and Cathrine would punch me in the ribs.

We were out of camp by 10am to do 5 miles to the Mason-Dixon line where we made our way into Pennsylvania! We got to the Pen-Mar road and began walking the 2 miles into Waynesboro, Pa. A pizza delivery guy picked us up before we walked too far and drove us the rest of the way. This put us ahead of schedule for meeting up with Jordan and his wife, Ali, so we hit up the laundromat to clean our clothes so we wouldnt be as smelly when we met up.

We met up with them at about 2pm and ate at a nasty BBQ place. We talked and caught up and Jordan bought Cathrine and I $15 worth of candy at Sheetz and then drove us back to the trail to send us on our way.

We hiked 9 more miles to Tumbling Run Shelter by 7pm. It seems the further we get north, the nicer the shelters get. We feel like we're finally getting back in the groove after our week off.

We hit our 600 mile mark tomorrow morning.

Day 60

Today was a great day. The weather was perfect- nice and cool and not too humid at all, and it didnt rain for once. The terrain was good to us too so we hiked 19.7 miles to Birch Run Shelter.

We caught up with a new bubble of hikers we hadnt met before which we had mixed feelings about because we were beginning to think that we were completely left in the dust by everyone, but also we enjoyed the few days of solitude that we have had.

We stopped in Caledonia State Park. We wanted to swim at the pool there but decided that the ice cold stream right by it would be just as nice to soak our feet and it was free. We also got hotdogs and french fries at the pool grill for lunch.

A group of thru hikers we were leap frogging with today told us there was a huge party happening at the shelter we were headed to for the night, so Cathrine and I debated just finding a good place to set up on the side of the trail. We ended up risking it and hiked to the shelter and were glad we did. There was no party. We met some of the nicest people there, we all talked and laughed while we made dinner.

Day 61

Another great day today. We hiked an easy 10 miles to where the trail goes through Pine Grove Furnace State Park. There, there is a campstore where it is tradition for thru hikers to attempt the half gallon challenge- eating a half gallon of ice cream, usually as quick as possible. Cathrine, being lactose intolerant, passed on the challenge and I'm not that big on ice cream so I drank half a gallon of milk which was much better in alot of ways in my opinion, We also got burgers and resupplied our candy reserves.

The group of hikers we've been seeing lately invited us to go canoe/kayak at another lake on the other side of the park, but we're determined to meet our goals, so we passed. There was a lake right off the trail with a beach and swimming area so we spent about an hour there. Cathrine wadded and soaked while I swam some laps.

We had a long 7 mile stretch to the shelter with no landmarks but we knocked it out quickly. We arrived at James Fry Shelter at about 6:45, we're here all alone again tonight. It got pretty cold last night, hopefully it doesnt get as cold tonight. We're planning on 12 miles into Boiling Springs, PA tomorrow, looks like we've got some tough terrain.

Day 62

We were excited to hit this trail this morning and make our way to Boiling Springs, PA.

It was a pretty smooth 12 miles. We went through what is known as the "Rock Maze", huge boulders that we had to squeeze through and climb over. It wasn't as bad as anticipated though. A day hiker had explained it to be much more difficult than it was.  

On our way to Boiling Springs the trail passed through corn fields and miles of farmland, it was beautiful. We got to Boiling Springs at about 3 pm and headed straight for Allenbury Resort Inn and Playhouse.

It's a ritzy Resort that has rooms for $40 for hikers, we couldn't pass that price up. It's a very upscale place, they have so much complimentary stuff like cheese and crackers, and a fridge of bottled water in every building.

We had an early dinner and then bought tickets for the show they had going on at the playhouse. We had about an hour before the show started so we walked the mile back into town , borrowed some bikes from the mid-atlantic ATC headquaters, and biked another mile to the grocery store to resupply on food. We biked and walked back to the resort just in time for the show. 

They put on 42nd street and I'm not the biggest fan of plays, but it was pretty good. There was a pretty good turn out. It went on past our bed time so about 10 pm, so were pretty sleepy. We're gonna resist the temptation to zero tomorrow and try to hike about 14 miles to the first shelter.