It was almost 5a before I could actually start to soundly sleep. I had ended up on the worse of the two sleeping pads and the thing was flat, so basically I slept straight on the wooden bunk. After the day we had yesterday, the bottom half of my body screamed all night long. Finally I asked Warthog if I could sleep some on the inflated mattress. Like a gentleman (because he is), he obliged. Ah… sweet, sound sleep.
Around 7a Warthog was up. Between then and 8a, the other hiker got moving. From their conversation, I learned it was her last night on the trail. She hiked half of it and will come back sometime for the other half. It made me feel even worse about disturbing her night. However, she said she couldn’t sleep anyway. I expect the insomnia had to do with going home today. Around 8a, I had Warthog sitting at the bottom of the bunk “suggesting” it was time to get ready. I guess two to three solid hours of sleep is enough.
It had rained last night. I remember waking up to the sound of it. I was glad to be indoors where I could enjoy listening to the storm, but not have my gear affected by it. Knowing rain was coming was one of the biggest reasons we decided to stay in the bunk house. It worked. Our gear was mostly packed already in the morning. More importantly, it was all dry.
The host of the complex brought over coffee and donuts for us. The donuts were a bit old, which she apologetically pointed out. However, the coffee was hot and fresh. She also offered to take our trash. There are two ways to a thru-hikers heart; feeding them and taking their trash. We wished we could have spent the day at the house, but alas, we had to move on. It was 10a when we started the steep climb out of the Blackburn Trail Center. We had just twelve miles to Harpers Ferry.
The mileage was easy and the day went by fast, with the exception that our bodies and feet ached. Oh, and that we were exhausted. Otherwise, it seemed to go by fast. As we neared Harpers Ferry, the rocks on the trail seemed to get much more pronounced. At some point in the morning I accidentally snapped one of my trekking poles. It slipped into the dirt, then got wedged on a rock. I tried to let up on the tension immediately, but I wasn’t quick enough. I heard a sick little snap and hesitantly pulled the end out of the ground, praying for a whole trekking pole. No such luck, it broke. I will call REI and hope to get it replaced.
I spent the rest of the day hiking with just one pole. It’s how I used to hike, but after having two, it feels lopsided. For our last major downhill push, I had to use Warthog’s poles. My feet ached too much, I needed to take some of the weight off of them – sort of like crutches.
We only took a couple of breaks during those twelve miles. Snow Monkey, Wonder Woman, Warthog, and I were hiking together. We were all hungry, but didn’t want to waste time eating lunch. Snacks would have to hold us, for crying out loud… we have a town to get to!
We dropped down, crossed the river, started back up towards Harpers Ferry and finally saw the blue blaze (side trail) that you follow to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) building, where Kirby was waiting for us. Harpers Ferry is the unofficial halfway point of the AT. It’s tradition to have your photo taken in front of the building. They used to use a polaroid, but now it’s a digital point and shoot image printed out to look like a polaroid. The cool thing about digital is you can pay for extra copies printed as postcards for mailing to loved ones. Although the photographer in my sure wished it was a polaroid still.
Photo Above: A hiker, “Steelhead”, showing off his loose toenail. Hikers can often lose toenails. This is from an injury previous to the trail.
The “original” is placed in a photo book. Each hiker is given a number (this is a different number than your starting number – which Warthog and I forgot to write down). I am thru-hiker 1,079 and Warthog is 1,080 for the year. These are just people who have stopped at the ATC headquarters. I imagine all hikers would, but maybe not. At the top of the photo you write your start date and the current date. Then below you write out your real name, trailname, the direction you are hiking (GA to ME), and contact information.
Finally here, as I was writing all of the information on our photo, was where I got a bit emotional. It’s just such an iconic part of hiking the AT – stopping at the ATC headquarters in Harpers Ferry. Making it here alone feels like an incredible accomplishment. In the logbook, I wrote something like, “This whole ‘hiking the AT thing’ is starting to get real… you know, it only took like 1,000+ miles for it to happen.” I was kind of joking, but kind of not. For some reason, I think participating in this particular tradition made me finally feel like a thru-hiker. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the amount of miles that are behind us. Maybe it was flipping through the photo albums full of hiker friends that I know and care for. I really don’t know. But here, in Harpers Ferry is where I finally can feel myself being comfortable with owning that I am a thru-hiker, not just someone experiencing thru-hiking, but someone being it. It was an incredible feeling. One I’m not sure I’m doing justice putting words to.
Snow Monkey’s parents joined us at the ATC. They waited patiently as we went around the center, weighed ourselves (Warthog has lost about 20lbs, me – maybe 10 to 15), and got our photos taken. Afterwards, we all climbed into their vehicle and headed over to the hotel. We needed to eat, shower, and do laundry – in that exact order. His parents were generous enough to bring food, so we gorged ourselves on that. Afterwards, Warthog and I went back to our room to clean up and settle in. Then we all met up at the pool to relax. We sat at the edge, feet floating weightless in the cool water. It felt amazing, therapeutic even. Then we played cards and waited for Wonder Mom (Wonder Woman’s mom) to arrive. She was bringing more food yet.
When she did, we all helped bring things inside where we ate our second dinner and played with their puppy dogs. Finally, it was around midnight and we had to get to sleep. It had been a full day. It had been a good day. Holy cow. We made it to Harpers Ferry.
-ansel