It’s Kirby’s birthday today! He had to take a quick trip into town this morning to grab his resupply box from the post office. His mom sent it and lucky for us, it contained brownies and banana bread – most of it we ate before setting off for the day. Since we knew he had the errand to run, Warthog and I thought we’d sleep in a bit. It was 8a or 8:15a before we were moving.
The water bladder that sits inside my pack has started to mold in the line. It’s gross. Warthog cleaned it a bit with soap and a pipe cleaner when we were in town last, but I found more this morning. We had stayed at the state park. A park employee stopped by the bathrooms and I figured he would have access to bleach. Warthog asked and I was right. So he put a small amount of bleach in the bladder and line. It sat for about 45 minutes and he washed it out. The mold spots were gone, but I could see a bit of film on the inside pulling up. It makes me want to gag a bit. I wondered if our faucets and pipes at home would look the same if you cut them open. I don’t want to know. When we get into a town, I will clean the bladder again… and well.
It was 11a before we were leaving the camping area, absurdly late. We could either hike thirteen or eighteen miles today. Considering our late start, we knew it would only be thirteen.
After about 1.8 miles on the trail we saw a sign pointing us to trail magic! We had hiked hard and long today… we deserve it (that was a bit of sarcasm). I was glad we stopped. It was held by a man named “Blue Moon”. He hasn’t thru-hiked himself, but has lived in Harpers Ferry for a long time and does trail magic every season. The spread was insane; cantaloupe, hotdogs with eggs and cheese, cupcakes, apple salad, lettuce salad, chips, snacks to take home, drinks, and more. He had two 2017 thru-hikers staying with him for a few days. They were helping host the magic. We sat for about an hour or so visiting, getting to know everyone. A lot of the hikers there were sobo hikers (southbound), obviously they were new faces. We saw one hiker we knew, Bambi.
The trail magic was in the park that has the original Washington memorial. Just another one mile or so down the trail took us to the memorial. We went up the stairs and spent another thirty or so minutes there. It was the afternoon before we were hitting the trail to actually cover miles. For some reason we were all drained, even though we hadn’t really hiked.
The rest of our miles were pretty easy and comfortable. There were some stretches with big boulders – just a taste of what we are about to hit in Pennsylvania. I’ve really enjoyed these couple of days in Maryland. The trail has been awesome and a lot of the side trails take you to really neat landmarks. There were a ton of day hikers out, so you should have an idea of how nice the area is. I’m sad to know that tomorrow we leave it and enter the most dreaded state… Pennsylvania, the state the claims many ankles and even more pairs of shoes. We’ve been warned that the rocks on Pennsylvania just destroy shoes. Even if they are a new pair going in (and mine are), to expect to buy another one when you leave. I’ve held onto my old trail runners and plan to try to get another 200 miles from them to get through that state. They are still in decent shape and if I can nurse them along, I’ll save myself $100- for those 200 miles.
We got into camp around 7p, about thirty minutes earlier than I expected. It took a bit to find a good spot. Finally we found two tent pads that hadn’t been claimed yet. I think most people didn’t even realize they were back there. We scooped them up just in time and are excited to have another night ahead of us on level ground. Tomorrow we plan to get a bit more serious and start the day a little earlier at 8a. These last few days have been awesome, but panic about making it to Katahdin in time is starting to set in. We’ll get there, even if we are the last ones up it, well get there. Hikers on the AT have a saying, “The last one on Katahdin wins.” It’s a reminder to enjoy the time on the trail. There’s a good chance this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I plan to soak it all up.
After the sun had set, I realized I hadn’t taken Kirby’s birthday portrait. Kirby had already turned into his tent for the night. I made him get back up so we could take the photo. Snow Monkey held the headlamp for me while I worked. See? You don’t always need fancy gear for great photos. Just resourcefulness.
Happy birthday Kirby!
-ansel