Mailing Address

The trail led from historical downtown over the railroad bridge to the C&O Canal tow path. We walked with the canal on the left and the Potomac on the right and orange day lilies blooming on both sides. The canal water didn't really flow and had huge turtles relaxing on logs. Ken called them Maryland Terrapins. Nice hiking followed after the tow path but we really are not remote. We bought sodas for an afternoon snack right after the thunderstorm and rain finished. Then we continued past lots of historical markers describing civil war battles in those locations.

The final surprise was a backpackers campground with hot showers! We arrived right at our quitting time and our tent joined about 20 others. There were no organized tent sites so the tents of all colors were in a helter-skelter cluster that was fascinating to look at. We gulped dinner quickly so we could get to the showers and do tick removal.

Another thunder shower sprinkled all the tents as we went to sleep.

Forgot to mention yesterday that we found the number 1000 written with stones in the middle of the trail. That could only mean that we have completed 1000 miles of the AT! The other milestone is that we completed our second month on the trail.

We passed more historical markers and the Washington Monument in Washington Monument State Park. The monument was built in 1827 and was the first monument dedicated to Washington. It saw action in the Civil War.

I stayed with the packs while Ken took a blue blaze trail to a camp store. We have our breakfasts and dinners but like fresh bread and cheese for lunches and we didn't find any in Harpers Ferry. This is a good time to say that we carry Gatorade for lunch and afternoon snack. Our friend Marta measured the powder out of large bags into 8 oz. water bottles into portions that serve the number of days between each re-supply. So far the powder has come out right every time. Good job, Marta!

This trail is the most insect laden area that we have been in. We are now seeing caterpillars, centipedes, millipedes and worms from a quarter inch in size on up. Colors range from transparent to any combination imaginable. Some of them must transform into moths because I have also seen world-class size moths that are way too big to fit in my ear.

All of this makes me glad to zip my tent at night.

Mid-afternoon we ran into 3 day hikers that were hiking all of 40 mi of MD beginning at 3 am with flashlights. We saw them finish at Pen-Mar campground.

After that we climbed a couple of miles to Quarry Gap Shelter. Wow! The shelters landscaping was better than half the backyards in America. A rhoda dell was the background (just finished blooming) with a small stream lined with square rocks on both banks. Solar lights and a park bench sat in front of the stream. A rock fireplace was in front of the shelter. The shelter was 2 rooms with a covered breezeway between them. A rollup shade served as a windscreen. Everything was exceptionally clean and painted. We thought about staying at the park or in a motel to get out of the rain but the shelter turned out to be the best decision! We slept warm, dry and in style!

Another of the AT traditions is to eat a half gallon of ice cream at the halfway point of the AT - Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Ken decided to participate and put away a half gallon of banana split ice cream. Moose Tracks would have been better, but they were out of it. Marcia started with a root beer float and progressed to 2 hotdogs because they had tomato and onions on them.

As we left the park we climbed a long hill. Near the top we found 2 weekend hikers asking us how far it was to a shelter. we explained that we passed the shelter this morning and that they were hiking the wrong way on the AT. They reversed direction in a good natured manner, something we should remember when we have difficulty on the trail.

This was the official half way point for this year's mileage so now we are on the second half. This hike is going so fast! We will be home before anyone misses us.

We continue to find thru hikers who are new to us. We seem to be in a large group of them right now. We met at least 8 in our short hiking day today.

We connected with Ishmael and PA Jeff. We went to a great Chinese buffet. Afterwards we went back to Ishmaels home and saw his CDT slide show.