1st Half Complete

As you probably already know, I've completed the first half of the AT, and I'm now a Townee again.  Overall, it was an amazing experience.  It is true, that a good portion of the trail is just walking through the woods and you may go days without any spectacular scenery, but when the trees do clear, the view is awesome.  Plus, I find a peaceful walk in the woods to be enjoyable on its own.  However, the people are what make the AT so great.  The most memorable aspects of the trail are all of the cool people you meet (and some of the crazy people you meet).  I hope to finish up the New England portion of the trail before I go back into the workforce, and I've already begun plans in my head to do the John Muir Trail out in California.

Well, I guess I'll write about the last few days on the trail.  After the Shenendohas I met up with Amy in Front Royal.  After a few quick errands and a Chipotle burrito, we set out northward on the AT to camp for the night.  It soon turned dark, and somehow we missed the turnoff for the campsite, so we ended up doing 2 bonus miles and had to backtrack to look for our shelter.  Finally we found a clearing with a destroyed shelter, and assumed we were out of luck and began discussing sleeping in the car for the night.  Luckily, we found a new shelter just down the trail, so it all worked out.

Last Night in the Shenendohas

Cool Waterfall

One of the Bears I saw.

The old shelter that tricked us

The next day Amy's cousins met up with us for a day hike, and we decided to do Old Rag Mountain.  It was a great day hike, although the summer weather had started to kick in.  There are some great views and some good scrambles on the route.  That night we dropped Amy's car off in Harper's Ferry and grabbed some dinner before going to the Bears Den castle for the night.

Scrambling up Old Rag Mountain

After a good night's sleep, a pint of ice cream, and some pancakes for breakfast, Amy and I left the Bear's Den to finish off "the roller coaster", which is a series of short but steep rolling hills.  We had planned to do 10 miles that day, but around mile 7 we say some people playing Settlers of Catan, and I decided that was a clear sign that we were meant to make camp early that day.  What a good decision that turned out to be.  It turns out that a big trail maintenance crew was making that cabin their base camp for the weekend, and they kindly showered us with food and drinks all evening (and breakfast too!).

A good game of Settlers

On Memorial Day, we made our way into Harper's Ferry and concluded my trip.  Harper's ferry, is a cool historic town, and I really enjoyed walking around all of the old buildings.  There were tons of people out in the parks and floating the rivers as well.  I went into the AT headquarters to get my picture taken for their book, and then went across the river to Maryland for a bit.  There is a cool trail called the C&O canal trail that goes from Washington DC to Harper's Ferry and beyond.  Just another thing to add to my to-do list.