Days 77-81: Harpers Ferry and outwalking the Proclaimers
June 28th. Day 77: Front Royal to Jim and Molly Denton Shelter – 5.2 miles
June 29th Day 78: Jim and Molly Denton Shelter to Rod Hollow Shelter – 18 miles
June 30th Day 79: Rod Hollow Shelter to the Blackburn AT Center – 17.9 miles
Today, we hike the infamous Virginia roller coaster, where the AT jargon term “PUDs” (Pointless Ups and Downs) was probably coined. The terrain isn’t actually that bad, but the heat and the PUDs make for a long, sweaty day. It seems impossible that less than a week ago, in a 50 degree drizzle in Shenandoah, I had to layer all my clothes at once and was still shivering. There are a lot of day hikers out today, and thanks to the proximity to D.C. and Baltimore, the faces we see reflect a diversity that I find refreshing. After living in Casablanca, it struck me early on how almost uniformly white the AT community was, but now I’ve been immersed in it long enough that I’ve stopped noticing. But today we encounter day hikers of many different backgrounds, and I hope that eventually, the thru-hiking community will reflect more of that, too.
July 1st Day 80: Blackburn AT Center – Harpers Ferry — 12.0 miles
As Canadians, Rob and Ash both have a limited visa to complete the Appalachian Trail. They are still pretty flexible about day to day mileage, but throughout the weeks we’ve been hiking together since our reunion at Four Pines, they’ve expressed a goal of finishing Virginia by July 1st. After the exertion of the roller coaster – which was challenging, but more because of 95 degree heat than any technical terrain – we are within striking distance of the border and then a night in Harpers Ferry. Harpers Ferry is the location of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s headquarters, and it’s known as the “psychological halfway point” of the AT, even though it’s over a hundred miles short of actually being halfway to Katahdin.
Today is July 1st, and there’s no rain in the forecast. Instead, the temperature is supposed to flirt with 100 degrees this afternoon. 100 degrees! I lived in Orlando, Florida for four years, and even I am suffering. I guess in Orlando, people mostly drive in their air-conditioned cars from one air-conditioned building to another. They don’t hike miles and miles up and down hills carrying 20 pounds on their backs. It’s not so bad while we’re in the woods. We follow a river and it’s shady. Then the trail picks its way down a steep slope to the road, where we follow concrete stairs to the bridge across the Shenandoah River. I have a mere inch of water sloshing around in my remaining bottle. I drink it, and then we strike out across the road.
The views are cool, but the concrete is… not. I walk across the bridge, my trekking poles clicking. The sun hurts my eyes, and I imagine that if I was a character in a video game, you could watch my HP bar shrinking as my energy seeped out of me. It’s 99 degrees, and I’m wilting.
Shenandoah River, straight out of Country Roads
I hike toward the shade in desperation. The others are sitting, resting, when I arrive. Walking into the shelter of the trees feels like crossing a finishing line, and even though it’s still sweltering, I stop feeling like a clock is counting down the seconds until I faint. I am dismayed to realize that there’s still a half-mile climb up the ridge on this side of the river before we actually arrive in Harpers Ferry. It’s just so hot, but the ascent passes swiftly. Then we’re in Harpers Ferry, a picturesque town that reminds me of my college visit to Williamsburg when I was applying to William and Mary. The white blazes guide us through town to the ATC headquarters, where there’s a long line of backpacks leaning outside.
Sweet, sweet air conditioning! I happily dump a few dollar bills into the coffee can in the refrigerator and help myself to a cold Gatorade and an ice cream sandwich. We get our photos taken and flip through the album to see who is ahead of us. I was the 2173rd hiker to start the journey from Springer and the 1262nd to arrive in Harpers Ferry, suggesting that nearly a thousand hikers in front of me have either dropped off the trail or fallen behind.
“Possibly? Etienne?”
I hear my trail name and turn around to see Sunrise, the Japanese hiker whom I met on my very first night on trail. Besides crossing paths at Trail Days, we haven’t seen Sunrise since Fontana Dam. I’m surprised to catch him now, but he explains that he is still a couple of days ahead of us, but that he is taking a zero to explore the area including Washington D.C., and tomorrow he’ll be back on trail to start Pennsylvania. I am delighted that we happened to cross paths today, and we give him a hug before he heads out. I have huge admiration for Sunrise’s strength and discipline as a hiker, and for his courage to undertake a journey like this in a foreign country with a limited grasp of the language. He regularly writes in Japanese in shelter logs, and I imagine how special his notes must be for the next Japanese hiker to come across them, like secret messages of encouragement left only for them, incomprehensible to the rest of us.
Ash, Rob, Etienne, and I devour some pizza near the ATC and then hitch to a nearby hotel. We are only staying one night, we tell ourselves. One night.
July 2nd Day 81: Zero in Harpers Ferry
The next day, it is even hotter. We look at the weather apps on our phones. 100 degrees, with a heat index of 105.
“We’re zeroing, aren’t we?” says Ash the next morning, when it’s 10am and we haven’t begun to pack up the explosions of gear scattered across the hotel room furniture and floor. I suggest heading into town and hiking just the four miles between two road crossings so that we can at least call the day a nero before staying overnight again, but then our grocery run and shoe shopping in town take longer than we expect, and we admit defeat. A zero it is.
