Harpers Ferry is the town closest to the halfway mark of the trail and there’s an Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) branch there. Hikers passing through can register and get a new hiker number, so my goal was to be there before they closed at 5 today.
I was on the trail by 8, thinking that would give me 10 hours to get in the 21 miles to the ATC. Along the way, the views were pretty great again and I finally crossed out of Virginia.
It wasn’t until lunch that I realize I suck at math and it was only 9 hours. Lunch cost me most of an hour, water was 1/4 mile down a steep hill and it took me 20 minutes just to refill my bottles.
Tried to pick up the pace after lunch, which naturally is when the trail got rocky. Man that sucked, but all I’ve heard so far is that Pennsylvania is the rockiest. Can’t wait for that…
Ended up making it to the ATC around 4:15pm to get my picture taken and a new hiker number. I was hiker number 993 back in Amicalola, now I’m hiker number 742. Approximately 3,000 hiker tags were handed out at Amicalola, so I’m still in the first third of hikers this year.
Festus picked me up and we met up with Bubbles, Kiwi, Iron Man, Tic Tac, Curly, and Rebel (the only one I hadn’t crossed paths with before). It was really great to catch up with everyone and even though we all protested Rebel ended up buying us all dinner.
I’m really excited to be at the unofficial halfway point. I’m also actually excited to be hiking again, which is a great feeling. Now if only I could get my feet to get on board with the adventure it’d be a wonderful time.
Tonight’s bed is the most comfortable thing I’ve been on in quite a while. It’s gonna be a great night.
Day 92 Mileage: 20.3 mi [Tent Site -> Harpers Ferry]
Total Mileage: 1034.2 mi