Half-way!
Well, psychologically. We’ve made it to Harper’s Ferry, WV, a historic little town wedged between the Potomac & Shenandoah Rivers, with Maryland on one side and Virginia on the other. We’re at mile 1,011 or so and 85 days into our journey.
We had a great time going through Shenandoah National Park - we saw so much wildlife! Two black bears, a big rattlesnake and more deer than we could count. The trail also crossed Skyline Drive, the by-way through the park, several times a day so we had access to the few “wayside” diners along the way. We would go a few more miles everyday just to get to a diner with burgers and blackberry milkshakes. I think this is the first section we’ve gained weight on!
We got to stay at the lovely home of Sharon & Tom Johnson in Front Royal, VA. Tom is the president of the Great Eastern Trail, so we had a great time talking new trail with him and updating him on our progress in spreading the word about the GET (www.greateasterntrail.org). Plus Sharon cooked us up a feast morning, noon & night, took us to the grocery store and let us shower and do laundry. It was perfect.
My good friend from college, Courtney, came up to visit us in Front Royal also, and we had a great time wandering around town, eating and lounging (she’s good at that :). It was fantastic to have her around because she drove us around in air-conditioning while the temperatures reached the mid-90s. It was great to see a girl friend and catch up on real world happenings.
We got caught in a huge storm last Wednesday; turns out we were about three miles from where a tornado touched down! It was our biggest storm to hike in yet. The wind was blowing insanly hard, upturning all the leaves on the trees so we could see their white underside - the forest literally turned white in front of our eyes! Then it poured buckets and buckets on us, but at least it was warm outside so we didn’t get cold. We found a low spot, laid our metal hiking poles down and stood apart from each other so that if one of us got struck by lightening it wouldn’t jump between us. Crazy. It seemed to clear as quickly as it came though and soon we were hiking again. The wind caused many trees to fall over the trail and we were breaking branches and blazing trails around blowdowns. The worst were the trees covered in posion ivy - it was unavoidable!
Since then, it has gotten steadily HOT, and yesterday we got up at 4:30am to try to beat the heat. The heat has really slowed us down and we’re hoping the storm coming tonight will bring cooler air. Tomorrow we head out and immediately cross into Maryland. We spend only 40 miles in that state and then will be in Pennsylvania. Now it feels like we’re actually getting somewhere after 44 days in Virginia!
Thanks so much to Blue Moon for taking some of the hikers to catch the 7am train into DC to check out the monuments and for putting us up in your apartment!
I hope all is going well with all y’all and that the heat & gas prices aren’t getting you down! It seems like a great time for us to be hiking instead of driving!
much love,
susan, andy & corley
ps. corley is doing great still, he’s enjoying laying down in streams and biting bugs.
pps. check out new photos on the photos page!
