Harpers Ferry, WV / College Park, MD - 1012.7 miles

Hikers crave all you can eats along the trail. Somehow after 850 miles I had not yet been to one. Well this ended in Waynesboro, VA when I went to the Ming Garden Buffet. I had a silly grin on my face the entire time and helped my self to 4 fully loaded plates, plus desert. I even had some to go. The next day I walked to the outfitters in an attempt to get some of my worn out gear replaced. Luckily Lowa replaced my boots for free and shipped them ahead for me to pick up.

At around mid may every year there is a hiker fest/ party called "trail days," held in Damascus, VA. Since I was over 400 miles north of there I decided to have my own trail days and go home once I reached Harpers Ferry. To get there I had to hike over 100 miles through my second National Park of the trip, the Shenandoah's.

After Waynesboro I got back on the trail at 12:30pm but managed to hike nearly 20 miles with off and on thunderstorms rolling through. When I got to the shelter it was full and just about everyone was asleep. So I pitched my tent nearby. When I woke up the next morning I saw Twigs, who I had not seen since Erwin, TN. It was great to see a familiar face. Twigs was hiking with a group of guys consisting of Specs, General Lee, and Wildman. I joined them through the park.

In the park the gradient of the trail is fairly easy and I saw my first second and third bears. However it really is the McDonald's of National Parks. One can literally drive through the entire park and the vistas offer up views of the valley which consists of WalMarts and gas stations. Visitors were amazed by the view, however, us thru hikers didn't give them a second look and rolled on through.

One nice thing about the park are the wayside restaurants throughout. They serve great milkshakes and overpriced food but it is very welcome after a long day of hiking. My guide book informed me one particular wayside closed at 7pm. However, I ran into a couple of girls that told me it closed at 5:30. Thus I ran the remaining 4 miles I had to the wayside and got there at 5:15, just under an hour to enjoy a delicious blackberry milkshake.

That same day a father and son thru hiking team, EZ and Trail Trash, were attempting to get to the wayside aswell. For some reason the son, Trash, was not feeling well. When they showed up EZ was carrying both backs and Trash collapsed as he approached the restaurant. He was in a lot of pain and cramping badly. We gave him food and Gatorade but he was still in pain. We decided we needed to get him into town but the people in the park that day were very self centered and unwilling to help. A big scene was made and eventually the Park Rangers came. They said they couldn't do anything for Trash. Thus it took the whole group of us hikers to finally find someone decent enough to drive them into town. Other than that the park was fairly uneventful and I was actually very happy to leave.

When we got out of the park Twigs and I decided to hitch a ride into nearby Front Royal, VA. We got a ride immediately and stopped in for some pizza. We noticed there was a movie theater in town so we had to check it out. Twigs had already seen 3 movies on the trail, he loves them more than I do. We had heard Robin Hood had just come out and were hoping to see that. However, this particular theater was only showing 4 movies, three of which Twigs had seen. The only remaining movie was Letters to Juliet. So Twigs and I watched Letters to Juliet along with 12 other girls between 13-17 years old.

From here I was on the home stretch. All that was between myself and home was 50 miles and a section known as the "roller coaster." The roller coaster is a 13 mile long section with consistent ups and downs with no switch backs. By the time I made it to the roller coaster it was cold and raining. Luckily there is a hostel right at the end of the section called Bears Den. They have a hiker special rate which includes, bed w/ lines, shower, internet, pizza, soda, ice cream, and laundry. They even had a TV and clothes to wear while you did your laundry. Twigs, SPecs and I wore matching PJ's to bed and watched Indiana JOnes.

The next day I said goodbye to Twigs and Specs as I made my way to Harpers. This is the unofficial halfway point of the trail and location of the ATC headquarters. After a 20 miles hike to the city I got my picture taken at the headquarters and checked out some of the history of the city. I was the 79th thru hiker that had made it to Harpers this year. My chances of making it to Maine go up from 15-20% to 50%. The headquarters also has a gigantic 3D map of entire AT. I spent several minutes retracing my steps before my dad came and picked me up. I was on my way to College Park and said goodbye to the trail for a few days.