Welcome to Harper’s Ferry, a place of convergences.
The Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers conjoin here, as do railroad tracks and footpaths, the Appalachian Trail and the C&O Canal bikepath among them. One could walk straight into Washington DC, back to Maine, down south, or due west. For 1090 miles of my journey, every sign reminded me that I’d hiked less miles than the number of miles remaining. Finally, the balance has tipped, and I watch the mileage to Georgia grow smaller each day, yes, with a small ache of internal protest to balance out the celebratory aching of my feet. All things, bittersweet. All day, aching feet.
This was my biggest day yet, clocking in 32 miles by 7:30pm. However, I “slackpacked” it, meaning a trail angel (my mom) met me at road crossings, allowing me to carry little. Moreover, today I took the concept even further. I would call it “jackpacking,” because I only carried two things: jack and shit. Jack is my left-hand trekking pole, and shit is my right-hand pole, which slips more frequently than its well behaved twin. I just made that previous sentence up to soften the effect of profanity. Truthfully, I carried only my trekking poles, and I wore only a pair of shorts. Water and food had to wait every 10-13 miles when I met back up with the fantastic trail angel affectionately known as Bev.
Despite all the side adventures, I’m still in one of the first waves of SOBOs to make it to the ATC headquarters here in Harper’s Ferry where they give you a number and take your photo [less than 20 have passed through].
See the bottom of the post for the next mailing address. And to those who complain about the pictures being too dark, unfortunately, that may just be my beard taking over the foreground and background. Heck, it might be taking over the world, so watch out.
Yep
I guess the M-D line is more important than the state boundary
the OFFICIAL halfway sign
Georgia is down in that crevasse?!
Survived hurricane Irene, but not all the trees did. The trail got "greener."
some nice cushy field walking
Q: How to celebrate halfway? A: The half-gallon challenge.
In addition to swollen tongue and belly ache, I felt oddly intoxicated by this point
Mmmm. Victory.
Next Address: Michael Short // c/0 General Delivery // Waynesboro, VA 22980 // please hold for thru-hiker // ETA Sept. 10th
Hope to be seeing some of your faces soon,
-MKS
Hey Michael. It’s all downhill from here. You are doing awesome. How can I hook up with you thru VA. I can hike with you or just bring you some trail magic or carry allow you to have a couple more days of slack packing. Let me know what works for you.
Hey Ron! Thanks for keeping up with the blog so well. I’m trying to plot out my stops and pace for all of va right now. Reece is also interested in coming up sometime. I’ll either email you in a few days from waynesnoro with some options or give you a call( can I have your number again?) hope this works out! Best, Mks