Day 6: Exploring Harper's Ferry

July 10: The hostel provided unlimited waffles for breakfast--and I took full advantage of this fact, eating them up until I was stuffed. Hikers and bicyclists packed up for the day, myself included, but I stored my pack at the hostel for most of the day. I'd been to Harper's Ferry twice before on my Appalachian Trail thru-hikes, but I always passed through quickly and didn't explore the town or the exhibits as much as I would have preferred. I hoped to make up for it today--at least in part. I could generally skip the stuff I'd already seen on my previous visits.

John Brown's capture in the engine house, as depicted by these wax figures
in the John Brown Wax Museum. That bearded guy is John Brown,
who's cradling his son that was killed in the final showdown.

So I left my pack (and stroller) at the hostel and walked around town completely unencumbered. I walked back into town, which passed by the ATC headquarters where I dropped in and leafed through the photo albums of all of the 2003 and 2015 thru-hikers--my years! And I took photos of every single 2003 and 2015 hiker so I'd at least have a record of them if I ever wanted to contact any of them. That took a solid hour of effort and generated nearly 400 photos of over 2,000 people.

I was also curious about how much more popular the trail was between the two years. In 2003, they recorded about 740 northbound thru-hikers. In 2015, they recorded 1380 northbound thru-hikers--almost double the numbers from 2003. This year, they already had 200 more hikers that had gone through as of July 10th than they had last year on July 10th. The A Walk In the Woods movie had come out since last year and I  had heard rumors that a thousand more people started the trail at Springer Mountain this year than last, and it would appear that at least 200 of them made it as far as Harper's Ferry.

Interesting... very interesting....

After I finished with that, I continued walking deeper into town and poked my head into the John Brown Wax Museum. It looked like a cheesy tourist attraction that no self-respecting person would step foot in, so of course I had to! I asked the lady at the entrance how much it cost ($7), and asked if it was worth it--knowing she'd probably be biased towards talking it up because hey, that's her job, right? She said that it was air-conditioned inside (well that's worth the price right there! It was shaping up to be another hot day!) and that they had 87 wax figures inside.

I did a bit of quick mental math--realizing that $7.00 wasn't even 10 cents per figure! I'll take it!

This is the Shenandoah River, and that long bridge
is where the AT comes into town. Harper's Ferry marks the
confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.

I walked through the museum quickly, taking a few pictures and reading about what each scene represented. John Brown, for those of you not up to snuff on your American History, fought against slavery first making a name for himself in the Kansas conflict when they were deciding whether Kansas should be a free state or a slave state. His most famous exploit, however, was taking over the federal armory at Harper's Ferry in 1859, wanting to give the weapons to slaves and other colored people to rise up and rebel against the federal government. He failed and was captured in the engine house located just a few blocks away. He was tried, convicted and ultimately strangled to death from a poorly executed hanging.

The museum covers the entire life and times of John Brown from his younger years up until his death in 1859, but focused primarily on the Harper's Ferry raid--which makes sense since that's where we were located and it's what he was most famous for.

It was all interesting, although I can't say that I learned anything new from the walk around. I'd read quite a bit about John Brown before.

Later, I ate lunch at the Potomac Grill. Ranger Scott had suggested it the night before as a good place to get dinner, but I hadn't wanted to walk all the way back into town then. But now that I was in town, I had no qualms about stopping by for lunch. It had a wonderful outdoor patio overlooking Harper's Ferry which I very much enjoyed. In the shade, it didn't even particularly feel hot.

I wasn't done exploring Harper's Ferry just yet, however, and after I finished lunch, I walked around on the waterfront towards Virginia Island--a section of Harper's Ferry I'd never been to before. I continued following the waterfront until it met up with where the Appalachian Trail entered Harper's Ferry. At that point, I was back on familiar ground again and decided to follow the AT back up towards the ATC headquarters and back to the hostel. It was time to collect my pack and stroller and get back to the C&O Canal.

Due to the steep and narrow sidewalks around Harper's Ferry, I carried my pack on my back and dragged the stroller around empty. One guy who was passing by me in the other direction said, "Hey, umm... I think you lost a baby?"

I looked in the empty stroller with mock concern. "Oh my GOD!!!!" I picked up the stroller and looked under it. "Where'd the baby go?!"

Before quitting town completely, I did stop at the ATC headquarters one last time. There's a tradition that thru-hikers get their photos taken outside with the ATC sign. It's an AT thru-hiker tradition, but I wanted a photo of me with my stroller despite doing the C&O Canal instead. It wouldn't go in any of their photo albums which were just for AT hikers, but rather it would go in my personal collection. I asked another hiker who was lounging around outside if he'd take my photo for me, which he did after he made me explain what was up with the stroller. =)

Back on the towpath, I removed my pack and placed it in the stroller. I was done carrying my pack. For now, at least.

I was back on the trail and hiking by 3:00 in the afternoon--a very late start by anyone's standards! But I had certainly seen a good chunk of Harper's Ferry by that point. The temperatures were still very hot and humid, but they seemed considerably less than yesterday. Maybe only 85 degrees instead of 95 degrees? Definitely not as bad as it had been since I started the trail.

The rest of the day's hike was relatively uneventful. I had originally intended to stop at the Antietam Creek campsite about 10 miles out from Harper's Ferry. Perfect location considering my 3:00 start time. This was the same Antietam Creek that ran "red with blood" from the Battle of Antietam. The bloodiest day in American history with 23,000 casualties, took place about four miles upstream.

But I was disappointed to learn it was a drive-in campsite rather than a hiker/biker camp and--even worse--cost $20/night. Yikes! Thanks, but no thanks. I pushed the stroller on another 5.6 miles to the Killiansburg hiker/biker camp.

By the time I arrived there, it was dusk and darkness fast approaching. This campsite was absolutely wonderful--right on the Potomac River. When I arrived, a family had already set up camp. A dad--Brian, from South Africa--and two kids. They told me there was a wife with them as well, but she was already in the tent and I never did see her.

I set up camp. This time, no rain was expected during the night, so I decided to cowboy camp under the stars. While cooking dinner, two other bikers arrived to set up camp as well. They weren't biking together, though, and arrived all of about 5 minutes apart from each other. Mickey was out for a few days and shuttling with a car while Erik, who had started the trail just the day before, was planning to ride from DC to Alaska!

"Alaska?" I asked. "The state attached to Canada?" That's a pretty long distance, even by biking standards. I wanted to make sure I understood it correctly.

"That's the one," he replied.

"Normally, I'd tell people you're almost there... but in your case, you really aren't." I said, shaking my head.

By the time I finished up dinner and was set for the night, it was quite dark and I decided to go for a swim in the Potomac. I stripped down to my underwear and waded into the water. It was cold, but tolerable. Getting in the water was the hard part, and the first few seconds after I dunked myself took my breath away, but after that it wasn't so bad and I just floated in the shallow water enjoying the swim and washing off the sweat from the day. I'd have preferred to skinny dip, but with two other people who had also been talking about taking a swim and kids nearby, I figured it was probably better if I didn't.

After leaving the water, I headed back to my campsite for the night. The night was pleasantly cool, and it would be the first night I'd actually get in my sleeping bag. Previous days, I had draped it over me using it more like a blanket, and even then I only did that to keep bugs off me during the night.

My halfway photo at the ATC! =) Although I wasn't actually anywhere near the halfway mark.... I'd covered only about 80 miles of the 350 or so I had expected to complete.

It might not be readily apparent, but the Potomac River is getting smaller and smaller the further upstream we go. At this point, the Shenandoah River is no longer feeding into it.

A hiker/biker camp just past Harper's Ferry. I wouldn't stop here because it's too soon, and because the water pump had been disabled. (The handle for the pump had been removed.)

Overlooking the Potomac River from a culvert under the trail.

Potomac River

Antietam Creek Aqueduct, crossing over Antietam Creek. Just a few miles upstream was where the Battle of Antietam took place.

The Antietam Creek campsite was actually a very pleasant place, but I skipped it when I learned that it was designed for car campers and cost $20/night.

Shepherdstown Ford, across the Potomac, looks like a nice little swimming hole with that tire hanging from the tree, doesn't it? =) Back during the Civil War, it was called Boteler's Ford and the Confederate army crossed back into Virginia here (now West Virginia) after the Battle of Antietam. The better part of the Confederate army used this ford during the invasion of Pennsylvania (the Gettysburg campaign) and Jubal Early crossed here to begin his raid on Washington in 1864. Lots of Civil War history in this area!

Railroad trestle across the Potomac.

Sunset over the Potomac.

Mickey contemplates going for a swim in the Potomac. (Which she would do after setting up camp.)

Day 5: Revisiting the Appalachian Trail

July 9: Once again, due to the expected high temperatures later in the day, I got an early start on the trail. I woke up by 5:00 and was on the trail pushing my stroller by 6:00. =)

What a beautiful tree by lock 26!

Early in the morning I passed a large power plant--the Dickerson Generating Station. Definitely not a C&O Canal era structure! The thing I found most interesting about it was that the plant discharge canal had been reconfigured into a replica of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Whitewater Course for training purposes. A nearby sign also noted that the local fire and rescue departments have trained in swift water rescue techniques there as well.


The day was relatively uneventful and nothing particularly noteworthy happened. Mostly, I just tried to stay cool by soaking my shirt in water at every opportunity and followed along with my book about the history I was walking through.

My book described numerous instances of Confederates troops raiding the C&O Canal and damaging sections along it, as well as following the movements of the main Confederate and Union armies as they crossed the Potomac and C&O Canal during the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns.

The trail passed a location known as the Point of the Rocks, which also saw Civil War action. Confederates burned a bridge that crossed the Potomac to impede Union soldiers from entering Virginia--pretty much all of the bridges crossing the Potomac had been destroyed during the war for this reason. But Point of Rocks was also an important part of the C&O Canal history.

The B&O Railroad and C&O Canal had an enormous legal struggle over who had the rights to this thin sliver of land along the Potomac. On one side was the Potomac River, and an the other side tall cliffs with just a thin sliver of land between the two, and both companies wanted to build through it. They spent huge amounts of money battling each other in court for four years before the C&O Canal officially won the court battle. However, the legal battles drained much of the money the C&O Canal had, and an agreement was worked out between the two companies to share the land where the B&O paid the C&O Canal for the rights to share the land. A win-win for all!

In later years, the railroad was straightened a bit which required a tunnel through the cliffs, and later still the railroad widened the tunnel further. Now there are two railroad tracks through the area, one of which that runs through the tunnel and the other next to the cliffs.

This hiker/biker campsite along the trail still had occupants
from the night before! Seems like the bikers didn't get moving as
early in the day as I did....

The tracks are still in use today, and the C&O Canal is quite loud whenever a train would pass by at a high rate of speed. I couldn't imagine sleeping in one of the campsites next to this location. It would probably wake you up multiple times during the night every time a train ran by. The tracks were close enough that you could throw a rock and hit them!

Later in the afternoon, I reached the junction with the Appalachian Trail. The AT runs for a few miles along the C&O Canal as it leaves Harper's Ferry--among the easiest miles of the entire Appalachian Trail. It was kind of special for me to reach this point having thru-hiked the AT twice now, including just last year. This was the one section of the trail that wouldn't be new for me.

It was still mid-July, and I figured I'd probably even see AT thru-hikers along the trail. During my first thru-hike, I had started the trail April 16th and reached Harper's Ferry in late June. It was a fairly late start, so I figured the bulk of the thru-hikers would likely have already passed through. But there were bound to be some stragglers or those who, as time started running short, would skip up to Maine and start hiking southbound.

Whoever I saw hiking the trail, though.... I was pretty sure they'd all be envious of my gear in the stroller. =)

It didn't take long before I saw the first thru-hikers. I could tell they were thru-hikers. They were the first people I saw, on foot, carrying heavy packs since I started my walk. They were thin, gaunt even, with well-worn gear and oozed confidence.

They were all walking in the opposite direction as myself, though, so I didn't really stop to talk with most of them. One fellow had stopped at the shore, waiting for another hiker (that I later learned was his sister), so I chatted with him a bit.

This is Corn, an AT thru-hiker who was waiting for his sister to catch up.

"Thru-hiking the trail?" I asked him, even though I already knew the answer to that.

"Yep," he told me proudly.

"Quit! Save yourself! Quit you still can!"

He looked at me, startled.

"Just kidding," I said. =)

He was Corn, and he had started the trail very early in the season. I was surprised at this--I figured the people going through now generally had very late starts to their hike. But it's not a race! As long as he was having fun, which he assured me that he was. =) I wasn't sure what his long-term plans were--or maybe he didn't have any. At his current pace, he wouldn't make it to Katahdin before it closed for the season. If he wanted to finish the trail this year, he either had to start walking faster or flip-flop eventually.

"Don't let the stroller fool you," I told him. "I'm actually a very experienced hiker myself."

Eventually we parted ways, and I continued onward to Harpers Ferry while Corn continued to wait for his sister to arrive.

The towpath doesn't go directly through Harper's Ferry. Harper's Ferry is on the other side of the Potomac--in another state entirely as a matter of fact! But it takes just a few minutes of walking to get from the canal towpath into Harper's Ferry, and that was my destination for the night. I kind of wanted to camp, but the previous campsite was about 10 miles before that--much too early in the day to stop!--and the next one was far enough that I didn't want to walk that far. It was already a solid 20 miles to Harper's Ferry, so that's where I'd stop for the night.

At least I could take a shower and clean up a bit. =)

Crossing from Maryland into Harpers Ferry, WV!

The railroad trestle that the AT crosses into Harper's Ferry goes up a short set of stairs, and I knew Harper's Ferry was steep in places and there were plenty of staircases around town I might want to use. Knowing this, I decided to wear my backpack and carry the stroller like luggage rather than push my stroller through Harper's Ferry. And good grief, my pack was heavy. Glad I only had to carry it a short distance. It definitely was not thru-hiker light!

I checked into the Teahorse Hostel--the same place I stayed the year before while thru-hiking the AT--where I met a few more AT thru-hikers and a couple of C&O Canal thru-bicyclists. I kind of felt like I had a foot in both worlds just then. Even though I wasn't currently doing the AT, I could still relate to the stories the AT hikers told and share some of my own. The bicyclists told me about the trail ahead for me--they had started from Pittsburgh a few days earlier--and I could tell them about the trail to Washington.

There was one guest at the hostel who wasn't doing the AT or the C&O Canal--he was a ranger that worked in Harper's Ferry. Ranger Scott only worked there on weekends, though, and lived in Washington. Rather than getting a permanent place to reside in Harper's Ferry or commuting between Washington and Harper's Ferry, he'd stay at the hostel during the weekend. He was a regular guest!

He told us stories about people he'd met during his work. Like the people who would tell him he's getting the history wrong. And one person who had a girlfriend in Turkey that would be moving to the US soon, started a Skype chat with her so the ranger could tell her the history of the area. The man felt she needed to know it before moving to the United States. "That was a little odd," he said diplomatically.

I had mentioned that sometimes I've met kids during my thru-hikes that seem absolutely amazed to meet me, a "real" thru-hiker! And that I like to think I've inspired them to someday thru-hike the trail themselves when they grow up, and Ranger Scott said the same type of thing happens to him.

They have a Jr. Ranger program for kids, and the kids will be so overjoyed to be a Jr. Ranger, and he likes to tell them that they too could be a "real" ranger when they grow up because he too was once a Jr. Ranger--which was one of his inspirations for being a real ranger. (Even if it's just on the weekends!)

I had a really good time chatting with all the people, though. At the campsites along the trail, although I didn't mind the peace and quiet and solitude, it's still fun to have company around at times as well.

For dinner, I headed up to Mena's Pizzeria and Italian Restaurant where I ordered a pizza all for myself and a bottomless soda that I may have set a new record for the number of times I had it refilled in a single sitting.

The rest of the evening, after everyone else went to sleep, I pulled out my laptop and got some work done. It was my first wi-fi connection since leaving the hotel near Washington. I even fixed a small bug on Atlas Quest before I called it a night. =)

I hadn't been totally out of touch or offline all this time, though. I did have my smartphone and was able to call Amanda with updates on my progress on a nightly basis and get online to check some email, but I was a lot more limited with what I could do on a smartphone than my laptop. Interestingly, as soon as I entered Harper's Ferry, my cell phone stopped working. No signal! For days I'm walking through the "wilderness" and had a strong signal pretty much everywhere, and in Harper's Ferry--IN the city--absolutely nothing. I vaguely remembered having this same issue in Harper's Ferry the year before but had forgotten about it until it happened again.


But I was still able to call Amanda using Skype with the wi-fi connection at the hostel. All is well!

Dickerson Generating Station

The Monocacy Aqueduct is by far the longest aqueduct on the C&O Canal (560 feet long), and on September 9, 1862, Confederate troops spent several hours attempting to destroy the aqueduct but were stymied by its "extraordinary solidity and massiveness." There was no seam or crevice to insert a crowbar, and the drills they had brought to make holes for blasting powder were too dull to make an impression on the hard rock. As Union troops approached, the Confederates gave up and left.

View from the top of the Monocacy Aqueduct, looking out towards the Potomac River.

Occasionally the trail would pass an access point to the Potomac River, such as this boat ramp. The colored line on the boat ramp is to warn boaters of dangerous water. If it covers up to the yellow line, "caution" is advised. If the water level is up to the red line, nobody should really be going into the water. It's calm and placid right now, though!

Potomac River

The railroad by Point of Rocks. A major 4-year legal battle between the C&O Canal and B&O Railroad was fought over this section of land.

If you ever wanted to spend the night in a lockhouse, there are several that are available to rent overnight! I'd love to have spent the night in one of these, but I wanted to keep my schedule flexible and reserving one for a specific night makes that difficult. Perhaps someday, I'll come back for a weekend visit or something! =) Anyhow, you can see a list of the lockhouses available for rent on the Canal Quarters website. This one is one of them available for rent. It's Lockhouse 28. Just $100 per night! (At the time this post was written.)

The Catoctin Aqueduct is 100 feet long and crosses over the creek with the same name. It was often called the "Crooked Aqueduct" because the path of the canal zigzagged here so that the aqueduct would cross the creek at a right angle. Two of the three arches collapsed in 1973, and for many years, the towpath traffic crossed on a metal truss bridge across the creek. Almost miraculously, divers retrieved many of the original stones (459 of them) and pieced it back together by measuring and matching them to old photographs. New stones replaced the missing pieces that had washed away, and molded concrete was used to fill other gaps. It's quite an accomplishment!

A couple of miles of the trail followed an actual road that cars could use. Booo! No cars! No cars!

The trail passes right by Brunswick, MD, but I didn't stop in this town wanting to reach Harper's Ferry instead.

Lock 30 near downtown Brunswick. The lockhouse is no longer around, but it was probably located under the concrete bridge pier for Route 17 (seen in the background).

The stroller is still hanging in there! I still had concerns if it would hold up all of the way to Pittsburgh, though....

The flower still wears a happy face, but I tell you, the palms of my hands were so sore.... *shaking head* (And get your heads of out of the gutter!)

Highway 340 bridge over the Potomac

There must have been some sort of tubing event going on, because near Harper's Ferry, I saw hundreds of people tubing in the Potomac! And there was one guy speaking over a loud microphone or something as if he were the MC of an event. No idea what it was all about, though.

The engine house at Harper's Ferry, where John Brown's raid came to an inglorious end.

Day 76: Exploring Harper’s Ferry

May 22: For breakfast, I had waffles provided by the hostel then hit the trail early. I didn’t get very far, however, before I was distracted by the sights of Harpers Ferry.

 

View of the Potomac River in the distance from Harpers Ferry. The bulging land in the distance on the left is Maryland. The bulge on the right is Virginia. And the foreground is West Virginia. There are three states in this photo!

 

I couldn’t possibly tell of all of the history surrounding this town. The entire city is a national historic park. George Washington himself selected the location as the national armory. Lewis—of Lewis and Clark fame—dropped by to acquire provisions for his little expedition across the country. (Ironically, Harpers Ferry wasn’t a good place for me to acquire provisions for my little expedition across the country—no grocery store in the whole town!) Harpers Ferry saw action during the Civil War when Stonewall Jackson captured it, and it’s been a major transportation hub due to it’s location with both the C&O Canal (now defunct) and the road as it’s one of the few low-level passes through the Appalachian Mountains.

 

Oh, and then, of course, there was John Brown’s raid, the single event that Harpers Ferry is probably most famous for. Somewhat remarkably, a group of about 20 men were able to take over the single armory housing almost the entire country’s arsenal. Briefly, at least. The raid ultimately proved to be a spectacular failure and John Brown was later tried and hanged in nearby Charles Town. Although the plan to start a slave revolt failed, the event heightened tensions further between the northern states (where John Brown was seen as a martyr) and the southern states (can’t trust those northerners!) and two years later, the United States had fallen into a civil war.

I knew a little about Harpers Ferry from school textbooks and my previous visit there during my first A.T. thru-hike, but this time I did a little advanced research about John Brown’s raid in particular by reading Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War—a thorough retelling of the event. This time when I walked through town, I would have a better sense about how the raid played out, where everyone was and where the killings took place. I knew John Brown had been captured alive and in a small engine building which still stands to this day (albeit a hundred or two feet away from its original location which has since been buried under a railroad), but I didn’t realize what a massacre the event had been. By the time the raid was over, there were dead bodies floating in both the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers as well as several more scattered throughout the town. In the heat of the moment, none of the bodies were picked up or removed, allowed to rot and decompose. To be fair, the townspeople weren’t entirely sure how many people were part of the raid or if they themselves would be shot (or shot at) if they went down to remove a body.

 

Church in Harpers Ferry

 

Walking through town now, it’s hard to imagine the rough-and-tumble town of yesteryears. It was a quiet and peaceful morning, the sun shining bright. The temperature was already quite warm despite the early morning hours and the streets were largely empty of traffic and people. None of the stores in town had yet opened. Of course, there were no longer bodies littered throughout the town or floating in the rivers. There was no sense of panic or urgency among the general public concerned about a slave uprising. Wandering around today, it seemed like any other quiet, cute little tourist town. The small town, in the 2010 census, boasted a population of 286 people. That’s it: 286 people. It was a remarkably small town for such a huge influence on the history of the United States. Back in the day when John Brown raided the armory, it boasted a population closer to 1,000 people, but that still seemed like a tiny number for such a huge, outsized influence on American history.

 

The Appalachian Trail runs right through the heart of Harpers Ferry, but I took about an hour to wonder off trail to tour where the federal armory was once located and read all of the informational signs about it (and there were a lot of them!)

 

I still had a full day of hiking ahead of me, however, and limited my off-trail wanderings to about an hour before I followed the trail over a railroad bridge crossing the Potomac River and into Maryland. After less than 24 hours, I had completed the West Virginia section of the Appalachian Trail! =)

 

The trail then followed the C&O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal for a few miles—a few gloriously, completely flat miles. Several bicyclists passed by me, then the trail crossed a set of railroad tracks and headed uphill into the mountains again.

 

The streets of Harpers Ferry were pretty quiet and relaxed this early in the morning—a stark contrast to the tension that would have been in the streets during John Brown’s raid.

 

The first shelter I reached was the Ed Garvey Shelter, a two-story structure. I went into it and read the last few pages of the register which had the usual hiker writings about what a great time people had in Harpers Ferry or (for those hikers heading southbound) looking forward to arriving in Harpers Ferry. I ate a snack and as I was munching on a gummi worm when I remembered… a hiker had died at this very shelter back in March. At least I thought it was this shelter, the first shelter on this side of Maryland.

 

I looked at the register and picked it up again, wondering how far back it went. I had heard the hiker died when a tree behind the shelter fell and struck him, and I remembered it happening either on or very near March 16th. I don’t normally remember dates so specifically months after the fact, but this one happened to be Amanda’s birthday so it kind of stuck out in my mind, and somewhat nervously, I started flipping back to March 16th.

 

The first entry that popped out was written was one that included a sketch of a tree and what looked somewhat like a gravestone that read “J.P. RIP”. It was dated March 16th and read, “Trees grow and die every day. In memory of the fallen one.” Below it was written more information, like a continuation of the entry but written in a different hand—like someone who wanted to explain the note a bit more. “On Mar 15, 2015, a tree fell just behind this shelter and Jason Parrish was killed.”

 

This monument marks the original location of the engine house where John Brown was finally captured. The engine house is now a short ways away from its original location—you can see it in the background of the photo! The original site was covered with dirt and gravel when a railroad line was run through. That line has long since been removed, but the dirt and gravel to raise the railroad above the flood plain is still there. Originally, the ground was probably 10-15 feet lower than where it is now.

 

The next several entries I found difficult to read. A sense of loss and sorry hit me hard. I didn’t know the guy, but he was a hiker and trees fall all of the time. The likelihood of being struck by one is low—wrong place at the wrong time—but this was as close as it had come to me. I was hiking this trail when he was killed. Admittedly, I was a thousand miles to the south at the time, but a lot of bad weather had hit the area there as well. One of the register entries a few days after the event mentioned being able to see a blood stain on the log that that killed Jason.

 

It occurred to me that it’s possible Jason himself had signed this register before he was killed, but if he did, he used a trailname because I didn’t find any entries that appeared to be him. The last register entry before he was killed kind of tugged at my heart as well: “Spending the night after a big day – 4 miles. First night with other backpackers. Friendly group. A little rain today but nice. Into H.F. [Harpers Ferry] to resupply and back on the trail. Hope to do about 15 [miles] tomorrow. Lookout NOBO’s [northbounders]—heading south!” It was signed The Duke. Could that have been Jason? I don’t know.

 

It was dated the 14th, the day before Jason was killed. Even if it wasn’t Jason, though, it’s very well likely the person who wrote that was at the shelter the next morning when Jason was killed. He might still have gone into Harper’s Ferry that day, but I kind of suspect he didn’t walk the 15 miles south like he’d originally planned. It’s a little sad reading an entry like that. So full of excitement and plans for the future, knowing the tragedy that would strike the next morning and throwing all that out the window.

 

I left the shelter feeling more than a little sad and depressed. Life can really suck sometimes, and random acts of God suck even more. On my way out, I couldn’t help but take a closer look behind the shelter for the tree that killed Jason. I didn’t notice it on my way in, but someone had created a large cross out of branches and a large, noticeable tree laid on the ground nearby. I didn’t see any blood stains, but it was over two months later now. I didn’t really want to see blood stains either, though, and didn’t really search for them.

 

A close-up of the engine house where John Brown was finally captured. It’s one of the few original structures from Harpers Ferry to survive the Civil War.

 

I continued onwards, eventually stopping for the night at the Rocky Run Shelter. When I arrived, the shelter and area was packed with people. It was Memorial Day weekend and I expected a heck of a lot of people on the trail this weekend, but it was a little dispiriting to see what seemed like a hundred people milling around and setting up camp. One level of the shelter was filled with a bunch of students from Roanoke College and they surrounded a campfire they had started.

 

I sat down to rest a bit and eat a snack thinking I might go on a bit more and find somewhere to camp that wasn’t infested with so many people. Until Heavyweight and Superman arrived shortly after I did and decided to stay in the shelter. It was kind of remarkable, really, that there was any room in the shelter at all given the huge numbers of people camped in the area, but the college students took up one level of the two levels of the shelter and I think it “scared off” other hikers from trying to get in. Other hikers… except us thru-hikers who’ll barge our way into anything. =)

 

I really enjoy the company of Heavyweight and Superman, though, and decided to stay at the shelter after all to hang out with them. They quickly made friends with the college students—about their age and I figured they were probably checking out the girls (who were, I’ll admit, very cute). So we regaled them with tales from the trail. They were actually out for a class which must be the best class ever because I never got to backpack for any of my classes! They were actually backpacking several sections of the Appalachian Trail during the school term, and this time they were out for about 5 days, if I remember correctly.

 

Eventually we all headed off to sleep, though, and that was the end of the day.

 

The trail crosses the Potomac River on this railroad bridge. This river also marks the dividing line between West Virginia and Maryland. (I took this photo from West Virginia, but that hill back there is Maryland.)

 

The trail followed the C&O Canal towpath for several wonderfully, easy and flat miles!

 

Some of the men from John Brown’s raid who were shot while trying to ford the Potomac got caught up on the rocks. The river is really quite rocky!

 

This is a bridge that cars can use to cross the Potomac.

 

I took a quick snack break under the bridge where the trail came out next to the river.

 

Turtle on the trail!!!!

 

 

This pair of railroad tracks essentially marked the end of the flat C&O Canal walk. =(

 

Looking down on the Potomac River.

 

Snake on the trail!

 

The Ed Garvey Shelter where Jason was killed.

 

A very somber shelter register.

 

The memorial created for Jason. The cross is made out of branches and I actually missed it when I walked into the shelter. The log behind it (I assume—it was the only fallen tree close behind the shelter that looked fairly fresh) is the tree that killed Jason.

 

Caterpillar hiking the trail!

 

The War Correspondent's Memorial in Gathland SP.

 

 

The Rocky Run Shelter actually had a second, smaller shelter hidden further up the trail from the new one where Heavyweight, Superman, the college students and myself stayed—and they got this nice covered chair/swing to sit on!

 

Campfire for the night!