I woke up this morning to a cool, crisp day. Temperatures were around 40 degrees, the coldest in a couple of weeks.
No more roller coaster
Aided by the coolness of the morning, my hiking day began at 8 a.m. First task of the day, fill up water at the next water source, less than 0.5 miles away. After filling up the tank, I rode the next half mile, which completed the roller coaster!
I won’t miss the roller coaster. I thought its reputation was due to the ups and downs of the trail, but I discovered that it was the rocks that made it difficult and sapped the energy. After leaving the roller coaster, the terrain improved noticeably as it flattened out drastically. While there was an amazing dirt trail for much of the day, there were still numerous rocky sections that were annoying and hit my feet. Especially my left foot, since I still walk in a Croc.
Assault
Since the trail is fairly flat and close to population centers, not to mention it’s the weekend, there were quite a few day hikers again today.
Motivation for the day.
The main goal this morning and early afternoon was to get to Keys Gap, as a short walk will take you to a convenience store. Which is motivation enough for our heterogeneous group. It was a little over 10.5 miles and I arrived at 1 p.m.
I was greeted outside the store by Blueberry Turtle, Big Stick, and Tahoe, who we continued to bounce back and forth with over the past few days. Once inside, I ordered a meat and cheese sandwich, along with some fries and a frozen cherry Coke. With food in hand, I went outside and enjoyed my feast. Just as I was heading out, Queso arrived and our group was complete. After eating, I worked on contacting the lodge in Harper’s Ferry on behalf of our group while trying to coordinate some details with them. For those of you at home, that’s an omen. Who says I didn’t learn anything in 10th grade English! After riding for a while, a motorcyclist approached a group and asked how our hike was going and offered to buy us some cold drinks. Queso and I took him up on the offer and I bought a Gatorade, which was awesome to enjoy later that day. After watching the rest of the group eat pints of ice cream, I also decided to treat myself to a pint of birthday cake ice cream. We stayed until 3 in the afternoon before returning to the trail. We only had 3.7 miles left in the day, allowing us to take our time at the convenience store.
I walked down the road back to the trail and the last few miles of the day passed quickly. It was quite flat and there were some rocky sections alternating with some smoother paths.
At 4:30 pm I arrived at what we thought was the state line, but later found out I had missed the sign and had to walk 0.3 miles back there. The sign was higher than I expected on a tree and I may have been playing on my phone at the time too…
I’m going to bed early tonight because I have a big day tomorrow. Go to bed at 7 pm. Since I started early, I chose to try jeans camping again as well. I hope it goes well!
Statistics for day 77:
13.9 miles
1,867 ascent, 2,247′ descent
From communication tower camp to stealth site
23 DSLC…
Stove use times: 14
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