90 days in AT. Can you meet me halfway?

What’s up, Veto?

The last time we spoke, I was sitting in a public library in Buena Vista, VA, during a storm, writing and posting updates about my travels. I am very grateful to announce that I finished Virginia, all 553 miles of it, and hiked through West Virginia, Maryland, and got off at Pine Grove Furnace State Park, which is in Pennsylvania about halfway there. Yes, you heard right, I’m officially halfway through my 2200 mile journey, which is such a wild but amazing feeling!

Pine Grove Furnace State Park is a very special place on the Appalachian Trail as it is home to the infamous half-gallon challenge. The half-gallon challenge involves eating a half-gallon of ice cream to celebrate your achievement of climbing half of the AT, and according to the owner, there is no time limit for the challenge, but in recent years, hikers have made it a challenge to complete the challenge in under 30 minutes. I’m proud to say that I was able to use up my entire half gallon in 16 minutes and I’m a member of the half gallon club forever.

After completing my challenge, my brother picked me up in PA and now I’m spending time in Maryland with my family and taking my first triple zero, which has been very relaxing.

Wait, are we outside of Virginia?

Virginia is finally in the rearview mirror, but to give credit where credit is due, I don’t think I’ve really suffered Virginia’s blues at all. Once my toe improved and some of my other aches and pains subsided, I was able to start putting in miles pretty regularly in VA, which was really nice.

While I didn’t feel alone in Virginia, norovirus dominated most of my thinking while I was in the state and led me to spend most of my time hiking alone and not camping with others. Norovirus, a stomach virus that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, has been rampant on the trail for the past month and making its way through most of the hikers I know. Many of the shelters, especially in Shenandoah National Park, were affected, and since norovirus can last up to two weeks on surfaces and toilets are likely big points of spread, I’ve been traveling alone for the most part.

My last big memorable stretch of VA was Shenandoah National Park, which offered rugged terrain and easy climbs throughout. SNP was also great as it had stops along the way called Waysides, which serves as a place for tourists to grab food and supplies while adventuring through the park and also allows us hikers to resupply and get some hot meals which, at this point, never go out of style.

Every day I found myself pulling over the road to get some real food on me!

I always forget to take a photo before I start eating haha

SNP has the best blackberry smoothies, although a little pricey 🙂

SNP also offered incredible views and great weather during my last few days in the park, where I was lucky enough to have a couple days in the 70s and nights in the 50s, which made me want to hike all day.

I loved the panoramic views at Shennies 🙂

There are no crazy peaks in the Shennies, so the summits were often marked by Cairns, a pile of stones to mark a point.

I did some early morning walks and was greeted with a light drizzle. I didn’t like being wet, but I love the rainy views!

We move towards Harpers Ferry

Once I left Shenandoah National Park, I had about 50 miles left until I reached my next big milestone, which was Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Before this, I had been walking places without doing any big climbs. A well-known challenge before arriving in West VA was the roller coaster, which is a 13.5 mile section of trail that has numerous PUDs, as we hikers like to call them, which are useless ups and downs.

I’d like to have a word with this Trail boss character hmph.

Thanks coaster for reminding me that the AT doesn’t fart.

An insight into the ups and downs the hike presented to me on my FarOut app

Overall, the roller coaster wasn’t bad at all. I remembered what a typical day was like in the early months of my thru-hike as I climbed the peaks of Georgia through North Carolina and what still awaited me as I moved through New England and reached the peaks of the White Mountain National Forest. I was happy to not only complete the coaster but before I finished it, I reached the 1000 mile mark and had some amazing trail magic to celebrate the achievement.

1000 miles!!!!!!!!

Hot day, but the chili on the trail magic made me very happy, really grateful to these trail angels 🙂

After the 1000 mile mark, I arrived at Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, which is also known as the unofficial midpoint of the Appalachian Trail and is home to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The conservation area is a must-see stop for all types of hikers, as you can take a photo and be in the trail yearbook and live forever. Over time, the photo that was taken will be included in an online log where you can search for yourself as well as hikers you have hiked with in the past.

The veto is entrenched forever!

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, USA

Harpers Ferry was an amazing historical site!

Harpers Ferry was great, the AT goes through town and some of the streetlights had flames to guide you through town.

While I didn’t spend much time in Harpers Ferry due to the fact that I was trying to get to the halfway point at mile 1106, I spent the night camping in a tent at a hostel (CrossTrails Hostel) and met some people I had met earlier on my hike, which was a nice way to end my antisocial era.

Maryland

Maryland is just over 40 miles long and doesn’t have much elevation, making it an easy state to traverse on my trip. Overall it treated me very well apart from a little rain one of the days which cleared in the afternoon giving me cooler weather while camping at the Raven Rock Shelter.

I think what I liked most about Maryland was how well the trail was maintained in this section. The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club manages the Maryland portion and everything was well maintained, from the outhouses to the shelters to the trail itself. I was completely impressed. There were slightly fewer water sources in this section, but the trail passed near parks where taps with drinking water were available and one of the designated backpacker campsites had showers and hikers could be fed.

Blessed with showers and picnic tables at Dahlgren Backpacker Campground in Boonsboro, MD

Sitting on the grass with all this Domino’s for me, ahh life 🙂

The original George Washington monument built in 1827 in Boonsboro, MD

Maryland was great because I walked around a bit with some new people who kept it interesting and I made some friends along the way.

Chartreuse, Wicked, Boss and Veto at High Rock, the highest point in Maryland on the Appalachian Trail at 1900 feet

What’s next?

Looking back at the last 1100 miles and 6 states, time flies. I always have aches and pains, but at this point in the game, it’s all mental to get to Maine, barring a catastrophe. *knock on wood*

I’m looking forward to this week when my sister joins me on the trail and we hike to Pennsylvania together for a week. It’s going to be scorching, so we need to focus on staying cool, drinking fluids, and keeping the ticks at bay.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about New England, I’m honestly really excited. I can’t say the trail is boring, but I have gotten bored at a couple of points and those presidential mountains are calling my name. Part of me has to remind myself to still live in the present because these miles fly by and I don’t want to miss a second.

Sorry for not having written to you before, it’s not you, it’s me hehe.

Thanks for coming to my in-store talk!

PS: my post with the photos of my feet got 5 times more views than my last post, you are all fans 😛

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