Thanks for putting the pictures up Rich. Unfortunately the camera that I've got seems to have a foggy lens most of the time which is why a lot of the photos seem blurry, but hey, at least there are photos right?
My zero day has been awesome, napping, eating, watching t.v., trying to figure out the next section for resupply options, it's been good, although its going fast.
I really liked Harper's Ferry and honestly, this whole A.T. trip has caused me to want to do a road trip here and learn more about the history including the civil war, revolutionary war, french-indian war and just the colonial period. It's amazing to walk through these out of the way places and see grave stones, or war memorials.
After Harper's Ferry, I had an amazing stay at the Bear's Den Hostel, a shower, laundry, dvd's, awesome spaghetti dinner and pancake breakfast, it was awesome. I also spent some time with a sobo section hiker named Gorbo who is finishing up the trail this year, he was refreshing to hang out with.
The Shenandoah's were great too, everyday I was able to stop at a wayside and have a gardenburger, fries and a shake, not too bad for being on the trail. I was also able to see and talk to a lot of people while there, including the family that offered to take me to the local town to get a new pair of shoes. (amazing generosity, thanks you guys) So the shoe story, I got a new pair in Harper's Ferry and they were supposed to be a good pair with recycled materials, (i was at least trying to think about the environment..) and about 40 miles in, the cushioning on the left side of my right heel (did you follow that?) collapsed and caused my right foot to tilt inward and that caused some major pressure points on other parts of my foot, so bad in fact that I had to do some surgery on them and cut out a part of the shoe. I was able to limp them another 100 miles to get a new pair in Waynesboro, VA, but it definitely effected my allignment and my feet were just really sore. There is nothing worse that having your feet hurt every step.
After Waynesboro, I had a box waiting for me in Buena Vista, VA, but when I got to the road crossing only 3 cars drove by in 30 min. and I decided to just push on and ration my food. I made a reservation for my nights at the Howard Johnson in Daleville (side note, as I was making that call, cell reception was bad, but I found a place on a rock and as I was on the phone, a timber rattlesnake decided to check out my backpack and then it started heading up the rocks towards me. I had to jump off the rock and lost my cell reception. I felt bad for the woman on the phone I was talking to as I said that there is a rattlesnake coming towards me and then I lost reception and wasn't able to find another place to call for about 20 minutes. I was wondering if there was a study about snakes being attracted to cell phones signals?) So back to the story, I thought it was only 60 miles to Daleville and I thought that if I cut a ramen package in half and skimped on my trail mix, I would be alright. Well, it ended up being 80 miles and a couple of good climbs. I was provided for though, a hiker coming from GA shared an Uncle Ben's rice dish with me one night, then a wonderful couple that I met at a shelter shared a bag of dried mangos and trail mix, along with a gatorade and bottle of water as the water sources have been less than ideal. And if that wasn't enough, a trail angel left some gallons of water at a road crossing that got me through until Daleville. It was pretty humbling and I am so thankful to know that I'm being taken care of even more than the birds in the air.
So I will be leaving here very refreshed, filled with pizza, donuts, gatorade and pineapple. My next stop will hopefully be Damascus, VA.
-jason
My zero day has been awesome, napping, eating, watching t.v., trying to figure out the next section for resupply options, it's been good, although its going fast.
I really liked Harper's Ferry and honestly, this whole A.T. trip has caused me to want to do a road trip here and learn more about the history including the civil war, revolutionary war, french-indian war and just the colonial period. It's amazing to walk through these out of the way places and see grave stones, or war memorials.
After Harper's Ferry, I had an amazing stay at the Bear's Den Hostel, a shower, laundry, dvd's, awesome spaghetti dinner and pancake breakfast, it was awesome. I also spent some time with a sobo section hiker named Gorbo who is finishing up the trail this year, he was refreshing to hang out with.
The Shenandoah's were great too, everyday I was able to stop at a wayside and have a gardenburger, fries and a shake, not too bad for being on the trail. I was also able to see and talk to a lot of people while there, including the family that offered to take me to the local town to get a new pair of shoes. (amazing generosity, thanks you guys) So the shoe story, I got a new pair in Harper's Ferry and they were supposed to be a good pair with recycled materials, (i was at least trying to think about the environment..) and about 40 miles in, the cushioning on the left side of my right heel (did you follow that?) collapsed and caused my right foot to tilt inward and that caused some major pressure points on other parts of my foot, so bad in fact that I had to do some surgery on them and cut out a part of the shoe. I was able to limp them another 100 miles to get a new pair in Waynesboro, VA, but it definitely effected my allignment and my feet were just really sore. There is nothing worse that having your feet hurt every step.
After Waynesboro, I had a box waiting for me in Buena Vista, VA, but when I got to the road crossing only 3 cars drove by in 30 min. and I decided to just push on and ration my food. I made a reservation for my nights at the Howard Johnson in Daleville (side note, as I was making that call, cell reception was bad, but I found a place on a rock and as I was on the phone, a timber rattlesnake decided to check out my backpack and then it started heading up the rocks towards me. I had to jump off the rock and lost my cell reception. I felt bad for the woman on the phone I was talking to as I said that there is a rattlesnake coming towards me and then I lost reception and wasn't able to find another place to call for about 20 minutes. I was wondering if there was a study about snakes being attracted to cell phones signals?) So back to the story, I thought it was only 60 miles to Daleville and I thought that if I cut a ramen package in half and skimped on my trail mix, I would be alright. Well, it ended up being 80 miles and a couple of good climbs. I was provided for though, a hiker coming from GA shared an Uncle Ben's rice dish with me one night, then a wonderful couple that I met at a shelter shared a bag of dried mangos and trail mix, along with a gatorade and bottle of water as the water sources have been less than ideal. And if that wasn't enough, a trail angel left some gallons of water at a road crossing that got me through until Daleville. It was pretty humbling and I am so thankful to know that I'm being taken care of even more than the birds in the air.
So I will be leaving here very refreshed, filled with pizza, donuts, gatorade and pineapple. My next stop will hopefully be Damascus, VA.
-jason
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