Some new pictures

Waynesboro, VA to Harper's Ferry, WV

Washington, DC and Gettysburg, PA

Hannah's grandma passed away peacefully on Thursday afternoon, so we'll be hanging low in Florida for a few days and then heading out after the memorial service.

An end with new beginnings....

We made it to Harper's Ferry, West Virigina, on Sunday, and after dropping off our things at the hostel, hiked an extra mile to the Maryland state line. Harper's Ferry is the "psychological half-way point" for the AT, because it is just shy of the actual midpoint and is home to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, where we stopped in and became members. We have decided to make Harper's Ferry the endpoint of our AT journey for now. We will return someday to finish the trail and reach Katahdin.
On Monday we took a train to Washington, D.C. and visited a bunch of memorials and museums. It's a great place to visit since almost everything is free! Tuesday night we took a train from D.C. to visit our friend Jim in Gettysburg, PA. He works as a park ranger at Gettysburg National Park, and is working on his PhD at UF. On Wednesday, we toured the park museum and cyclorama and had a personal 6 hour tour with Jim around the battlefield. It was such a great experience!
More adventures to come; we're planning to head out West!......so.....we'll keep you posted on where we go next!

Almost through Virginia...

We've made it to Bear's Den hostel which is in the middle of a part of the trail called "The Rollercoaster." It's a 13.5 mile section of steep and rocky ups and downs; we're exhausted! So it's great to have a bed and a shower tonight. It's the cleanest (and cleanest smelling) hostel we have been to--they have a thru-hiker special which includes a bed, shower, load of laundry, pizza, soda, and a Ben & Jerry's ice cream!

Tomorrow we cross into West Virginia! That will be the 5th state we've come through. The next day we'll get to the town of Harper's Ferry and cross over the 1,000 mile mark as well. Thank you for all of the comments! More soon...

Taking it slow

We're taking another zero day here in Waynesboro, VA. Just to keep you all updated, we've decided to ditch our plan of reaching Katahdin by August 8th, and are gonna take it slower so that we can enjoy ourselves a bit more and treat our bodies a little better. We'll just go as far as we can get by that date and return later to finish someday. Trying to complete the trail in 4 months was pretty tough, especially having to do 21-25 miles a day, and didn't leave much time to stop and smell the roses. Now we understand why people take 6-7 months to finish. We would pretty much just wake up, hike, eat, hike, sleep, hike, etc. So we've decreased our average daily mileage to about 15 miles. This next week as we go through Shenandoah National Park, we're going to go even slower to try to put some weight back on Mike. Thanks again for all of your love, support, and prayers. It's actually become quite fun again!

Pictures

We are very happy to be in Waynesboro, VA. We've posted our newest pictures; the link is below. We'll post an update tomorrow or Monday...

Damascus, VA to Waynesboro, VA

700 miles

We're now in Daleville, Virginia taking a zero and celebrating Mike's birthday. The day before arriving into town was a very eventful day. The morning started with a hike to Dragon's tooth where we almost climbed to the top - it was a bit scary, then a great photo shot at McAfee's knob where you sit on the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley, then sunset along Tinker cliffs, and then our first bear sighting as we hiked to our campsite that evening (the bear was terrified and took off running, so we only got a quick glimpse and no picture).
Since our last update, we've still been hiking through Virginia. We had 10 straight days of rain and the trail turned into a river. The terrain has also been really tough and slow in some parts. The worst is when the trail is completely littered with small rocks, and after hiking for a few hours you begin to feel every single rock beneath your foot and hope for a smooth path. Other parts have been very enjoyable with great views and fun climbs up or down large rock formations.
We also got to hike through the Grayson Highlands, where the wild ponies roam free. They are very friendly and have no problem having their pictures taken.



Thanks to all of you who sent packages! They were filled with the perfect goodies for our hike.