I’ve always wanted to hike the Appalachian Trail - again - when I was older and could appreciate it more. I hiked it a long time ago when I was about 22, young and dumb. Some friend invited me along for a 3-day hike and I agreed - not knowing what I was in for. Really young and dumb. They told me what to bring and then they strapped a pack on my back and said: ‘Follow us.’ And then they climbed UP the trail. And, I mean UP. This was in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and we were hiking up to Mt. Liberty along Franconia Ridge to Mt. Lafayette. My memories are hazy but I do remember a few things. Firstly, once we got up to the ridge line and had hiked along for a while, we had to go down for a bit to get to the hut where we planned to spend the night. In the morning, we then had to hike back up to the ridge line to continue our hike. What kind of cruel trick is that?
My other memory is that I slept on the middle tier in the hut with one of my friends on my left and ‘who knows who’ on my right. I think we might have introduced ourselves to each other since we were going to ‘sleep’ together but that’s about it.
Later Gary and I hiked to Mount Washington, which is on the AT, several times but again. I really wasn’t aware of how special the AT was.
There - those are my 46 year old memories. But, I’ve always wanted to get back to the AT at some time in my life. And, today is the day. We journeyed down to Harper’s Ferry, about 45 miles SW of Gettysburg. When we got there, we learned that there was much more to Harper’s Ferry than we thought and, since we had only 1/2 of a day to visit, we decided to take a rain check and spend a day or two here next time we’re in the area.
We did get to see a few things - like the Church. During the Civil War, when the minister realized that he had two armies around him, he flew the Union Jack of Great Britain. He certainly didn’t want to take sides at that point in his life. He wanted to save the Church and minister to all.
Now, it’s time for the trail. Hey, I like this part of the trail - will it all be steps like this? Nah, this is just the part through town. These stones are plenty worn.
We put on our hiking boots, grabbed out poles and headed off - across the bridge over the Shenandoah River. Hmm, somehow, this is not how I expected the AT to look. Well, this is just the bridge to get from one side of the river to the other.
WOW, I’m on the AT again. A ways up the hill (and it did go UP) we met these 4 heading down for a warm meal, a hot shower and a soft bed. They had been on the trail since March 9 when they started in Georgia. Now, do these two look like twins?
And check out this cool clothing choice.
Onward and upward. A glorious day, a neat trail - what more could we want? We’re hiking again. We continued on until we had to turn around. This is one of the rockier parts of the trail where we were.
On the way down we saw this group in their river rafts - must have been about 12 of them.
Back at the bottom we got into the car and headed home.
‘In Massachusetts and Vermont, there had been plenty of mosquitoes, but in New Hampshire, they had reinforcements.’
Jennifer Pharr Davis, Becoming Odyssa: Epic Adventures on the Appalachian Trail
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