Living On a Prayer

8/14 AUTHOR'S NOTE: I originally published this on 8/3, but technology did its thing and the blog failed to update.I learned of this early on but was in no position to do anything about it.  So to those of you who have spent the last week-and-a-half in anguish, you have my deepest sympathies.

photo courtesy of Yardsale, 

left to right: Checkpoint, Young Buck, Yardsale, Tenderfoot, Snow, Crispy, yself

Ohh, We're half way there
Livin' on a prayer

Yes, we are officially halfway (I have had that stupid Bon Jovi song stuck in my since for days now, though fitting, it is now beginning to be irritating). Harper's Ferry was the psudo-halfway, but the is for real. Even better, less than two weeks later we passed the 1200 mile marker so we have less than a 1000 miles to go.

It has been a while since the last update so let me start at Harper's.

We hiked out of town late in the afternoon, in the heat of the day. Though it was hot, we felt pretty good since we each ate a whole  calzon before leaving. The town was neat and it felt like we were walking the streets in a town straight out of the 1700's. Our ambitious plan to hike 12 miles out fell apart when Crispy, Snow, Yardsale, and Thumper caught up to us and they stopped to swim in the river. So rather than hike 12 miles, we hiked 2 out and than swam for a couple hours and them did a couple more to the closest shelter.

(cool shot of Harper's Ferry)

Now you need to understand that for the next week there were heat advisories out every single day (it had been hot since the the Shenandoahs). We then started this hiking style I titled the "Mexican Philosophy." Basically you hike 10-12 miles then stop around  1, take a couple of hours just to rest, then hike another 10-12 starting around 4.

The next day out of Harper's we hit the oldest monument of George Washington in the US (see below). Two days out of Harper's found us in Waynesboro, PA (not be confused with Waynesboro, VA) where we spent 5 hours in this Walmart. We had done our 10, hitched in, and then just chilled.

We did normal mileage for the next couple days as we enjoyed the legendary Pennsylvanian terrain. It would be a nice service road flat as a pancake, straight as an arrow and then you'll take a hard turn and then you'll be scrambling over rocks or tripping in a boulder field. I fell, snapping a trekking poles, and bruised my hip. I'm all right, but that day was rough (I had sprained on ankle, bruised the bottom of the other foot, kneed a tree, all the while sweating buckets and being buzzed by Kamikaze bugs)

Day two out of Harper's we hit the real halfway point. Directly after that is a store where you celebrate your achievement by eating a half-gallon of ice cream... The famed "Half-Gallon Challenge." Here are our times:

-Young Buck, 19 min
-Snow, 25 min
-Yardsale, 35 min
-Checkpoint, 45 min
-Myself, 55 min (though last, I had told myself I wanted to finish under an hour--personal goal achieved!)

Crispy and Tenderfoot did not finish.

After we were rested off the ice cream, we pushed on. After several solid days we made it to Duncannon where Tenderfoot and I got stuck for a day while we waited for a package of mine to catch up. Fortunately there was this church hostel where they let hikers crash. It's their basement where the youth groups meet. It had all the important stuff: shower, fridge, small kitchen, wifi, and ping pong. So we hung out and played ping pong.  After I got my package came in, we headed out.

Crispy and Co. had come through and passed us while we were in town. We caught up with them about three days later at Elkelton shelter. Turns out Crispy's aunt was relatively nearby and she had invited him and fellow hikers over. So we fell in with Crispy, Yardsale, Snow, and Young Buck and have spent the last day and a half eating (we even had real Philly cheese steak from nearby Philadelphia) napping, and swimming. 

The other item of note is Thumper (an eccentric hiker) had just caught and killed his third copperhead snake. We all were at Elkelton, and he had gone around corner to skin the snake. Minutes later he comes around the corner with a bloody knife and says, "guys, it was pregnant." We all thought he had gone to nap in preparation for his 70 mile day, so we were disturbed until we understood the context of the statement. He cooked it up and it tasted decent.

The only other item of note is that we camped one night at the base of powerline towers.  So I did the logical course of action and n=knocked off one more item from the bucket list and climbed the tower.

That's all for now. We leave tomorrow to head back to the trail. We only have about 20 miles of PA then we have completed 7 of our 14 states (GA, NC, TN, VA, WV, MD, and PA). The end is in sight... kind of. We still have a long ways to go, but we have come a long ways. We got this.

Take my hand, we'll make it I swear

Ohh! Livin' on a prayer