The Gathering weekend in Athens, WV

This weekend I got to pack up some gear and head to the ALDHA (Appalachian Long Distance Hiking Association) Gathering.  The Gathering serves as a reunion for any hikers who have a love of long-distance trails.  At this year’s Gathering, there were thru hikers representing all the way back to 1971 with the exception of only three years not being represented.  I was proud to see that the Class of 2012 came out in good numbers as well! There were actually a few hikers there I hadn’t met, but we had Hawk, Wiffleball, All Smiles, Peach, Overdrive, Headin’ Out and Taggin’ Along, SOS and Trail Momma, Otto, Bowser, Steamer, Nokey, and Me just to name a few!  We got to have a reunion and talk about our summit days and show photos.  They also had a “graduation” ceremony for us of sorts. 

The Gathering has really cool presentations all focused on hiking throughout the weekend.  Hikers who have traveled anywhere are able to give presentations and some of them this year included “Camino de Santiago” by Bob Peoples, a film about flip-flopping, a focus group done by a graduate student trying to learn more about thru hiking identities, a Q&A session for people trying to hike next season, classes on orienteering, and so much more.  On Saturday night there was a keynote speaker, a hiker named Trauma who just traversed the entire Himalayan Mountain range.  Nokey and I really wanted to attend this, but we’d finally heard from Testament and Manboy and they had just walked into Pearisburg for the night, a short 25 miles away!  We packed up quick and ran over to spend the evening with them. 

We wanted to bring the boys back to ALDHA to hang out, but they’d already paid for a hotel room and were planning on hiking out to Woods Hole Hostel in the morning.  We went over and I bought the boys and a SOBO named Tortise dinner at Dairy Queen and then we took them to a hiker’s dream - WAL-MART! They only needed food for the night and for two more days and those three boys filled up an entire conveyor belt!  I remember the days of being so hungry and tired, so I just laughed and watch their eyes light up as they found fresh rotisserie chickens!  We went back to their room at The Holiday Motor Lodge (the same hotel we stayed in there!) and we just watched stupid movies while the boys all smoked cigarettes and devoured calories to get their energy levels back up, as they were all out of food when they came in to town.  

Saying goodbye to them was hard, as usual, and Nokey and I missed the trail so much at this point.  We drove back to Pipestem for a bonfire and campout.  Sitting around the fire with people we’d met on the hike, as well as people who gave us trail magic on the way, was just an awesome experience.  Everyone was there for their love of this trail that has touched our lives in some way and we all had this commonality.  We got to see Ms. Janet and Squatch and talk to them for a few minutes, and I got to finally meet Chuck Norris and Tigger, the owners of Laughing Heart Hostel in Hot Springs.  We stayed up past 1 a.m. hanging out at the fire before retiring to our tent for the night.  

My first ALDHA Gathering was so much fun. For just a few days I got to be a thru hiker again. I got to talk to complete strangers and become friends. Everything I loved about the trail was there all over again and it was the most wonderful feeling and was very healing for me being that I’ve missed the trail and my hiking partner so much in the past one month since being finished. I’m definitely looking forward to the Rucks in January and next year’s Gathering in PA.  If you’re a fan of long-distance hiking, I urge you to check out ALDHA’s website (www.aldha.org) and get involved.  The photo I posted today is Testament, Nokey, me, and Manboy in Pearisburg just before saying goodbye.  I can’t wait to see these boys again. 

Day 70
After three days off, it was time to leave the comfort of Joe and Fran’s and all the good food. We got dropped off with Flash in Harpers Ferry and walked back down the blue blaze to the AT once again. We got to walk through the historic town and over the river to the C&O Canal trail, which runs 160 miles through MD and WV. We walked in to Maryland without much notice and began our climb to Weaverton Cliffs. From here, it was nice and easy ridge walking with a few rocky places. We reached Gathland Park around 4 pm and met Jerry and Anne and talked with them a bit as we drank a rootbeer and ate dinner. After leaving them, we walked past a war memorial and an old barn and then headed up a hill to Lambs Knoll. Flash had a phone number for a guy who was doing trail magic a few days prior and called him up to see if we could stay at his house. He couldn’t take any hikers tonight, but offered to slackpack us to Dahlgren Campground and buy us pizza for dinner! We called a pizza place from a parking lot close to the campground and they delivered it to us! A backpackers campground with hot water, electricity, and pizza delivery?! Maryland is some kind of heaven! The photo is of the War Correspondents monument.

Days 67, 68, 69
We got back to Joe and Fran’s and got to take showers and eat a ton of food. We were going to head out in to town to meet up with Connect 4, but it ended up being pretty late. We went out to downtown Leesburg and had pizza and a few microbrews with Fran and Joe. The second day, we went back in to Harpers to see Flash and Dirty Girl, whom we haven’t seen in a few weeks! We had an awesome reunion and convinced Flash to come zero with us in Leesburg. We went down to the historic part of Harpers Ferry, which is actually a national park with historical reenactors, and took photos and shopped around. We also went shopping at an outfitters, a running store (for new insoles), and Walmart for food. We took a third zero and relaxed and thoroughly cleaned all our gear, which was disgusting after 1000 miles!

I’d like to now delve into so facts and myths about the trail after 1000 miles of walking:
1) Thru hikers aren’t fast hikers. A lot of people comment they could never keep up with me and that’s just not true! Nokey and I may do big days, 21-25, but we actually hike pretty slow, doing about 2-2.5 mph at the end of the day. When you walk for 70 days you can’t push too hard or you’ll hurt yourself. It’s amazing how many thru hikers haven’t learned this yet and are still killing themselves and getting injuries!
2) Virginia is NOT flat, beautiful meadows and farmland! It’s a giant green tunnel with a ton of tough mountains and not many views. I had some good days in Virginia, but I honestly could care less if I never hiked there again. All the good things in Shenandoah were off the AT and all the views were from the road. It’s beautiful from a car, but I’ll pass on the hiking. I liked Virginia better as a tourist in Leesburg, which was a beautiful colonial town. Also, I was always told I’d pull easy 30-mile days in VA. I never came close to 30 ever! I did one 24.8 and one 25.3… My biggest day was in the Smokies and I think it may stay that way.
3) A lot of the fun stuff happens off trail. I’ve always had awesome experiences when hitching in to town or meeting people off the trail. We have a great saying, “the trail will provide,” and it’s very true! If you need anything, chances are you can find it.

Day 66
Harpers on National Trails Day!
We woke up at Blackburn this morning and were ready for an easy hike in to Harpers Ferry, but first we had to climb the longest 0.2 miles straight up and out! It rained last night, so the trail was a little slick but not too rough. From here, we had an easy 4 miles in to the David Lesser shelter. I walked alone for the first time in nearly 600 miles to let Nokey catch up with James and Joe. I saw a ton of chicken of the woods growing on a log just past the shelter and Joe picked some to cook for us all later. When we got to Keys Gap James met his wife and headed home, leaving us with a short walk with Joe in to Harpers! We walked through some rocks and down a steep and wet hill to the Shenandoah River. You could look straight up the hill and see the town in the cliffs and it was a really emotional moment for me, knowing I was about to be at the psychological halfway point. I also met my first southbounder (SOBO), KitKat! When we came down to end of the bridge, we were looking straight up the mountain with a ton of stairs. Nokey and I ran up the stairs and directly to the blue-blazed trail leading us to the ATC headquarters! Nokey’s aunt Fran was there as we practically ran down the street. We ran into Feathers and Wild Turky, who were getting ready to head out for a few days with Wild Turky’s dad. We left our packs on the porch of and went inside to check out the hikers lounge and get our photos taken. Hawk and Blues Clues were inside and we said hello to them and talked to the staff for a bit. We got our photos taken and headed off to Leesburg for a few days off. We were definitely ready for a break after talking about this day for several weeks and pushing so hard to get here! The photo is of Nokey and me, our official hiker numbers at the ATC are listed in red - I’m the 329th NOBO through this year!

Day 65

Today was a significant day for so many reasons!  We would be getting out of Virignia (finally!), hitting the 1000-mile mark, and meeting up with Nokey’s Uncle Joe for the night, followed by Harpers Ferry (the emotional halfway mark) and a few days off the following day!  But first, we had to finish the rollercoaster on the minimal amount of food we had left!  Our day started with a downhill since we’d camped up top, so we had ample time to warm up first!  We headed down to the Sam Moore Shelter for some water and breakfast.  After finishing, the hills of the rollercoaster didn’t seem to bother us so much.  We passed Bears Den Rocks and came to Snickers Gap early, at only 10 a.m.!  At Snickers Gap I was starving and we were both in a bad mood since we had nearly nothing left to eat.  We saw a sign telling us about some local restaraunts only a mile away and I fought like hell to get Nokey to go!  After deciding that “The Trail Will Provide” (A mantra of ours), we decided to walk the mile to Pine Grove Restaraunt.  This turned out to be an amazing decision!  They had homemade food (I had a spinach, sundried tomato, and mozzarella omelet!) and the service was awesome!  We met the owner of the place and he let us charge up our nearly dead phones.  We also got in touch with Nokey’s uncle and put in some requests for food for dinner since he was meeting up with us at the Blackburn AT Center that night. 

After spending nearly two hours here, we decided it would be a good time to get back onto the trail before the rain started.  As soon as we opened the door to leave, the rain began and we had a mile walk back to the trail!  I stuck out my thumb to hitch a ride and less than 5 seconds later, a car stopped and took us back to the trailhead!  We got there and Broadswoard and SG were there and we did the rest of the rollercoaster with them, which wasn’t nearly as hard as we thought it would be in the torrential rain.  The wind was really blowing and it felt like rain was hitting us from every direction.  Around 2 p.m., we hit our 1000-mile mark, which is also the first time we cross out of Virginia!  They had a “Welcome to West Virignia” sign up and we took silly photos in front of it.  From here, we still had two more hills of the rollercoaster and we pushed it as hard as we could to the Blackburn AT Center, making it there by 4:15 p.m. 

When we got there, we had to wait on Uncle Joe, but we were welcomed by Chris and his wife Caroline, two former thru hikers who were running the place.  The offered us cookies and sodas, which was an amazing treat.  They also cooked us a spaghetti dinner!  Nokey’s uncle and friend came and brought us food too!  The torrential rain continued and we were informed by James that there were tornadoes down in the valley!  The rain finally let up a little around 9 p.m. and we were able to get some sleep.  We were super excited about getting into Harpers Ferry in the morning, the emotional halfway point of the trail and the ATC headquarters!