Oceanic Wilderness

We officially passed halfway on Saturday morning. It was exciting to see the sign and we let out some whoops and yells. Pretty much everyone you talk to feels like we’ve already done way more, but of course you look at the map and there is a long way still to go. But, we’re doing pretty darn well. The shelter registers are starting to show fewer and fewer familiar names. Many names that I recognize are ones that I’ve never met but they are a week to two weeks ahead. We know a few people, maybe three, that are ahead about a week that we’ve hiked with, but other than…

Our first nasty snake of the trail. This was by the Manasses Gap shelter in Northern Virginia.

When we got back on the trail we noticed a pink bloom. It took us a second to realize it was a rhododendron blooming…we didn’t think we’d see them blooming. That week back after Ashleigh’s funeral was tough and I had some crying episodes and after we got down off of Dragon’s Tooth someone had left a blossom on a rock and it was just when I was thinking of Ashleigh and home. Then I decided that that would be my way of Ashleigh saying hi to me. Of course now that the rhododenrons aren’t blooming anymore and we are lower than their elevation I am having to find other…

Hug a tree! 2nd largest tree on the AT. The Eastern Continental Divide. Chris on McAfee Knob. Me on McAfee Knob. Ain’t no way I’m sitting on the edge! The Guillotine.

Our friends Meghan and Jesse came into town to see us yesterday. We had an awesome afternoon wandering around Harpers Ferry and eating lots of food. I wish we could have spent more time with them. Thanks you so much for lunch and for taking the time to come out and see us! I hope to see y’all in Texas when we get home!! You can check out Meghan’s page there on my side bar! She’s an awesome photographer!

Posting from the Bears Den hostel where we are taking an afternoon respite from the heat and the Rollercoaster of Northern Virginia. It’s like being thrown back into Georgia and seems to be Virginia’s way of saying “get the hell out of my state, you’ve been here for 500 + miles”. In a few more miles we’ll be in West Virginia and sometime after that we’ll be at 1,000 miles. Tomorrow morning we’ll roll into the mental halfway point of Harpers Ferry. The real halfway point is probably later this week in Pennsylvania. We’ve been pulling crazy miles lately; breezed through the Shenandoah in five days. I have a lot…