Zero in Harpers Ferry

Started the day with all you can eat waffles at the Tea Horse Hostel here. A great start to the day. The best thing about waffles is filling all those little crevices with butter and syrup until they fill up and form syrupy pools on your plate!

Photo is of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

Relaxed and walked around historic Harpers Ferry. So much history. Where abolitionist John Brown attempted to lead an armed slave revolt that eventually led to his capture and execution. Interesting the different takes on John Brown as hero or villain. Many agreed with his mission but not his methods. 

Yesterday I mentioned the luck involved in completing the trail. Today when I stopped by the ATC to see who had checked in, I ran in to Gray Ghost. He had stumbled on the mountain and taken a big spill and was bruised and bloodied. Nothing broken fortunately and he will be able to keep heading north.Another great kid, Fritz, from Germany, was there. I had seen him a week ago and he was struggling with serious foot pain. Turns out he had a stress fracture in his foot,so he is wearing a boot now and is off the trail. He is planning on coming back next year to finish the journey. 

Went to dinner tonight with Looper, and in walked Gray Ghost(with many bandages), Möbius and Mike's friend. Steve. It's such a fluid situation out here. You never know who will show up.

Lots of folks are taking a few days off at this point to rest up for the second half.

I was planning on one zero and then back out tomorrow, but my friend Amy's sister Sally, lives in West Virginia and generously offered to come pick me up for a night at her house. My feet have taken a beating on the rocks the last few days and are pretty puffy, so when she said, 'you can soak your feet in the pool all day'..... It was a no brainer!