on our side of the Mason-Dixon: Duncannon, PA

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Hi everyone! It's Jared and Maribeth reporting in from Duncannon, PA. We've hit quite a few milestones this week: passing the 1,000 mile mark, conquering the never-ending state of Virginia, Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Maryland, crossing the Mason-Dixon line (we're out of the South!), making the official AT halfway point, and passing the 1,100 mile mark. But let's back up a little bit....

leaving Virginia and entering Harper's Ferry, WV

After posting at the Bear's Den hostel, we hiked the following day (in a cold, pouring rain) to Harper's Ferry, WV. Like we mentioned before, it is considered the psychological halfway point for most hikers. The town is home of the ATC, or Appalachian Trail Conservancy. All thru-hikers check in at the ATC headquarters and get their picture taken (pic at left), and are recorded as "having made it this far". It's a great feeling. The town of Harper's Ferry is also very cool in and of itself. It is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, which made it a hotly contested prize during the civil war. I really wish we could've spent more time here to appreciate the history a little more.

We arrived at around 7pm, cold, wet and hungry. We had heard that a new hiker hostel had opened up right near the outfitter, but were dismayed to find it still under construction. The owner of the place, Karen, saw us milling around outside and took some pity on us. She allowed us to stay in one of the upstairs bunkrooms as long as we assured her over and over again that we wouldn't sue her for stepping on nails, or tripping over the lumber. Things worked out amazingly the next day also...a former thru-hiker, Bonzo, was hired to paint the hostel-to-be. He invited us back to his home, where we got a good night's rest, a shower, and did some laundry. Another wonderful random act of kindness on the AT.

Maryland 

The next day we said goodbye to Bonzo and crossed the border into Maryland. The terrain is a lot milder than what we encountered in the previous states, as we are now in the "mid-Atlantic lowlands". The AT in Maryland takes you through several state parks, centered around the area's Civil War history. I'll admit that I've forgotton all of my 7th  grade Civil War education, but we couldn't help but feel solemn and awestruck to walk across the old battlegrounds. I shutter to think what the scene looked like in the early 1860s. MD is a pretty short state in the scheme of things...only ~40 miles of trail cross through the state. In fact, some hikers attempt the "4 state challenge", touching down in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania all in one day (40+ miles). We're not those kind of hikers though, preferring to stop and smell the roses a little more. The border between Maryland and Pennsylvania marks the historic "Mason-Dixon" line. We smiled when we stepped over into more familiar territory.

Pennsylvania

Which brings us to our current challenge...making it through Pennsylvania. After only five minutes of being in the state, we ran into some locals dumping some trash near the trail, then seeing us, they hopped into their truck and roared off. Not a great first impression of the state. But my opinion of the state has warmed a bit after walking through the trail town of Boiling Springs, the Cumberland River valley, and now Duncannon. We also passed the "official" marker for the halfway point, just north of Pine Grove Furnace state park. The actual halfway point changes from year to year due to reroutes and trail additions (the AT is longer than ever before, now at 2,176 miles)...but we stopped to take pictures next to the outdated marker anyway.  Pine Grove Furnace state park is home of the "half gallon challenge", encouraging the thru-hikers to eat a half gallon of ice cream as fast as possible. Bonzo warned us "if you do the challenge, take some extra toilet paper with you." So we decided not to participate.

PA is probably the most disliked by all thru-hikers. It doesn't have a difficult elevation profile or anything, but its notorious rocks make walking pretty trecherous. We haven't hit the bad stuff yet, but give us another week and I'm sure we'll be bitching about PA just like everybody else. 

Tonight we're staying at The Doyle, a well-known hostel created by Anheuser-Busch. Cold beer on a hot day, in the company of good people...one of life's greatest pleasures. We'll probably write again from Port Clinton, PA.

much love,

Dirty Blonde (you know who)