This morning I woke up right around 4:30am and started boiling water for coffee. I think I found my favorite coffee combination yet! I used 2 packets of the French vanilla instant latte, and one hot chocolate packet. You could literally service this to me in a cafe and I’d think it was worth $7. I slowly started to pack up as I drank that. Then we got going just after 5:30am.
It rained so much last night! I’m so glad that we were in the shelter. The temperature dropped a lot over the night and into the early morning too. It would have been a rough night to be cold and wet in a tent. Everything just worked out so perfectly. Once we got moving, we only had a half a mile to go until we entered into the Virginia roller coaster. An infamous and iconic stretch of the Appalachian Trail, which goes on for about 14 miles. Throughout the duration of the section you climb about 13 or 14 small hills. While most of them are a mile or less and may be over quickly, some of them are pretty dang steep. I remember that this section of trail was exhausting in 2023.
We got into the climbing right away, but I was pleasantly surprised. The first couple of climbs couldn’t have been more than a half a mile or a mile at most. I didn’t find myself getting too tired or worn out. I would just make my way up to the top of the climb and before I knew it it was over. Then you would get to enjoy a descent about the same length as the ascent. Then that same old routine would repeat again, over and over. This went on for the first five or so hours of the day.
Entering the roller coaster in the dark!
About 4 miles into the morning we passed by the Appalachian Trail 1000 mile marker. I can’t believe that we are already this far into the AT! It’s flying by quicker than I ever could of imagined. In 2023 it took closer to two months for me to arrive here. And every climb along the way just felt so much more difficult than it does now. Yesterday was actually a two year anniversary of when I started the Appalachian Trail for the first time. And in the two years since then, I’ve hiked over 10,000 more miles. Somehow, it doesn’t feel like I’ve gone that far over the last couple of years. But today as I made my way through the roller coaster, I could definitely tell. Climbs that would’ve destroyed me just a couple of years ago now felt like almost nothing.
We’ve officially made it 1,000 miles into the Appalachian trail!
Those next few hours were surprisingly smooth. I got into a great rhythm in between the climbs. And even when we were continuously moving uphill, I never felt tired enough to stop. I just did my best to control my breathing and make my way up to the top as quickly as I could. Most of the climbs were graded fairly well and weren’t too steep. But as the day went on, we made our way toward some of the steeper climbs in the roller coaster. There were one or two, which had a lot of rock steps and were definitely more difficult than the previous.
Climbing up one of the hills in the roller coaster.
When I got up to the top of one of the climbs and began descending, I saw a couple hikers coming up towards me. I said hello to them, and then the lady told me that she’s been following my hike and has really been enjoying it. We had a very brief interaction, but she was so kind and it really made my day to hear her say that. Every time someone tells me that they’re enjoying reading or watching this adventure, it really fuels me. All of the writing and video work definitely take a lot of time, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love being able to share the story with all of you guys. As well as save all the little details for myself.
The sun just starting to peak out through the trees.
By 9am we had made it the majority of the way through the roller coaster. I remembered being here back in 2023 and knew that we didn’t have too many tough climbs remaining. When I was here in 2023 we actually took a side trail down to a restaurant for dinner. Then continued through the roller coaster late into the night. I don’t think that we crossed into West Virginia until close to midnight! This time around, I’m so glad that we started the roller coaster first thing in the morning. By the later part of the morning, we were almost completely done.
Heading up to one of the rocky overlooks in the roller coaster.
A little while after that, we officially crossed out of Virginia and into West Virginia Virginia. I can’t believe it’s only been about three weeks since we got into Virginia. And now the entire state is complete! That’s also the largest state across the entire Appalachian trail. It will be exciting in the weeks to come to fly through the smaller states and make big progress ahead.
Officially made it through Virginia and into West Virginia!
It wasn’t even 11am yet when we officially crossed out of the roller coaster. That section just felt like it flew by! I was definitely not expecting that. I was mentally prepared for the roller coaster to rock me like it had in 2023. I’m not sure if it’s The mental, the physical, or the incredible combination of the two. This time around I just feel like an entirely different person. Especially a different Hiker.
This was one of the last overlooks before we finished the roller coaster.
Once you complete, the roller coaster, the remainder of the mileage heading toward Harpers Ferry is incredibly gradual. There are definitely a couple small climbs, but it says close to smooth sailing as the Appalachian Trail can get. Earlier on the day it had been surprisingly cold. The climbs were actually a great reprieve and helped to warm me up. But then, as we would begin to descend again I would be cool with sweat and pretty chilly. Now the sun was just starting to come out and warm me up a bit. Though when we crossed into areas with shade or a little bit of wind, you could definitely feel the chill in the air. Yesterday was about 80°! A stark contrast to the temperature today.
Roller coaster complete!
Over the course of the day, we actually ran into a few more southbound section hikers who follow the blogs or videos. It was so nice to talk with them! I met two hikers named Phoenix and T-shirt. We chatted with them for a bit before continuing along. Right around this time, I had actually turned my phone on to check for service. And like clockwork, my mom called me almost as soon as I did. I didn’t have consistent service for long, but was able to catch up with her for a little bit. That was awesome. It’s always great to be able to talk on the phone when you’re on Trail. This just isn’t necessarily an ideal trail for that, most of the time.
Later in the day we walked along the state line for a while. Then were in West Virginia for good.
By around 1pm I was starting to wonder if we were going to make it to Harpers Ferry in time. We didn’t have reservations or anything in town necessarily. But I saw online that the Appalachian Trail visitor center closes at 4pm on Tuesdays. I really wanna get my Polaroid picture done outside of the building. I was also really curious about the number of hikers in front of us. We know that there aren’t a ton of northbound hikers up ahead. But Harper’s ferry is a very popular section of the trail when it comes to flip-flopping. I can only imagine that there are definitely some hikers up ahead of us now.
Entering Harper’s ferry national historic park. We were only a few miles away from town.
As we got closer to Harper’s ferry, I still wasn’t sure whether we would make it on time. It was looking like we were going to arrive literally just before the visitor center closed. That didn’t give us a huge time window. Which meant I was a little bit worried we were going to get to the building and see that it was closed. I was just hopeful that that wouldn’t be the case. But with how early we are in the season it’s really hard to say for sure.
Crossing over the Shenandoah River.
Because we were cutting it close with time, we wound up increasing our hiking pace a bit. For an hour, we probably averaged 3.5 mph or more. That certainly got the time moving quicker as well. By 3pm I checked the time and our mileage and knew we would definitely make it to the visitor center in time. After speeding up for about an hour, we could put ourselves in a really good position.
Then we just fell back to our regular 3MPH pace and cruised the rest of the way to town. Then we entered into the Harpers Ferry national historic Park. Which I knew meant that we were getting very close. Before long, we are descending the rocky path down toward the Shenandoah River. This river flows all the way down to the town of Waynesboro where we were almost a week ago. During warmer times of year it’s common for through hikers to tube down the river. I’ve gone tubing in my life, but I’ve never gone tubing on a thru hike.
This river flows all the way to Waynesboro!
After we made our way down to the river, the Appalachian Trail took a bike path alongside the road. This would bring you over towards a parking area next. Then there was one final climb up to the hill, which was Harper’s ferry. The town is very cool and is quite old and historic. It was a quintessential point during the civil war. That’s because of all of the hills and the general location of the town.
Some of the historic buildings in Harper’s ferry.
We got into town just before 4pm which was absolutely perfect. I meant that we could go into the visitor center and get our pictures taken. I was shocked to hear that we are northbound thru hikers number two and three for the year! There is only one complete northbound hiker ahead of us. apparently all the other hikers out of us either flip-flopped at some point early on, or started in Harpers Ferry or something like that. I know there’s a girl ahead of us named Tarzan. He’s also doing the calendar triple crown, and is trying to raise awareness for someone he knows who is in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Tarzan had to do a little bit of flip-flopping because of weather south of here. But now is going north and is at least a few weeks ahead of us.
Nobo #2 at Harper’s ferry!
After we got our pictures taken. We hung out in the hiker lounge for a little bit. There were many muffins and fresh strawberries, as well as sodas in the fridge. At this point, we hadn’t really hammered in any plans for the evening. We knew that there were two houses in town and one Motel. But we hadn’t called around or booked anything. Harper’s ferry is a really nice town, but it also isn’t the most walkable. There isn’t a grocery store nearby and the closest gas station is always down the road.
We wound up deciding to go to Cross Trails Hostel, with a friend of mine named Learning Curve actually used to work at. He just stopped working there to do a walk across the country. But I’ve always wanted to stay there because of him. We gave them a call and should be able to stay there tonight. But then we just had to figure out what to do for a resupply and food.
One of the people who worked inside the visitor center was super nice and actually offered to drive us to the 711 down the road. He had just gotten off work so that was a very generous of him. It also saved us quite the walk or a complicated shuttle ride. He drove us down there and we grabbed just a few things. Then we continued walking through town, heading towards the bridge. On our way through town, we went to the Rabbit Hole. A restaurant that I actually ate at in 2023 when I was in town. Because of the day of the week and the time there aren’t a ton of things open. But one restaurant was plenty for us.
We ate an early dinner at the rabbit hole.
Inside I got a cheeseburger with sweet potato fries, which was really good. I ate the entire thing and every last fry too. Then we just continued walking through town until we cross the bridge and got into Maryland. Today we completed Virginia, West Virginia, and are now in Maryland! It’s no three state challenge, but it also wasn’t a challenge. It just sort of worked out this way.
Crossing out of West Virginia and into Maryland.
Once you cross over the bridge, the trail follows a long and perfectly manicure bike path for a while. I remember the section being so nice and easy. We walked along that for about a mile and then there’s a spare trail. You can take to get to the hostel. It’s a little ways down the road, but the walk wasn’t too bad. When we got there, we were greeted by Peak. He knew Learning Curve and got us checked in for the night. The timing worked out perfectly to get here after 33 mile day. I’m excited to have the opportunity to get a bunch of work done tonight. I wound up designing to get a private room in the hostel so that I can do all my editing and video work from there. Over the last three months I haven’t been able to edit from a bed at all. Every time I have to do audio recordings, voice, overs, or film any content, I have to get up and go somewhere to do it. I don’t want to bother people when I’m sharing a room. And I also just don’t enjoy doing those things right in front of someone else.
As you can imagine though, it’s not ideal to have to get up out of bed when you’re in town just to get work done. So the idea of being able to get all of my work done from the comfort of a bed sounded amazing. I have to get my weekly YouTube video edited, another YouTube video I’ve been working on, as well as my daily short video and blog. But being able to do all of that while laying in bed made it sound so much less daunting. At least that way, simultaneously resting and being comfortable. I’ll probably have to do this more often in the future. But I almost had forgotten that I used to do this more on the continental trail. 9 Lives and I would often get our own room or each private rooms places so we can get work done.
We stayed at Cross Trails hostel in Virginia for the night.
After we got checked in, I headed to the room and began filming some content for a new video idea I had. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do but really just haven’t had enough privacy to do it. I don’t like being in people’s faces recording. Especially if they don’t wanna be recorded. Then I also got my electronics charging and got ready to take a shower. The shower at this hostel was absolutely amazing! There’s actually multiple men’s and women’s showers too. I want to washing my hair which felt so good. Then I retreated back to the room to get way more work done.
That’s all I did for the entire rest of the night. I spent hours writing and editing YouTube videos. That was so incredibly grateful to be able to do it from a private room. That made things so nice and easy. I can’t believe that all year long I’ve been going in a hallway or going outside just to get editing done. Rather than laying in a comfortable bed and doing it all from there. When you’re in town, everyone always just hangs out in the room. So it’s not like I can just take over and start doing all of my editing right there.
I stayed up pretty late getting worked on, but at least I was in bed, relaxing. I also got a ridiculous amount of stuff done. I finished two full length YouTube videos, two daily blogs, and two short videos. That was a great feeling. Then after a while, I had it off to bed. This hostile actually stocks a bunch of pancake mix, maple syrup, and eggs. So tomorrow morning, I think I’m going to wake up early and make us some pancakes.
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