After breakfast at the Bagel Bakery in Arlington, VA with our daughter Molly and fiancé Tip in early October, we borrow her Honda Civic, get a quick GPS lesson, and head West for Harper’s Ferry, WV to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT). Always behind the technological curve, Hannah and I go kicking, screaming, and reluctantly into the technology future. The GPS seems kind of cool so we learn enough from Molly and head West. Immediately skeptical, we take the fallback position and resort to our map of Virginia and Google map directions. A foolhardy choice to be sure for soon we are heading in the opposite direction towards Reagan National Airport. What else would you expect from country mice? Fuming and cursing big city traffic and taking none of the blame myself for our predicament, I abandon the maps and directions and let the GPS do its thing. And voila, in 80 minutes we park behind the Appalachian Trail Conference headquarters on Washington Street in Harper’s Ferry, WV. GPS! Amore.
Met by the garrulous and ever friendly David T behind the counter, we plan our day’s hike with his help. Wanting to day hike in all 14 states of the Appalachian Trail, today we will bag two of them, West Virginia and Maryland. Heading toward the Shenandoah River, we mosey through one time Storer College (http://www.nps.gov/archive/hafe/storer.htm), a failed, but worthy experiment in integrated higher education in the South. Stone steps take us down to historic Harper’s Ferry, where abolitionist John Brown (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2940.html) raided the federal arsenal in 1859. Though he failed in his immediate goal and was hung, he ignited a smoldering nation to the injustices of slavery and was credited with being a major factor in lighting one of the matches that started the Civil War or, as it is known south of the Mason-Dixon Line where we are today, the War Between the States.
In moments we leave the downtown and cross a railroad bridge into Maryland for three miles of hiking on the tree shaded bike path of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Park (http://www.nps.gov/choh/). On this 75 degree day in early fall, Hannah and I walk side by side with the Shenandoah River mere feet to our right, a set of locks to our left, and just beyond that a railroad running through this gap in the Appalachian Mountains. Spotting our holy grail, a thru hiker (one who hikes the entire AT during one calendar year), we look to vicariously live through his Maine to Georgia experience. Unfortunately, that same beautiful technology that brought us here by the GPS intrudes as he walks oblivious to us with his IPod earphone buds in and a straight ahead focus. Technology! Bah!
Leaving the canal path, we began our ascent to Weverton Cliffs high above the Shenandoah River. The trail is rocky and takes us beneath US highway 340. Different from the trails in much of New England, this Maryland trail has many switchbacks, which gently directs us to the cliffs and makes for an excellent cardio-vascular work out. Arriving after nearly two hours of hiking, we doff our hiking boots and socks and lunch on crackers with peanut butter, trail mix, and a motel breakfast apple. Away from the demands of responding to papers, planning lessons, cutting hair, and keeping a household going, we drink in the freedom and savor the personal choice of the afternoon. Weverton Cliffs has a steep drop off and we wonder what would we do if we lost one of these boots we just took off. Food, water, our packs, all would pale in comparison to losing a boot or two. I inch back from the edge.
This eleven and half mile loop returns us to the rock strewn 400-yard wide Shenandoah River where we see a family rafting and kayakers practicing their paddling techniques. Nearly four hours of hiking wearies us in a pleasing way. The real challenge lies ahead: Finding our way back to Arlington, VA. Maps get us to Dulles Airport, but in the end we have no choice. We do what we must. In GPS we trust. And lo and behold it gets us there safe and sound!
Weverton Cliffs from Harper’s Ferry hike – Excellent.
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