6/17 Mile 975.5

We awoke to a new person in our hotel room! Part two of family week, a visit from Alison’s friend Jarika. This was part of why we chose to get a hotel in Front Royal; Jarika had a long drive, so it made it easy for her to be able to just join us and go to bed when she got here in the night. Which means that Gwen and I woke up and immediately made a new friend! Definitely a new way to meet someone. Next stop was coffee in Front Royal, where we all got more acquainted (and had some excellent fruit turnovers), then a resupply at Walmart on the way back to Harper’s Ferry for the second time; this time for a river day! Gwen’s DJing in the car during the drive was superb. Music is definitely something we miss on trail. Jarika brought her paddleboard, so I got to try that for the first time. Gwen, of course, being from the coast, was zooming back and forth on the rocky river, no problem.

Eventually, we started packing up; it was time for Family Week Stage Three! Gwen’s Mom, Valérie, flew all the way from France to come hike some of the AT with us and Gwen! The planning for this had started at least a month previously; Valérie had been acquiring gear and doing training hikes around Brittany, and now the day was finally here. Gwen and Valerie’s reunion when her train arrived was absolutely beautiful.

After her arrival, Valérie insisted on buying us each a beer, which was so sweet of her. Then, it was time to head back to the trail. Gwen, Valérie, Alison, Jarika, Huckleberry and I headed back to where we had hitchhiked into Front Royal from, and hit the trail for some night hiking. Not an easy way to start the trail for Valérie and Jarika! After a few miles, we found a spot, made our dinners, and settled in for the night. We were all tired, and Valérie and Jarika had traveled a very long way.

6/18 Mile 987.3 – Whiskey Hollow Shelter

Nice surprise when we awoke: Cookie and Snore were at the site we night-hiked into! Always good to see them 🙂

This was our only day of the five of us hiking together, and it was a good one. Some shelters have a reputation for being very nice for one reason or another. Some are huge, one has a big deck with Adirondack chairs, there’s even one shelter with a hot shower. The shelter we took a long break at early in the day had horseshoes! We had a lot of fun with that. All of us started out playing, then Jarika and Alison left to go fill up waters and Gwen and I played best two out of three. It was a good thing we weren’t competing against Alison; as a PE teacher, she’s quite good at horseshoes. She got ringer after ringer during that initial warmup period. I beat Gwen, but only barely; pretty impressive for his first time playing horseshoes.

One aspect of family week is that a good bit of planning was involved, and that some of it had to happen on the fly. Jarika only had one day to spend with us, so with the help of Medic T, I jogged forward and moved her car about 10 miles forward so we’d be near it at the end of the day. This was a fun little adventure, and I got to catch up with Medic T while he drove me to Jarika’s car and back from it to meet the others. Really good to see him for the first time in a long time! It just so happened that there was some good trail magic at the trailhead where I got picked up from, so that was delightful (and a nice place for the others to wait for me). I had my first cheerwine (which is not wine, but was really great)!

We eventually continued on as a group. After a nice afternoon of hiking together, Ali and Jarika took off to get Jarika back to her car on time. We had left some resupply items in Jarika’s car for later, so Gwen and I made a plan for Ali and Jarika to drive to a road near where we’d be camping and we’d “bushwack” through the woods to come get the supplies. We were ready with map and compass, but it turns out that getting to the car was less bushwacking and more “walking a forest road.” Still a fun little side adventure. We said our goodbyes to Jarika; it was truly so nice to meet her, and I’m so glad she joined us.

Once the four of us were back at the shelter, we had a relaxed dinner at the picnic table under the shelter awning. Another fun dinner conversation with Valérie, and then time for bed. Gwen, Valérie, and Alison were all in tents, so I had the whole lower floor of this nice shelter to myself!

6/19 Mile ~995

The blackberries were becoming ripe! Alison and I spent a good several minutes picking a pint or so of those for a special surprise back at the campsite later.

Had a nice relaxing lunch break by a little stream. I learned a fun fact from Valérie: remember that Opinel knife Gwen gave me? Those are incredibly popular in France, and have been for over 100 years. Gwen and his family used to live in an old stone house, and apparently, there was a specific stone near the entryway where folks could sharpen their Opinels as they entered the house. That was a neat story to learn; Gwen didn’t even know that!

It started pouring just before we arrived at the shelter where we planned to camp. Yet another new AT Experience for Valérie. We, and a bunch of other hikers, convened under the shelter as soon as we got there, and hung out while we waited for the rain to stop. It eventually did, and we decided to camp in this nice little area of sites a little ways away from the shelter that we mostly had to ourselves (except for Valérie, she decided that she’d try out sleeping in a shelter tonight). Very nice campfire hangout. I had bought one of those “Campfire Colors” packets in an outfitter somewhere, and people were enthralled by that. Also, I made the post-dinner surprise that I mentioned earlier: some blackberry jam made from the blackberries that Alison and I picked! I just copied what I remembered my Grandma (Grammy Nae!) doing when I was younger, and it turned out great! We didn’t really have anything to put it on, so we just kinda ate it as dessert, and it was delicious.

6/20 Mile 1013.6 – Blackburn Trail Center

Very hard day today. We knew this was coming, but that didn’t make it any easier. Gwen came to the US on a 90-day ESTA. We knew from the beginning that he wouldn’t be hiking the whole trail, and now his time on the AT was coming to an end. Gwen and I met on my second day on the trail, and had been hiking together more or less full time since just after the Smokies, so this was extremely difficult and emotional. The 1000 mile marker was to be our separation point. Alison and I would continue on ahead, and Gwen and his Mom would finish out Gwen’s last couple days on trail together, visit New York City for a couple days, then head back to France on the same flight.

We began “the Rollercoaster” together this morning (explanation below). We knew when the 1000 mile marker was coming up, and we all subconsciously started hiking slower and slower, trying to put off the inevitable. Eventually, we saw the sign. An incredible milestone like that felt like an appropriate place to end this phase of the hike. It was tearful and tough for all of us; Valérie was emotional as well, seeing Alison and I say our goodbyes to Gwen. Was tough to say goodbye to Valérie as well; I’m so, so grateful that I got to meet her and hike with her, and I’m excited to see her (and Gwen, obviously) again, probably in France next time!

And that was that. Alison and I hiked on. The hiking itself was pleasant, but we were obviously emotionally raw. We were glad to arrive at Blackburn Trail Center later in the day. It was like a resort for hikers, just the relaxing sort of place we needed that day. It had a spring-fed shower, nice tent pads, charging on the porch, and a complementary soda and rest in Adirondack chairs when we arrived.