Virginia Part II
West Virginia

When we got into town, we stopped in at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters and had our pictures taken for their thru hiker photo album. After hanging around there for awhile we walked through the historic town. While Cyclops was at the outfitter, one of the employees, Potter a past thru hiker, offered him a night at a trail angels lake house and to round up some other hiker trash to come with. Naturally, you can't turn down that kind of random offer so Trail Mom, Cyclops, and I hopped into Potter's car and drove to some random lake in Maryland. When we got to the house we met our host, Brave. We spent the afternoon swimming, cliff jumping, drinking some beers, and swapping stories all with some complete strangers that we had just met that afternoon. It always amazes me how quickly people make connections out here. Sometimes I think there would be a lot more peace in this world if everyone spent a little time out on the A.T. The next day, Potter drove us back to Harpers Ferry and we walked into Maryland to meet up with Cyclops' friends who were doing Trail Magic.
Maryland
Pennsylvania

From there we hiked onto Boiling Springs, and from there we were to start our grand slack pack adventure of Pennsylvania. Tink lives in Philadelphia, so a group of us decided to take some time off from camping and commute to the trail for a week or so. It worked out perfectly and we were able to spend 4th of July in the city. It was pretty nice to be able to hang out in a hot tub after doing 20 miles. We were able to do big mile days and spend some R&R time by the pool, but tomorrow we head back to the trail with fully loaded packs.