6 States Down, 8 States to Go!!!

The past week has been a week of good hiking, and excitement as the posse (minus Indy who decided to move on) finished Virigina, visited with Doir's uncle outside of Baltimore, entered and left West Virginia, entered Maryland (and will leave it tomorrow) and onto Pennsylvania! The hikers are happy to report all is well. Adam hurt his tailbone several weeks ago and it continues to bother him, so please pray for quick healing. He sent home some extra things in an effort to reduce the pounds he is carrying, and hoping that it will put less strain on his tailbone area with the heavy pack bouncing on it all day, every day. Mosey is doing well, a days rest a week ago certainly helped. Tonight the posse is resting at Pine Knob Shelter in Maryland.

A few days ago, they passed through Harper's Ferry, WV and stopped at the Appalachian Trail Conferene headquarters. In June 2000, Adam, Jeff Joyce, Grey Dixon and I passed through there. The employees of the headquarters take photos of each hiker who passes through, and have years and years of journals with the photos. Adam looked through a number of books and found our photo from 2000. I'll post it in a few days.


Intersesting Facts Corner
The following ‘important and necessary information’ was compiled and published in Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine April 2009 edition. If you missed it, here are some of the more interesting pieces of info:

Biggest Dead Tree – the Wasilik Poplar tree in NC near Standing Indian Campground measures 26 feet around and at one time reached 130 feet into the sky. In the 1990’s a storm took out the top half of the tree. It’s the second largest poplar tree in the eastern US.

Highest point on the AT – just below the summit of Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the highest point is 6,625 feet. Mount Washington, in NH stands at 6,288 feet.

Biggest live tree on the AT – called the Keffer Oak in Virginia, it is a white oak that is estimated to be the largest white blazed tree on the entire trail. It measures over 18 feet around and is thought to be over 300 years old. It’s located in a corner where several fields come together. Check out Adam's pictures:



Easiest 100 miles – Shenandoah National Park, VA, the trail parallels Skyline Drive on relatively flat terrain.

First Washington Monument – a 31 foot stone dome built in 1827 by the citizens of Boonsboro, MD to honor George Washington. Two other monuments would be built, one in Baltimore and the big one in Washington, DC, but this one is the first one!


Stayed tuned for more interesting facts and photos...