Appalachian Trail Hike - Snickers Gap to Harpers Ferry

Last Wednesday, my daughter Shauni, her boy friend Alex and I packed up our backpacks and headed towards the Appalachian Trail and spent three days hiking 20 miles from Snickers Gap to Harpers Ferry.

There were a few challenges, but we were able to get the hike done.  I love being out there.  It calls to me continuously.  Every time I enter a piece of woods, I look for a white blaze and want to strike out and keep going.

You can read the details at: http://www.trailjournals.com/jefe

I plan to get back to the trail as often as I can and add to my miles.  Some trips may be on parts of the trail that I have been to before, but that is the beauty of the trail.  You hike it where you want to.  There are some places that I am growing to like, but I plan to explore many different parts of the trail before I am done hiking.

Keep on Hiking...

Jefe

Harpers Ferry to Snickers Gap - AT Section Hike (Plan)

My next hike on the amazing Appalachian Trail will take place in a little over a week.  My daughter, Shauni and her boyfriend, Alex will head out with me to Harpers Ferry after dropping a vehicle near Bear's Den on Rt 7 in Virginia.  We will head south on the trail by climbing up to Loudoun Heights at a fairly steep angle.  Once on top of the ridge, will follow it south until we enter the "Roller Coaster".  We will do a few hoops of that before coming down to Route 7 at Snickers Gap and the end of our hike.  The plan is three days of hiking from around 6 to 9 miles each day.  I like keeping the plan fluid.  I created around 6 or 7 scenarios for the hike and we will probably wind up doing some hybrid of a couple of them.  We will hike to our abilities and stay flexible to each situation.  I can't wait!

I am getting excited once again.  Every time I step onto that amazing foot path and see the first white blaze, my heart speeds up and a smile draws itself across my face.  I love being on that path, with everything I need on my back and nothing but time to kill and miles to go.

Keep calling me AT.  I will be back on you, doing the miles before too long...

Blackthorne Inn Retreat

Last Sunday, my bride and I headed to Northern VA and checked into the Blackthorne Inn outside Upperville, VA.  We arrived and checked in.  Our room was down the road a bit past the pond in an old remodeled stable.  It had a beautiful large fire place and was very nice.  We opened a bottle of wine and enjoyed the afternoon on the patio overlooking a field.  The weather was perfect.

We went down to the pub for a few drinks and came back later for a wonderful dinner.  The owners are actual Irish people and the decor was very nice.  We watched a rugby game in the bar and one of the patrons had to explain a lot of the rules to us.  It was fun.

The next day marked our 24th anniversary.  We had a nice breakfast in the pub and later headed to a winery for a free tasting which was a part of the package that I had purchased on Living Social for one of Lisa's Christmas presents.  The tasting was nice and the winery was cool.  It was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, but it was set up well.  Really just a house on some land where they sold their own wine from grapes grown on the property.

After a little nap, we headed to the AT for a short day hike.  We found the well hidden driveway to the trail head parking and headed for the white blazes.  We walked along up and down through a forest that has sprung to life in this nice spring weather.  It had been cloudy all day, but it cleared up some as we hiked along.  Not too hot or cold, but I sweated pretty well as we hiked along.  We took the blue blaze trail to one of the PATC Cabins, Myron Glaser.  It was a nice cabin and we may want to come try it out some time.

We headed back up the trail and back to the car.  Dinner was a four course deal this time (part of the package) and was very good.

Early in the morning, I heard rain hitting the roof, but all was well inside the room.  We got up and one more large breakfast and headed home.

It was a good time.