2/23/08 Crampton Gap to Harper's Ferry

As usual I was awake at 6am, got up, ate, finished packing my pack and was ready to go by 8am. We met Kathleen and Wally at the ATC HQ cause I had forgotten my hiking poles on Wednesday and wanted to pick them up. I left the group and hiked from the ATC HQ north to the park and rail road bridge at the Harper's Ferry historic district (about a mile or so) and met the rest of the group there. We then drove up to Crampton Gap trail head in Gathland Park in Wally's car, leaving Wendy's car at the park for our return. Today is realatively warm but there's snow on the ground so a fog is surronding everything and frosting all the trees and bushes. Looks like a fairyland, very beautiful, even without the sun. This is a very easy trail with no significant climbs and about 4 miles of canal path, flat and smooth at the end back to Harper's Ferry. We stopped at lunchtime in the Ed Garvey shelter. This is a nice shelter, 2 floors and nice deck with picnic table. Unfortunately the water source is 1/2 mile away at the bottom of the ridge. Not good, glad I wasn't camping there. However, a guy was there from the night before, name of No Pain. A black guy from Washington DC, on his 6th AT thru-hike. He also has done the PCT and the CDT. An interesting guy wo seemed to know or know of most of the movers and shakers in the hiking community. After lunch we left No Pain and moved on south. I took a side (blue blaze) to Weaverton Cliffs for the view. Pretty awesome. When we got to Keep Tryst Road, we met several people recovering from having thier cars broken into. They'd only been gone a couple of hours. A jeep had also been broken into (window smashed), probably belonging to 2 guys we passed on the trail. The park rangers had gone to try and intercept these guys. We commiserated with the victims then moved on to the canal path. We hiked the last 4 miles pretty quickly, spying many ducks, geese, and pilated woodpeckers along the river bank. Talking with Kathleen on the hike, she's looking for a new trail name. Maybe Glinda? Ranger? We were back at Wendy's car about 4:30pm. The day's milage for me was about 11 miles. I had wrapped my toes in band aids this morning, which worked pretty well at preventing further hurt and damage.