At every National Park site we have passed through or near on our journey north, we have been blessed by folks, both active employees and retired, who have gone well out of their way to offer us assistance. However, none of these have been as early or as insistent in their offers of help as Superintendent Rebecca Harriett at Harpers Ferry. She offered to provide us showers, shelter, home-cooked meals and shuttling from Shenandoah into WV and MD from their home in Berryville. What more could a thru hiker ask for?

So for the last several days, Rebecca has taken us in like members of the family. Well, actually more like VIP’s than mere relatives… Her husband Rob Lamar has been like a one-man Sherpa support team taking care of our every need. This has enabled us to keep up our mileage in spite of the near record heat we’ve been dealing with on the trail.

Today we had hoped to make it to Keys Gap, so we would have a short hop into Harpers Ferry tomorrow. But even with an early start, the humidity was already oppressive. We found our stops for water much more frequent. Fortunately, we passed two great resources along the way: the Bear’s Den Hostel and the Blackburn AT Center. By the time we pulled into Bear’s Den, the ups and downs of the Roller Coaster had pretty well beaten us up. Also, some tough rocky sections had already put us behind schedule. A chance to rest in the cool while enjoying a cold Coke certainly revived our spirits. A few rough miles later and we had the double celebration of 1,000 miles completed and arriving in West Virginia. Lunch came in the heat of the day, and afterwards X spread her little piece of Tyvek on a rock and took a short power nap (now that’s a rare occurrence!). When we saw the sign for Blackburn Center we decided we had done enough for the day. N tried out their excellent solar shower in the front yard and we both enjoyed the swing on the wrap-around porch. Shortly thereafter, Rob was there to collect us and we were treated once again to some wonderful Lamar/Harriett hospitality for a final night in their home. Our thanks go to Rob & Rebecca for all they did for us in helping us move on to Maine!