Smudgy Cheeks Day 17 & 18 (Thursday, April 14 & Friday, April 15)

Day 17

Beautiful View

After a nice night at an Ecolodge in Harper’s Ferry we hiked seven miles out of West Virginia, into Maryland today.   When we started our day we were hiking on a towpath canal trail.  It was a lot like the Towpath trail through Cuyahoga Valley National Park and it reminded me of home.  We crossed underneath a highway today before hiking up a mountain.  There was a Gorge there too.  The mountain was steep but there was a beautiful view.  By standing on the side of the cliff you could see three states that it overlooked (Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia).

You can tell this is right after being in town because my hair is clean!

It's a long way down this cliff

Day 18

I walked two miles today on the trail.  Maggie and I have been fighting lately and I need to make some changes to my pack.  I’m carrying too much weight in my pack which is hurting my body.  I decided to come home.  I walked down the mountain that I just walked up, followed the road into the nearest town, walked to the police station, and asked them to call me a cab!  The cab took me to the nearest Greyhound in Frederick, Maryland and I came home.  My plan is to make changes to my pack, recover from carrying a pack that is way too heavy for 17 days, and meet Maggie and Robby back on the trail.  I’m also going to leave my ipad at home and get a phone so that I don’t have to carry a 3 pound ipad with me.  I should have more pictures now too (I almost never stopped to get the ipad out of my pack, it was just too much trouble.)  

I will be going back on the trail with Maggie and Robby on day 27 after they take a Zero.  My plan is to make up my miles that they walked while I was at home at the end of our trip and then take a bus home again.  I miss the mountains already.