Harper's Ferry,W. Virginia and Family

Ben getting excited about Uncle Food's Italian meal!

Box Turtle

1,000 mile excitement crossing the bridge into Harper's Ferry

Fellow thru-hikers enjoying mom's homemade lemon squares

Dad this photo was taken for you... the horse's name is SugarFoot!

Crossing the Virginia-West Virginia Line with some friends!

Me proudly standing in front of the first trail side skinny dipping hole

Ben during one of his eating sprees ( this included 6 loaded chili and cheese hot dogs)


We made it to Harper's Ferry yesterday afternoon and celebrated as we passed the 1,000 mile mark! Once we arrived at the Appalachian Trail Headquaters, our photo was taken to be added to the 2007 thru-hiker yearbook. We were numbers 115 and 116 so far this year! We were quickly picked up by my wonderful Aunt Becky and are planning to spend 2 full days relaxing with their family and eating and eating and eating and eating! For those of you who know Uncle Sam, you know food will be frequent and delicious.

The heat has been a bit of a challenge lately, but the leaves on the trees are finally providing us with some shade. Both Ben and I are now in the habit of performing detailed nightly tick checks as we have both found deer ticks on one another. For those of you who have not seen them they are incredibly small about the size of a pin head. I have had some boot issues, but a visit to REI today hopefully solved that problem. We are both excited to finally enter into some new states as we have been hiking through Virginia for the past 500+ miles. Other than numb toes our bodies are holding up pretty well.

In regards to Ben's upcoming 26th birthday if anyone wants to mail something to Ben please feel free. Below is the place we'll be closest to his big day and you will want to address the package as follows:

ETA: 6/4

C/O General Delivery
Duncannon, PA
17020
Hold for Northbound A.T. Hiker

For the procrastinators...
ETA: 6/7

C/O General Delivery
Port Clinton, PA
19549
Hold for Northbound A.T. Hiker

Much love to everyone and many thanks to the Pease Family for our wonderful mini vacation filled with food, laughs, foot baths and cotton clothes!

Fun in the "Shennies"

Hello All,
Sorry that is has been so long since we last wrote. We are currently in Front Royal and are at the 955 mile mark! 1,000 miles is coming up soon and we are doing well. The "blues" have improved and we've had a really fun week hiking into Waynesboro, VA and then through Shenandoah National Park. We have seen several bears over the past week including a momma bear with 2 cubs! The park also had multiple "waysides" and dining areas where we sat down to some real food with a blackberry milkshake almost daily, it was great! We have also enjoyed lots of laughter since meeting a great young couple "trash bag" and "rodeo clown". That's all for now as I am using a computer at a local outfitter.
We love you guys and keep gettting closer to home with each step!
Ben and Amanda

Happy Mother's Day

Finally the rododendrens bloom!!

Pink Trillium

Ladyslipper

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's reading.

Enjoy the flowers in the photos since we won't be around to send any.

Love,

Ben and Amanda

Glasgow, VA

The Gulliotine

Early morning fog

McAfee Knob, VA

Heading into Daleville, VA

Hello from hot and sunny Glasgow. Well we ended up taking 2 days off from hiking in Daleville/Troutville (felt really good) and are now at our next re-supply point. Basically we've been eating all day and washing ourselves and clothes. We're getting really easy to please I must stay put some running water and anything edible in front of us and we're happy! The weather has been superb the past 4-5 days and hopefully it will continue. We continue to meet great friends along our hike who provide great company, humor and can laugh and moan about the same issues. We are ~775 miles into the trail and have had what I'm calling the "700 mile blues" from time to time. Each of us have had periodic days of longing to do another activity, but we keep keepin on and Maine keeps getting closer with each day. I've got to say I had the best trail magic the other day (no it didn't involve food or a ride or a cold drink). Those who know me know I'm a goal driven person so during our hiking days I have the tendency to keep an eye on my watch and move us along as to get to our destination before dark. At times this is a good thing, but also is a stress for me. Well... long story short one day when I just really wasn't wanting to hike we had taken and break and my watch broke! Now that I am unable to wear it I swear my life has improved...it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Oh also for those of you who may not know Ben's birthday will be coming up June 3rd so I will try to let you all know where we think we'll be so people interested can send something.

A note to our friend Patrick:

So sad that we havn't run into each other again. We tooke 2 zeros in Daleville and will be leaving Glasgow today. Definitely leave an e-mail or some way to get in touch so we can see you around the 4th at the beach house! Miss you.

Love to everyone!

Catawba, VA

The chaos of setting up camp. This shelter recently had a tree fall on it but I assure you it was still safe to sleep inside.


As we walked through this pasture I just couldn't pass up a little donkey love.



We made it to our next resupply point Thursday afternoon and due to the rain and feeling a big fatigued we decided to take our "zero" early. A kind couple from Mass. gave us a ride to a town Thursday and we've been relaxing today and doing some errands and plan to get back on the trail in Catawba tomorrow. Thanks to all of you for the continued comments, we really enjoy reading them and it's so great to know that all of you are supporting us in our journey. Despite those days when we simply just don't feel like walking anymore or are tired of the heat, rain or cold that you just can't get away from, the throbbing feet and all this trip has already enriched my life and my soul in ways I don't know I can describe. For that I am thankful.


Love to you all!