Day 62: Three States in One Day

This morning I started out in Maryland. I then moved onto West Virginia (only 8 miles of trail in WV) and ended the day in Virginia. I hiked a total of 26 miles. While in West Virginia the AT goes through the historic town of Harpers Ferry which was really cool to see. In Harpers Ferry is the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) headquarters. The ATC oversees the entire trail so it was kinda cool to visit there. While at the ATC headquarters they took my picture and placed it in the album of all thru hikers and section hikers this year that made it to harpers ferry. I am the 75th SOBO thru hiker to make it there. In comparison there have been 1,267 NOBO thru hikers this year to pass through Harpers. Just shows how big of a difference it is doing a SOBO vs NOBO thru hike. If you look at the ATC website they list the total number of completed thru hikes by year and about 50% make it to Harpers and only 50% of those people finish. On average each year only 1/4 people that start as a thru hiker actually finish. I actually read a few signs about old building and whatnot today but I still had to keep moving. One particularly interesting thing to me was Jefferson Rock which you can see in my photo's for today. Thomas Jefferson thought the rock posed a hazard to the townspeople below so he had 4 pedestals built underneath it so that it would never fall. It wasn't even that big he could have just moved it away from the cliff edge but then again I wasn't around back then so I'm not sure what the circumstances were. I ended today at Bears Den Hostel in Virginia. I am going to stay here tonight and zero here tomorrow. BIG news though, I have 999.7 miles to go!!!! The countdown has begun. I never knew WV and northern VA were going to be as rocky as they are or I would have bought more food and planned for lower mile days. I heard Rocksylvania was the worst of it, Maryland has some bad spots which it does, but nobody ever told me they are just as bad in WV and northern VA. My shin splints came back today making it very tough to do the miles. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned the shin splints before in the blog but I have been battling them since the Whites of New Hampshire. Any place that is super rocky and I do big miles or long stretches without zeroing I get shin splints. I describe the feeling as with every step it feels as though my shin bone is just going to snap in half thats what it feels like. Some days it affects me so much mentally I hope it snaps in half just so I can have an excuse to quit but I try not to think like that. The absolute worst days for me mentally and physically were back in Connecticut and New York. Between the insane heat, humidity, shin splints, blisters, lack of water situation, digestion issues I was having due to using Aquamira (don't think I ever mentioned that one before), and all the other stuff going on in those states I was sooooo ready to quit. Just in case these rocks continue to be bad I am going to plan low mile days for a long time. Maybe try and stick to 18-23ish miles a day. I am not concerned about the shin splints though they have gone away each time in the past I just need to not do big days on rocky terrain and they will go away again. To answer questions to some comments my favorite flavor pop tarts is Brown Sugar Cinnamon. With regards to my shoes I would like them to make it to the end but most likely I will have to buy another pair in about 500 miles.