Harpers Ferry, WV to Delaware Water Gap, PA

Fall 2003 Trip

Day 1, Friday, September 19

Harpers Ferry, WV, 1.3 miles

What a twenty-four hours! This trip began last night trying to get out of Charlotte ahead of Hurricane Isabel bearing down on North Carolina. Isabel appears to be headed across the North Carolina coast up through Virginia into West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania…right where I’m headed. I had debated whether to postpone this trip because of the storm. Plus, I was sick with pneumonia the whole month of August and I’m not quite back at full strength yet. But the chance to schedule two weeks vacation doesn’t present itself often. Even if I could reschedule, pushing this trip later into the fall by a couple of weeks will make it tough to cover my planned daily mileages due to shorter daylight. So, I ultimately decided to continue with my plans. But not without some challenges right from the start.

Amtrak cancelled its schedule yesterday for the next two days so I scrambled through bus lines, and hitchhiking to finally get to Harpers Ferry this afternoon around 2 PM. After grabbing lunch at Subway just outside Harpers Ferry, I leave my mail drops at the Post Office and then head down to the Old Town where the AT crosses the Potomac into Maryland. I’m hiking at 2:30 PM. One problem, though, the National Park Service has closed the bridge and shut down the C&O Towpath on the Maryland side of the river because of the fear of flooding on the Potomac.

Harpers Ferry is where the Shenandoah River and the Potomac River join. The AT shares a couple of miles of riverbank with the C&O Towpath. Rainfall from the hurricane is causing the Shenandoah River to flood and in-turn the Potomac south of Harpers Ferry is rising fast. I walk around the highway and at least make it to the Highway 340 bridge before being chased off the towpath by the NPS. The storm has blown down a few trees on the towpath, but overall it isn’t too bad. Back to the Quality Inn for the night.