Friday, July 7, 2017
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Week 6 entailed adventuring off the concrete roads and step outside the gray jungle. It starting going into an early morning hike at Great Falls on the Virginia side. However, the trail traced takes you on the easiest path throughout the entire hike. There are no bumps or breath-taking views. Therefore, as a natural curious pioneer, we went off the trail early within the hike. In a sinusoidal motion, we went from rocky patches that felt similar to stepping into a nail to rock climbing 3 floors height rocks or using full wingspan to go around other rocks or trees. At the end of the day, we were only looking for the best views, but also to make a unique experience rather than putting our heads down and walking like sheep.
A couple day later, even though Virginia is for lovers, we went to it's West relative. Harpers Ferry, a little town full of stone architecture and a plethora of smells from all the small restaurants, shops, and American classic pubs. However, we did not figure all this out until after hiking 30,000 steps conversely to be around 12 miles. The heat and humidity were very high at the beginning, but once we started walking amongst the trees, it was the perfect weather. It was a rocky trail. Not in the sense of Great Falls that jumping and climbing rocks. It would have been more comfortable to walk along a bed of nails than some of the stretches on this trail. Due to this, we walked the vast majority of the first part facing the ground, which took us off the desired path and into the Appalachian Trail. A half to an hour down the wrong trail, we looked up and realized the mistake. Instead of pointing judgemental fingers, we decided to start running the trail to make it into the Split Rock view. That's when we realized those rocks didn't hurt too much if you don't have all your weight on them. It was another hour and a half before reaching the main view, overlooking the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. The contrast of the red rooftops and yellow walls, and between the maroon rusty bridge and blue modern bridge in congruency with the vibrant green of the mountains gave us a moment to take a deep breath in serenity to realize how much we have been blessed.
This summer has come out of left field, at full speed with no warning. Yet, it has been a true serendipity.
Luis Royo Romero