Harpers Ferry

Trying to decide the route to take from Canyon Country to Harpers Ferry was challenging.  Did we want to go down 15 and pick up 81 in Harrisburg or did we want to try the more western route down 99/70/76 to 81?  We ended up actually taking 287 out of Wellsboro and connecting to 220 that took us to 99 and eventually onto 81 via 70 and 76.  The 50+ miles on 287 and the 15 or so miles on 9 coming into Harpers Ferry from 81 were the only miles not on a 2 lane highway.   This route was a bit longer in distance but the driving was pretty easy and there were no congested towns or cities to go through.  We arrived at the KOA around 3:00 in the afternoon and managed to squeeze into our pull through after re-adjusting our angle into the site.

We spent our first full day walking around Harpers Ferry Historical National Park.  This was a nice 2 mile walk from the camp ground.  This small town, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, is rich in history.  Much of Lower Town is a museum with several buildings as they were in the early to mid 1800’s leading up to the Civil War.  Harpers Ferry’s biggest contribution to the early years of our country was the manufacture of munitions and the location of the United States Armory.  In fact, Meriwether Lewis stopped in Harpers Ferry in 1803 to buy arms for his expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase.

The Appalachian Trail passes through Harpers Ferry.  We hiked a small section of it from Lower Town to the Appalachian Trail Conservatory headquarters, which is almost the halfway point between Georgia and Maine. Every through hiker stops here to check in and sign the log book.  We still think about taking a summer and attempting the hike.  Maybe some day.

On Wednesday, Day 2 in Harpers Ferry, our friends Brian and Cindy Westrich came to spend the day with us.  They now live in Maryland and made the 100 mile drive to spend some time with us.  We struggled with whether to bike along the C&O trail or do the hike to Maryland Heights to get the view of Harpers Ferry from the ridge.  We decided on the hike and the view was well worth it.  After the hike we ate lunch at Almost Heaven Pub and Grill.  We all ordered a light lunch to save room for the requisite Ice-Cream cone.  We then returned to the RV park for some wine and cheese and crackers.  During our afternoon snack, Brian and Cindy decided to spend the night at a local hotel so that we could meet for a late breakfast and do some biking.

We met our friends at Betty’s Restaurant in Shepherdstown at around 10:00 AM.  After a nice diner breakfast, we drove to the C & O canal path for a midday ride.   We opted to head north along the path away from Harpers Ferry as Brian and Cindy had previously explored the section of trail towards the south.  This turned out to be a mistake as the trail quickly deteriorated as we headed north.  After about 5.5 miles out, we all agreed to turn around and head back to the cars.  It was a relatively short ride by our standards when riding with the Westrichs but we called it quits once we made it back to the parking lot.  After goodbye hugs, Brian and Cindy headed back home and we headed back to the campground.

We played a couple rounds of miniature golf broken up with a walk through Murphy Farm.  This farm was known as Chambers Farm during the Civil War and was a strategic location for the conflict.  There were several cannons and information placards around the field.  This made for a pleasant educational stroll in the warm afternoon sunshine.  The fact that this historic location was just outside the campground made it all the nicer.