HARPERS FERRY

Historic Harpers Ferry

 Day 5 of the Civil War Tour. Today was the last day of our tour. Well, sort of. Tomorrow we were going to be heading back to New Market for the annual reenactment of the New Market Battle. There would be cadets and other reenactors there at the battle and it was actually a really big event. But today, we would be heading to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The original plans for the day were to finish up at Antietam, but since we were able to cover everything that had happened there while we were visiting yesterday, we had no need to go back. So our professor let us sleep in some today, and by some I mean an extra thirty minutes, and then we would start our trip to Harper's Ferry.

Historic Harpers Ferry

I had only been to Harpers Ferry once in my life, it was the only site on this Civil War Tour I had been to before. I remembered most of it pretty well, but all the cool things you see here are just more than you can explain. Even if you went to Harpers Ferry every day of the year, there's no words to describe some of the views you see. It is just awe inspiring. Harpers Ferry is where the Potomac River meets the Shenandoah River, so there are many great views of the two rivers flowing together from the highest points of the city. Once we got to the Visitors Center of Harpers Ferry, we had to catch a shuttle to go to the lower portion of the town, which was where everything was. Once we made it to the "Historic Town" portion of the city of Harpers Ferry, we walked throughout all of the museums there were to offer. Some of the museums had some interesting things inside of them. One of my favorites happened to be the John Brown museum. The John Brown raid of Harpers Ferry was supposed to be an igniting factor in the slave revolt. However, it didn't necessarily happen that way. It was pretty much a complete failure as the armies that were close by ended up taking out all his men, either capturing them or killing them.

Appalachian Trail - Harpers Ferry

Once we were finished with the museums, we went looking for a place to eat lunch. It was about noon, and the continental breakfast at the hotel wasn't too appetizing. Everyone was hungry. So we made our way up and down the streets, looking for a cool "hole-in-the-wall" type of restaurant to eat at. We stumbled upon a place called Cannonball Deli. I was definitely into this place, as the door had an "Appalachian Trail" sticker on the front. We walked into the restaurant and immediately I saw two hikers sitting down eating. It was pretty cool. I ended up ordering the beef burrito they had, which was one of the best meals according to my waiter. It sure enough was, it filled me up about as much as any meal could. Most of the people in my class said that this place was the best place we had eaten on the tour so far, and that it was maybe one of the best places they had eaten at ever. I could somewhat agree with them. After finishing lunch, we then were able to have the afternoon to ourselves in the town. We didn't have this chance too often, most of the time we were just waiting for the next event to be a lecture of some sort.

Appalachian Trail Sign

Everyone was so hyped up about having this time off. We walked over the bridge that crossed the Potomac River, which happened to also be apart of the Appalachian Trail. I was totally into it. There were signs up everywhere saying which way was North or South and how many miles it was until the next big area of the trail would be. I took in every moment of it. It was crazy to think that all the thru-hikers who would hike the Appalachian trail would pass through this town, Harpers Ferry. It was about the half-way point between the start of the trail in Georgia and the end of the trail in Maine. (Depending on which end you started of course). We would also continue on the Appalachian Trail up to Jefferson's Rock, which was almost an overlook of the whole town of Harpers Ferry and the two rivers meeting together. It was absolutely beautiful up here. I still just couldn't get over the fact that this was a major point on the Appalachian Trail and I was able to experience it. Hopefully one day I'll be able to experience this place while actually doing a thru-hike.

Harpers Ferry

After we had walked around some, we had to hit up all of the gift-shops of course. The only one that we ended up coming across that interested me was a hiking/outfitters shop. Most of the other shops were more "old-lady" oriented I guess you would say, but this hikers store had my name written all over it. As I walked into the store, a thru-hiker, (I'm guessing), was resupplying with the owner of the store. I know I'm a loser, but I was just so pumped that I found this shop. Seeing these hikers and being able to see a part in this was very cool to me. I looked around, and of course they had the usual hiking gear, and clothes, but they also had all the trail maps from the area around Harper's Ferry and maps and guidebooks for the entire Appalachian Trail. I was hoping to see some maps for the Roanoke area, which is the closest place to Appalachian Trail is to me, but no luck here. I ended up getting a map of the entire Appalachian Trail for myself and some Appalachian Trail Pins. I was just happy to have the experience of seeing the store and the hikers coming through.

Harpers Ferry

After we had finished looking around all the shops in town, we were headed back to the bus shuttle station to head back to the parking lot and our car. We were headed to Winchester, VA for our last night on the Civil War Tour. In the morning we would be heading to New Market for the Battle of New Market reenactment. This would be our last stop before heading back to Ferrum. I didn't want this trip to end. Even though we had the struggle of making it through lectures and everything, the experience was more than words to describe. It is just something that everyone needs to experience for their self at some point in their life. To be able to see how the country they are living in was shaped, and how our freedom has been brought up through the generations of people who have fought to protect it. I am going to forever cherish these moments.