July 6 Mile 1014

Bad night last night. After a long very hot day that I wrote about, Cisco awoke about 2 AM very sick. We were up all night. I googled his symptoms- glad I am getting coverage here. He was suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration. Very serious stuff. I was very worried and so was he. We broke camp as soon as it was light, but he felt terrible. We were thankful we were so close to Harpers Ferry, and glad we weren't some 20 miles from nowhere like we have often been. We slowly hiked to town, but you could really feel the heat rising, checked my weather on my phone- and it was to get to 102 today! Got to town, skipped the ATC office ( we'll do pictures another day) and went straight to our hostel-  a very neat place in the old town in a very old building. Luckily I had a reservation and they had a room ready when we got there at 10:30AM. Cisco took a cold shower and went straight to bed in our air conditioned room. I cleaned up and went to breakfast and toured the the town. Walking around Harpers Ferry takes about 5 minutes, but it a very pretty little place. But I think they are under economic stress. It seemed all the businesses are for sale or closed. Don't quite get that. They have a train that goes to DC and it's a very nice valley with the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers coming together. Even have a Jefferson Rock (saw it) where Thomas Jefferson stood looking out over the rivers and wrote it was worth crossing the Atlantic Ocean to see this view. Maybe they had fewer trees then, or perhaps he was a member of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, I didn't have the same reaction.
As the day progressed, Cisco was feeling better, drinking lots of water and eating some food. Went to a little pub next door to see the World Cup game, but the workers there said they didnt get ESPN. How is that possible? I thought every bar in America had to have ESPN by law. We decided to eat some lunch there anyway, as I was racking my brain on how to find the game. Staring at the TV it finally dawned on me to check the channels. Sure enough, they didnt have ESPN, but they had Univision! American networks may not carry soccer, but the rest of the world does. So we got the game and will return tomorrow for the other semifinal game. Since we found the  channel for them they told  us they will advertise it on their board,  expecting a crowd. They then told us we should come early if we want to get a spot at the bar. At least they could hold a seat for us!
Hiking  in this type of weather is dangerous we have learned. We spoke with several other hikers who came in here today, and they all had similar heat related problems. Weather forecast for the next few days is more of the same-100+ temps. Think we'll stay a while. Maybe I'll go back and give that rock another look. I think I'll have the time.


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