The Freedom Step

May 19, 2025

It's only natural to try and keep your feet dry when the trail is wet. You'll jump from side to side and find stones to step on. Inevitably, you either slip off the stone or find a pond so large there's no way around it and you end up with wet feet. I met a guy who called it the freedom step. You're now free to just walk up the trail with no concerns about the water. You can only get so wet.

I have long embraced the idea of the freedom step. Trying to keep your feet dry when the trail is wet is hard work and slows you down. It's also almost always a waste of time. You're walking on a wet trail, your feet are going to get wet. Just do it and get it over with.

This past week saw a big rainstorm on Tuesday. I had already taken four days off and was chomping at the bit to get back on trail. But, it was quite a storm. I kept checking the weather in the hopes it would clear and maybe I could get going after lunch. Nope. It actually kept going well into Wednesday. Sherry and I were watching the hills around us here in Harpers Ferry (a charming, little town) and they would disappear in the rain. Then, the wind kicked in, too. I didn't want to get back so much I was willing to put myself at risk. Good thing, too.

I finally (after five days) got hiking again Wednesday morning and went south out of Harpers Ferry to go back to Shenandoah NP where Sherry had picked me up. I knew the trail would be wet but I was still taken by surprise by how much water there was, even five days later as I reached the end point of this section. The AT Conservancy sent out warnings to hikers to avoid certain areas due to flooding and little creeks had become rivers too big to rock hop across. The trail was also littered with blow downs (trees) and widowmakers (branches). It would've been quite dangerous to have been out in that storm. It isn't always about sucking it up. Some times, you need to exercise good judgement.

Once the worst of the storm was passed I was able to make good time and finished the eighty miles in five days, an average of sixteen miles per day. Sherry joined me for lunch on Sunday and did some hiking with me before we left the park behind and returned to our campsite. All in all, it was a good week.

I also reached some milestones. I went over 605 total miles on this trip. This is now my personal longest single. I "retired" my pair of hiking shoes after coming back. They earned it.

One peculiar thing, though. Yes, I've hiked over 600 miles, but I've managed to complete only one state - Georgia, the first one. I skipped ahead before finishing North Carolina and Tennessee and jumped way into Virginia, the state with the most miles. I've done most of West Virginia and only need to cross the Potomac River tomorrow morning for my second state. I'll finish a few more pretty quickly over the next few weeks before reaching Vermont.