The fifth state, WV
J: This a.m., what a cruise to Harper's. Nice terrain. Passed the David Lesser S. -- register entry allegedly from a former Boy Scout leader. Really ragged on Thru Hikers: '...dirty, smelly, don't have jobs, no meaningful lives', etc. Saying that 'the A.T. is for boy scouts and Virginians, that the thruhikers are nothing more than bums and if we lived in a city, we'd be locked up.' Finished up by telling us to 'go get a job and get off the Trail.' (Joseph Andrews, 6/22). Hmmm, wish I had been in the shelter with him that day, maybe with the Fox. See what an eagle scout and former scout master could contribute to his education. The long and generally mature responses just in the last six days nearly filled the journal.
Big John had been referring to our lot as 'bums on a mission' down south. OK, so some of Joe's diatribe might not be completely wrong -- we can be smelly at times.
A mile or two later, we crossed into West Virginia.