Update... Red Bull is doing his best to reach Harper's Ferry tonight, and have us bring him home for a visit!
He had told me he was in the "roller coaster". I checked his location in the guidebook. and thought he might actually make it! I was impressed with how far he had traveled!
Later he contacted us for a weather forecast... my weather channel app said it was clear all afternoon/night. He checked in a few hours later to confirm... he saw lightning. We had just experienced a nasty thunderstorm... and when I checked the weather again...thunderstorms!!!
When I asked his location, he said he was getting close to the end of the Roller Coaster! What? When I checked the guidebook, I did not realize the Roller Coaster was listed more than once... a north and south end! Yikes! He was almost to the location I thought he had reached several hours ago!
He still had over 20 miles to hike, and it was now after 9:00 pm!
He was insisting on hiking into the night, and predicted he would reach Harper's Ferry by 2:00 am. As his parents, we were trying to persuade him to stop for the night, and begin early in the morning. We were not comfortable with him hiking in the dark.
He told us he had recently passed the Bears Den Hostel (mile 1002.6), and they were closed for the evening. He was going to continue.
An hour later he called us to tell us he was not feeling well, and was debating having us pick him up at his current location. He had tried to rest, drank some water, had a snack... but still felt ill. We looked at his current location in the guidebook. He would need to hike two miles back (south) to Snicker's Gap for us to pick him up. He considered this, but decided he was not up to it and pitched his tent where he was on the side of the trail. This is not allowed, but he was too ill to hike any further. He texted me about 5 minutes later to tell me he had pitched his tent on an anthill, and he was now covered in ants. He was too ill and tired to move it... so went to sleep with the ants as his unwelcome companions.
He slept on mile 1005 of the Appalachian Trail, at an elevation of 825 feet.
What a way to reach the 1,000 mile mark!!!
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