The 5th Annual Flip Flop Festival is this weekend. So much is happening this year. There's the traditional core educational activities for prospective flip floppers, including pack shakedowns, and well as social activities.

There are also guided hikes, a group bike ride, bird watching (full - sorry), yoga at 8am tomorrow, a Festival Quest across 14 businesses that each have a state sheet with a fun fact about flip floppers (with cash prizes for winners), bands, and vendors. There are games for kids, a hike "for kids of all ages," the African American History Hike, hikes and talks about historic areas within the park, two flip flopper kick-offs (one Sunday and one Monday).

The town is having their own craft beer and wine tasting at the gazebo, 2 short blocks from ATC, in an event not officially part of the Flip Flop Festival, on Saturday afternoon.

REI is offering gear repair and water filtering clinics, a storytelling hour with 2 staff member (including James Randall, of the "Don't Be That Guy" Leave No Trace video series (not "that guy," the other guy), Anne "Shivers" Baker from ATC, and Eliane "Tumblelina" Coates, followed by a Celebration of Flip Floppers. Blue Ridge Bucha will be there, and in the afternoon there's a ring toss for prizes from REI. It's not easy, but even if you don't win a prize, the proceeds from ticket sales benefit ATC. Same for the Blue Ridge Bucha sales. All at The Barn of Harpers Ferry.

For the first time, a free shuttle is being offered, that runs from Harpers Ferry Middle School at the far end of Bolivar all the way to lower town Harpers Ferry.

The program ends with a night-sky viewing program being offered Sunday 8:30-9:30pm

All the details are at www.flipflopfestival.org.


Oh, and here is one of the most interesting and novel programs :

Sunday at noon on Forest Bathing: Reconnect with Wild Places
1:30p – 3:00p | – The Joy of Forest Bathing: Reconnect with Wild Places and Rejuvenate Your Life (at ATC).
by Melanie Choukas-Bradley. There’s a growing body of evidence that the practice of forest bathing – known as “Shinrin-yoku” in Japan, where the phenomenon started – can help boost immunity and mood and help reduce stress. Forest therapy is now gaining popularity as a way to reconnect with nature for health and many other benefits. Melanie Choukas-Bradley, certified forest therapy guide and author of The Joy of Forest Bathing, joins us for a talk on the practice and benefits of forest bathing. The A.T. footpath where it is heavily traveled may not be the most conducive place to do this, but I would love to see local trail clubs identify places in the corridor, in non-peak times, where people could do this. Of course anyone can take 5 minutes during a hike to do a little forest bathing.

If you've ever wondered what Benton MacKaye meant when he talked about this: "to walk, to see, and to see what you"--then I think this is it.