Day 73 - Wednesday, August 24

Linda

We should have put up the tent last night in spite of the location. We were awakened at 3:30 to raindrops in our faces. We ignored the first few drops. Big mistake! In a few minutes we had to make a mad dash to throw the fly over us when the deluge hit. It thundered and lightninged (is that a word?) for a while, so we figured we'd better stake up the fly instead of just covering ourselves. By that time the main storm was over, but the rain continued to drizzle for the rest of the night. Actually, I slept better between 4:00 and 6:30 than the rest of the night. We got going this morning just before 8:00 and walked to Rt. 16 and up toward PenMar and the Pennsylvania - Maryland state line.

My stomach was feeling rather queasy today for some reason, so I wasn't moving very fast. We decided to take the road up to High Rock, which is the old AT, rather than the relocation which goes straight up the hill over a boulder field. It was overcast, but we still had a good view from the hang gliding platform at the top of High Rock. The trail down the other side was rocky, but not too bad. We stopped for water at a house on Rt. 77 and were headed to Hemlock Hill Shelter for lunch. All of a sudden we came out into an area where so many trees had been cut, we wouldn't see where the trail went. We crashed around for a few minutes, then found out the reason for all the downed trees. There was a new gas pipeline being laid through here and the whole area has been bulldozed, along with the trees with the blazes on them.

We walked on through the bulldozer tracks for a quarter mile or so, then came to where the crew was eating lunch. They had barbecued pork chops and hot dogs, and had beans, bread, Pepsi's etc. The food was all spread out on the back of the huge flatbed they use to transport the heavy equipment. They were just finishing up and offered us all their leftovers. Well, they didn't have to ask us twice! We threw off our packs and proceeded to dig in. My queasiness from this morning had disappeared, and we feasted while we chatted with the men on the crew. Another fortuitous accident! The rain was starting as we left the work crew. We kept hiking and they got back to their clearing.

We found our bearings and walked up to the shelter where we had be heading earlier. Talked to a couple of through hikers, Steve and Johanna for a few minutes, then went on in the rain. By the time we got to the top of the ridge, we were in the midst of a pretty bad thunderstorm. The trail itself was mostly level and just a little rocky. We weren't too wild about the idea of hiking during the storm, but there wasn't much alternative. The storm finally subsided about 4:00 and we took a munch break where I-70 crosses under Rt. 40. We stayed dry by sitting under the overpass of Rt. 40. That was the first time we'd sat down all day. Even during our feast with the pipeline crew, we just stood up around the back of the truck, because the ground was too torn up and muddy to sit down.

After our break we headed on the last 3.3 miles to Monument Knob where there is a stone monument in honor of George Washington. This was supposedly the first monument erected to honor him. Washington Monument State Park was just beyond the knob. The trail had been nice and smooth most of the way, so we made good time and arrived at the park around 5:30. Being a weekday, the park was almost deserted, and the fog added an eerie quality as we wandered through the park looking for a ranger. We finally found a ranger and made arrangements to camp at one of the covered picnic shelters. We walked down to the picnic area and picked out our shelter area for the night.

Just as we started to fix dinner, a man came up and invited us over to have dinner with his family, then went back and got his wife and son and they all came back and talked with us for a while before we went over to their campsite. They were Frances, Skeeter and Kelly Merritt, from Charleston, West Virginia. We really enjoyed spending the evening with them and appreciated their hospitality and generosity. We had a great dinner of hot dogs, chicken and noodles, fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and fruit. We sat around a friendly campfire and talked and toasted marshmallows until 10:00. A very enjoyable evening of good food and conversation. When we finally went back to our covered picnic shelter, we put our bags on the picnic table, crawled in and went to sleep dreaming of Harper's Ferry.

Ron

Our morning began a bit earlier that expected. To get and early start on today's hiking, we set our sleeping bags out on the ground. Around 3:30 am Linda was awakened by a few raindrops. A few minutes later the skies opened up. We rushed and got the tent fly to put over us. I placed the rest of the tent over the packs. After the deluge stopped we finished setting up the tent fly.

At first light we packed up our wet gear and headed to Maryland. On the hike up to High Rock we took the road instead of the trail. Until a year ago the trail followed the road. Linda's stomach was upset and the rain had made the boulder field tricky. From High Rock we descended a steep rocky path. The trail for the last few days has not been nearly as bad as earlier in Pennsylvania.

We crossed a couple of low hills and stopped at a house for water. After crossing a highway we came upon a section of trail where all the trees for an area of 50 yards wide have been cut. We scrambled across the downed trees to a clearing where a group of men were eating lunch. They were building a pipeline through the area. We worked our way across the bulldozed strip and through the mass of heavy machinery. As we rounded a pickup, we met the rest of the crew finishing lunch. Linda saw their food and said "Take me away.". Since they were just finishing, we were invited to help ourselves. We each had a couple of barbecued pork chops, drinks, bread and pork and beans. That's the first time I've been grateful for a pipeline. The rain started to drizzle as we stood around talking and stuffing. They needed to get back to work and we had to continue so we said our good-byes. At the Hemlock Hill Lean-to we stopped for a few minutes to talk to a couple of Northbounders.

The rain was falling pretty hard as we climbed the ridge beyond the lean-to. By the time we had gone a half mile, a thunder storm hit. With no place to go, we continued down the ridge and hoped the storm would stay out of range. We crossed the ridge successfully and stopped at a spot under the overpass of Route 40 over Interstate 70. We had hiked 20 miles by 4:00 and not even sat down once.

A few miles later we stopped for the night at Washington Monument Park and secured a picnic shelter for the night. As we were preparing hot Jell-O (a favorite evening drink), the man from the next site came over. We talked about our trail hike for a while. His wife soon joined us and they invited us to their camp for supper. He enjoys hiking and someday when he gets a chance he hopes to hike the trail. We spent the rest of the evening trading stories around the campfire. It was too late to do the things we had planned when we got back to camp. What the hell, the company was far better.

(24.3 Miles - 1116.1 Total)