Date: 2018-06-04
From: Compton Gap Trail

To: Stealth site at Sky Meadows Ambassador Whitehouse Trail
Miles today: 22.1
Weather: overcast clouds

Up at dawn to drive to Harpers Ferry for a solo two night section. On the radio I hear reports of flooding from yesterday's downpour. The Patuxent River collapsed a road, bridges impassable, looks like an exciting day to hike!The gate ranger at Harper's Ferry National Park, where I'm dropping the car, tells me there's no entry fee today. They expect flooding in the Lower Town this afternoon as the Potomac and Shenandoah crest and are closing all the exhibits to move them to the second floors. Guess it was quite a lot of rain.Sharon, a Front Royal retiree, shuttles me from Harpers Ferry to Chester Gap to resume where my son and I left off at the northern boundary of Shenandoah National Park. She moved between military bases constantly as a mother and army wife, but in retirement settled in the Blue Ridge and began shuttling at her hiker husband's suggestion. They even boarded hikers for a few years. Mostly we talk about dogs, especially border collies.I reach the AT from the Compton Gap Trail around 10:30. The forest has greened up even more over the last two weeks. It's turning into a gorgeous mild day, perfect for hiking. The trail is groomed until it exits the park, then follows rocky switchbacks down past Tom Floyd shelter and through muddy trail to route 522. The creeks are raging and the stepping stones are underwater so I just wade through. Between creek crossings, trail runoff, and mudpits my feet will not dry all day. At the Jim and Molly Denton shelter there's a large lunch crowd. About a dozen thruhikers, including a French Canadian couple, are lounging on a deck built out from the shelter. I grab a bite of tuna at the picnic table under a separate pavilion with a young couple doing their first backpacking trip - three weeks or so - and a woman from Albany doing a long section. There's even a solar shower here for those inclined.I head off, uncertain of how far I will go and trying to tamp down my instinct to go for mileage. I'll be in Harper's Ferry Wednesday morning or midday regardless of my choice so I just relax and see where I am as evening approaches. There are no views to interrupt my thoughts and few road crossings, but lots of mud, cascading water. I just plow through it, dirtying my shoes in the mud and cleaning them in the runoff. Oh, and there are rocks. Rocks suspiciously like those in Pennsylvania.Thruhikers like to complain about Rocksylvania, but the truth is the rocks start in northern Shenandoah, continue through northern Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, ebb in southern PA, then come back in northern PA and to a lesser extent in New Jersey before resurging in New York. They are a feature of the middle Appalachians, but Rockvirginia and Maryrocks aren't catchy names.As evening approaches I aim for a side trail past Sky Meadows State Park to an overlook to stealth camp. I'm not in the mood to join a crowd at the shelter, which in any case is too far to reach before dark. The side trail leads over a fantastic grassy hill to a view of the Virginia foothills to the east spread out over a wide valley. There's even a little picnic table to make dinner - rice and spicy salmon. The spice counteracts the blandness of the Knoll rice mix and makes an adequate meal. I'm not hungry enough to think it's any better than adequate!I pitch the tent without the rainfly -may be the first time I've done this, there always seems to be a chance of rain - and journal as the sky darkens and lights begin to twinkle in the valley down below. Maybe I'll catch some stars tonight. And maybe these night breezes will dry my socks just a little.