Date: 2004-07-05
From: Dahlgren Backpack Campground

To: Ensign Cowall Shelter
Miles today: 13.9
Weather: few clouds

It was very still and stuffy last night after the rain stopped, too warm for my "summer" sleeping bag. Someone nearby decided to shoot off the last of their fireworks sometime after midnight. An animal kept making noises out in the woods. Not much sleep until it cooled down in the early morning.I was out of camp at 8:00am, planning on an 18 mile day. Just up the trail I found one last Coke in a trail magic box that someone had left yesterday, so the day was off to a good start. My trail legs were still missing though, and my legs ached as I hiked along. I flushed two deer shortly before the Washington Monument.I took the short side trail up to the original Washington Monument, erected in the 1830's by the citizens of the local county to honor George Washington. A nice tribute to the first President.I stopped at the next shelter (Pine Knob), spread my tarp to let it dry some, and took a big nap on the shelter floor. Frank caught me there and we hiked on, stopping for the great view of the valley at Annapolis Rocks. I finished drying my tarp as we took a break and snapped some pictures. It was a beautiful day with cool breezes. Lots of day hikers out on this holiday. Shortly after leaving the viewpoint a red fox crossed the trail ahead.I stopped at the Pogo Memorial Campground for water and talked for a bit with a Boy Scout troop that had been out for 12 days. They looked grungy enough to be thruhikers. I don't know the origin of the campground name. Did Pogo die? Can a cartoon character die? Pogo had one of the best lines ever - "We have met the enemy and they are us!"After the campground was a tough mile of rocks. I took a long break afterwards by the side of the trail. Eric caught me a short way before the Ensign Cowall shelter, then stopped at the nearby road to wait for Jesse and a hitch into town for supplies. I continued on to the shelter as the thunder boomed overhead. Hustling along in another footrace I glanced at the sign and turned right for the shelter. But the sign said "Spring" instead of "Shelter", so I had to backtrack. I was a hundred yards from the shelter when the bottom fell out of the clouds. Lost another race! I whipped out my trusty backpacker umbrella and kept everything reasonably dry as I sprinted (lumbered?) on to the shelter. Frank sat there dry as a bone, having made it two minutes earlier. The rain poured and then it hailed for a bit. Eric and Jesse sloshed in to wait out the rain before their hitch to town.Frank and I were planning to move on to the next shelter until Eric pointed out that it was 0.2 miles off the trail with water 0.3 miles beyond. He also promised to bring back ice cream if we wanted to wait. That settled things; we decided to call it a day.A family of 7 out for a few days were at the shelter but they were tenting nearby. Frank loaned them his filter for water since they had no way to purify other than boiling. Eric and Jesse soon returned with a pint of B&J Chunkey Monkey ice cream for me, a pint of Cherry Garcia for Frank, and cold beer to boot. I was glad we decided to stop.Flash: Frank is carrying a battery powered toothbrush! He is not one of these hikers who counts every ounce; he goes for a fairly high level of comfort and convenience.