Date: 2008-04-22
From: Harpers Ferry WV

To: Rocky Run Shelter MD
Miles today: 15.4
Weather: light rain

Start: Harpers Ferry, WVEnd: Rocky Run Shelter, MDMiles: 15.4HammockWell my gamble paid off. Set the alarm for 6:45 a.m. and no rain! I got up, just ate a Clif Bar, checked my emails, and checked out. I noticed the owner of the Inn, Karan, had a doctorate, so I asked her about it. She has it in Education and Curriculum Design and as spent the last several decades teaching English as a second language. I stepped off around 8:45 a.m. to a coolish morning and overcast skies. First thing up, entering Maryland via the Potomac River footbridge! 5 states down! There's no sig telling you you're in MD, so I sort of didn't realize it till later, when I looked @ my guidebook...duh.The river was raging due to all of the rain we'd had, tons of debris and trees. Todays's hike was actually a surprise to me, in that I didn't plan on going this far, but I was moving along pretty swiftly apparently.Only wildlife was a turtle on a log next to the C&O Canal Towpath, which was totally flat, and it started to get boring, around mile #2 of the flt groomed path, but a train came by, and that was cool. To keep it interesting, I kept imagining what it would be like to be in a white water raft in the Potomac, becuse there were some great rapids out there.Finally, I made it to the woods, and started up a 2 mile climb. I ran into 2 guys on a 4 day hike, one of which used the same hammock as me! The I ran into a father/son, Rusty Rat and Meathook from Nova Scotia, who are hiking from CT-GA, then CT-mE, so it's a flip flop of sorts. Nice guys.The climb wasn't bad at all, and before I knew it, I was zooming along on pretty flat trail. It was vry muddy and in some places resembled a small stream due to all of the rain, but my feet stayed dry despite this (I LOVE my Keen Voyageurs by the way.)By 11:15, I was @ the Ed Garvey Memorial Shelter. Cool place, made out of logs, a ladder climbing up to a loft with windows and all. The sun was out, it was warm (low 70's today) and life really couldn't be better.I decided to eat lunch, and let's just say I didn't do the best job w/food choices this week. So note to self, if you pack beef jerkey in a ziplock..say in October of 2007, and then get it out in say, April 2008 to use for lunch, you might want to taste it. It's not that beef jerkey goes bad, but it was either stale or I bought some gross flavor w/out realizing it! So I ate my peanut butter and chex mix, and FORCED down this tangy gross beef jerkey, and will be repeating this for the next several days! LOL (I only like Hickory smoked jerkey, and have a feeling this is teryaki or something).I got moving @ 12:19, and knew Gathland State Park was just a few miles away, and I had originally planed o stopping @ Crampto Shelter, in this park, but I got there @ 2:30, which was WAY too early.The Gath House Museum was open, so I went in. Apparently, Gath was a popular writer, and they had these lead printing plates for one of his actual books that had been found, which was cool. The docent, John, was sitting @ his desk hand sewing a lag for his unit, the 22nd Virginia. He's the Captai of a Civil War re-enactment group, and that was really cool, so I took his picture sewing.Then it was down to the War Correspondant's Memorial Arch. Funny thing about being here, last fall Karen and I attended a hammock hangout here, and she took pics of this arch, and when we got home, I somehow managed to erase ALL of the pictures! DOH! So, I was glad to be able to take more for her...hee hee.I diddled around till 3:30, and decided to go another 5.5 miles to Rocky Run Shelter. I ran into 2 young women, Rachel ad Bethany, who were out for a section hike, nice people. I thought I had a pretty tough climb ahead, but it was very gradual. Some rocky areas, but nothing too bad. I thought I heard thunder, which freaked me out a bit considering I was going up, but it just ended up being a plane.There was 1 nice view @ White Rocks, just before the top of the climb of Lambs Knoll. Our country is amazingly beautiful, and I can't imagine seeing the east coast any other way, that would be as fulfilling as this. So I estimated I'd be @ the shelter @ 5:15, and it was 5:17 on my watch when I got here (I play a game to see how accure I can be). The actual shelter is closed, they are building a new one a bit closer to the trail. Nobody here, but I'm hanging a good ways from the original shelter.I got camp set up in a record breaking 35 minutes and headed down to the stream for water.I sat on the porch of the new shelter and made dinner, couscous tonight. Bear bagging was a pain tonight, I kept throwing my rope in every possible place BUT the one I was aiming for, then my rock would fly off the rope, etc. Reminded me of the nite Persistent got her trailname.By te way, T-mobile has been rock solid with cell signal this whole time, and it was here too, so I called Karen to see how she was and ask how Hank and Henry were. "The Pickles" as we call them were very happy to see her when she got home, and they always enoy having a smell-fest when you bring bags and clothes home that have been somewhere "exotic", like Harpers Ferry, WV. I miss them a lot.Well, it's 7:37 p.m., I'm in for the nite, the thermometer says 61 degrees, but it feels cooler than that. I'm actually nursing a horrible headache right now, which is bad enough to make me nauseated, so I'm going to take some Excedrin, and use my breathing technique to calm it down. (Damn caffiene withdrawls!) I'm pretty tired, so I'm looking forward to a long nite's sleep w/out a train every 20 minutes. Not sure where I'm headed tomorrow since I went 5.5 miles further today, so I'll figure that out in the a.m. Good nite all.~Certain