Date: 2014-05-31
From: Ensign Cowall Shelter

To: Tumbling Run Shelters
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: broken clouds

Today we cleared through our sixth state on our way into Pennsylvania! Maryland was a nice little state that prepared us for another long stretch in one state.From the Ensign Cowall Shelter we climbed up and down to reach the Raven Rock Cliffs - which we still accidentally walked by! It was an unsigned blue blazed trail on the right side of the trail. On the way up to the cliffs we passed the two section hikers we met at the Teahorse Hostel in Harpers Ferry - said hello and kept moving on.Stopped at our last shelter in Maryland - boy was it a nice one! Large camping area, very nice large shelter with a covered porch. Great place to rest before going up to High Rock in Maryland.High Rock was a neat but very graffiti covered place - it is also used as a hang gliding platform! Nice view down into the lower lands and a rest before the steep down into Pen Mar Park. Met several section hikers climbing up that hill and chatted with them - one of them grew up in Indiana! We wished each other luck and kept moving on.Some sections of the trail are hard to follow the blaze path since it is all rocks. But we found our way and the downhill leveled out to a gradual downhill. We arrived at Pen Mar Park in time for lunch and ate at a park bench - a great little park with lots of weekend activity and high school graduation celebrations! No one gave the hungry hikers any food but it was a nice place to look and see down into the valley.From lunch we continued on to our first destination - the Mason-Dixon Line separating Pennsylvania and Maryland! Got the photo taken there and moved on past a tent - later we found out it was Sole Power's tent!Climbed up the last hill of the day and rested at the Deer Lick Shelters - we were told to avoid the area because it was swampy. When we were there it was pretty swampy so we decided to go to the Antietam Shelter about one mile away. Arrived at that shelter and it was surrounded by lots of water! The shelter was also built in 1940 and it looks like it has not been updated since then.We were sitting there trying to decide if we should stay or go on when a decently large Boy Scout Troop showed up and was looking to set up camp. Decided to move on because we figured it would be a little noisy.Good thing we pushed on - the Tumbling Run Shelters were awesome! The shelters themselves and the surrounding area were well-maintained by the shelter caretakers who we met later in the evening. They introduced themselves (Kurt and Tanya + their dog Mocha) and we talked with them for a bit after dinner - great talking to them and they even had sodas for everyone!We set our camp up in a nice group tenting area by ourselves and later started a fire at the shelters. Sitting around the shelters we met everyone staying in the area. Turtle is an older gentleman who started mid February and is slowly working his way North - retired building framer. We ran into Joe again from the Teahorse Hostel and he is doing a section of the AT - he hiked the trail in 2004.Also met Devon who is hiking with her father and another father-daughter pair. Today was their first day on the trail. She is from outside of Philadelphia and she was a very nice to talk with around the campfire (kinda cute too!). Met the fathers of two Scouts from Annapolis who were doing a weekend hike with their sons. They were preparing for Philmont as well - all the Scout Troops seem to be doing it! Later on Sole Power arrived and set up in camp - he had been in Washington DC for a couple of days and it was good to see him again.Ended the day on a nice note - good friends, good day, and good times at one of the nicest shelters on the AT!Also, don't forget to sign the guestbook so I can see who is following along!