Date: 2015-05-18
From: Turners Gap, U.S. Alt 40

To: Harpers Ferry
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: broken clouds

Back on the trail again. We had a nice, dry clear morning. Hal drove us out early and we were on the trail by 6:00 am, just a few minutes after sunrise. The road crossing where we started was about a quarter mile from Dahlgren Campground, and we saw a lot of tents there - but only a few people up and moving that early. We were slack-packing SoBo back to Harpers Ferry. The trail was in very good shape and overall it was a very easy hike. The temperature climbed steadily and the humidity was high, but the trees have leafed at these altitudes and we had plenty of shade from the sun. I believe that we were tracking along South Mountain and followed the ridge much of the way. We passed through several gaps and also across some very rocky stretches suggesting a ridge line. Now that the trees are green, it's difficult to get an idea of what the surrounding countryside is like. There were very few side trails to "views" today. The most prominent feature of the trail today was the War Correspondents Memorial at Gathland State Park. It's a very unusual structure, especially in a somewhat remote area. I have read a little about the civil war, but didn't realize the significance of the South Mountain area until I browsed the placques around the memorial. I learned that South Mountain played a role in the days leading up to the Battle of Antietam. Lee was able to stall McClellan's army long enough at South Mountain to regroup his army and move just west to Sharpsburg, setting the stage for the struggle there. The memorial was built in the 1890's in honor of the Civil War correspondents. An added benefit of Gathland Park is a clean water spigot and we were able to replenish the water bottles and camel-up. Princess also spotted a number of lady's slippers along the trail side today. Previously we only saw yellow blooms, and today all we saw were pink - a lot of them. Many of the blooms were nearly spent, so I doubt we'll see very many more. We have done the last few miles of today's hike several times and it's becoming familiar. Since we were southbound, the end of the mountain ridge brought us to Weverton Clliffs, overlooking the Potomac. The trail turns down sharply at that point and descends to the river level. After we cross the railroad tracks, we take the towpath along remnants of the C&O Canal for several miles into Harpers Ferry. The towpath is between the old canal and the Potomac and is largely tree covered. Good fortune today since we were there around midday and the sun and heat were fierce. The towpath is absolutely flat and level and gets to be boring after a mile or so. Much of the canal appeared to be stagnant and algae-covered. We saw a lot of turtles in the canal, literally dozens. And we also saw lots of flourishing poison ivy vines. Plus we saw Furball heading NoBo with her dog. She said she had taken a few days off. (We also saw Brother Louie later in Harpers Ferry, he's trying to catch up to his gang after extending his stay at Woods Hole.)Eventually, the towpath led us back to the footbridge across the Potomac into Harpers Ferry. There are two sets of train tracks across the river and it's always exciting to be on the bridge when a train passes by, being so close to all that energy and power. The footbridge crosses the state line between West Virginia and Maryland. Since we were doing this section SoBo, we are now officially out of WV and into MD. Now we've been through 5 states and MD won't take long. Tomorrow we'll head north from where we started today and stay tomorrow night in Waynesboro, PA, although we won't actually finish the MD trail section until Wednesday. We've split the trail into shorter segments to take it easy on my leg for a bit.