Date: 2020-07-28
From: Rocky Run Shelter

To: Pen Mar Rd (Waynesboro)
Miles today: 25.6

The water bottles disappeared from the shelter table around five in the morning, and soon after a party of backpackers trooped out in the early gloaming (what, I like the word!). They must have headed south as I was breaking webs most of the morning. I got myself out of camp after a very warm night sometime after eight.The AT follows South Mountain through Maryland, part of the Blue Ridge. It was the site of skirmishes and much maneuvering before and after Lee's invasion of Maryland in September 1862 that climaxed at Sharpsburg (known to yankees as Antietam after the creek). Along the trail one finds old fieldstone walls that served as cover, old roadbeds over gaps that were sought out by scouts to sneak around enemy forces, and some memorials to the dead. Sadly one such memorial, a granite stone memorializing some of the Confederate officers, has been vandalized by what looks like a pickaxe. As a history buff any effort to damage or eradicate history troubles me, even more so when done to purposefully forget or obscure the past. As wise men have noted countless times, forgetting the past is the surest way to repeat it. The Washington monument near Boonesboro is from a different era. Erected in 1827 by "the citizens of Boonesboro" as the first monument to the father of our country, it's a tower of fieldstone overlooking the western valley which was restored in the 1930s and just completed additional restoration this year. The scaffolding is now down and it looks like new, the US and Maryland flags flanking it. Unfortunately it is closed, like the state park around it. Though thoughtfully there is a water pump and bathrooms for hikers, as there were further south in Gathland state park.Saw several black snakes on trail today, including a five-footer. He didn't want to move, but after I tried to lift him with my pole he slithered off.Maryland has several fine viewpoints over the western valley - Annapolis Rocks, Black Rocks, Pen Mar Park, and others. But one, High Rocks, is directly accessible by a road and rarely supervised. As a result, every inch of the rocks are covered in colorful graphitti. And the vandals, who no doubt fancy themselves artists, have been encouraged by this neglect to tag many trees and rocks within easy walking distance. How this travesty became a local tradition I don't know, but it's unique along the trail. Perhaps a clean up job and some video cameras are in order to restore this viewpoint. Or maybe closing the road and seeing how far vandals are willing to walk.I called a guy named Roger to shuttle into Waynesboro from Pen Mar Road. But first I crossed the Mason Dixon line into my home state of Pennsylvania. And celebrated with a handful of wild raspberries. That's six states done. Though the last two, West Virginia and Maryland, took less than two days.Although I didn't attempt the Four State Challenge of walking from Virginia to Pennsylvania in 24 hours, I accidentally came close. It took about 29 hours, from 1pm yesterday to 6pm today. Subtract out the two hours I spent in Harpers Ferry waiting for a bus and the eleven hours I spent at the shelter and it's a respectable 16 hours of walking over some 44 miles. Maryland is not a difficult state, despite the rocks. Could I have done that without sleeping in the middle? Most likely, but honestly I just don't care. I'm pretty certain I would have been sore, hangry, and irritable at the end of it, and that wouldn't tell me anything I don't already know. Stopping in Waynesboro turned out to be a good decision. I found new shorts with a liner and pockets at Walmart (really a basic bathing suit), resupplied, showered and dried out everything at the Super 8, and did laundry at a nearby laundromat. I felt like a new man after several days and nights in the heat. The fact that Waynesburger, famous for huge burgers and milkshakes, was closed on Tuesdays was a disappointment, but I recovered with a trip to an Italian place, and stayed up far too late watching Office reruns.