Date: 2004-06-20
From: Deer Lick Shelters

To: Quarry Gap Shelter
Miles today: 15.8
Weather: clear sky

I got going at 6:00 a.m. and by 7:00 was passing through tents full of sleepy boyscouts waking up near Antietam Shelter. I signed the register there and at Tumbling Run with a greeting for Little Tree and The Walking Stomach. By then Ponderer had caught up with me and starting off together we hit a steep upgrade. Checking my map I found it was a ONE THOUSAND FOOT CLIMB! Hey, no Fair! Who said there were mountains in Pennsylvania? Oh yeah, I guess there is some mention. Sigh... I guess I have to go up it.I stopped for a break and Ponderer was quickly long gone. It was a nice day for climbing mountains at least; cool and dry instead of the recent mugginess. The alien spaceships or cicadas were still humming away but a bit more sporadically than before.At the unusually late hour of 9:00 a.m. I heard the bugle notes of "Revelie" from a pa system somewhere up ahead. Someone sure believed in starting the day late. Shortly later I came upon a road and near the Trail was a sign that said "VisionQuest" outside a compound with people marching around in grey sweatsuits. That was what I had heard. Hikers had mentioned it, a court-ordered program for juvenile offenders that is a cross between boot camp and Outward Bound.I came across a doe acting strangely. It made an odd squeeking noise, take a few steps away, come back and repeat the process. It was the first time I had heard a deer make a sound, I thought they were silent. Then there was a thrashing in the undergrowth nearer to me and then I saw a fawn scramble towards the doe. The mother deer had either been trying to get me away from the fawn or the fawn away from me. It was refreshing to see deer timid again instead of the fearlessness I had seen in Shenandoah. Just a bit later I saw a mother grouse pacing back and forth like a bull, glaring at me furiously and deciding whether to charge. I guess I was not close enough to be a threat because it stayed where it was.Then whoever planned the Trail decided we needed some boulder hopping because it led up to the ridgetop and through a long stretch of rocks. Finally I got across Hwy 30 to Caledonia Park.I checked my email and found my friend Jane from the DC area planned to meet me at the park and would be awaiting a call from me. Digging out my callingcard I dialed her cellphone only to get no answer. Oh No, Deja vu! I was just about to walk through the park when Jane came walking up. United at last! I was sure glad to see her, she was the first non AT-hiking friend I had met in three months aside from the music festival. She had asked the rangers what phone I was most likely to go to from the Trail and went there to find me. It turned out her phone had no signal in the park and yesterday it had had a dead battery. All's well that ends well.We went for lunch outside the park, then Jane loaded me with snacks and we returned to the Trail. We hiked together to Quarry Gap Shelter. There I showed Jane what the shelters are like and explained the register and so on. She could even bask in the aura of thru-hikerdom since dayhikers assumed we were both thru-hiking. Then I saw her down to the trail back to the park and we hugged each other farewell.Back at the shelter I discovered the hiker who had been napping when we were there was none other than JoAnn, whom I had last seen at Fontana when we stayed at the Hike Inn and shared a shuttle into town for supper. We got caught up over tea and crumb-cakes. An older man, Wonder-Lost, was there and Ponderer arrived before dark.It was an interesting shelter. It had two sleeping shelters side by side with a covered eating area in between. It was neatly kept and well painted and there was a park bench and even four hanging baskets of flowers! "I thought it was a very nice touch. Innkeeper", the caretaker, said once he had even put in solar powered accent lights to light the way to the privy, but the ATC had said they were not in keeping with the primitive nature of the Trail and made him take them away.