Date: 2009-05-01
From: Ed Garvey Shelter

To: Pine Knob Shelter
Miles today: 16.6
Weather: haze

Happy May Day. It rained all last night and most of today. But it is a warm rain ,so I hiked with shorts and t shirt -no need for raincoat or pants. I had a fair night's sleep even with the rain beating down on the tin shelter roof. It rained especially hard at 4:00 AM. Up at 6:30 and out at 7:30. Cooked some of Erin's breakfast- oatmeal with the fixin's plus a coffee. Tasted good. Hiked for two hours to Gathland State Park. Along the way I met an ex ranger from the Blue Ridge Parkway, Tim Pegram whose trailname is Footnote. He knew Tony Bonnano and also knew about all of his exploits. Tony was my boss and chief ranger at CCNS. Tim has written a hiking book "Blue Ridge Parkway by Foot". This is the third guy on the trail that I have met who is a writer and who has written about the AT- good way to sell the book, I guess. At Gathland I met Jake who had left the shelter before me. He was talking with a guy, One Ole Coot, who he had hiked with back in the day. We hiked together and stopped at Rocky Run Shelter. Jake was staying for the night. It was early in the day ,11:30, so I hiked on. There were two shelters there. One old one built in 1933 by the CCC. The other was new. The old one had more charm, so I photographed it. I continued on and it started to pour. I got to a backpacker's campsite, Dahlgren Campsite, and stopped at their facility. It was a comfort station with hot showers and real toilets. I got out of the rain and used the cell phone and actually had a chance to charge it in the bathroom. I met 4 guys out for the weekend at the campground also getting out of the rain. Note : There are many more hikers out in late April and May than in March- I wonder why?? I hiked on and stopped at the real Washington Monument. It was built in 1827 (?) by people from the town of Boonsboro, MD for GW. It is a very modest stone, hour glass shaped, rock building with stairs inside for a view of Boonsboro. I had the 4 giys take a photo of me there. It started to pour again, so I hurried to make the shelter. At the shelter, there were two guys, Walter and Dan. They were waiting for a ride as Dan had hurt his knee and couldn't go on. Dan had an extra meal and wanted to lighten his pack, so he offered me a BBQ Beef and potato dinner. It was guite unique and I have never seen one on the trail. You use salt water on a heating pad in a pouch with the dinner. The salt water activates the pouch and makes it real hot and heats up the dinner. Interesting. The food was pretty good as well. The shelter's floor was wet,and it looked like I would have company for the night (mice). It was also loud. I could hear Interstate 70 all night long. It was just down the street. Note. Very interesting Civil War Information along the way today in MD One at Crampton Gap and at Gathland State Park where some battles took place and a CSA General made a big mistake.There was another at Reno Monument Road in which some MA soldiers fought and one Union General General Reno, died and it has a monument placed there in his name. I was not familiar with the battles but will check when I get home. To those out there Keep Hikin, happy Trails, Peace Blister on the foot in the same place as last time. OK today (Got worse Saturday but not so bad as to slow me down. Lots of moleskin and duct tape. Equipment. The 25 degree Patrol bag is enough, I switched water bottles from Jamie's to Peter's to get the extra liters for the hot weather. So far so good.