Date: 2019-04-29
From: Raven Rocks Shelter 

To: Quarry Rock Shelter 
Miles today: 25.4

AT day 59  4/2925.4 miles to Quarry Rock Shelter I woke up to hopefully the last night with temperatures in the 30s.  My alarm went off and I wrestled with the idea of going back to sleep. I wanted to hike 23 miles to Caledonia State park today and I had no idea what to expect from the trail so I got up and took my usual slow time getting out of camp at 6:50.My first stop was the High Rock overlook.  I¢m glad that I took the short side trail instead of bypassing it.  The views were fantastic and the area is rather eclectic. I don¢t condone graffiti but the graffiti at this spot seems to fit. Perhaps because it is so colorful and there is so much of it.  I just wish people wouldn¢t need to write the f word.My next stop was a large parking area with memorials for the Battle For South Mountain. I met a young guy that had been hammocking in a park picnic shelter (illegal).  He had completed the 4 state challenge last night, It involves hiking 43.2 miles from the Virginia/West Virginia border and then hiking all the way through Maryland and tagging the Mason Dixon line which marks the beginning of Pennsylvania.  He hikes in sandals! Oh to be young and daring. The next landmark was the marker for the Mason Dixon line.  I was out of my beloved Maryland and entering Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is known s Rocksylvania by AT hikers because the northern part of the state is supposed to have miles of rock fields.I had lunch at Old Forge State Park which had all of the thru hiker necessities; water, trash cans, bathroom, and picnic tables.Guthook has a comment and a section hiker told me that Rocky Mountain had some serious scrambling sections.  I guess they¢ve never been hiking in Virginia because there were only a few very short sections where I had to use my hands.I was excited to hike into Caledonia State Park around 4:15.  This would make have made for a 23 mile day. I searched around for the park headquarter to find out about camping. The headquarters was closed but I saw 2 employees going to their cars and asked them about camping. $30 dollars for a tent, I don¢t think so. Comments on Guthook don¢t mention that they charge you $30 for a tent site.  I was looking foreword to running water and a hot shower but not if I had to pay RV prices to pitch a tent. Fifteen dollars is what I paid at the Lewis Campground in the Shenandoah National Park. The backpackers campground I stayed at in Maryland was free.So I wasted 30 minutes of hiking time at the state park. I needed to hike another 2.2 miles uphill to Quarry Rock Shelter.  The climbs were steep but relatively short. The shelter area is unlike any other. There are potted plants, fancy decorations, a bench swing and other niceties. There¢s even air freshener in the privy The bad thing was that there¢s a large group of college age people that took up most of the tent sites. There are two large raised wooden tent platforms near the shelter. I decided to set up Zpacks Duplex tent on the platform instead of tenting around noisy kids. My tent doesn¢t have a metal pole frame to attach the tent to. These types of tents are called freestanding.  Mine is supported by my 2 trekking poles and 8 guylines that you normally stake into the ground, You can¢t drive stakes into the wood but there were plenty of large rocks that I could have used to secure the guylines. I discovered that the platform has toggle bolts around the perimeter that I could secure my guylines to with a little creative rigging.Happy hiking, Silver Streak