Date: 2007-06-02
From: Maple Tree Campground 

To: Pine Knob Shelter 
Miles today: 12.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Back to hiking without pants. The trail here in West Virginia and Maryland is wide and used quite a bit. So I am thinking I can avoid poison ivy.         We say good bye to our tree house campground and hit the trail just after 9am. Today is officially ¢Lazy Saturday¢. We have 12 or so miles of lovely trail with many distractions. There is much history to be learned along the trail. I always say I will return in my jeep when I have more time. Still, we stop at a couple and read, I mean, what else do we have to do. I tell Blazer, my thru-hiking days are over. Next year I will go to Alaska, some national parks, and take my jeep through wine country, or I guess, I could hike.        After a brief historic lesson, we stop at Dahlgren Backpacking campground, which has hot showers and flush toilets. We have had 3 showers in 3 days. We chat with Shadow, who I believe hiked in 2004/2005. He also started in Daleville VA.        A long lunch and a cold shower, we are off. It¢s still hot and humid, but not as bad as yesterday. Next stop Washington Monument State Park, home of the original Washington Monument. The monument looks nothing like the one in DC, and until I hike in ¢99, I didn¢t even know there were two. It was built in 1827 and rebuilt many times after that. Finally, in, I think 1936 the CCC took it all apart and rebuilt from the ground up, which I hear is way easier than the other way around. This time they used mortar. A key ingredient to be missing, if you ask me. I remember in 1999, up north along the trail, is a tower built without mortar. Folk¢s, it¢s a big pile of rocks.        Anyway, we hear thunder, so we hide under a picnic pavilion. It never rains there, but a guy drives up completely soaked, while hiking nearby. We sit and Chat with Shadow some more. He tells us a story about a hiker who just got back on the trail and was camping somewhere on the AT near the Blackburn Trail Center. He hears lots of snorting and stomping around outside his tent. After a while, he is spooked and packs up. Now when he shines his light in the woods all he can see is eyes, and they appear to be following him. My semi-amateur opinion and/or guess would be it¢s a deer. To my knowledge, bears don¢t usually snort around or maybe they do, but they almost always just eat you, rather than let you pack up. Well he thinks he is being tracked by a bear, so he calls 911. He sure the hell doesn¢t have Sprint, that¢s all I can tell you.        The conversation and I am guessing here, went like this;911: What¢s your emergency?Hiker: I am in the middle of the woods and I think a bear that I can¢t see, actually six of them are following me.I think they eventually put him through to a ranger. In the end he lives to write about it in the next shelter. I am sure it was pretty spooky in the woods by yourself, being stalked by something¢¦, so I¢ll stop this here.        We get to Pine Knob Shelter after some happy, flat trail. We also crossed a freeway via a little pedestrian bridge. Our favorite Hawaiian shirt wearing thru-hiker (Beach Bum) is there with Papa Beach Bum. We ate dinner with them. I supplied Papa Beach Bum with creamer for his coffee and Oreo¢s. We listened to some great stories. Papa Beach Bum says he eats breakfast at McDonald¢s six days a week with friends. I think I¢ll show up one morning. He also goes down to the ¢Keys, perhaps it would be better if I met him down there.        We always enjoy camping with Beach Bum and I¢m not just saying that in case his wife reads my journal. You meet a lot of really good people out here, I think that¢s why I always come back. After dinner, coffee and Oreo¢s, a kid comes walking, who¢s out for a couple of weeks, and asks if it¢s going to rain. We say no, just then, thunder starts to rumble. We update our predictions to probable, say 60 percent. I¢m coming back from the shelter, and it is already raining, so I say, you know, I may go with a 100 percent now.        Rumor is, it will cool down tomorrow. I also heard Chillout is hiking again. Blazer and I hiked a bit with him in 2005. I also have heard Scholar and Serenity are hiking as well. It would be good to see some or all of them. Wow, I am really rambling here¢¦ bye.