Date: 2016-04-06
From: PA. Rt. 16

To: Ensign Cowall Shelter
Miles today: 12.3
Weather: clear sky

The plan for today was for me to start out at Pa. Rt. 16 & to meet Tagalong after about 5 miles near the top of High Rock. She's already been to Pen Mar; & this way, she wouldn't have to deal with the rock climb up to High Rock. I remembered it as rather tedious & a little confusing coming the other way 3 years ago. This time, the confusing part was before that, just after Buena Vista Road, as the Trail goes down to cross Falls Creek. I was following an old road, not paying too much attention, wading thru piles of dry leaves that obscured the actual footpath. At the bottom, there was no obvious place to cross the stream. There were a few old, dim blazes on trees down there, but they provided no consistent guidance. I finally figured out that this was the old trail before a re-route, that the blazes had been painted over with black or brown paint, & that it had worn off, leaving the white blazes showing again. I've seen that before in re-route situations. They need to use more durable paint to cover the inoperative blazes (or scrape them off!).Retracing my steps, part way up the hill I found a sharp turn to the left, well-enough marked if I had been looking up at the trees rather than focused on avoiding slipping in the leaf piles. From there, it was an easy up-&-over, less than a mile to Pen Mar Park, crossing the Mason-Dixon Line on the way.After a brief rest stop [cold breeze even on sunny day] at a park pavilion, there were a couple of miles of easy trail on old roads, which surprised me by going uphill a few hundred feet before descending to the base of High Rock. The 500-foot ascent was rocky, but easier than I remembered from going down it. I think there has been considerable work done on this section in recent years, including better blazing & some rock steps.Reaching the top, I took the 0.2 side trail to the actual rock overlook, all covered with graffiti. It's a nice view anyway. There was nobody there, but in the parking area there were a couple of sheriff's cars parked so they could talk to each other. As I started to head back to the AT, Tagalong approached from the other side trail. She thought the police presence was because of our proximity to Camp David. We then hiked together to Raven Rock Shelter, one of the nice new shelters in Maryland [beautiful wood & well-designed] for lunch. The AT Companion says it was built in 2010 & the water source is East of the AT, "on trail to former Devils Racecourse Shelter." I remember staying there in 1996, on my first-ever section hike of the AT.Going down to Raven Rock Hollow & Warner Gap Road turned out to be a bit rocky, but we were in no hurry ¢ only 5 miles to the next shelter. After stopping to get water, we talked a little while with a NOBO hiker, then continued on. Otherwise, we met no one all afternoon, which included some easy Trail, arriving at Ensign Cowall shelter a little before sunset. There was one hiker at the shelter already, & another arrived shortly after us. After we were all set up & it was really getting dark, a SOBO couple almost walked past the shelter but decided to stay. I don't remember any names, & my notes got deleted from my cell-phone.