Harpers Ferry to PA (June 11-18)

June 14.

I woke up at a tent site at Rod Hollow Shelter and started packing up.  I ate breakfast at the picnic table as other hikers started stirring.  Big Fish and Chef came over to eat breakfast and chat.  I’d noticed how kind and enthusiastic they were with all the hikers, including the quirky ones.  I observed that they’re accruing a tramily (trail family) lately, as I’d met them at an earlier time when other hikers weren’t near them, and they looked at each other and said, “We’re just nice to everyone”, as if to say, we’re not trying to form a group, we’re just nice to everyone as a rule, and come what may.  I liked that.

I heard my first summer crickets in the cool of the early morning, by the streams.  It was a long day of hiking, with high humidity.  Within a few miles I reached the sign indicating the beginning of the rollercoaster, a grueling stretch of 13 miles of ups and downs over rocky mountains.  There are no significant flat sections within the rollercoaster.

I was really surprised to see several day and weekend hikers out in the rollercoaster.  It wasn’t a section with many views, and the hiking was tough between the rocks and constant ascent or descent.  Did they choose to come here merely for the challenge?  It was a mystery.  I was relieved when I reached the sign for the northern end of the rollercoaster, after several hours of hiking.

A sign on a tree welcomed hikers down to the Blackburn Trail Center, promising a soda for any thru hiker who came to visit.  Music to my ears.  All I wanted after a long hot day of hiking and sweating was a cold soda.  I hiked to the trail center and shamelessly texted the caretaker, as instructed by signage, saying that I was a hiker and I’d love a drink.  The resulting soda was the first of a long string of cold drinks that I’d deeply appreciate in these hot summer miles.

I sat in an Adirondack chair on the screened in porch of the trail center until I recovered, then continued on to the David Lesser shelter.  I took the final steps to the shelter as thunder rumbled.  It was perfect timing, and as luck would have it, the shelter featured both a shelter building and a wooden awning over a picnic table further away.

I set my tent up under the picnic table awning as rain poured.  I was especially glad for the cover given that my brother and two cousins were planning to hike up that evening to meet me.  We would hike a few days together.

Rain poured and thunder boomed for over an hour.  I laid down and relaxed in my tent as it grew dark.  I laughed a bit and wondered if Daniel, Donny and Aaron had started hiking yet, as rain poured down.  If they had, I pitied them.

I slept off and on until I saw headlights approaching my tent.  I leaned out and waved.  It was pitch dark outside, around 11:30pm.  Other hikers down the hill and at the shelter were sleeping, but we had a fun, mostly quiet reunion in our space away from the others.  They laughed and answered my questions about hiking up in the dark, and seemed to be in high spirits.  Donny asked if anyone wanted a coke, because he’d packed up six of them.  We all laughed and declined.

Daniel and Aaron set their tents up and Donny cowboy camped in between all of our tents, partly out of necessity.  Aaron had bought a sleeping pad that was difficult to blow up, especially because we all laughed watching it, which made him laugh.

Eventually we all got settled in.  It was a blast to have them there, experiencing the AT with me.  

June 15.

In the morning, I woke up at my normal time of 0530, but the guys were not acclimated to rising with the dawn, as I’d expected.  I went on a long walk to the spring, then slowly packed up, and eventually everyone else followed.  Donny got up and said to Aaron, “Morning coke, Aaron?”  Then he tossed each of us a coke he had packed in.  We all laughed, but they were tasty.

It was a lot of fun to have these family members out on the trail for the weekend with me.  The day worked out better than I could have hoped, with a lot of highlights packed into one day: trail magic, swimming in the Shenandoah River, exploring the AT Center at Harpers Ferry, and walking through the historic small town of Harpers Ferry.

We ate breakfast and packed up, then hiked a few miles to the Keys Gap parking area.  A couple of men had set up a canopy and chairs there, and were offering trail magic hot dogs and scrambled eggs to hikers.  We ate and visited with the trail angels, listening to their answers about where they came from, and why they were there providing snacks to hikers.  

After that nice surprise, we continued on towards the Shenandoah River.  It was hot hiking, and I was glad that we had a swim spot ahead.  We crossed the Shenandoah River along busy route 340, a chaotic road above a peaceful scene, then descended to one of many beach areas.  We spent a long time soaking in the clear water, the river flowing shallow and wide.  Multiple rafts and kayaks floated past, and many others sat and soaked in the water, like us.  Donny sought out caddisflies and hidden aquatic creatures to show us.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, just relieved to escape the heat for a bit.

After a good long soak, we hiked up to the AT Center where I had my halfway photo taken with the guys- the tradition being that hikers get their picture taken in front of that building on their way through the town.  The photo is then printed and placed in a physical album, where other hikers or tourists can page through the day’s and season’s hikers.  

The photographer asked the guys, “Will you ever be on the AT again?” and they said, “I don’t know, maybe”.  He put the photo in the book and they joked around and said, “We’re professional thru hikers now!” 

We poked around the AT Center, then hiked back to the AT, past Jefferson Rock, and then down the shaped stone steps into the heart of Harpers Ferry.  

We ate dinner in a shaded courtyard, then hiked down to the overlook above the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.  On the way down there, a tourist family asked if we were all thru hiking, then came alive with enthusiasm when I said that I was thru hiking.  Daniel, Aaron and Donny laughed and marveled and asked if people always react that way.  It was fun to have them around, seeing everything I saw for a day.

Donny headed home and Daniel, Aaron and I continued hiking towards our campsite for the night.  We continued over the footbridge over the Potomac, then along the river for a few flat miles before climbing up to a campsite near Weverton Cliffs.

The day had gone better than my wildest dreams.  I was so glad.  I felt like the guys got a taste of all the highlights of the AT- trail magic, the community, the fun moments and spontaneous adventure, like swimming in the river.  It had been a joy to spend time with each of them as well.  It was a perfect day.

June 16.

Aaron, Daniel and I hiked slowly to Gathland State Park this morning, a 5 mile hike from our camp area.  Daniel and Aaron planned to end the hike and return home from the park (via an Uber ride).  

It was a pretty morning, and fun to visit for a few more hours before they returned home.  We arrived at the park and walked down to the spigot, then made our lunches with the water we hadn’t had earlier.  We called Aaron’s cooking of a dehydrated meal, “good home cooking”, and he laughed.

We said goodbye when Daniel and Aaron’s Uber ride arrived.  Aaron said that he didn’t really want to go, which is always the sign of a good trip.  As I’ve said before, I was so glad that everything had worked out the way that it did.  It had been a joy to have them out there with me for a couple of days.  

June 17.

I ate breakfast, then started hiking on the often wide trails of MD, forests with scattered large boulders and open understories.  Train and traffic noise abounded throughout this state, but on the other hand, the trail often seemed well maintained, with ample tenting sites around shelters or other designated camping areas. 

June 18.

I had camped at Tumbling Run Shelter near Caledonia SP on this day.  It was fun to walk through this area, as I had met and volunteered with several of the PATC (Potomac Appalachian Trail Club) volunteers for this section within the past year.

The southern PA section of trail is maintained by volunteers with a sense of humor who take pride in their work.  Before I left the shelter, I used the privy.  I noticed the non-functional light switch that a volunteer had screwed to the wall (a humorous piece), the wire basket with hand sanitizer in it, and the pine tree shaped air freshener.  Artificial roses in a glass vase stood on the picnic table.  The two primitive shelters were labeled with signs “Snoring” and “Non-snoring”.  Great attention to detail and care had been put into the shelters and trail in MD and southern PA.  

It was a hot, humid, gummy day.  I climbed up the mountain north of the shelter and took a picture of the hazy landscape from a power line break.  A few hikers passed me, completely soaked and dripping with sweat, even in the morning.  I hiked 10 miles to Caledonia SP, sweating with each step.

Walking up to the picnic table by Conococheague creek at Caledonia State Park was like walking up to an oasis.  Robin was writing postcards at the picnic table while another hiker waded in the creek.  The water felt cold and great.  Multiple hikers followed suit, showing up hot and wet with sweat and cooling off in the water and shade.

It was a companionable place for all these hikers to gather.  Eventually we dried off, then some of us started hiking again.  I liked having a few friends nearby, leap-frogging or hiking with them throughout the afternoon.

We all were dripping sweat and swatting away irritating gnats throughout the afternoon.  The gnats whined around nose, mouth, ears.

It was a long 26 mile day of hiking, though with some treats.  Three of us took photos at the halfway mark and Robin cheered.  It was nice to experience that with them.

We finally arrived at our final destination of the day: Tagg Run Shelter.  On top of the gnats and then mosquitoes, I soon tired of being bitten constantly by tiny no-see-ums.  I dressed in long clothes and sweated.  I laid down in my tent as soon as I was done eating.

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Comments 1

  • Grey Eagle : Jul 12th

    I hiked some with Katie Eckman as an AT nobo thru hiker in 2017. I great hiker and wonderful person. Katie. Safe travels, Old Soul.😘

    Reply

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