Maryland, I Hardly Knew Ye: Days 1-4

Day 1: 10.7 AT Miles

I pushed my start date back a couple of days and I’m glad I did. It gave me enough time to unpack all my worldly belongings and begin to digest the feelings of graduating college. We decided to do the drive to Harper’s Ferry such that I could start on Saturday afternoon and my mom and aunt could head home the next day. This allowed me to slack pack for the first day and stay in a hotel that night, which was much appreciated.

I was a bit anxious on the drive down and once we got to the ATC headquarters, I was chomping at the bit to get started. After getting my hang tag once I passed the LNT pop quiz, we headed down the blue blaze toward the trail. My mom and aunt could tell I was antsy and let me go on with plans to meet at a parking lot about 10 miles ahead.

I’d heard beginning the AT in WV was mild, but this first section truly exceeded my expectations. After descending into town and crossing the bridge through mild throngs of tourists, it was me, myself, and I on the flat as a pancake C&O towpath. We have a towpath back in Ohio, so I knew the drill. It’s pretty much the same thing expect it uses light gray pulverized limestone or blacktop instead of whatever dark gray stone was on this one. Regardless, I felt right at home. I called my best friend to chat, since there wasn’t much scenery. That’s the price I pay for starting with easier miles—more time to see the stuff that’s not quite as interesting, I guess.

Once the trail diverged from the towpath, my gentle introduction was slightly challenged. I had a steep ascent up to Weaverton Cliff and took the quick blue blaze to get my first view. A large group of boys were sitting there. Possibly the same group of boys I encounter later, maybe another one. Who knows, there are a lot of boys out here—and men, but many fewer women and girls. It’s like the tech industry in that way.

As I took the slightly slippery ridge walk for the rest of today’s segment, I encountered a few more dispersed boys who asked me how far the cliffs were. The farther I got from the cliffs, the more exasperated they seemed with my answer.

I listened to an audiobook, ate some cashews and licorice, and tried not to wipeout on the rocks. Soon enough, I made it to the parking lot and saw my mom and aunt walking toward the trail. I told them to meet me 15-30 minutes after I anticipated arriving because I knew they’d get there way early and I didn’t want to make them wait for me if I had a random steep part. Yes, I know I can look at the elevation profile on FarOut, but sometimes a girl needs an element of mystery in her life.

Once we rendezvoused, we headed to get some food per the recommendation of the hotel clerk. It was an interesting restaurant, because its name implied that it was a coffee place, but the interior said more New American. The crowd inside was surprisingly cosmopolitan for a random Maryland town outside of Harper’s Ferry. My mom commented that I seemed more calm after the hike. What can I say, hiking will do that to a person. Maybe more Americans should try it.

I ate ravioli with vodka sauce and chicken and drank lots of ice water. My mom and I shared some Smith Island cake. It is, as the name implies, a type of cake originating on Smith Island, a place off the coast of Maryland you can visit via ferry and that uses golf carts as transportation. It’s currently sinking—very sad. Our family visited a handful of years ago for obvious reasons. The cake has nine or ten thin layers, traditionally vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. The restaurant’s version was okay, but I prefer the one we make at home.

After dinner, we headed to the hotel. I was happy that the free soap was the kind I usually use. I’m going to miss my daily showers—if I’m being honest, I often take two quick showers on days when I run in the mornings. Dude Wipes just don’t have the same effect. I would use baby wipes, but Dude Wipes, for some reason, sponsored my college’s basketball team, so I have a bunch sitting around. If college taught me anything, it’s to take advantage of free stuff whenever I can.

Day 2: 7.2 AT miles

At the hotel, I had pancakes, bacon, eggs, and a cinnamon roll for breakfast, along with milk. I think milk truly will be one of the consumable items I’ll miss the most on trail and will yearn for when I go into town. There were a lot of dairy advertisements on the way to Harper’s Ferry yesterday. I appreciated them. You can call my generation a lot of things, but milk lovers would not be one of them. I’m probably the exception.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed back to the packing lot at which I was previously picked up. I started walking and said my goodbyes. After hiking for a little bit—but a bit too far to turn back—I realized I had forgotten to pack out all the food I wanted to. Namely, some fruit. I checked FarOut and didn’t see a road crossing for about five or six miles and got a little upset. But, I coordinated for my mom to leave the food in a bag hanging in the nearest parking lot for me to grab. Boy, was I glad for that. I know fruit is heavy, but it’s important to me to eat at least one fruit or vegetable per day on trail. Apples and carrots are relatively stable and, in my opinion, worth their weight.

At that parking lot, I made the one mile long trek off trail to go to an ice cream place called South Mountain Creamery. It was fine, but honestly not worth the walk uphill on the way back. I had this idea that someone was going to see me and offer a ride back to trail, but that didn’t happen, unfortunately. I got blackberry ice cream, which I like, but my inability to finish even a small foreshadowed my initial lack of appetite.

I’ve heard other thru hikers struggle to eat enough at first, but I thought I would be immune to this as an ultra runner. I’m used to eating steadily throughout runs and then coming back and destroying some big calories. On my shakedown hikes, I was quite hungry, and figured this would continue. For now at least, I’ll get ravenous, go to eat a large bit of food, have a few bites, and then get full too quickly and not want to finish it. I hope the hiker hunger comes soon because I can tell I’m consuming far too few calories. I’m going to try to go into town more frequently to tempt myself with real food until the hunger comes.

After I got back from the ice cream excursion, the sun began shining and I begrudgingly accepted that I did not need to have a bad day today. I walked a brief ways to a campsite that had bathrooms and pondered whether to go on. A local day hiker named Doc came over to me and chatted. He thought it would be good for me to stay at this campground, due to the big climb after—are there any camp sites or shelters on the AT that don’t have huge climbs after them? Even though it was just three or four p.m., I acquiesced. The fact that this site had hot showers certainly helped. My first night in the tent on the AT may have been at the most bougie spot to sleep on the whole trail.

Beggars can’t be choosers, but I do have one note of constructive criticism. The shower was obviously beyond lovely—and the provided shampoo an excellent touch—but the lights were on a one minute timer. This meant I had to wave my hand around outside the stall every minute to turn them back on. I only showered for six or seven minutes, but it was a little annoying. I’ll take it though.

I dried off my body as best as I could with my tiny face towel after shoving as much water off as possible with my hands. I sleep so much better when I feel clean. Regardless of whether I have access to a shower in a given night, I at least wash my face and use a wipe for a quick sponge bath.

I slept well that night, briefly waking up and falling right back asleep to animal noises. A FarOut comment suggests it might have been a child fox. Who knows. I didn’t talk much to my fellow campers, but I felt good knowing there were a handful of other trustworthy-looking people nearby, a mix of thru hikers and section hikers.

Day 3: 13.9 AT miles

Today I decided to push the miles a bit since I had gotten to camp so early the day before and didn’t have much to do. My friends have been commenting that they thought I was in the woods when I respond to their texts or post on my Instagram story. Y’all, this is 2024. There’s gonna be reception a good amount of the time. In my experience with Verizon, I will have perfect service in places I would not expect to—think Alcatraz, a bald in Sequoia NP, etc—and no service in the middle of a city. Indeed, the first time I didn’t have any reception on trail was when I went into my first town. Well, at least there was WiFi.

I’ve started reading books on my phone. I never thought I would do that, since it’s so small, but turns out it’s not bad. I mean, I read everything else on here anyway, what’s a whole book? The Libby app is going to single-handedly get me through this thru hike. I have no idea how people did this thing before audiobooks and Spotify existed. I would go crazy during the long stretches of hiking when I’m alone. My thoughts can only entertain me comfortably for about an hour before I need outside stimulation. Maybe this is something I can work on out here.

I used the flush toilet one last time before heading out. I used a water pump for the first time and subsequently splashed it all over myself as I was filling my bladder. I love the convenience of sipping from water through a straw in my pack, but it’s kind of a bitch to fill up. Still better than constantly taking a bottle out and putting it back in the side pouch.

I quickly arrived at the original Washington Monument. I learned that George was actually born in the United States. I would have guessed England. I never claimed to know history. My ninth grade social studies teacher would sometimes just put on the Just Dance video for Rasputin instead of teaching us stuff. He also called Mao Zedong “the Donger.” My point is I can do the Rasputin dance, but I can’t tell you where any of the U.S. presidents were born.

This day had several good views forthcoming. I stopped at Annapolis Rocks for lunch and was able to lay out my tent fly in the sun for it to dry off from the morning dew. By eat lunch I mean I had gummy dinosaurs.

There were some other rock-themed viewings today. They were pretty much equivalent. As I stopped for a last sunscreen break, a section hiker I had camped with the night before called Orange Aid came up and we started chatting as we hiked toward the shelter for the night. We discussed lots of things, like what plants were in this section of the trail, which parts of the AT he had done in the past, and what we had learned about the other folks we camped with the night before.

Before long, I arrived at the shelter. There were a few others there, another flip flopper and a couple of section hikers. I got a tent site up the hill from the shelter. I am very much a tent girlie and not a shelter girlie. I like my tent. It’s big and comfortable and I can sit up and have privacy. I don’t like the crushed limestone or gravel tent spots, though. Dirt is just better.

This shelter had bear poles and a box, but most of us had bear cans. We talked about this for a bit, preferring the convenience of not having to rely on more variable food storage solutions. After we discussed this and were cooking dinner, a group of Outward Bound boys paraded over from the group site 0.1 mile away to hang their food. They then proceeded to do the most elaborate but also worst bear hang I’ve ever seen. Y’all. I’m 5’4” and I had one inch of clearance when walking under it. Let’s not forget that this shelter had both a bear box and poles and they decided to hang the food bags from the poles from a single hook. The rest of us put our cans or bags in the bear box and prayed that we’d live to see the next day. Spoiler alert, we did, but that doesn’t excuse the group’s behavior. That such an ostensibly reputable outdoor organization can set such a bad example is beyond me.

To make maters worse, the privy and water source were down a steep hill. Suffice it to say, I went to bed a little hot and bothered. I slept okay, but I could hear the boys yapping much beyond hiker midnight. Somehow my body instantaneously adapted to the 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. sleep schedule. It’s uncanny. And a little annoying. What’s a girl gotta do to sleep in til 8 a.m.?

Day 4: 9.5 AT miles

I was super tired this day, so I messaged a hostel owner about a place to stay the night and set off slowly. The views of the day were mostly boring. At the beginning there was a brief field walk and a boggy section with the small wooden planks to walk over. One power line, too—for some reason I love those little cutouts they go through. But mostly it was rocks. I thought this was Maryland!

Now I’m not the most directionally adept individual, but I feel like I can usually follow marked trails. At points on this day, I couldn’t see any white blazes ahead and was just randomly picking rocks to walk over. T’was a slog.

When I got to the park in Cascade, a man came up to me and started asking me about my hike. He helps maintain the AT in Shenandoah and was in Pen Mar that day for a rescue mission. He offered me a ride to the hostel since it was just a mile away and he wanted to check it out. It was my first time accepting a ride from a stranger, but I survived! I think people generally like to offer to help me since I’m good at walking around and looking mildly confused.

After getting to the hostel, Sunflower Cottage, I set about lunch and went across the street to a coffee and sandwich place. My next order of business was a shower. I then unpacked my stuff and started charging devices and gathering up laundry. Eventually, the hostel owner got back with the other guest of the evening.

The hostel owner, Soolah, is a professional hula hooper. I love that the people who make up the AT community come from such different walks of life. Coming from a university where most people pick one of five or six career paths, it’s refreshing to be reminded that it takes more than consultants and bankers to make the world go round.

After dinner at an Italian restaurant, I went on my phone for a while and then called it a night, looking forward to already entering my third state the next day.