Sometimes Running Means Walking

Sometimes "running" means "walking" and sometimes "walking" means "wading." At least that's what we found to be the case on our first "running" day.

After we left camp we were talking about how we didn't get much sleep the night before and how cold it was. That's when I said, "Yeah, but it is 9AM and we are not in the office." I didn't know it at the time, but it set the tone for the day to be about appreciation. Later on we can to our fist stream crossing. Due to heavy rains the day before the water was higher than normal with pretty good flow. We could see where the crossing was supposed to be, but it was completely submerged. There were two other hikers at the crossing with us and after scouting upstream and downstream it still seemed the best place to cross. We all started taking off our shoes and socks and I rolled up the pants to above the knee. As we were putting our socks and shoes back on on the other side, Kelly said "This is a good way to start off the day." It wasn't sarcastic at all, we appreciate a good challenge.

Further down the trail we came across another stream. A group of overnight hikers had given us a heads up that this crossing was out, but there was a bridge up the road that crosses the stream. We would have to bushwhack to get back onto the trail though. Luckily, we had light packs which made it easier work for us. We were able to follow the tracks of the hikers that gave us the heads up, but a point came when we lost the trail so we headed straight up to the ridge where we connected with the trail.

It was pretty obvious we were up for anything after starting the trip with a visit to Slam Man, but adding a few obstacles to the mix made the trip all the better.

 This was a great little site we stumbled upon. We will have to keep this in mind when we come back.

 They still had the sign up that the Canal Path was closed, but it had been reopened earlier in the morning.

An angry Potomac River.

View of the river from the bridge.

 View of the river from the lookout.

By Sunday we had only a third of the way to go to Harpers Ferry. We had arranged to be picked up by Kelly's wife in town. I had also texted my wife to let her know we were on our way to Harpers Ferry and she responded "Me too!" Apparently the wives had conspired to come out together. It was awesome to see them on the trail at the bridge to Harpers Ferry, although mine didn't want a hug. I don't know why as I was feeling fantastic, looking fantastic and smelling fantastic. Still it was a pretty awesome surprise.

Sleeping in Reynolds Wrap, not recommended.

Waking up from our first night on the trail we were a little tired as we only got a couple hours of sleep a piece. We each brought survival blankets for sleeping which were not enough to keep us warm. They did pack much smaller than sleeping bags or bag liners and that was their only benefit. The night before we made it a couple of miles into the Maryland section of the trail, saving the most difficult climb we would see for the morning. It was a good warm-up for the legs and we started running when the trail leveled and became less rocky. Running just on coffee and protein bars we bypassed Devil's Racecourse Shelter and fast-packed it to Cowall Shelter where we stopped for breakfast.

After breakfast we humped it up the next hill and then started running and hiking in half-hour intervals. This continued for the rest of the day with some breaks along the way and more hiking than running. It was sloppy, uncomfortable, a little painful and a ton of fun.

 

 Cowall Shelter

 I could see this on the cover of a magazine.

 Miki atop the original Washington Monument

 Kelly atop the original Washington Monument

 Kelly moon-gazing.

 A-T ruins.

This is marked as Reno Monument Road on the map.

After putting in a total of over 25 miles on the trail so far, we stopped at Rocky Run Shelter which was already occupied by three girls through-hiking north. We shared food, fire and got to hear some great stories. You can follow two of the through-hikers, Chelsea and Joules, here: chelseamfinn.blogspot.com

Another night of sleeping in Reynolds Wrap for me, but Kelly scored a sleeping bag liner from Joules. We both slept a little better that night and we looked forward to getting to Harpers Ferry, about another 16 miles away.

Leaving Slam Man

After hanging with Slam Man and his folks, we parked the car in Pen Mar Park and headed north 1/3 of a mile to tag the Pennsylvania/Maryland border and started back southward on the trail.

A half mile into it we followed a run (off the trail) south to a bridge and the sheriff's house. We located ourselves on the map and we were between the trail and railroad tracks. We headed toward the trail, but came across another property with no visible path to the trail. Not wanting to trespass, we headed back up the run. Eventually, we came across a side trail heading up the hill where the trail would be and caught a glimpse of some white blazes. I don't know where we missed our turn, but we were obviously still on the high of hanging with Slam Man. We wasted pretty valuable time, but we were still able to set up a camp just off the trail before sundown. Dinner this night would be prepared by headlamp light. The meals for the weekend were all high calorie since we figured we would be blowing through calories the next two days.

We wrapped ourselves in our survival blankets and it was pretty cold, I would guess in the low-to-mid 40's. We didn't sleep too well that night.

While breaking camp and sipping coffee in the morning we noticed a bunch of runners going by on the trail. We found out later in the day, there is an event call the four-state challenge. Perhaps something to look forward to next year?

Slam-Man!

We used Google Street View to find the Appalachian Trail head at Pen Mar Park, MD for a fastpacking trip to Harpers Ferry, WV. Next to an entrance for the trail we saw this:

A weekend of running and hiking from Pennsylvania to West Virginia promised to be an epic trip, but first we had to see what this was all about. Before heading into the woods we had to see this.

After the three-plus hour drive from Philadelphia on Friday night we pulled into the parking lot at Pen Mar Park and then immediately drove back out to see if anything from this June 2012 Street View image remained. Pulling around the corner, my friend Kelly started laughing and exclaiming "Miki, it's there!" We pulled into an adjacent parking lot of an apartment complex where a woman stood at the corner of the building with a pit bull on a leash. The woman was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, but I could see it was the same woman from the image. We parked and in excitement I exited the car and immediately the pit bull broke free and headed straight for me. I yelled out "Dog!" while Kelly remained in the passenger's side and I jumped back into the driver's side repeating "Dog! Dog. There is a dog." Once the owner had collected the dog Kelly slowly exited the vehicle and asked if she minded if we took pictures with the mannequin. She yelled to a car parked next to her "Babe, can these guys take pictures with Slam Man?" A full-face tatooed man slid out from under the engine compartment of the car, stood up to get a good look at us and stated "I don't care." and promptly returned to his work. The owl was no longer on Slam Man's shoulder, and the girl was not wearing her knee-high stockings (at least we couldn't see them through her jeans), but nonetheless the moment had become utterly spectacular. We each took our turns posing with Slam Man.

If you ever find yourself in this area of Maryland, I suggest you pay a visit to this perfect piece of Americana. What a perfect way to start the weekend trip.

Disclaimer: The woman may have said "Sandman" which also would make sense, but we felt Slam Man was more original and well, just look at this guy.