July 14, 2024 3 min to read

AT Blog: 73 and 74

Country Roads to Maryland

Day 73:

Sleep in at the VRBO, and then grab a quick breakfast of leftover pizza. My grandparents help me out by doing check out stuff, and grabbing all my extra gear to give back to my parents. I send home some of my winter gear like gloves and neoprene socks, while still keeping my sleeping bag, as I figure out where to get a summer one.

I finish packing my food away, thankful to have all my normal goodies like nuun tablets and pemmican. Eventually we load up and lock up the house and head down the road to the trail. I had already hiked the AT down to the bridge with my parents so my grandparents drove me down.

We park and get a picture with a white blaze at the lamppost before the bridge into Maryland. I’m sad to see my Papaw and Grandma go, especially in the rainy weather, but I’m glad I got to see them in Harper’s Ferry.

I go ahead and cross the river, completing West Virginia. The Maryland portion of the trail is short, at just 41 miles but it’s flat and contains some historic sites.

I take a short side trail to Weverton Cliffs, that overlook the Potomac River then head on. The trail is mostly easy going with gently inclines but can get rocky in areas which become trickier with ran.

I get to Gathland State Park, which I didn’t know much about, until I realized that was the pen name for Townsend, a famous reporter during the Civil War. The state park was great with lots of informational signs about the battles in the area and the monument Townsend built and his estate that became the park. Added bonus was a covered picnic pavilion that I ate lunch at.

After that is just another 5 miles or so to Rocky Shelter. It’s a pretty short day of just 16.1 miles, but it allows me to get back into hiking after a zero and rest from the rain.

A note on the rain is that it’s no longer as chilling anymore since it’s often in the 50s or 60s. But it does get tiring to be wet.

Day 74:

Started at Rocky Run around 7:30. Weatherman left a few minutes later while Dragonfly was still resting.

After a couple miles I get to Reno monument to commencerate where a union commander had died, the first in the Civil War. The area had lots of neat plaques about the Civil War

After a few miles I get to Dahlgreen campground. The site has heated bathrooms and showers but no shelter. If it wasn’t raining I would have stayed there. Cowbell, Mr. Happy and Firecracker were there and packing up. I chat with them a little bit and get going shortly after them.

Another neat history site in Maryland is the Washington Monument, the first one built to remember him. Built in 1827, it’s a 3 story stone tower that has great views… if it wasn’t raining and cloudy. While going up, the park has signs talking about major points in George Washington’s life. The Monument is about 100 yards off trail with signs detailing its history and it’s role as a signal tower during the Civil War.

From there I split off from the others and march on. The rest of the trail consists of going over a Footbridge over an interstate and passing by houses. While the rain stops, the trail stays near major roadways so there’s often a car in the distance. I end up at Raven Rock Shelter, the last in Maryland at 1062. Weatherman makes it there as well as Atlas, Canoe and a new flip flopper from Harper’s Ferry. Cowbell, Firecracker and Mr Happy decided to stop earlier.