I have so far completed well over half of the 230 miles of the Pennsylvania AT.  The trail here is relatively flat as it follows the ridge lines north.  Even without the climbs, the hiking can be slow going, as parts of the trail have been quite rocky.  I have been told that only when I get further north will I reach the legendary rocks of PA, for which hikers have nicknamed the state ”Rocksylvania”.

Trail section nicknamed “The Maze”

Navigating the maze

Since Harpers Ferry, the countryside has gotten more populated.  The trail has passed through a number of towns as well as several state parks.  I expect this will be the norm at least until Vermont.  Having more towns and parks means carrying less food, more flush toilets, and better cell coverage.  This is a welcome change from the southern states where I could hike 100 miles without passing a parking lot with a trash can, let alone a toilet.

In Pine Grove Furnace State Park, the trail passes by the Appalachian Trail Museum.

Appalachian Trail Museum

My favorite exhibit was the Grandma Gatewood display.  At the age of 67, Gatewood told her children that she was “going for a walk“ and proceeded to become the first woman to hike the AT.  Ahead of her time as an ultralight backpacker, she never carried more than 20 pounds in her homemade canvas sack.  Her shelter was a shower curtain.  She wore canvas sneakers.

The Legend

Grandma’s gear

Gatewood gained some celebrity status, with an article in Sports Illustrated and a guest appearance on the Today Show.  Talking about the trail, she was quoted as saying, “For some fool reason, they always lead you right up over the biggest rock to the top of the biggest mountain they can find.”  Grandma, I could not agree more.

In the same state park is the Pine Grove Furnace General Store which is the home of the “Half Gallon Challenge”.  Hikers that can consume an entire half gallon of ice cream are awarded a wooden ice cream spoon stamped with some congratulatory phrase.  I skipped the challenge, having been forewarned by a veteran thru hiker that the difficult part is not eating the ice cream, but the suffering that follows.  As I watched a table of hikers wolfing down their ice cream while trading high-fives and such, I was feeling a little left out.

I later felt better about my choice when one of the “challengers” approached me near the restrooms (of all places).  She said to me, “I think you made the right call.”  Then, speaking half to herself,  said, “I am an adult, for goodness sake.  I’m 28 years old.  What was I thinking?”

The trail passed directly through the pretty and peaceful town of Boiling Springs.  Around the lake, people were sitting on park benches, jogging, walking dogs, or engaging in other similar worthwhile pursuits. I saw no B&Bs or rental properties, so I suspect the residents are keeping the town as their own little secret.  You have to love a place that has “duck crossing” signs.

Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania

The town af Carlisle is a ways off the trail but does have a Dunkin Donuts on the edge of town that is 0.7 miles from the trailhead. Having been deprived of my DD for almost three months, I could not resist.  Like the guy from the old cigarette ad who would walk a mile for a Camel, I would walk a mile for my Dunkin Donuts.

Enjoying my Dunkin

The AT also goes right through the town of Duncannon which sits along the Susquehanna River.  Here is a view of the town from the mountain.

Duncannon, Pennsylvania in the distance

Duncannon is the home of the Doyle Hotel.  The hotel was originally constructed in the 1770’s then later rebuilt after it burned down.  In its heyday, it was the place to stay.  According to legend, Charles Dickens was once a guest.  The hotel is now a shadow of its former self, renting rooms to hikers for $25.  As it is a tradition for AT thru hikers to stay at “The Doyle”, I decided to give it a go.  This turned out to be not a good call.  It should have been my first clue when the  proprietor dropped the phrase “you get what you pay for” (I swear I’m not making this up.) during my checkin.  The place is badly in need of repair.  I’ll leave it at that.

The Doyle Hotel

Inside the Doyle

A few days later when I was recounting my Doyle experience, another hiker commented about how great the amenities were at the donation-only Presbyterian Church hostel (only three blocks from the Doyle).  She proceeded to pour salt into my wounds by showing me pictures from her phone of the spacious sleeping area, the sparkling bathroom facilities, the stacks of clean towels, and so on and so forth.

This week I got the opportunity to stress test my tent by camping in a hellacious thunder storm.  In the middle of the night, I pulled up weather radar because I could not believe it was raining so hard for so long.  There I was, right smack in the middle of the red blob.  I later found out that this was not an ordinary storm.  Two roads were washed out in nearby Pine Grove and some parts of the county reportedly received 6.5 inches of rain in just a few hours.

In the center of the storm

My tent passed the test with flying colors.  I had only a small puddle which was due to backsplash from the ground through the mesh.  The trail itself did not fare so well.  The next day, there were puddles and mud everywhere, with about two miles of trail having been turned into a creek.

Some flora and fauna…

Butterfly Weed (In the Milkweed family)

Great Blue Heron

Red-winged Blackbird

Skunk!

Shrunk coming to get me

Baby snapper getting some sun

Small Blue Butterfly

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The Appalachian Trail traverses 40 miles of Maryland.  This is the shortest distance in any state other than West Virginia which makes up only four miles of the AT.  The trail in Maryland is relatively flat, following the ridge line.  The path varies from extremely smooth to extremely rocky, and everything in between.

Like a walk in the park

On the rocky side

As I walked the trail through Maryland, I could not help but become immersed in Civil War history.  I was in this exact place where Robert E. Lee conducted his “Maryland Campaign” in September of 1862.  Traversing the ridge of South Mountain, the trail crosses, in succession, Crampton’s Gap, Fox’s Gap, and Turner’s Gap.  It is in these three mountain passes that the Battle of South Mountain was fought. The Antietam battlefield lies less than ten miles distant.

As I read the diagrams and text on the park service plaques, I was struck by the level of detail with which historians could enumerate, practically on a minute-by-minute basis, the various decisions of the generals and the actions of the troops.  And yet, these these plaques don’t tell the whole story.  When it says “exhausted and outnumbered, the troops ‘withdrew’, leaving behind their dead, wounded, and captured”, I am envisioning soldiers running for their lives down the mountain.  I read where a farmer at Fox’s Gap was payed one dollar each to bury Confederate solders who died on his farm, sixty of which were thrown down his dry well.  This was a messy war.

Civil War Plaque in Fox’s Gap

The life of an AT hiker is piece of cake compared to what the Civil War soldier endured.  With none of our modern high tech gear, those soldiers hiked across all kinds of terrain, in all kinds of weather, in poor footwear, while carrying all their belongings on their back.  And all that hiking just so they would be in a position to be ordered into harms way at a moments notice.

What puzzled me was why of all places would a battle be fought on South Mountain?  This led me to do some research.  Here’s the backstory, as I understand it.

The events that unfolded on this fateful day on South Mountain were part of a game of cat and mouse being played between the principal armies for the North and South – the Union Army of the Potomac under the command of George B. McClellan and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Robert E. Lee.

In preparation for an invasion of Pennsylvania, General Lee hatched a plan to split his army into two parts.  He ordered part of his army, under the command of General Stonewall Jackson, to launch an attack at Harpers Ferry to capture the arsenal.  The rest of his army would be deployed to Boonsboro, Maryland under the command of Lee and General James Longstreet.  In a twist of fate, Lee’s orders were intercepted by the Union General McClellan. Seizing on the opportunity to attack a divided Confederate army, McClellan speed-marched the Union army 25 miles from Washington, DC towards South Mountain which must be crossed to get to Boonsboro.

The day was September 14, 1862.  As the Union army poured up the gaps, Lee and Longstreet deployed troops from Boonsboro to the gaps to repel the Union advance.  The battle raged through the day with both sides adding reinforcements.  By night fall, the Union has taken the high ground on the mountain and had driven the Confederates from Crampton’s Gap.  The Confederates still precariously controlled Fox’s and Turner’s Gaps.  The Union might have made further gains by pressing the battle, but, as one person observed, “a spirit of leisure seemed to pervade McClellan’s headquarters.”  (McClennan had a reputation of being overly cautious.  On several previous occasions he had not attacked, thinking he was outnumbered, when in reality he had the superior force.)  In the course of the battle, 768 soldiers had been killed, with an additional 3367 wounded.

By the next morning, Lee withdrew his forces from the mountain and reconsolidated his army at Sharpsburg, with the Union declaring victory on the mountain.  Only a few days later, the two armies clashed at the Battle of Antietam.  This would be the bloodiest battle in US history, with 3675 soldiers killed and over 17,000 wounded.  Lee again withdrew his army from the battlefield and pulled back into Virginia.

Lincoln ordered McClellan to pursue Lee’s army into Virginia.  McClellan refused, citing all kinds of excuses.  After six weeks of back-and-forth, an exasperated Lincoln dismissed McClellan from his post. Lincoln and McClellan would become political archenemies.  McClellan won the Democratic nomination and ran against Lincoln in 1864, but lost in a landslide.

The AT in Maryland passes through a couple of state parks.  Hikers love parks because they usually have trash cans, water fountains, flush toilets, and if you are really lucky, a concession stand.  One of the the parks was the home of the “original” Washington Monument which sits near the summit of South Mountain’s Monument Knob.  Built in 1827 to honor George Washington, the monument was used by the Union army as a signaling station during the Civil War.

Washington Monument

Some flora and fauna from the trail…

Wild Rose

Brown Thrasher

Juvenile Eastern (Red-Spotted) Newt

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Harpers Ferry, home of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters, is ground zero for the AT thru-hiking community.  Northbounders from Georgia and southbounders from Maine converge on this town.  It is also the starting point for “flip-floppers” who hike from Harpers Ferry to Maine, and then Harpers Ferry to Georgia.  Most people regard the town as the “psychological halfway point” of the trail even though the actual midpoint is about 70 miles further north.  The ATC staff told me roughly half of the thru hikers make it this far, and of these, about half will make it all the way.

Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters

All AT thru hikers are asked to check in at the headquarters.  There the staff takes your picture next to their sign.  After you add your relevant data to your picture card, it is inserted into their notebook for posterity.

The Hiker Archive

Bilbo – Northbounder number 816 to reach Harpers Ferry

Harpers Ferry has a rich history.  During the Civil War, the town was coveted for its strategic location at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.  Over the course of the  war, Harpers Ferry changed hands eight times between the Union and the Confederate armies.  Prior to the war, abolitionist John Brown had conducted his famous raid on the town’s US arsenal in a failed attempt to instigate an armed slave revolt.

Leading into Harpers Ferry, I hit a couple of milestones.  One notable event was reaching the 1000-mile mark.

1000-Mile Mark

The other milestone was leaving Virginia after hiking 554 miles across the state.

Goodbye to Virginia

The final obstacle to hiking out of Virginia is “The Roller Coaster”.  Covering 14 miles, the Roller Coaster has ten climbs, totaling 4600 feet of ascent and 3900 feet of decent,  I suspect the trail builders take some sinister pleasure in torturing hikers.

Sign at the start of the Roller Coaster

Elevation Profile

One bright spot on the Roller Coaster was some unexpected “trail magic” at the top of one of the climbs.  Just sitting there along the trail with nobody around was a cooler of drinks and two boxes of donuts.  As God as my witness, I only ate one donut.  I could easily have snarfed down a whole box.

Trail Magic

Amtrak has a daily run between Harpers Ferry and DC which is really convenient.  I took advantage of this to make a side trip into DC to see my sister, Roberta, and her husband, Phil.  My overnight visit flew by quickly, but it was really great to see them.

The trail out of Harpers Ferry crosses the Potomac via a railroad bridge pedestrian walkway then takes a right turn onto the old C & O Canal towpath.  As I hiked down the towpath, it dawned on me that once before I had been on this very same section of towpath.  In 2007, I ran an ultramarathon called the JFK 50 Mile.  The JFK 50 route covers 13 miles of the regular AT trail, 26 miles on towpath, and the balance on country roads.  So here I was, eleven years later on the same route carrying a pack and going the opposite direction.

I recollect going into that race thinking the towpath section would be the easy part because it was “flat”.  It must have escaped me that the towpath follows the river, and that rivers tend to run downhill.  Come race day, I am out on the towpath, about 30 miles into the run and feeling worn out.  I remember remarking to a fellow runner that I thought this towpath was supposed to be flat.  I will never forget his reply.  “Brother, every dang step of this thing is uphill.”  That day, I learned a life lesson.  When embarking on any major undertaking, don’t go into it with preconceived expections.

Some flora and fauna along the trail…

Orange Lily

Wood Duck (Female)

Eastern Painted Turtle (covered in Duckweed)

Pearl Crescent

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