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10/20/13 Crampton Gap (Gathland State Park) to the ATC in Harper’s Ferry The last section of our backpack started with the “bed & breakfast” treatment at Dirigo and Python’s house in WVA! Coffee of our choice and a leisurely wake up time! Soon we were on our way back to Crampton Gap. The mosh pit […]
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October 19, 2013 Pine Knob Shelter to Crampton Gap Shelter…then to Dirigo & Python’s basement in WVA…but I am getting ahead of myself… From my sleeping bag it seemed like dawn was going to happen at any moment. The forest was actually light enough to see through the trees. V. had just returned to the […]
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10/18/2013 Ensign Cowall Shelter to Pine Knob Shelter It rained off and on all night! So happy I was in the shelter as I kept hearing acorns and small limbs hit the roof of the shelter. The front that had moved in left us with a chilly, damp morning. This was the kind of morning […]
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10/17/2013 PenMar to Ensign Cowall Shelter (10 miles) This was a tough 10 miles! No surprises there…lots of rocks and then there was the climb up Quirauk Mountain to High Rock. Boomerang, Google, V. and myself started off from PenMar at about 10:15. We trekked north about a quarter of a mile to the Mason-Dixon […]
I met my hiking pal at the West View parking lot on Sugarloaf Mountain in Montgomery County, Maryland for our training hike. I had everything in my pack except food in the bear vault.
We started downhill with full packs hoping to make this loop before the heat set in! Temperatures were to soar to 85 degrees on this sunny October day. The pack felt good…actually better than I anticipated. But then again, I was going down hill, and a nicely graded downhill at that!
After dropping about 500 feet we crossed Mt. Ephraim Road and started up! I kept waiting for the worst, but it didn’t come and we made it easily to the view from White Rocks after a rocky climb of 300 feet.
And then came the roller coaster as we traversed another 200 feet up to one of the lesser summits on the blue trail at an elevation of 1015 feet, down to 750 feet elevation, then back up to another lesser summit at 995 feet! After that the rolling is a little less intense. The last hill was hot and slow as the heat had really begun to deliver a beat down.
Final verdict…great training hike! And glad we got done before the real hot afternoon heat set in!!
Tomorrow is a training hike. Not even remotely prepared for this! I have been taking care of a litter of feral kittens…from bottle feeding to socializing. As I write I hear the patter of little kitten feet in the room above me. They are about seven weeks old now and will be ready for adoption through the Animal Welfare League of Frederick in a few weeks…but I digress. 🙂
Back to the training hike. I ran around tonight just gathering my back packing gear. Where did I put the pack again? Oh Little Caesar moved it into the storage room. I have all my gear stored in the pack for easy access. Carried it downstairs to organize. Sleeping pad…check, tent…check, first aid kit…check, new pillow (in my best happy squeeky voice 😀 )…check, sleeping bag…uh…sleeping bag…WHERE IS MY SLEEPING BAG??? My stuff sack is here, but where is the bag? Crap! Okay…calm…maintain…Little Caesar in her gestapo cleaning mode probably put it up in the storage room… Went back to the storage room. God, it’s hot in here tonight…oh there it is…whew! relief…exhale!
Okay so in the pack so far is:
Sleeping Bag
Sleeping pad/pillow
tent, first aid, hygeine, compass, pocket knife, bandana (1), fuel, water filter, stove, cookware/bowl, headlamp, pack cover, rain poncho, and bear vault w/o food
Tomorrow I will add water and some clothes for weight.
Doing a 5.5 mile loop up and down a mountain. Should be humbling! 🙂 🙂 🙂
In a few weeks I will take to the AT through Maryland. Now, I will tell you straight up that I need to hike Maryland again like I need a hole in the head! 😀 But…This time I am backpacking it from PenMar to Harper’s Ferry. Mainly, my impetus for hiking it is to accompany one of the women I hiked with in Georgia. In addition, Boomerang and another woman from Trail Dames are coming along.
We will do this hike in 4 days stopping at the Ensign Cowall Shelter, Pine Knob Shelter (on a weekend night…yikes!), and Crampton Gap Shelter before hiking into Harper’s Ferry on the 4th day.
Planning thus far has resulted in a new backpacking pillow, my travel pillow bit the dust in Georgia 🙂 , exchanging my sleeping pad at REI and investing in new long underwear. I need to get some orange bandanas or a vest as we will be hiking during hunting season.
I am excited to be going on a backpack! The colors should be at about peak. Maryland is truly beautiful in the fall!
I also need this backpack. My mom is in the hospital right now after suffering a double stroke, one on either side of the brain. I think the worst of it (and maybe the best of it too) is that I live so far away that all I can do is talk on the phone with her. I have eight brothers and sisters, two who live near to my parents and are shouldering this responsibility with what seems to be super hero powers. Getting out into the woods will allow me to work through life with my mom and how life might be without my mom. We haven’t really been that close…I was the one who caused problems. Always too independent, always a little too much just like her!! She is an amazing woman and did much incredible trail blazing in the field of computer programming during the 1960s through the 1990s when she retired. So smart. So pretty. So everything! So this hike is in honor of Thelma!
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I didn’t know for sure when I left the house with Sidekick Pauli where I was going to go. I just knew I was headed to the mountains. Turns out my car followed the well worn road to Catoctin Mountain Park. This is definitely my goto place to find solace. It never disappoints. We started […]
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I wonder if you know what it is like to have your only kid grow up into an amazing person of the world. I could not have dreamed my son, Logan, would be so smart, savvy or sarcastic! …well, the sarcasm kind of comes with the territory… Anyway, Logan is home for a week before […]
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I went out to explore the Bear Branch Nature Center in Carrol County, Maryland. The nature center is part of the bigger Hashawa Environmental Education Center. This was a day in which the temperatures and humidity level had started out rather nice so I was looking forward to good weather as I explored the trails. Boomerang met me […]
Girl Gone Hiking 