My first time setting foot in Pennsylvania (hiking, not driving)
THE PLAN
PREPARATION
Want to hike the AT in PA from Maryland? Start by parking here:
https://goo.gl/maps/7gfq7nhfPoGVy6618
~~~IMPORTANT NOTICE:~~~
If you want to park overnight, you need to let Washington County know; they will send you a PDF to print out and put on your dashboard that says DO NOT TOW, and they will advise the towing company of your car's make/model/tag so that they don't, y'know, tow you. It works, I've never heard of anyone having a problem. Get one here:
https://www.washco-md.net/parks-facilities/overnight-parking-pass/
Overnight parking is not allowed in the paved, gated parking lot. Park in the gravel lot across the street. You'll probably see a number of cars with the DO NOT TOW printout on their dashes. If you ignore this advice, don't come crying to me
OK, let's get going!
ONWARD
An auspicious beginning, sailors' warning notwithstanding
🚗 1 hr drive from Balmer to Pen Mar
We talked about this
Happy Hiker Trash who has no idea what he's in for
The civilized overlook at Pen Mar, looking northwest. Super clear day, amazing weather 👍
I decided to go North
Actually actually starting, about 5 minutes from the parking lot
"Gandalf, which way is Mordor?"
"To the left"
Pennsylvania Actual. First boot/shoe/foot into the great state! Whoopee!
Hiker log book full of fun comments, you should always read them when you come across them (and add your own too). Sidereal was here! 9/4/21
Informative sign
A very nice babbling brook, before the endless up and down begins
I really need to pay more attention to this stuff before I head out
Hey, what's that - think we should check it out?
INTERLUDE
I saw something intriguing on Google Maps while researching this hike beforehand
A bit off the trail...what could it be? Other than a lookout tower
I decided to bushwhack a bit and investigate
I got pretty close, but ran into a Wall of Boulders that would have been pretty hard to climb
Might not look like much, but it was a wall to me and my 30 lb backpack
So I kept sidling around it, trying to find an easy way up, to no avail; eventually I hit a gravel road and shamefacedly took that to the summit, as you can see:
My valiant attempt, and its outcome
Almost at the summit, there was an old, retired radio tower and blockhouse
Looking retired
At the summit proper: Ah, the tower! It turned out to be a lookout tower
It was not locked up at all, I could have climbed it. But the steel stairs had all been replaced by wooden boards, and they looked pretty mossy and soggy and kind of rotten, so I decided not to go up. Even with hiking buddies I probably would not have tried it; solo, I could only imagine them finding my skeleton, halfway up, dangling by its ankle, sometime in February 2022. I decided I'd gotten into enough trouble and headed back to the trail
ONWARD
The PA AT passes through several civilized public parks with lots of informative notices. I really want to get some PATC topographical maps when I remember to
FLORA
Lots of flora along the way (though not much fauna - unlike Patapsco Valley, I saw nary a deer nor squirrel nor any other mammal. Weird. I'm used to elbowing deer out of the way in Patapsco.)
Brown-eyed Susan (not Black-eyed Susan)
Rudbeckia triloba, the browneyed or brown-eyed susan, thin-leaved coneflower or three-leaved coneflower, is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae, native to the United States. It is often seen in old fields or along roadsides. It is also cultivated as an ornamental.
Chicory
Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the daisy family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons, or roots, which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and food additive.
Wild Carrot
Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace, is a white, flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe and southwest Asia, and naturalized to North America and Australia.
White Wood Aster
Eurybia divaricata, commonly known as the white wood aster, is an herbaceous plant native to eastern North America. It occurs in the eastern United States, primarily in the Appalachian Mountains, though it is also present in southeastern Canada, but only in about 25 populations in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
 |
| A rather startling leaf in my path |
ONWARD
Deer Lick Shelter - halfway point. Very nice shelters, and a nice spring, though it was about a 10 minute walk uphill to it, not exactly fun but whatevs
Rested here for a while, because my dogs were already barking after going up and down all the rocks and roots of Mount Dunlop. That was harder than I thought. I considered just staying at Deer Lick and calling it an adventure, but it was only noon, and I kind of promised myself I'd at least make it to Tumbling Run, and I didn't want to let me down, I've done enough of that. Four more miles? Walk in the park, I said
Okay let's do this
What ho! Tumbling Rock Shelter! My destination! Hoo dang my legs are tired!
Super nice campground, attended to regularly by a couple and their dog, whom you will meet shortly
Shelters swept out, fire pits thoroughly cleaned, nothing in disrepair, privy not bad at all, as these things go
Shelters labeled "SNORING" and "NON-SNORING", lol
My legs were so tired and achy after 8 miles of pure up and down over rocks and roots and boulders, I was starting to get worried about hiking all the way back. But, I figured 12 hours of rest, good food, lots of hydration and some Tylenol would sort me out
Let's get camped out now. First question, always: where's the spring?
Tumbling Run spring, a very feisty beautiful spring bursting right out of the hillside, about two minutes from the campground, even has a pipe jammed into the hill to help you fill your water thingies. Very nice.
MEET THE PEOPLE
Curt, Tanya and Mocha, the caretakers of Tumbling Run shelter. They don't live there, they just stop by frequently and do a lot of work. Simply wonderful people, checking in on the grounds, making sure everyone's ok, seeing if they need anything. (THIS is my retirement job) Me and a handful of other hikers spent some quality time chatting with them.
Other hikers, each super friendly, fun and interesting, full of stories:
Trouble
Megaphone
Krunk
There was also a through hiker headed to Georgia 🏆 and a group of three young people and their dog, doing the same Pen Mar in/out hike as me, whom I will mention anon. Sorry I didn't get any pix of them
CAMP
ENO rain tarp, doublenest hammock, underquilt, gear sling. REI Helio Down 45°F sleeping bag. USB fairy light string (not shown) because wee twinkly fairy lights at night in a campground are cool. I sleep like a rock in this setup, the kind of sleep doctors are always telling you to get and most of us never do. I don't know why, it just works.
This is the only AT campsite I've seen or heard of that has a section specifically for hammock hanging. I mentioned this to Caretaker Carl, and it turns out that he personally petitioned PATC to clear out a new section and put an official PATC post in the ground that says Hammock Camping with routered letters and official brown/gold paint. They agreed, so he cleared it and surrounded it with big logs to demarcate it, all by himself. Really nice! Amazing guy. Wish I'd taken a pic of the post, it's a real achievement.
Honkin' big cluster of Jack O' Lanterns
Omphalotus olearius, commonly known as the jack-o'-lantern mushroom, is a poisonous orange gilled mushroom that to an untrained eye appears similar to some chanterelles.
It is notable for its bioluminescent properties.
👆
woooo
Dinner time
This trip, planning meals, I noticed I had a couple Mountain House freeze dried dinner bags still knocking around in the food box, so I figured I'd finish them off and brought one. Italian Style Pepper Steak, never tried it before. Conclusion: not bad at all*
*Mountain House Conjecture: anything tastes amazing if you are starving
Ate this, cleaned up, chatted a bit with the fun interesting folks, then completely zonked out, sore as hell
SUNDAY
Okay kids, not gonna lie, here. I bit off more than I could chew on this trip.
In case you missed the foreshadowing: I woke up Sunday and I could barely move my legs. They were so damn sore after all those rocks and roots, up and down, that I could barely walk. It felt like any second, they would seize up in cramps and leave me literally unable to walk, instead of just hating every second. And there I was, eight miles of difficult trail away from my car.
I started thinking, for the first time ever, that maybe I was in trouble.
I got up, it hurt, I walked around like a penguin, it hurt, I drank a lot of electrolyte water, I made a robust carb/protein breakfast, I did leg stretches, it hurt, I took 600 mg Tylenol and just chilled out for a while.
After an hour or so, I felt like I wasn't in actual, medical trouble any more, just stupendously sore. So I packed up and decided I'd walk/waddle, slowly, to the first sign of civilization, and call an Uber to get back to my car.
I made it to the Old Forge Picnic Grounds about a mile south and used my Uber phone app for the first time ever and - surprise - No Drivers Available. I poked at it for a half hour and gave up, hoisted the pack and, yep, walked back to the car for the next five hours, up and down two mountains, very slowly, and not having much fun.
It started raining too, sprinkles, but honestly it felt good, kept me cooled off. Not enough to break out the poncho and backpack cover.
Look at this typical PA AT trail:
This is a "trail"
Long story short, I made it, at approximately 0.25 miles per hour, took most of the day. But I made it to my car, which was not towed (we talked about this.)
AFTER ACTION REPORT
Failure to pre-assess elevation changes
Failure to pre-assess terrain
Honestly, if I'd done my homework a little better, I would have gone to Deer Lick shelter and back and called it a PA Adventure.
Regrets: nah
UPLIFTING CLOSURE
Seriously, you read this far? Donut for you next time I see you
Remember I mentioned the group of three young people and their dog? I told them all about my leg woes (I told everybody.) They were headed back to Pen Mar, same as me. I started out about two hours ahead of them, and, surprise, they all passed me about halfway, giving me lots of encouragement. When I made it back to Pen Mar in the late afternoon and was about 500 feet from my car, I heard, "Jack! Jack! Jack!" and there they were, in the parking lot, whooping it up at my successful return. I raised my trekking poles up over my head and pumped them in the air like Rocky and when I got to the cars they congratulated me on my ordeal. You meet really amazing people on the trail.
No plans for my next hike, but you can bet it'll be a bit flatter
Labels: Appalachian Trail, backpack, camping, hiking
