#151 Edward Garvey Shelter to Rocky Run Shelter - Day 76: ATMM1032.4 to ATMM1041.5
Maryland is rich in Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Monuments and Battlefields are spotted across the state - the A.T. will lead me to many of them.
4/2/23
Sometime before sunrise the wind settled down. The calmness of the wilderness wakes me just as the first hints of the sun rising touch the eastern horizon.
Laying still in my sleeping bag I watch in silence. The colors slowly brighten beyond the opening of the shelter.
My lower-level companions begin stirring one by one. Each pausing to watch the sun’s morning ritual. We welcome a new day.
The temperature reached freezing level last night. The rising sun radiates a little heat into the shelter. I climb out of my bag and begin my morning chores. As always, slowly and clumsily the first few mornings of my hikes.
After last night’s dinner I opened a small box of cookies that were meant for the train ride. I offered them to anyone who wanted one. Since everyone is so early in their hikes their packs are food heavy, so they too are trying to eat down their own food to lighten their loads. One of the young ladies from the large group accepted one.
This morning the same young lady returned the foam sitting pad I didn’t realize was missing. She found it last night after I went to bed, and remembering who it belonged to, she held on to it until this morning. I like these kids more and more.
I walk a mile on this crisp and clear morning, wondering if I put that sitting pad into my pack.
Looking into the pack I find it there but learn the water filter kit is missing. It must be at the shelter.
Backtracking, I find it tucked into a nook of the Edward Garvey Shelter - most likely by one of the college-age kids.
A father and his young daughter sit at the shelter’s table with a chess board set up. The bright sun over the valley below makes a nice backdrop to the scene.
While the daughter sets up the board, the father asks a lot of questions about the Appalachian Trail (AT) and backpacking in general. I do my best to answer his questions.
The second attempt to hike officially begins around 11:00 a.m.
Slowed by short stretches of rocky terrane - a mere glimpse of what lies ahead in the next state - Pennsylvania, a.k.a. Rocksylvania, a.k.a. Where-Boots-Go-To-Die. Other than these periodic stretches, Maryland is a nice piece of trail.
Maryland is rich in Revolutionary War and Civil War history. Monuments and battlefields are spotted across the state - the A.T. will lead me to many of them over the course of this hike.
The trail takes me through Gathland State Park, where a monument was erected in 1895 and 1896 in honor of newspaper correspondents of the Civil War, later extending to all war journalists.
