#152 Rocky Run Shelter to Pine Knob Shelter - Day 77: ATMM1041.5 - ATMM1049.0
Few things excite the human spirit more than waking up on a Monday morning and NOT having to go into work..............
4-3-2023
Few things excite the human spirit more than waking up on a Monday morning and NOT having to go into work. The icing on the cake is to have nowhere else to be that day.
Just lay in bed for as long as you like. Drink as much coffee or tea as you like for as long as you like.
Then…..what? What do you do with a day like that?
It’s a cool and bright Monday morning on the trail and I have nowhere to be. For a long time I have been waking very early in the morning for work. It feels good to wake up slowly and take my time with the morning.
Laying in the shelter wrapped up in the sleeping bag, a master plan begins formulating. First, I think I’ll walk out to the privy. Second, I think I’ll come back and make coffee.
That’s about as far as the plan gets. Everything else will fall into place in its own good time. The only thing I do know for sure is that today’s hike will be a relatively easy one over just seven miles.
It takes a little time to transform the body from its work day routines and societal comforts into a hiking machine. Slowly, the winter fat burns off, muscles strengthen, the heart and lungs awaken, the human spirit comes alive in the dead-eyed urbanite, and enduring the elements takes place of fearing them.
I’m the last out of shelter area again. Mr. Rook and Dessert Queen have continued north on the trail and Shitz & Giggles are heading south. I still have stuff sprawled out everywhere.
It takes a while to become proficient with the packing and unpacking game. After a while the gear becomes a little more streamlined, rhythm improves, and you will begin setting up and breaking down quickly and quietly……and thoroughly
It seems everywhere you look in Maryland there’s something of historical significance to see. Battlefields, monuments, old ruins, events from the Revolutionary War, The Civil War, War of 1812, French and Indian war.
Some of the sites I walk past include The Maryland Campaign of 1862 and General Robert E. Lee's "Lost Orders"
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