rocky run shelter to raven rock shelter

easy day today. i’m going to try something different today. i feel like my writing here is very formulaic. i explain how i got up. (duh.) i ate breakfast. (duh.) and packed up. (duh.) none of that is particularly interesting. the question then is what do i write about? i haven’t a clue.

long distance hiking is inherently boring. it’s actually one of the things i like about it. you get a lot of time to think. for every stunning view, there are a pile of miles where you can’t see anything except forest.

the trail today was pretty easy. maryland has very wide, flat trails. since it was the weekend, there were muggles everywhere. it was also hot, somewhere in the 90s by all accounts. i stuck to my plan of not listening to any music or podcasts in the morning to let my brain work on the homesickness problem, but it wasn’t to be. these things happen on their own time.

the sun was shining, the trail was dry and i covered miles quickly. i stopped briefly at the washington monument, which looked like a giant stone milk urn. the view from the top was unimpressive. it was just haze over human sprawl.

i stopped at ensign cowall shelter for lunch but didn’t see rocket or maestro. i met a couple other hikers, one through named ‘fromage’ and one section, ‘icon’, both of whom were heading to raven rock shelter for the night. ‘fromage’ is another québécois.

the afternoon was harder than the morning. it was hotter, and the terrain more steep. i called magz and she was headed to zach & melissa’s pool. jealous.

i arrived at the shelter pretty early. i discovered that my tent wasn’t as dry as i thought when i last packed it up and it was beginning to smell, so i hung it up to dry.

the water source for the shelter was .6 miles down a steep hill. i went down and took my bath, and even rinsed out my shirt, but then was sweating within the first few minutes of starting back up the hill.

later, around 19:30 black paws rolled in. he had attempted to do the 4 state challenge (hike in 4 states in one day) and had quit at mile 35 of 43. he was in rough shape and pretty much went straight to bed.

all in all a pretty nice day on trail.

some additional images from today: