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2-22-97 After dropping off vehicles at South Mountain Inn for the hikers
that had to be in on Saturday night and Sunday morning, we drove thru some
rain showers enroute to the Trail Head at US40. Seven of us, Marty
Manzano, Bill Isham, Mike Calabrese, Charlie
Johnson, Rodney, Emilie, and myself headed
down the trail. To my surprise, there weren't more people at the Trail Head.
The weather was gorgeous and it was 10AM on Saturday morning. But, no people.
The rain showers that we hit enroute were mild and had stopped by the time
we started.
The trail was surprisingly dry despite the rain we had this past winter. The trail was in good shape. The wind was blowing a little hard. Being in the woods blocked us from most of the wind. I had to walk out the winter stiffness. It had been a while since I hiked. We all took turns walking with different ones and chatting and catching up since we hadn't seen each other in a while. It was just a leisurely hike. We came into South Mountain State Park about noon and decide we would have lunch at the monument. It was open at this time. There were some repairs being made to it a year or 2 ago. The wind was howling mad at the monument. I walked around to try find a place that the wind wasn't blowing so I could eat lunch. It must have been blowing at about 40 mph. There wasn't a spot protected from the wind. Rodney and Emilie, as I recall, went up the monument to see the view. We decided that it was much to cold and windy to try to eat lunch. I knew there was a spot along the trail before the park that had an overhang and maybe it was warmer. I knew this spot because of a cigarette and match that was found during our AOL thru hike. It was MUCH warmer. But, no cigarettes. We all dropped our packs and chowed down. After several minutes, someone started walking up the trail and started talking to us. It looked like Doug Knowles, but we weren't real sure at first. What in the world would he be doing here? He was in Minnesota working and had left no messages giving anyone any indication that he was coming in for the hike. Sure enough, it was Doug and his 2 nephews, Josh and Michael. What a nice surprise that was! Leave it to Doug to leave everyone speechless. (Like anyone in our group could ever be speechless, god forbid). Just a short time after that we arrived at South Mountain Inn. We resupplied ourselves from whatever equipment was needed at the cars. I mean, we hiked a long day that day. It was 5 miles and must have taken us, oh, 4 hours. It was a nice leisurely 4 hours and a good comfortable, quiet hike. Exactly like I planned. Then onto Dahlgren Campsite. I was looking forward to setting up camp, starting a fire and telling tall tails around the camp site....... SURPRISE!!!!! We were greeted by the site of no less than 18 tents and several more Boy Scouts. And one lone couple looking for some peace and quiet. There was enough space for us to pitch our tents and start a fire. We did that in spite of the heavy wind that was blowing. None of the tents ended up as tree decorations, so we considered ourselves lucky. The wind did finally die down around dark. A cold front was supposed to move thru later that night. The wind was actually bringing in the cold and it was already cold long before night fall. And it got colder as the night went on. Mike left us at about 2:30PM I believe it was. He didn't miss much, especially the cold night that was to lay ahead. It wasn't severely cold or even dangerously cold. JUST COLD! We had coffee to ensure that we would not sleep thru the night. Mandatory in our group. Prepared dinner and swapped lies. Hit the rack. We didn't hear a sound out of anyone all night long. Including the Boy Scouts. Very well disciplined. Well, we did overhear Doug and his nephew Michael discussing the possibility of Jurrasic Park, Part II, in the middle of the night. Michael wasn't feeling to good and woke up in the middle of the night. I hope he's doing better now.
2-23-97 Got up around 7:30 I think. Some of us did. Some of us slept later. Some got up earlier. It was still cold. I fired up the ol' stove in the vestibule and had coffee and danish. Changed clothes and prepared myself for packing up and the long hard strenuous 6 mile day ahead. I think we had one ascent ahead of us and it was real steep. I think we had a 400 ft. elevation change in about 3 miles.... :-) Bill and Charlie headed out to help support the local economy. (Charlie's quote). They bought breakfast. Marty headed for home. Doug and Josh and Michael headed back to Baltimore to celebrate a birthday. Rodney, Emilie and I headed down the trail about 10:30AM. The ascent was Lambs Knoll. It seems to get less steep each time I walk that section. We had lunch next to the military installation, wondering if any of the cameras were recording our meal. For a short easy day, we made really good time. We walked about 2.5 miles an hour and got into Crampton Gap Shelter about 2:30PM. I continued on down the trail to Gathland where I had to meet Ann and go to a birthday party Sunday evening. While waiting at Gathland for Ann, I met a man named Carey (first name) who had done a lot of hiking. He was very interesting. Had a deep Cajun accent, but told me he worked at LilyPons in Frederick for 36 years. Maybe I can locate him again and have him join us on a hike or two. I had a quiet peaceful sleep. It was warm. No noise. Dark. Clear skies.. Oh yeh, I was in my own bed. Rodney and Emilie stayed in Crampton Gap Shelter where they were serenaded all night by a dog barking. They described this dog as the energizer dog, it just kept going and going and going and going................ THEN!!!!!!!.... They awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing. What a menagerie they had that night. There were other animals that joined in the chorus, but they escape my memory right now......... 2-24-97 I met Rodney and Emilie at 8:30 AM Monday morning. After refilling water supplies and having coffee, we headed back down the trial.. On Sunday, Rodney and Emilie had discussed the possibility of going all the way to Harpers Ferry on Monday. We had plenty of time. We made really good time on Monday. I think it was better than the 2.5 mph that we did the day before. I'm sure I kept up only because I was wearing a day pack. We started hiking at about 9:30AM in the morning and got to Weverton cliffs at about 2:00 PM. Had lunch on the cliffs. They were as usual, beautiful. I love the view form Weverton. Every time I get up there, I forget to walk to the other side and look at the view from there. I love looking at the Potomac River. While having lunch, we were joined by a day hiker. His name is Tim Reese. He's a local historian for the area. He told us some of the history of the canal and of the civil war. I asked him some questions concerning the area. One question I did ask was what was Reno Monument Rd. named for. It turns out that a General Reno was shot there. He didn't die there, but died later. Since he was shot there the local citizens decided he needed a monument, so they built one. They have since called the road that runs in front of it, Reno Monument Road. For those of us that hiked the trail in that area once before ( before the AOL thru hike), may recall that we got off the trial for a short period and came out to a road and could not locate the trail. Instead we found a monument. That Reno Monument. For those of you who weren't on that trip, we did find the trail again in just a few minutes, just due west and slightly down hill from where we were. Anyhow, Rodney and Emilie had already decided that they were going to hike on in to Harpers Ferry and asked if I would go in with them since we had plenty of time. Ann was supposed to pick me up at 4PM and it was barely 12:30 or 1 PM. I said no and decided to wait at Weverton for Ann, not being sure if I could contact her in time to let her know where I was going to be. The other thing was that I don't like to hike that part of the canal. I've hiked it several times and it's booooooring! I sat at Weverton for just a little while, when down from the cliffs comes Tim. He offered me a ride home and I gratefully accepted his offer. I picked Rodney and Emilie up at Harpers Ferry around 4PM. They had gotten in there at 2:30 PM. Another day of making good time..... Returned home and Ann had made a big pot of beef stew and homemade bread. Nice hike. Nice friends. Nice weather. Nice scenery........
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