[at-l] Trip Report

[Robert L Dudley <grey_owl1@juno.com>]

4/28/1999

Hey Gang,

Last week a friend and I took a little hike in Maryland.  On Friday we
drove down to Washington Monument State Park.  It was raining when we
left at 6:35 in the morning.  Before Interstate 78 ended at Interstate 81
we ran into an over turned tractor-trailer.  This delayed us by about 45
minutes, but eventually we reached Pen Mar.  It was still raining.  We
parked one car at Pen Mar Park and drove the other car down to Washington
Monument.  The sky had lightened up a bit and we had hopes that there
would be sun in the afternoon.  Immediately after we started to hike the
rains came again.  After two hours we stopped for lunch and looking at
the trail guide we realized we had covered almost 4 miles.  The trail was
in excellent shape.  It was wide enough for two hikers walking side by
side.  We were wondering when we would leave the road and hit the real
trail.  

We could have hike a bit more and reached Interstate 70, but we did not
know if there was an underpass to shelter us, so we ate lunch in the
rain.  Needless to say we ate lunch very quickly and proceeded on.  Well
we did see the underpass at Interstate 70, but we did not stop, instead
we proceeded to Pine Knob Shelter.  We could hear the thunder in the
distance, so we rode out a thunderstorm in the shelter.  There were two
Boy Scout leaders in the shelter and they informed us their troop was
coming in for the night.  They would be camping around the shelter but
there appeared to be limited camping space.  After the storm finished we
actually saw the sun and had hopes that the wet weather was over.  Of
course we were wrong.  When we hit Annapolis Rocks it was raining again
and we did not bother the go to the side trail, as there was nothing to
see.   We did stop at Black Rocks and I took a picture of the fog.  From
there we proceeded to Pogo Memorial Camp.  What a huge camping area and
there were at least five good streams.  No sooner than I got my trap up
when we had another thunder storm.   We had rain off and on until shortly
before midnight.  We also had the campground all to ourselves except for
a couple of owls.  For Dinner we had cheeseburgers and soup.  Definitely
hit the spot.


I woke up early the next morning.  I was cold so I wandered around
finding the stream and picking pieces of interesting quartz.  I promise
not to drop them in PA.  Breakfast was eggs and fried potatoes.  Yes we
carried in 5 eggs and a can of potatoes.  By 8 am we had pumped water,
eaten breakfast, done the dishes and broke camp heading toward Devil's
Racecourse Shelter.  Our original intentions were to hike to Hemlock
hill's Shelter and eat lunch.  I t was not possible to do that as we
arrived at the shelter at 10:30 in the morning.  We took a 30minute break
and them headed out at 10:30.  The next section of trail was along a
pipeline and power line right of way.  There was a real steep downhill
and a bit of a climb up and by 11:30 we decide to have lunch.  Lunch was
bagels, butter and jelly.  I had also brought along a couple of apples. 
From there we proceeded to Devil's Racecourse Shelter, aft coursing a
branch of the Antietam Creek and finally Antietam creek.  Finally there
was a pretty stiff uphill climb from Antietam Creek, but I eventually
made it to the top.  Finally we had to leave the trail and make steep
descent to the Devil's Racecourse shelter.  We did not look forward to
climbing up the next morning.

The shelter was really nice and there were several springs in the area. 
I was going to spend the night in the shelter and my friend was going to
camp.  Unfortunately a group of young people arrives and proceeded to set
up a party in the camping area.  I did get a 2-hour nap before supper. 
Supper was trail food, Lipton's chicken and rice and we had fresh
carrots.  There were a lot of owls in the area and the Devil's Racecourse
was very interesting.  Fortunately the young adults were not that loud.

We were up early the next morning.  Had oatmeal for breakfast.  It is the
only time that I will eat oatmeal.  Pumped water and wonder what the
trail was like.  It was slowly getting worse and by the time we finished
the hike the trail deteriorated to a very good PA trail.  We left early
because we knew the car was only 5 miles away.  The first two miles flew
by and we were at high rock in less than an hour.  The view was
spectacular!  The climb down was torture (rocky) and generally the last
three miles were not a lot of fun thought we did cover the distance in a
little over 1.5 hr.  Got A great picture of the AT sign at Pen Mar Park.

The trip was great.  I saw a turkey, two grouse, 10 Blue Birds, 2
American Goldfinches, many turkey buzzards, several red tail hawks and
one red shouldered hawk, a shelter mouse, a shelter cat, a large herd of
deer and we heard plenty of owls. The leaves were just starting to appear
on the trees so we did have some shade. The trip definitely beat going to
work.

Grey Owl
GA -> ME
98 to ??
One Step At a Time

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