Well, the 8 of you can thank me, Unicorn Dust for the swell weather. If Eeyore would have hung on as leader you surely would have encountered some wonky weather vortices. Hahaha! Seriously though, the awesomeness of this trip was because of 9 of us! What a motley crue! Good vibes, people helping others, people talking about sawing heads off, WAIT WHAT!? We'll leave that on the trail;)
Saturday morning, beautiful Saturday morning we departed on time for the A.T. to hike NOBO. A brief stop at the Washington Monument rewarded us with spectacular views. Back on the trail people were chatting it up, a deer even came in to listen. Before long we were walking over Rt 70 listening to horns blasting for those of us childish enough to give oncoming traffic the visible horn request. We began our ascent towards Annapolis Rocks. We stopped for a moment to enjoy the views and have a snack. We made it into camp in excellent time! I haven't hit camp that early in eons!! The wind was fierce at times, and unfortunately, the open side of the shelter was playing catcher. Some of us decided to setup our own shelters in lieu of sleeping in the nice Ensign Cowall Shelter. Dinner time came with many stories from the new faces. Steve's story was frightening:0 At some point, someone asked when we were making a fire. The whole gang pitched in, rounding up wood, making the fire, and feeding the fire. We learned Sara carries a saw, and spoke of the many uses of a saw;) Around the fire conversations leaped from movies, tv, backpacking gear, and some misc. Closing in on 9pm backpackers made their ways to their sleeping bags. Saturday Morning we were on the trail at 7:10. After an initial climb we were rewarded with some meadow walking, I really like meadow walking. Crossing Raven Rock Rd we were challenged with a punchy climb. The next few miles had us stumbling over rocks and boulders, we're definitely closing in on PA now! At PenMar park it was was easy walking. Poof! We made it to the Mason/Dixon Line, and some of us stopped for the ceremonial pics with the sign. At 12:15 our group was ready to head off to Dans Restaurant and Taphouse. The 9 of us sat down to some tasty treats and much appreciated beer, or in Steve's case, he really wanted a daiquiri, sorry Steve. From there the gang was returned to their vehicles at Washington Monument park, and we made our respective ways home.
I thank ALL of you for you wonderful attitudes, excellent conversations, and help, you guys and gals made the trip!
Thanks for taking this trip on and making it a success! So glad to hear things went well, and nice to see that some new members were able to take part. Hopefully I'll be able to tackle this section soon myself!
Had a blast! Looking forward to getting out with the group again. Glad to see Saw has embraced and accepted her new trail name too!