What’s that famous saying? Man plans, and God laughs?

I had the next week and a half planned out – and then I ate some bad Chinese food. My Saturday night was spent with chills and bathroom trips, and my Sunday was spent sleeping (for about 20 of  24 hours) instead of hiking for the 7 or 8 miles we had intended to slackpack.  I felt much better by Monday but still needed to rest, rehydrate, and actually eat some food, so hiking was delayed for another day. Fortunately, I have someone with me who helped make sure I did the things I needed to do to recover. Also fortunately, we were able to extend our hotel stay.

Tuesday started the new plan – really just the old plan moved a few days later. We slackpacked from Old Forge park to Pen Mar park, about 7.3 miles. It was perfect hiking weather and the 8-ish pounds on my back felt like nothing compared to the 31 I’ve been carrying. As Linda, our shuttle driver, dropped us off a large group from a local hiking club was also setting out for a 3 1/2 mile loop. It was nice to see so many happy faces as they set off, although they quickly disappeared from view, branching off from the AT almost immediately.

K in front of a huge blowdown alongside the trail

The trail going south from Old Forge was pretty, with a couple of solid footbridges that crossed streams at the beginning. There were a lot of blowdowns on this section although most didn’t cross the trail, and the ones that did had been cleared.

A few areas along the trail were notable for the large number of lichen-covered rocks. It was very striking to see the big patches of sea-green in the midst of otherwise drab brown woods.

Some of the lichen-covered rocks in the woods

Further on I came across an interesting animal skull. I’m not sure what it belonged to – a raccoon or a fox were my guesses, but maybe someone reading this will be able to identify it and leave a comment letting me know what it was.

Crossing Route 16 was a little nerve-wracking, but we caught a break in the traffic and got across safely. As we got closer to Pen Mar park I noticed that the sticker bushes (common greenbrier) were starting to get green; yay spring!

A sign in the woods identified the foundation ruins of what used to be part of the town, and let us know that the trail was actually on what was once a trolley line.  

A little bit more walking brought us to the Mason-Dixon line, finally! We had stopped in Pen Mar park  a few days ago just 0.2 miles from the marker, and it felt great to complete that milestone and add our entry to the log book.

After reaching Pen Mar park we took some time to relax and soak in the amazing view from one of the park pavilions.

Linda came to pick us up and then gave us a quick driving tour of Fort Ritchie, where intelligence troops were trained during WW2. The Finger buildings and many of the other base buildings have been repurposed but kept intact, and it was interesting to listen to her stories about the history of the place.

I felt pretty good about how my first day of slackpacking went, and I know it helped me to recover while still letting me get some miles. I’m looking forward to trying it again in a few days, and then getting back to our “regular” hiking. It’s a little bit hard not to feel that I should have gotten back to it right away, but I know the best thing I could do was to focus on recovering and rehydrating. The trail isn’t going anywhere, and my delay won’t seem like such a big deal a week from now. Also…I just completed my first full state!
Goodbye Maryland! Hello Pennsylvania!