Day 1: 18 miles
After some deliberation and a bit of planning, we decided on the Maryland section of the Appalachian Trail. It's only about 41 miles but we needed to do it in 3 days. This meant 3 sections of 18 miles, 12.5 miles and 10.5 miles going from north to south. Not a daunting task for a thru-hiker, but for a couple of regular guys without any recent hiking experience, it would prove to be difficult.
Billy was on top of the maps, elevation diagrams, stops and most of the pre-planning. It definitely helped having his OCD ass tackle all the prep work and probably resulted in a smoother trip. I borrowed most of my supplies from an old friend, including my sleeping hammock and picked up the rest at Sports Authority.
We started out in Penmar Park which is on the border between MD and PA (shocker based on the name...) at around 6am on Friday morning. We had to walk slightly north (just 2 minutes) to get to the actually state border before we turned south and started our hike. The first day was a daunting one, and proved to be as difficult as we feared. The trail on the first day started extremely rocky and steep in a few sections, and with 40+ lbs on our backs was no easy feat. We took a morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack break in addition to our water/map/blister breaks throughout the day. We rarely had bathroom breaks as we were generally close to dehydration. I think Billy suffered a little bit more from lack of water as I was drinking continuously from my water bladder and he just used water bottles when we stopped.
My meals consisted of trail mix for snacks, peanut butter and bagels for breakfast and boil-in-bag meals (which were delicious) for dinner. I also had a couple candy bars, some beef jerky, cliff bars and electrolyte tabs for other variety.
The hiking was fun and a great chance to catch up. The blisters I developed on my feet and the reminders of old muscle pulls were not as great and definitely made the hiking more difficult. We arrived in camp that night around 6pm (12 hours after departing, but with about 2 hours total breaks in between) and set up our hammocks and test out our rain-flys just in case it rained the next night as expected. We ate dinner at the picnic table outside the shelter and met one of the ridge-runners (park employees who check up on the trail) and a section hiker who was on an extremely long section. We passed out pretty close to dark that night and slept fairly well in our hammocks. Waking up the next morning was another story...
Day 2: Hello Rain!
After a quick breakfast we packed up and hit the trail. The second day saw more road crossing and it seemed like we could hear the din of civilization in the distance at almost all times. Day 2 had our toughest climb up Lamb Knob, mostly due to steepness, length and our weak muscles and blisters. I'm sure it's barely noticeable for thru-hikers. The blisters I developed despite nice socks, frequent stops and dressings were pretty damn painful. A couple were under my two big toes on my left foot, one on the side of of my right big toe and a huge blood blister on the sole of my right foot. And another one in between my last two toes on the right... After our lunch break on day two, we got caught in the rain. It started as a sprinkle and we were generally covered by the trees. Unfortunately it just kept getting worse. We put on our pack covers and tried to keep going, but then it started dumping. At this point we stepped off the trail and grabbed Billy's tarp. Putting saplings through the eyelets we were able to get enough of a covering to keep the rain off of us for the last 45-60 minutes of the storm. Despite our lean-to, we were both pretty damp and the remaining 4-6 miles weren't that great.
Our final night's camp came at a site just north of Gathland park. I can't remember the name now, but we never actually saw the shelter. (In MD, you can only camp near designated spots/shelters) We found a suitable spot for our hammocks, set them up and then stripped down and put on dry clothing. Both of us ate another hot and tasty meal out of the bag and hung up our clothing to dry. Shortly after dinner it started raining again and instead of finding a bear line, we attached our food bag to a small tree that we pulled down and then let go, sending it abut 12 feet in the air. The trick worked, the tree was undamaged, but I have a feeling the technique would be frowned about by some enthusiasts.
It rained ALL NIGHT. Every time I woke up, I could hear the sounds of rain on the fly above me. I stayed dry all night, but the humidity caused all of my things to stay pretty moist.
Day 3: 10.5 to go!!!
At Gathland Park we stopped, used the bathroom and refilled our water. We also met a crazy thru-hiker that either lost it on the trail or was trying to find it on the trail... His trail name was even 'Nutty Buddy' and he informed us a few times that he had been without a shower in about 180 miles. In addition he was low on food. I decided to unload a little bit and gave him my remaining peanut butter and a few Cliff Bars, only saving enough for a snack and lunch that day. The elderly fellow seemed extremely excited about the food (especially the peanut butter) and we bid him farewell and continued on our journey. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I had some blisters on my feet. And they hurt. The only saving grace was that after a few miles of walking, my feet would basically go numb from the vibrations and I could barely feel the pain.
After Gathland we had a pretty nice hike along the ridge towards Harper's Ferry. I can't imagine the difficulty of the trail going north as we were dealing with mostly downhill switch backs all the way to the C & O canal. They were tough going down, and must be brutal going up. I swear I rolled my ankles about 3-4 times on the last 5 miles or so, but luckily it didn't hurt that much and I could keep going without much pain.
The final 3 miles are on the nice flat C & O canal towpath. The only downside to this was the amount of people (we would rarely see others on the trail despite it being the weekend) and the sun. It was hot and so straight that you could see where you were going forever. It wasn't like the woods where your only concern is the next footstep. Here we were planning way in advance. Those last 3 miles seemed to take forever. Especially as we watched people sitting in tubes, drinking beers and lazily floating down the river. Much cooler and relaxed than we were...
Upon seeing the church steeple in Harper's Ferry, we both felt pretty relieved. Our ride would be meeting us soon and we could finally take our wet shoes and heavy packs off our backs. With a fist bump and congratulations, we completed our last 1/2 - 1 mile with smiles and took a final picture in the middle of the Potomac River as we left Maryland. In HF, we stopped on the grass across from a restaurant, took off our shoes and relaxed. Billy was definitely dehydrated so I gave him a minute to relax and drink up as I headed over to the restaurant and ordered a delicious, refreshing, Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA. It hit the spot and felt great the whole way down. We didn't end up eating there, as we decided instead to go to Red Robin and eat about 1200 calories worth of burgers and fries.
After the first day my pedometer said we had walked over 44,000 steps and burned over 4,000 calories without taking our packs into consideration. All-in-all I'd say we walked over 100,000 steps in those 3 days and I know for a fact Billy lost 6lbs. No idea what I lost, but I'm sure I've put it back on by now... This hike definitely hurt. I couldn't walk right for a few days but it also kind of lit a fire. I enjoyed being in nature and away from everything and would really like to try something similar next season. Perhaps a week on a different section without so many up-front miles.