Samwise Hikes the Appalachian Trail! - Trail Journal -
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June 30, Dahlgren Camping Area - mile 1021.3

The state of Maryland gains a lot of bonus points tonight for its lovely backpackers' campground, with tent sites, picnic tables, flush toilets & hot showers - all free! I suspect normal campers might not touch those showers with a 10 foot pole, but they have not scared any of us away.

Tonight I'm quite excited that a friend from church, Doreen, has come out to join me for the next 10 days or so. She met me here at the campground, which is only .2 mile off a main highway, so it was pretty convenient. We've just finished figuring out how to set up her tent & looked at the maps for tomorrow's hike, & now we've retreated inside both to avoid the bugs & to take cover from the rain, which is about to really come down. The thunder has been rumbling for quite a while & now it seems really to really be getting serious.

I don't suppose either of us knows exactly what to expect, since we haven't ever hiked together! And I haven't even hiked regularly with any partner since I had to take off four days to heal my leg & Max ended up a week ahead of me. But I am looking forward to the company, I must admit. Most of my friends are now either well ahead or somewhere behind, & though I enjoy meeting new people, it's also nice to have some familiar company. Speaking of which, I was so thrilled to run into Featherweight & Lightfoot yesterday in Harpers Ferry! They had recently taken off a week to visit family & friends, so I managed to get within a day of them. And better still, I managed to cross paths with them just after I got into town & they were about to head out. But the reunion was brief, & I don't expect to see them again since they were taking the Four-Star Challenge, because it's a 40 mile stretch that begins at the VA-WV state line, covers all of Maryland & ends at the MD-PA state line.

Myself, I think it's crazy! I plan to take 3 days to get through Maryland.