Trail Journal - July 09, 2005
 
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July 9, 2005
     My husband just drop me off at the bike trail along the Shenandoah River.  I'm hiking right along the river bike path now and soon I'll be crossing the foot bridge going into Maryland.  This would be a good place to come back to and visit again, with a group or just family.  A lot of history in this area.
     It's now 10:45am.  I hiking along the old canal rock wall, it's covered with vines and Boston ivy.  This used to be a abutments for the factories in the 1800's.  Getting ready to cross the foot bridge that crosses the Potomac River at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.  I have now turned right of the bridge on to the Chesapeake and Ohio canal which is now a national historic park. 
     When I got into the AT Office I got a BD card from Rick and Brenda Harris, a jungle card where Swinging Jane belongs.  A card from Bob and Ruth Brown telling me about their back packing experiences.  I had a card and some candy from Kathy Lince.   
     I  can hear the current from the Shenandoah and the Potomac rivers in the background. Kathy.
     In this river there big huge massive rocks, and in some places the water is very deep and in other very shallow.  I'm enjoying the company of Firefly and  Hazy Sonic, and their friends who were section hiking with them a couple of days.  Very humid and hot today.  I am at Weaverton Rd crossing.  I headed back into a nice little wooded area going up hill, the elevation will be about 1,500 feet when I get to the top.  The trail that I'm on easy switchbacks going up hill, leaf covered with large flat rocks in the trail.
     Found a fluffy Grout feather.  Also coming up under some large boulders, getting pretty close to the top of the hill.  The woods is mostly maples, beeches, sassafras's, and large oaks.  A lot of marbled stone along the side of the trail and also mosses growing along side the trail.  A real pretty brilliant green in color.
     Walking up along the ridge top.  It's a pretty easy trail except its got tons of little rocks in it, at least there's come place you can put your foot down.  Too overgrown and I can see over the rocks, but a pretty little area though.
      A good deal of blueberries in here.  Coming up the canal I ate several hands full of red berries that resemble raspberries, I think they're actually choke berries.  Really good, but I can't afford to eat to many of these things; give me back door trots, that's no fun when your out here with backpack on your back.
     Well I'll be, I broke out into a smooth dirt trail.  I don't think I'm to far from Ed Garvey Shelter.  Smooth doesn't last very long, it's short intervals of smooth and then gets right back into rocks again.  A lot of pretty ferns growing along side the trail, but here's not a lot of other flowers blooming.  The trail today is very peaceful, with a cool breeze going on top of the ridge line and I can look up when I'm hiking without having to worry about where I'm stepping.  A definite reprieve from the 3 or 4 day I spent coming into Harpers Ferry.

     Simon and I spent a couple of wonderful days at the KOA Campgrounds with my Husband (John) in our motor home.  We had to go to the post office one day and ATC building  one day, then we walked around down in the old historical section of the town, but we didn't get into the little stores and all.  We walked around the canal.   It was very nice, very peaceful and resting.  It always bothers me whenever my husband drops me off.  The same thing happened at Heart Springs, he always winds up with tears in his eyes, as we get ready to part.  I'll see him again at Glen Cliff and call every week.  It'll work out OK.

     There is larger boulders on the side of the trail over into the woods, and many of the rocks both large and small are stripped with marble.  Some of these rocks are so speckled that they look like Dalmatian dogs.  I'm hiking just under a big huge rock pile that's on my right side.  I f the trail would have been up there on top of those rocks, it would have been something to try to go over.  This trail right here is just little rocks and flat rocks; easier hiking.  Standing from where I am  looking up; that big pile of rocks would have been something to try and have to go over.  That's what they are; is a big pile of smaller rocks all piled together with large ones mixed in.  No way in this world you could get over those things.  That big piles of rocks I was talking about must have run from continuously for a couple of miles.

      I'm starting to go down into the gap now and the distance between the trail and the pile of rocks is a lot closer.  That's usually a pretty good sign that I coming down into lower terrain.  I did go down into the gap, but I was wrong about the rock pile; it's still going.  The rock piles in this area are probably 20 to 30 feet high.

     It's only 4:30pm, but it look like its going to rain again.  Really gloomy!  This is rather an interesting situation, I have a stone fence, I have a stone arch, and then the fence is continuous all the way around the property.  I figured out what all the stone fences are; This has been a Civil War area for Confederate leaders.  This stone archway was built in 1896 as a memorial to newspaper correspondence, artists and photographers of the Civil War.  Stands 50ft tall and is 40ft wide.  The arch's unusual design was inspired by 2 Hagress Town Structures.  Former B&O Railroad passenger depot  which utilized a horseshoe shaped arch and the Anthem Ethan county fire station #2 which incorporated a crenulated tower.  Names of men from the north and south who documented the Civil War are inscribed in the tablets embeded in the east face.

     I'm going into Crampton Gap Shelter for the night.  It's been a walk in the park today.  Easy going and I've done 11 miles or more, in a half a day.  It's been a great day.
     Swing'n Jane and Simon
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