Day 64 45 Miles and 4 States

April 27, 2024

We hiked over 45 miles today in 16 hours 15 minutes. We finished three states and entered a fourth.

Last night there were a couple drunk people who walked past our tents yelling at each other at about 10PM, so that kept me up for a bit. But I slept decently from about 11:30 to 4:15. We packed up and started walking in the dark by 4:45.

We hiked down into Harper’s Ferry and over the Shanondoah River as the sun was rising.

We hiked through the town of Harper’s Ferry and accidentally took a half mile detour to the ATC headquarters at around 6AM.

We then passed some ruins and hiked over the Potomac and out of West Virginia.

The first few miles of Maryland involved a flat walk 4 mile walk along a decommissioned canal. I was surprised at how much the flat and consistent trail tired my legs. Were used to walking on varied terrain and pitch so 4 flat and even miles were unexpectedly difficult.

We passed some ruins of stone buildings in MD before entering a consistent young growth forest for the rest of the day.

We had a couple climbs up and down, but nothing overly difficult. There were a few views and overlooks.

We hiked through a meadow as well.

Overall, MD was pretty close to populated cities and the trail had a lot of litter and graffiti everywhere. It definitely didn’t feel like the pristine wilderness of VA. There weren’t a ton of views, so I don’t feel like we really missed much by pushing through the whole state so quickly.

We stopped to eat three times throughout the day, at 7AM, 1PM, and 6PM. To finish the day off the trail took a hard uphill climb, then dropped down a steep and rocky half mile descent. The rocks were brutal. Our feet were very sore so sharp rocks on a steep descent made them hurt much more. And once we hit the bottom the trail routed right over boulder fields, instead of taking the perfectly clear forest floor right beside the boulders.

The final 5 mile push was hard. We were exhausted so it was difficult staying on our feet and moving forward. We had a nice sunset view into PA before finally hitting the Mason Dixon line. We are officially done with the south and in PA.