Resolutions Kept

I am happy to report that Cathy and I fulfilled our plans to hike the Maryland section of the Appalachian Trail. I know that 41 miles is a drop in the bucket when you consider that the entire trail is over 2,000 miles, but this was a big accomplishment for us. We planned and practiced and hiked local trails but now we realize that our 41 mile hike was the real shakedown for future section hiking. The portion of the trail we did starts out easily enough but then there's a long steep, stoney climb. The Cowell Shelter never looks so good! We pitched our tent on one of the tent pads provided and rested up for a second day of tough climbing and knee challenging descent. We ate lunch at Pogo and forged on to Annapolis Rocks. We had not planned to spend the night there but we were fairly whipped by the time we arrived and it felt so good to unload our packs. We were able to walk around the whole campground and see the beautiful views. We decided to risk a reprimand and pitched our tent on the Caretaker's wooden camp pad. This was the only campsite with a pad and also the only one with a picnic table. Annapolis Rocks is easily accessible to day hikers and dog walkers so we saw quite a few people as we sat at the picnic table. Everyone was so friendly and polite and then one young man asked us if we liked being caretakers!