Maryland, which side were you on, anyway?

It took us sooo long to get through Virginia...then before we knew it, we blew through West Virginia and Maryland, in less than 3 days.

If you happened to be driving down I70 in Maryland, on Monday evening around 7:30 pm, you would have had the opportunity to honk your horn at two sweaty hikers crossing the pedestrian bridge near US40/National Pike. In all our journeys down I70, I'm not sure we've ever actually seen anybody on that bridge. However, we took our time crossing, to allow as many people as possible the opportunity to view real, live thru-hikers. The truckers all blew their horns, and as passenger cars whizzed by, I could see people gesturing and imagined the conversations.

"Look up there, those people are hiking the Appalachian Trail."

"Oh, really? I didn't know it went through here. How many days does it take to hike that trail?"

"I don't know. Say, did you read that funny book about it called...what was it called?"

"A Walk....a Walk in the Woods. You know, he encountered a grizzly bear on his trip."

(For the record, the trail runs 2,174 miles from Georgia to Maine; we've been on the trail 95 days and are only halfway there; Bill Bryson wrote A Walk in the Woods and despite the grizzly-looking image on the cover, most assuredly did NOT see a grizzly, as they do not live in the Eastern US.)

We hiked Maryland in two days, and didn't feel too badly about moving fast, since it's a part of the trail we will likely revisit in the future. The first few miles out of Harper's Ferry were blissfully flat, as they followed the C&O Towpath, now a bicycle trail that runs from Cumberland to Washington DC. We walked through the famous Dahlgren Back Pack Campground with its hot showers and flush toilets, and I decided it was the perfect place to get my mother started on backpacking. (Oh yes, Mum, I will get you out in these woods for an overnight, just you wait!) We ate dinner with a troop of Boy Scouts at the Youth Campground near the (first) Washington Monument, which was built in 1827. We finished out our brief tour of Maryland in the Pen Mar Park, which had hundreds of picnic tables, and even a swing, right off the trail.

When we entered Pennsylvania, I literally dropped to my knees and kissed the ground. No small feat with a 30 pound load on your back.