Harpers Ferry, WV to Delaware Water Gap, PA

Day 3, Sunday, September 21

Rocky Run Shelter to Ensign Cowall Shelter, WV, 15.6 miles

What an unbelievable day! If yesterday was a day to sample what Hurricane Isabel could do, today was proof of what she actually did. One of the toughest days I’ve ever had on the trail.

I wake up at 6:47 AM. Still dark in the shelter, so I roll over until 7:15 AM. When I begin to hear the Boy Scouts camped below me stirring, I get up. I pack up and I’m hiking by 7:47 PM. It’s a pleasant morning for the first hour. I reach Dahlgren Backpack Campground without having to scramble over too many blowdowns. That’s when my luck changes.

I stop at the DBC for a minute, but the facilities are closed. I had passed two couples yesterday afternoon just before Rocky Run Shelter, and I find them camped here. I find out why a minute later. Putting on my pack, I don’t walk more than two hundred yards before I find where the world has fallen in on the trail. There are trees across the trail as far as I can see, and it looks worse to the left and right. I’m at an impasse. It takes me more than twenty minutes to climb around and through the tangle of trees, getting scratched up a lot in the process. Half of the trees are covered with poison ivy! I pity the two couples behind me.

It’s almost 10 AM by the time I reach Turners Gap and the Old South Mountain Inn. It’s closed, I suppose because of the storm. On the ridge above the gap I find my second set of impossible blowdowns, soon to be followed by numbers three, four, and five. I actually get lost and can’t find the trail after I circle around number five. I lose thirty minutes circling and re-circling before I pick up a white blaze. Thirty minutes in the brambles.

It’s a minute or two after 11 AM when I reach the Washington Monument State Park. The park occupies a prominent place on the ridge, and is supposedly the first monument built in honor of George Washington in the 1800’s. I spend thirty minutes using the phone, walking up to the monument and climbing up to the top. It’s 11:45 AM before I leave.

On the ridge above the monument I find two PATC volunteers clearing the trail. I could have used their chainsaws this morning! I stop and talk a few minutes to see if they know the trail conditions ahead. They say they’ve heard it’s rough north of the Pogo campsite. Oh boy!

Turns out the trail isn’t in too bad of shape ahead. I have to scramble over a few blowdowns, but it isn’t too bad to I-70 and the Pine Knob Shelter. I make the shelter by 1:30 PM. Seven and a half miles in five and a half hours. Not very good on pace. I have to stop for water at the shelter, but I’m debating whether to stay here tonight or move on. I’ve got 8.1 miles to the next shelter, Ensign Cowall. It’s too early to stop, but almost too far to cover before dark at the pace I’m making. Can’t do that without water though, so I get out my filter and head for the spring. It’s 2 PM by the time I push on, after downing a couple of ibuprofen first. I want to reach the shelter before dark, in time to get water and get cleaned up before sunset. Gonna be tough.

The top of the ridge turns out to be nice. I stop at Annapolis Rocks for a minute at 2:45 PM. After the Annapolis Rocks side trail, the AT hasn’t been cleared so it’s scramble, scramble for the next mile or so to Pogo. What I was dreading though turns out to be not that bad. It’s just the rocky trail surface that’s giving me a fit with my tired legs. Then a rocky ridge walk for over a mile. My legs are fading fast.

After a sharp climb up to the ridge, I begin to descend quickly to the Wolfsville Road. The shelter isn’t far now. I cross the road at 6:45 PM and reach the shelter ten minutes later. I can’t believe I made it. Oh, my legs! I’ve averaged 2 mph on the afternoon section. Not too bad, but I was really struggling.

I hike back to the shelter spring for water and soon I’m rehydrating and cleaning up. Chicken and rice and hot chocolate for supper. I need that. I eat while I catch up on my journal. It’s after 8 PM and pitch dark before I finish. Good feeling though after a tough trail day. Shelter to myself for the night.