Kaptainkriz

This was another short hike to clean up some of my Appalachian Trail miles in Maryland. It was a great weekend and parking was tight at the I70/US40 parking lot. I’m glad we got there early, before 0830. The lot was already packed!! Our plan for the day was to hike from I70 past Pine Knob Shelter, Annapolis Rocks, Black Rock, and stay overnight at POGO Memorial Campsite. The trail was relatively easy for the 1st 0.8 miles, after which it ascended up to the ridge at a moderate slope where it leveled off again. The trail is wide and easy to traverse in this section. Annapolis Rocks is a beautiful overlook and worth the day hike for that alone. There are 11 tent sites at Annapolis Rocks, 2 Privies, and a great spring. Also on site is a caretaker to keep things organized. It’s a pretty crowded location. After we stopped by there, we continued to Black Rocks another mile or so up the trail. It is also a great overlook, and much less crowded. At about 3.9 miles along the Appalachian Trail is POGO Memorial Campsite. The area is a little deceptive. We met up with a PATC ridge-runner who was doing a site assessment to determine usage. The obvious camp area west and down of the AT is not an official site and they were moving people from there up the hill to the formal camp area. There is also a monster fire ring right on the trail that is also illegal and will be removed. East and up is the correct campsite with Privy and all. There are a dozen or so tent areas, some worse than others, only a couple I’d call really nice. Many rocks and uneven ground make it hard to set up. There are a couple cool fire rings with rock lounge seats. From the main AT in the North/West side trail, there is a pretty good spring a couple hundred feet away. POGO offers water and privy, but no food hang, picnic tables, or other amenities. It’s a pretty primitive site. At 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday, it was empty. By 5PM it was full. There is a lot of traffic on the main AT coming up from the side trail to visit the cliffs. Most of this traffic has no idea this campsite is here, which is good for the hikers. The last section we have to complete in MD is from POGO to Raven Rock. We hope to finish that soon.