View Full Version : SOBO through Maryland
Dabrains
08-01-2017, 20:23
Will be hiking Penn Mar to Harpers Ferry Thursday thru Sunday. Any tips, hints, cautions or musts? Sites to water. Will be hammock camping. Thanks.
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kickatree
08-01-2017, 20:29
Kinda rocky. Watch the blazes about 2 miles south of penmar park. The rocky uphill is marked with
White blazes and little orange flags. Trail direction change was a little confusing near the boldery summit.
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Kaptainkriz
08-01-2017, 21:24
When I started sectioning,I started in MD...because I live there. :)
Stuff I found worth seeing if you take your time:
Starting south from Pen-Mar, Raven Rock Shelter is about 4.7 miles away. As Kickatree said, at around 2.4 miles, the trail proceeds steeply up a relatively rocky section for about 0.8 miles. On the way to the shelter, you pass High Rock, which is a blue blazed side trail at about 3.2 miles that goes to a very nice (although graffiti covered) overlook.
Raven Rock Shelter is 0.1 miles down a blue blaze trail, and the spring is located 0.3 miles in the opposite direction down near where the old Devil’s Racecourse Shelter (now removed) used to be. Just past the spring, the trail continues unmarked about 0.2 miles to a really weird rock formation that covers the Little Antietam Creek. This is called the Devil’s Racecourse. I thought it was definitely worth seeing, certainly as much as the many views from peaks available along the AT in Maryland.
The trail between Raven Rock Shelter and Ensign Cowall Shelter has some neat cow fields and more rocks. EC shelter is not good, nor is the spring.
Pogo Campsite has good water but the tent sites are a bit rocky.
The views in this section are very good - Black rock Cliffs and Annapolis Rocks are great at sunset.
Annapolis Rocks is nice and has nice campsites and water.
Pine Knob Shelter is over crowded on weekends.
Visit Washington Monument!
Dahlgren Campground is great.
The Rocky Run Shelters are very nice and the water is usually good.
Lambs Knoll and White Rock Cliff have some small views.
Crampton Gap shelter is terrible - usually no water - water is at the park a little further. The park is pretty cool. There is a small museum that is nice.
Ed Garvey is nice but the water is waaaaay downhill.
The views at Weverton before the descent to Harpers is nice.
I've got a number of videos of the MD sections here: https://www.youtube.com/user/KrizAkoni/videos
Will be hiking Penn Mar to Harpers Ferry Thursday thru Sunday. Any tips, hints, cautions or musts? Sites to water. Will be hammock camping. Thanks.
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Dabrains
08-03-2017, 06:31
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
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If you intend to finish your hike at the ATC office (you can park at church next door) be aware that it is a significant climb out of downtown HF. Your hike ain't quite over when you get to the John Brown site -- there's a little more work to do to get up to ATC.
I hiked Penmar to Snickers Gap in May and found that I only filtered water once or twice because there were so many municipal sources (Dalgren, Gathland, Washington Monument, ATC).
The Washington Monument, Annapolis Rocks, and Weaverton Cliffs were some of my favorite spots. HF was also pretty interesting, but I didn't spend much time there was I was trying to get across the Shenandoah and up to the tent sites 2 miles short of Key's Gap before an evening storm.
It was my first solo trip and I really enjoyed it.