Sparky!
04-29-2003, 21:44
Well, it was interesting and fun.
Weather: Rain Friday Night through Saturday evening. Clear from Saturday evening to Sunday.
Route: From Antietham Shelter (Pennsylvania) to Devils Run Race Course ( Maryland) 12.07 mile one way... 24.14 miles round tip.
Shelter: Deer Lick Run Shelter. All in all not a bad shelter, It is twin shelters with room for 4 per shelter (comfortably), nice privy and good fire pits. Clean but really muddy around the shelter due to the rain. The Shelters are right off of the trail and a few tent sites are up the blue blaze trail. Water is available at the spring which is also on the blue blaze trail.
Devils Race Course Shelter. If you have the ability to pass up this shelter, do yourself a HUGE favor... do it! This is a very old shelter. The floor is not even close to level, the roof leaks and it is .3 tenths of a mile down the mountain. It is easily accessible by the road and there were a bunch of teen agers having a party until 2 am. Not my idea of a good shelter. AVOID IF POSSIBLE. Good points of the shelter are the "Devils Race Course" It looks like a river of boulders and when you get in the middle of it you can hear the underground river... that was pretty neat. There is a tent site at the top of the mountain on the right hand side of the trail with a fire pit already established.
Gear reports: Precip Jacket. I was able to test that out. Word of advice.. do not wear a fleece under it... It gets warm fast and makes one sweat terribly. I did not really notice how much I sweated until I took off the jacket and literally wrung out my fleece. An absolutely great jacket once I figured out the ventilation ... never had problem one with it after that.
Campmor rain pants: Wetted out quickly. I need to retreat them and I also put a small tear in them when I sat on a rock. I guess I got what I paid for and I will leave it at that.
Peak1 Cobra Tent: Worked FANTASTIC. Have taken this one out for many occasions but this is the first big rain storm it was in. She did not shake or flap one bit. It was warm, dry and mostly.. All the tent we needed.
Socks. I have to start wearing liners. I stopped when I had such positive results this winter while hiking without them. DUH.... my feet didn't sweat in the winter... they did this trip and I had hot spots up luckily no blisters...
People I met: Two people I met of special note were two section hikers who we met at the Devils Race Course. Preacher ( a preacher from Tennessee) and Zen Monkey (an ER doctor from Washington State). These two were unbelievable ... two of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet and talk with. I would write more but words cannot explain what it was like just to sit and talk with these two great guys.
Sites Seen: Crossed the Mason Dixon Line. I thought there would be more hoopla but it was just a sign on the trail... next to the Welcome to Pennsylvanian sign and the sign for "Free Whores". Unfortunately I had to explain to my son that they did not misspell "horses".. LOL
Visited Penmar Park. Great view, it has a rest room and a visitor center. A good place to take a break and have lunch... Located just south of the Mason Dixon line. The facilities were not open when we were there... they open in May but it is a nice pit stop.
The view from Rocky High is breath taking. Those of you who have seen it know what I mean. I was able to take the blue blaze trail to the over look on Sunday when it was clear. It is unbelievable... A do not miss side trail.
Medical Stuff: This trip was not without its moments. While exploring the devils race course I stepped through a hole that was covered with duff and twisted my knee. I did not realize how much until the next morning climbing out devils race course back to the AT. The last two miles to the car were excruciatingly painful. I iced and elevated when I got home and took some IB...Things are better and I am back to 100%.
Found a tick on me. My bicep felt like I had a strap burn and I looked down and I thought it was a blood blister... nope.. it was a tick Not bad right? that SOB was halfway burrowed into my arm and around it was already black and blue. Plus I could not pull him out. So I went for my tweezers... someone took them out of my medical kit... UG. The bad news is I got frustrated and pulled him out but let half of him still in my arm. So I pulled out the safety pin, an alcohol pad and did a little rooting around and got the rest of him out. Hit the wound again with alcohol swab and some antibiotic... I had to go see the doc when I got back and I found out I did not even get close to half of that SOB out. She got the rest out and now I am on a pill form antibiotic. Hmmmm
Food: Tried out the new dehydrated Chicken Stew. If you like Chicken stew with dumplings... you will love what we had. The vegetables that I dehydrated came back like I never dehydrated them ... the tomatoes were just the same.. A good meal with LOTS to eat.
Made apple cobbler with dehydrated apples... What a treat! Good... mmmmmmm Preped the apples before drying with cinnamon and sugar. Put a little butter and brown suger in the pot with enough water to cover the apples and wal-la.
Tried Pizza Sandwiches. Picked up some mini bagels at the market, put on generous amounts of pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. It was like eating cold pizza. Pretty good.
Jerky. I dried some turkey Jerky for this trip. Bourbon and BBQ. Turned out great and it was all gone by the time we got home.
Over all a really great trip with lots of memories.... I put up the pictures on the web for you all to see.
http://community.webshots.com/user/sparky2003
Enjoy!
Sparky
Happy Trails!
Weather: Rain Friday Night through Saturday evening. Clear from Saturday evening to Sunday.
Route: From Antietham Shelter (Pennsylvania) to Devils Run Race Course ( Maryland) 12.07 mile one way... 24.14 miles round tip.
Shelter: Deer Lick Run Shelter. All in all not a bad shelter, It is twin shelters with room for 4 per shelter (comfortably), nice privy and good fire pits. Clean but really muddy around the shelter due to the rain. The Shelters are right off of the trail and a few tent sites are up the blue blaze trail. Water is available at the spring which is also on the blue blaze trail.
Devils Race Course Shelter. If you have the ability to pass up this shelter, do yourself a HUGE favor... do it! This is a very old shelter. The floor is not even close to level, the roof leaks and it is .3 tenths of a mile down the mountain. It is easily accessible by the road and there were a bunch of teen agers having a party until 2 am. Not my idea of a good shelter. AVOID IF POSSIBLE. Good points of the shelter are the "Devils Race Course" It looks like a river of boulders and when you get in the middle of it you can hear the underground river... that was pretty neat. There is a tent site at the top of the mountain on the right hand side of the trail with a fire pit already established.
Gear reports: Precip Jacket. I was able to test that out. Word of advice.. do not wear a fleece under it... It gets warm fast and makes one sweat terribly. I did not really notice how much I sweated until I took off the jacket and literally wrung out my fleece. An absolutely great jacket once I figured out the ventilation ... never had problem one with it after that.
Campmor rain pants: Wetted out quickly. I need to retreat them and I also put a small tear in them when I sat on a rock. I guess I got what I paid for and I will leave it at that.
Peak1 Cobra Tent: Worked FANTASTIC. Have taken this one out for many occasions but this is the first big rain storm it was in. She did not shake or flap one bit. It was warm, dry and mostly.. All the tent we needed.
Socks. I have to start wearing liners. I stopped when I had such positive results this winter while hiking without them. DUH.... my feet didn't sweat in the winter... they did this trip and I had hot spots up luckily no blisters...
People I met: Two people I met of special note were two section hikers who we met at the Devils Race Course. Preacher ( a preacher from Tennessee) and Zen Monkey (an ER doctor from Washington State). These two were unbelievable ... two of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet and talk with. I would write more but words cannot explain what it was like just to sit and talk with these two great guys.
Sites Seen: Crossed the Mason Dixon Line. I thought there would be more hoopla but it was just a sign on the trail... next to the Welcome to Pennsylvanian sign and the sign for "Free Whores". Unfortunately I had to explain to my son that they did not misspell "horses".. LOL
Visited Penmar Park. Great view, it has a rest room and a visitor center. A good place to take a break and have lunch... Located just south of the Mason Dixon line. The facilities were not open when we were there... they open in May but it is a nice pit stop.
The view from Rocky High is breath taking. Those of you who have seen it know what I mean. I was able to take the blue blaze trail to the over look on Sunday when it was clear. It is unbelievable... A do not miss side trail.
Medical Stuff: This trip was not without its moments. While exploring the devils race course I stepped through a hole that was covered with duff and twisted my knee. I did not realize how much until the next morning climbing out devils race course back to the AT. The last two miles to the car were excruciatingly painful. I iced and elevated when I got home and took some IB...Things are better and I am back to 100%.
Found a tick on me. My bicep felt like I had a strap burn and I looked down and I thought it was a blood blister... nope.. it was a tick Not bad right? that SOB was halfway burrowed into my arm and around it was already black and blue. Plus I could not pull him out. So I went for my tweezers... someone took them out of my medical kit... UG. The bad news is I got frustrated and pulled him out but let half of him still in my arm. So I pulled out the safety pin, an alcohol pad and did a little rooting around and got the rest of him out. Hit the wound again with alcohol swab and some antibiotic... I had to go see the doc when I got back and I found out I did not even get close to half of that SOB out. She got the rest out and now I am on a pill form antibiotic. Hmmmm
Food: Tried out the new dehydrated Chicken Stew. If you like Chicken stew with dumplings... you will love what we had. The vegetables that I dehydrated came back like I never dehydrated them ... the tomatoes were just the same.. A good meal with LOTS to eat.
Made apple cobbler with dehydrated apples... What a treat! Good... mmmmmmm Preped the apples before drying with cinnamon and sugar. Put a little butter and brown suger in the pot with enough water to cover the apples and wal-la.
Tried Pizza Sandwiches. Picked up some mini bagels at the market, put on generous amounts of pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. It was like eating cold pizza. Pretty good.
Jerky. I dried some turkey Jerky for this trip. Bourbon and BBQ. Turned out great and it was all gone by the time we got home.
Over all a really great trip with lots of memories.... I put up the pictures on the web for you all to see.
http://community.webshots.com/user/sparky2003
Enjoy!
Sparky
Happy Trails!