We awakened to sunshine. After a breakfast that included cantaloupe and tomatoes from Paul’s garden along with cereal and tea, Paul drove us to the parking lot on Rt 309 where the AT crosses. We took photos and gave him a “drop dead” time of 2:30 for pick-up in case we did not have cell phone service on the mountain. We started into the woods walking from north to south on a level trail with few to no rocks, ferns and blueberry bushes, for the first hour of hiking. Since the trail was so good we covered about 3 miles during that time. After that the trail became rockier and we had sections of large rocks that we had to scramble over. We could see the rocky cliffs to the north suggesting that some of the trail boulders tumbled down from there. During this stretch we had to hunt for the trail twice since the large rock piles and surrounding trees obscured the blazes. We met only two hikers – one a day hiker and the other a thru hiker from Rockville, MD. We talked with him for awhile. His trail name is Torch because he set his pants on fire one night and the person he had met and was hiking with named him. Then he contracted Lyme disease and had to drop out for 10 days and came back with 21 more days of medication he has to take. He met his hiking partner on the trail but now says he is probably at least 100 miles ahead. Torch is still weak from the disease so he won’t be able to catch up. We marveled at his determination and wished him the best.
We were past lunch time and decided to stop at a campsite. Klaus and Jerry sat on a log and Gale put leaves on the camp ring stones to make a surprisingly comfortable perch. The woods were very quiet except for a hornet who wanted to share our lunch. After a couple of attempts to shoo it away, Klaus killed it. After lunch the rocks continued to fill the trail and Klaus called Paul and extended our estimated pick-up time to 3:30. We did not get out of the rocks until the downhill trail which went straight down with no switchbacks to make the descent easier on the knees. On reflection we decided the trail is about 50% dirt with only a few rocks and 50% is rocks and several boulder fields. Jerry reported that his ankle sprain was much better but that a severely bruised left big toe will make walking more difficult. We told him to stop trying to kick the rocks off the trail. Today Gale finally decided on a trail name – Caterpillar – because she is doing the AT in stages, needs more feet, and saw quite a few caterpillars today.
We finished at the original estimated time of 2:30 and were able to call Paul to have him pick us up at 3:00. Since we were sitting in the shade on a large rock Paul blew by us in his truck. Klaus took fast action and raced out to the road waving his trekking poles and shouting. There is a shelter for hikers further down the road and someone there flagged Paul and told him we were yelling for him.
Paul had never been to the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Visitor’s Center and so we all stopped in. There we found a beaver puppet for our grandson Jack and learned more about raptors which are the reason the sanctuary was established. We then came back to the cabin, folded up our tents which had dried out, did a wash, put out the sleeping bags on the porch to air out and took showers.
We treated Paul to dinner at the Crossroads Inn which he had recommended. Gale had Chicken Marsala, Klaus had crab cakes, Jerry had a Pasta with Marinara sauce and Paul had Chicken Parmesan. Then they all surprised Gale with a Happy Birthday song and a large brownie a la mode, which she shared with everyone. Dinner with conversation lasted from 6:30 – 8:00. We took the long way back so we could look for deer.
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