Amie on the Run: Backpacking the AT

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Pine Knob Shelter to Raven Rock Shelter

Northbound miles 1049.6 to 1062.7

I am happy to report that Kara slept much better and warmer sharing a tent with Misty. We had planned to be on trail at first light, but somehow overslept that plan. I blame the cozy sleeping bag I was tucked into.

We ended up getting on trail a little after 8am, still with vague plans of making it 18 miles to the Pennsylvania border-we would see how they day unfolded. The hike away from the night’s shelter was a steep one, leading to Annapolis Rocks.

We planned to refill our almost empty water bottles when we arrived at Annapolis Rocks, but after taking in the spectacular view, we had a little trouble finding the spring. We ended up wasting a lot of time there, walking around looking for the spring, but finally found our water source. Getting water here was a necessity as the next usable water source was many miles away and we were all running on empty.

After a couple of extremely rocky miles of trail, we made the decision to abandon our earlier plan of 18 miles, and instead hike about 14 miles with a stop in the middle. When I say extremely rocky, I mean extremely rocky. Also, my watch died during this time, and I had no power left in my bank to charge it. Womp, womp. I'd have to rely on Misty's watch!

Smithsburg, Maryland was just 1.6 miles off trail, and we decided pizza and a small food resupply would do us good. At the trailhead, Kara made a couple of calls to people mentioned on the FarOut app as possible shuttle drivers in the area. Luckily, her second call reached a woman named Linda, who said she’d take us to town for $25 and could be there in 15 minutes. SOLD. I cannot even tell you how excited we were for this little excursion!

Linda was right on time and soon we were piled into her car and on the way to town. She took us to a little strip mall with a grocery store and a Domino’s Pizza. We thanked her, expecting her to drop us and go, but she said she’d wait for us while we ran our errands and then take us back to the trail. We were ecstatic. We ran to Domino’s, ordered a pizza each, plugged in our electronics to charge them a bit, then headed to the grocery store. We had about ten minutes to navigate the store and grab what we needed. We all felt like we were on a television supermarket game show!

Soon we were back in Linda’s car with bags of groceries and hot pizzas on our laps. We were three very happy hikers.

We thanked Linda profusely, along with professing our love for her, when she dropped us back off at the trailhead. Now we just had to figure out how all of this new food was going to fit into our packs!

We ended up cramming food into our bear canisters and every available pocket, eating half a pizza each, and then combining the rest into one box and strapping it to my pack. Just call me Sherpa Amie.

With our bellies stuffed and our packs very full and heavy, we continued on. We had four miles to our shelter for the night.

Almost immediately the trail opened up into a green, grassy field and we all started singing The Sound of Music. It was soooo nice to be off of the rocky trail for a bit! I stumbled upon a pair of glasses someone had lost and I am pretty sure the rule is, if you find glasses you must wear them. We were having so much fun!

The magical field of green was short lived, though, and all too soon we were navigating a rocky trail.

Up, up we went and then a steeeeep downhill. At the bottom was our next water stop, where we’d get what we needed for the night from a good flowing stream. Although rocky, the forest was beautiful here and I was enjoying myself.

Throughout our hike we had come across many of these bugs on the trees. We found out they are called Spotted Lantern Flies, and they are invasive. Those little critters were everywhere!

When our bottles were filled, we crossed a road and then it was time to climb. We had 1.8 miles to camp and it was nearly all uphill. And when I say uphill, I mean UPhill. So many rocks along with huge step-ups filled the trail. We stopped twice to rest and remove layers of clothing. On and on we went, and I kept telling myself the end would be here soon.

Finally, the trail evened out a bit and we started looking for the turnoff for the shelter. And there it was!

Raven Rock Shelter is one of the newer shelters on the AT and was very cute, tucked away in the woods.

Two men were having dinner at the table there, so we waved and moved on a bit further. There were several tent pads scattered about, and we chose a spot with room for all of us, next to a fire pit with benches. Benches! We wouldn’t have to eat dinner sitting atop our bear canisters tonight! There was also a somewhat creepy doll with no head near our tent site, but I told the girls it was our good luck charm and would keep the bears away. They went with it.

We threw up our tents, climbed inside to get organized and clean ourselves up, and then we set about making a fire. When we had a good blaze going, we dove for our pizza, devouring the rest of it, and happy we didn’t have to cook dinner this night. Misty, as you can tell, was having a grand old time!