July 12 Mile 1063

We're in Penn! We're in the South, real or sort of, no more! Maryland was a tough little state. When you drive over you think, "what a nice serene countryside" . The trees hide the rocks and boulders you have to climb over. As I was picking my way through all of them I looked outside of the trail and all was leaves. I guess they raked up the rocks just for the trail. One thing I saw today was rather sad. When you hike in wilderness or remote areas, people with spray paint seldom venture there. Now we are hiking in near suburbia. Went past a beautiful rock formation today that had received a paint job and a lot of personal notations. Don't see that much, thank goodness.
My illness seemed to still be in charge of me as we started this morning. Just didn't feel myself. Luckily, we had lesser hills to climb today. Just want to get my appetite back and my energy. These bugs take about a week for me to bounce back
But, today was a hiker's dream. Beatiful weather, not too warm. Hiked off by eight after a very cool night's sleep. As I mentioned, over rocks, but then after about 7 miles reached Pen-Mar Park. What an oasis! Beatiful county park that back in the day had a big hotel and all sorts of activities. Today it's a very nice park and nice to hikers. Drink machines, bathrooms with water fountains, and pizza delivery! Had pizza and salad for lunch and took the leftovers for dinner. Even had a place to plug in my cell phone for a bit. Beautiful view of the valley below. We stayed there for two hours and relaxed and enjoyed the place. Left there and two tenths of a mile later we were in Pennsylvania! Hiking wise Penn so far in the first 8 miles is a lot like Maryland. Rocks and ridges and lots of trees. But they have the nicest parks to hike through and get potable water, which is in very short supply around here. Hiked til about 6 PM and reached Tumbling Run Shelter area . Run by the Potomac AT Club. They have a big area they cover -about 240 miles. They have a terrific camping area here, which we jumped right on and then one of the local caretakers came by and gave us apples and cokes! It was fantastic. Rain was threatening, so we got our tents up quickly and made our dinner, including the pizza. As soon as we were done, the rain began to fall, perfect timing. Into our dry cozy tents and going to sleep with the rainfall outside to lullaby us. Ah, what a life.
A great hiking day.