When I woke from my night at the Rocky, I was eager to get back on the trail. Sometime before falling to sleep I decided that I would start to hike back to Harpers Ferry the next morning. I still had a lot of things to take care of for my upcoming road trip. I was due to leave in less than a week and I was constantly going over my 'to-do' list in my head. Each day that I hiked north meant a total of 2 more days on the trail.
The previous evening I had told Jim that I was going north a few more days. After getting my gear ready I was out of the shelter and heading back on the trail. Jim went down to get some water and he was traveling in the opposite direction that I was going. He must have cut through the woods because I ran into him a few minutes later. I was traveling south and he asks me if I was traveling in the right direction since I had said I wanted to go north. I told him I had a change of plans and wanted to hike to the Crampton Gap shelter and spend the rest of the day camping. At that point Jim decided that would be a good idea, so for the first time I would have a hiking partner.
Since Jim spends so much time on the trail, he was able to show me a few shortcuts that end up in the same places we wanted, just showing a slightly different terrain. We went up a road that ended up at a few towers and what looked like a small military outpost way up on the mountain. Jim also knows different landmarks and can estimate hiking times from those landmarks. 1 of the landmarks that Jim pointed out was a memorial marker to a young man who had died in an accident. He was involved in doing trail maintenance. His family thought it would be good as a memorial to raise money and purchased a 4 acre section of land that is now used for the trail.
The previous evening I had told Jim that I was going north a few more days. After getting my gear ready I was out of the shelter and heading back on the trail. Jim went down to get some water and he was traveling in the opposite direction that I was going. He must have cut through the woods because I ran into him a few minutes later. I was traveling south and he asks me if I was traveling in the right direction since I had said I wanted to go north. I told him I had a change of plans and wanted to hike to the Crampton Gap shelter and spend the rest of the day camping. At that point Jim decided that would be a good idea, so for the first time I would have a hiking partner.
Since Jim spends so much time on the trail, he was able to show me a few shortcuts that end up in the same places we wanted, just showing a slightly different terrain. We went up a road that ended up at a few towers and what looked like a small military outpost way up on the mountain. Jim also knows different landmarks and can estimate hiking times from those landmarks. 1 of the landmarks that Jim pointed out was a memorial marker to a young man who had died in an accident. He was involved in doing trail maintenance. His family thought it would be good as a memorial to raise money and purchased a 4 acre section of land that is now used for the trail.
We finally ended up at Crampton Gap shelter. While the shelter is older, built by the CCC in the 1940’s, it very scenic location with a spring that runs through the campsite. There is a boardwalk that leads over to the privy. While walking on the boardwalk, you can hear a spring that runs under the rocks. I spotted a small break in the rocks where you can see some water bubbling up through the ground. As nice the Garvey shelter structure was, this site had it beat for camping beauty. So we camped. We fetched wood and built a fire. We hung out and cooked our meals and soaked in the sun.
Later 2 brothers from PA joined us. Both go to Brigham Young University and both are studying to be mechanical engineers. We thought they were twins, but weren’t. And 1 or both of them snored.
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