Green Ridge State Forest
Last weekend (March 31st, April 1st & 2nd) Robert and I went for a 3-day 45 mile backpacking trip. We have tried to go every year for the past 5 years, but somehow it has turned out to be every other year or so. With Robert completing an Outward Bound course during the summer of 2006, I think we were ready for another adventure. Some of the prerequisites for this trip were: it had to be during a specific time frame (Robert’s spring break), it shouldn’t be more than about 4 hours drive away (this was 3 and a half), and going south sounded better than going north (OK, we went west). After all the planning was done, we were off. All basically went to plan except for one thing, we planned the trip without a map. We tried to order one over 2 weeks in advance and it never showed, so we had to buy it the day of. Originally we were hoping to do three 15 mile days, instead it turned out to be more like a 15, a 19, and a 11 mile day.
Since this has now been over a week ago, I may not go into as much detail, but I’ll run through each day. Saturday (March 31st) I got up about 4:30AM to finish packing, take my last shower for several days, and eat some breakfast to pick Robert up by 6AM. I left the house a little after 6 running late and we were officially on the road a little after 6:30. It was about a 3 and a half hour car ride south on I-95 to Baltimore than west on I-70 to GRSF. We checked in at the office, paid our fees, and got our map. After looking at the map and seeing the state had built a few Adirondack Shelters, we decided to get going and aim for one of them – about 15 miles away, which turned out to be mostly down hill. It was a long day to say the least. I was up late the night before, up early that day, had driven a decent drive (why does driving take so much out of you?), and was now hiking in the “mountains” of Maryland with a 50 pound pack on my back.
Robert and I quickly slipped into Bundles McFister and Duchon Mandik mode rather quickly. That night we stayed in one of the shelters. It was both very cool and very weird. The coolness was that we didn’t have to set-up or break-down the tent, we were pretty much guaranteed to stay dry if it rained (we had a 50% chance for most of the weekend), and it gave you a place to sit down other than the ground. The weirdness for me basically boiled down to the fact of my sense of security was all wacked out while sleeping since these things only have 3 walls instead of 4 – it made me feel very exposed.
The next morning (April 1st) we woke up kind of crunchy. Fortunately it had not rained while we were asleep, so we got to start our day dry and prepare some breakfast and break camp. We knew today would be the most miles (we weren’t sure quite how long when we started) and the flattest of all the days, so that worked out to be a good combination. Funnily, as soon as we started hiking the rain started, it only really lasted an hour or two but the timing was hilarious. Just to get the morning off to a good start, while we were crossing a creek I slipped and fell. Just before my face was about to hit a rock, I caught myself and thought I was OK, but because of the momentum, my back kept going and busted me in the back of the head slamming my face into the rock. Robert was in front and didn’t see it happen, but when he turned around and asked what happened all I said was ‘I face-planted’. In the long run no major injuries, no stitches or anything just a funky bleeding nose for a couple hours.
We were hiking from GRSF to the C&O canal and we were going to follow the C&O canal tow path from Lock 67 to Lock 58. The exciting things about the C&O canal from my perspective were the Paw Paw Tunnel, the first couple Locks we saw, and the fact that we camped in a place named Devil’s Alley. Other than that, the C&O canal tow path has got to be one of the most boring, repetitive, straight, and boring, repetitive, straight, and repetitive trails I have ever hiked, especially for as long as we did. My feet were turning into meat-puppets and my attitude was not staying high. We eventually hit Devil’s Alley campsite which was feet away from the Potomac River. And right when we hit camp, right when we took our bags off – it started to rain again. This almost broke me. I was so exhausted, I was starting to feel like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump when he is yelling during the storm on the shrimp boat. It rained for about another hour – long enough this time to get most stuff wet while we set up and most of the easily accessible firewood wet too. I would have loved to have had another one of those shelters again that night. Everything else went alright that night. After we went to bed, a few hours later it really started to rain for a little over an hour, lightning and thunder – the whole deal. So to say that sleeping wasn’t easy isn’t saying much at all.
The next morning (April 2nd) we were both drained. Two nights of not enough sleep after too much physical activity can just wipe you out. The positive was we knew it would be the shortest amount of miles, the negative was that it was basically all uphill. Actually let me rephrase that, it could have been all up hill, but instead it was repeatedly up really big hills just to go back down again and to do that over and over again about 4 or 5 times. And when I say big hills, I’m talking 1 to 2 mile stretches with 500+ feet elevation gains and drops. That third day was an ass-kicker of a day. Even with the shortened miles, but because of the elevation changes, it still took us a full day to do the hike. We arrived at the trail head where the car was about 5PM.
We both brought a clean set of clothes for the car ride home (lesson learned from the past), changed, called our girls, and hit the pike – next stop, Brewer’s Alley in Frederick Maryland. Brewer’s Alley is a brewpub about an hour from GRSF and about 5 or so miles off the interstate. It was nice to have a beer, and food someone else cooked, and to sit in a stable environment, but it is always weird to have to deal with people, and traffic, and not peeing wherever you want. The cask-conditioned dry stout was excellent. It took us longer to get home than I would have wished, but home and safe we made it all the same.
I hope we get to go on another trip soon. We try to go once a year which doesn’t happen, but I’d really like to go twice a year to once a season. We started to talk about a trip in June when Robert is done school, we’ll see. Even though it probably comes off that I am bitching about this trip a lot ( and we bitched a lot on the trail too), I still really enjoy myself and feel a great sense of accomplishment when I have finished. Good job buddy.
April 9th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Nice. I would love to do one of these, but I would never be able to hang with you guys pace wise. Not in that kinda shape. Glad you posted about this, I was literally getting ready to call and ask for the skinny.