Hike #877; South Mountain-Pen Mar Loop

Hike #877; South Mountain-Pen Mar Loop

8/28-8/30/15 Snowy Mountain and Penn Mar Loop Backpack with Jillane Becker

AT crossing at Mentzer Gap Rd

This next trip was just Jillane and I out for a weekend to cover the next bit of the Appalachian Trail heading south from where we'd left off at South Mountain. We discussed how easy that section of the AT was, and how we could loop mostly within Michaux State Forest, so it would work out well for us for the weekend. This would essentially complete the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania for me as well. Other than from where we'd left off in South Mountain, at the base of Snowy Mountain, there is only a little bit I've never hiked near Showers Steps on Blue Mountain and below Hawk Mountain, and I'll have done the entire AT in PA. So, I really wanted to reach the Mason-Dixon line.

Day 1

We arrived late, and so we didn't cover a lot of mileage. The idea was just to get to a camp site. We stopped at Sheetz and pigged out on the way there, and arrived in South Mountain a little before dark. We had some trouble finding a place to park, and quite luckily found a spot exactly where we had turned off the AT on the previous trip, Snowy Mountain Road. We literally picked up where we'd left off.

We headed gradually up hill on the trail to the crest of Snowy Mountain. It was of course a very easy ascent. There was a camp site a little ways up, but we passed it up to see if something better was a bit ahead. We found one more possibly suitable spot, but passed that as well. We then went way ahead to a rocky area and began descending. That wasn't going to do, so I went ahead a little more to look for something while Jillane turned back looking there. I soon just waited because I couldn't find anything. Jillane was still moving back, so I headed back, and when we got to a level area she wandered a ways off trail and found a pretty good camp site, with a closed up fire ring. She re assorted the stones to a good shape, and we got a good fire going. We had a lovely night at this first site.

Day 2

Our camp site

I woke up first, but also slept in. Once I was up, I wandered around the site and had a look around. We were just off a side trail that connects with the AT, the only one we'd crossed the night before. I didn't realize we were so close to both that and Chimney Rocks Road, actually within sight of the campsite.

I had read on the map that there was a fire tower or something just up the road, and so I decided to go and check it out.

I wandered out the side trail to the road and turned right. I walked a ways along the Chimney Rocks Road, and eventually came to a path to the north which had a little cairn pile by it. I walked the path out to a semi cleared area, apparently done by forest service, with a bit of a view to the west toward the Ridge and Valley geological province. The trail really went nowhere so I headed back to the road heading to the north and west. I came upon yet another clearing, this one close to the road on the left, from which I could see more of the mountains in the distance. I thought about the Tuscarora Trail which was on top of them and how I wanted to walk it. I continued on along the road, and found a tree growing interestingly on top of a strange rock, then came to a small side road headed to the right. The main road continued ahead and would seemingly return to Snowy Mountain Road further along, but the one to the right headed toward some kind of cell tower. That was all I could see. I was at first very disappointed because it might just be that the tower shown on the forest map was just the cell tower and no fire tower may exist at all.

Snowy Mountain Fire Tower

Still, I walked closer and felt relief as I barely saw the box of the fire tower above the evergreens closer to me. Even as I got much closer to it, it was not very apparent until I was directly at it's base.

In the tower box

View from the fire tower

South Mountain Restoration Center

Just before the tower base on the road was a giant fire pit. This wasn't just a fire pit, it was a bonfire pit. It obviously hadn't been used in some time, but it sort of shows how there might have been a problem with people at this site in the past.

I made me way to the base of the tower and found more disappointment. The tower was completely surrounded by heavy chain link fence. At first, I thought there was no way I was going to be able to get into the thing. It was just buttoned up too tight. I walked around the outside of the fence line, and on the other side I saw a large opening cut into the chain link and said "SCORE" to myself. No one else was around. I looked around the area carefully for hidden cameras and such, just in case, and when it looked clear, I shimmied through the hole and up the tower.

The steps were made of wood, and they weren't in the best of shape, but they were serviceable. I hurried on up holding onto the metal railings that appeared to be just bent bits of beefy angle iron. It wasn't too bad yet. As I got closer to the top, I started to be able to see through the trees. Really only the bucket is above the tree level, which is why the tower is so obscure.

In the last couple of levels, there was a doorway to block people from going up further. The door was opened and no key was in place on it. I walked on through, and continued up. It was a see through linked metal material much like the walkways on railroad bridges.

This tower was different than many of the other towers I had been up as it got closer to the top. The tower followed the same pattern pretty much as other towers I had been up, switching left to right and climbing within the framework, but after the door in the metal blockade, the stairs oddly switched to the outside of the tower framework. This was quite an unnerving section. It did not feel really safe. I was hanging off the edge of the tower on these awkward stairs. I climbed up to the last level, which was possibly even more scary.

The walkway in front of the box, situated on the east side of the tower, was the same kind of open grate decking as the door and railroad bridges, and I noted that there were no angled braces underneath. it was held on from above with some sort of metal contraption. I didn't dare stand on it for any longer than necessary. The door to the box was wide open so one foot went directly in without even planting weight on that forsaken decking.

Most of the windows in the tower were sadly smashed out. There was a strong breeze at the top which felt really nice. I looked off and found impressive views in all directions.

To the north, I could see up the South Mountain formation and probably into the hollow where the Raccoon Run Trail follows, former AT route, and then over to Rocky Mountain the current trail follows. The formation rolled off into the distance. I could see west into the Cumberland Valley, and beyond to the Blue Mountain/Kittatinny Mountain area on which the Tuscarora Trail runs. To the south I could see down the mountain probably well into Maryland, but I am not familiar enough with those mountains yet to begin to positively ID any of them.

To the southeast, I could see into a valley with some minimal development. This was the area around South Mountain I suppose.

View northeast from the tower

In What I figure must have been the northeast, there was some of the most impressive view, with the more level land out beyond the hills of the South Mountain. This was one of the clearer parts of the view I could see. I wished I could positively identify more of what I had been seeing from atop Snowy Mountain, but only one thing stood out that was quite certain: the South Mountain Restoration Center.

On the last hike Jillane and I had done out here, the connection to the north of this, we headed to the center and walked right on through. Some of the buildings are abandoned, but most all are pretty impressive. They were built in the early 1900s, and some of them like the Children's hospital section have been abandoned for many years.

The large main building was in plain view, oriented in a directly pointing to my left, and I was facing the Children's hospital building head on. It was really cool seeing these unique structures from so far up and away.

View of South Mountain Restoration Center

I headed down the tower from here, and then made my way back the way I came. The dirt road took me back through woods, and I checked out some of the evergreens growing through there that I didn't recognize. There was one that reminded me of a Hemlock, but was not. I'm still not sure what species of tree it is. They were both saplings and full grown in the undergrowth.

I headed back down the road and could see our tent from it even before reaching the trail. It was pretty obvious out there. I didn't realize we were quite that close when we set up. We packed the tend up and were on our way down the trail, back along the unmarked one which led shortly to the AT.

The AT route was pretty easy. We passed a trail register and signed in, then we made our way to cross a gas pipeline from which there was a little bit of a view. We passed a few hikers on the way, and a family.

The trail started losing some elevation, then we got to the Chimney Rocks Trail. The guide said it wasn't far to the rocks themselves with a view to the east, so we opted to take the side trip up to them.

Chimney Rocks

The rocks were getting bigger heading to the top. I was just waiting to get to something I recognized from back in 1995, the only time I'd ever visited Michaux State Forest prior to my own hikes. It was part of a rock climbing training trip I did with the boy scouts.

On the way, we found a cool rock overhang with a camp site and fire pit under it. That'd be a great place to camp because we wouldn't even need the tent.

We continued from here to reach Chimney Rocks. They were quite impressive, with good views to the east, and a body of water off in the trees. I think that mush have been a reservoir I had been considering camping near if we did not take the AT. The rocks had deep trenches in between them which climbers like to practice on. Jillane went to sit down in the nice shady rock spot we'd found, while I decided to go for a climb in the rocks.

Looking up Chimney Rocks

I headed down into the crevice and carefully climbed as far down as the rocks went, then came back up through a couple of cave like formations between the rocks. It was really pretty neat. Looking up is like looking out of a peculiar shaped chimney. Maybe that's how the rocks got their name.

After climbing around, I joined Jillane for a nice break. I noted some species of trees around looked much like American Chestnuts.

American Chestnut

After looking at the bark as well as leaf shapes, I am rather certain at least a good number of the trees we saw that I suspected to be American Chestnut were indeed so. Many of the taller ones had died, but others of about equal height seemed to have survived. Perhaps there are naturally blight resistant ones. I know Beech leaves look similar to American Chestnut, but the bark of these trees definitely was NOT Beech.

The trail began descending much more from this point, and eventually we reached the Tumbling Run Shelters. These were really nice ones too, with a pavilion in the center. I walked up and chatted with the guys there, one of them the maintainer. I mentioned that I'd recently been to the Quarry Gap Shelter north of Caledonia, and the guy told me that this shelter was sort of in competition with that one for nicest facilities. I joked that that one at Quarry Gap was like going to Longwood Gardens, with it's plants and such up there. This one had tent pads and was kept really nice. One shelter had a sign that said "snoring", and the other read' Non-snoring". I thought that was rather humorous.

We continued down hill a bit further over some nice steps, then crossed Old Forge Road, which the AT followed over the bridge over Tumbling Run, then continued through woods. We then headed out over Rattlesnake Run Road, beyond which was a long trench. I figured this must have been a mill race of sorts. This was probably a correct assumption because just ahead was the Old Forge picnic grounds. The trail took us along the berm of what was once a pond, then emerged at the corner of the picnic grounds. There was one masonry wall on the northwest side that we could see, which could be from Civil War vintage or earlier, but few other historic remnants.

I took a walk up hill and around a bit but didn't find really anything. There had been a camp there, and there was a chapel across the road, as well as other buildings associated with that. I can't find anything on line about a forge that existed in the area otherwise. We had a nice break by a little building where there was a tap to refill our water. It tasted particularly like minerals coming from this one.

Antietam Shelter

Just past this point we came to the Antietam Shelter, at Antietam Creek's east branch. The creek was wide with foot bridges crossing it's branches in a couple of spots. We didn't stop here for long because we'd just had a break. It was a nice spot, but it was so close to roads and such. I suppose the nearby Tumbling Run Shelters were created to relieve stress on this one and offer more room.

We continued from this point gradually up the South Mountain formation again. The only real highlight of this trail section was the fact that it followed some old roadways to opened flat areas that must have certainly been charcoal hearths, possibly associated with the forge that was at the site we had passed through. We passed near and through several of them on a gradual ascent.

After cresting the top, we started a very gradual descent and passed by the Deer Lick Shelters. This too had two shelters. Many of the old AT shelters I was used to are now two of them because of the overuse the AT is getting. We took a nice break here and sampled some of the delicious cheeses Jillane brought with us.

Deer Lick Shelters

After crossing Rattlesnake Run Road again, the trail descended for a bit to near a tiny tributary to the Red Run. We passed by a spring after that, and I chatted with a guy from nearby with a southern accent who told me the trail is more difficult in Maryland than it is in PA, and how this section was pretty easy. He was right, overall it was a cake walk. We went up hill a bit more from here, went over an abandoned road, then descended nicely past the tributary to reach Mentzer Gap Road.

We took a little break here, and Jillane headed up the road a little bit to where it looked like there might have at one time been a house.

Looking for bottles

She put her pack down and started digging around at the slope of something that had been bulldozed, and soon started finding some neat old bottles. She spent probably an hour or more here looking around for more bottles, a passion that has grown great with her as of late. She probably got more of a workout from the digging than any of the hiking so far!

When we finally got moving again, we headed down hill through the woods to reach Route 16. The AT crossed Red Run here, and Jillane stopped for a break. During this time, I hiked a loop side trail called the Bicentennial Tree Trail. It went down along the Red Run to where the tributary the AT had followed joined it. I jumped in and cooled off there, although it wasn't that big a pool, then continued around to see some of the trees and the signs about each one of them. The trail had not been cared for much because there were giant trees fallen over it. I should have left my pack behind doing this because it was hard to maneuver through the mess with it. When I got to the end, there were nice foot bridges over the stream flows.

Bicentennial Tree Trail

From here, we continued on, gradually starting up hill. We had now left Michaux State Forest, and were heading through Appalachian Trail lands to the north. We soon crossed Old Rt 16, then continued on steps up the other side to ascend Mount Dunlop. On the way up, we crossed an abandoned road that I at first thought might have been an old rail line. I read in the guide somewhere that an old trolley line was crossed by the trail. I was a little ahead of myself there. The trail gradually ascended Mount Dunlop, a pretty easy ascent, then descent down the other side on some side hill trail. We crossed Buena Vista Road, named for a former hotel that used to be to the east, then continued to descend on narrower footpath down into the gorge where Falls Creek runs.

AT at Falls Creek

We were very near my personal goal at this point. I had wanted to cover the entire remaining bit of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania from Snowy Mountain to Pen Mar and get into Maryland. If we could get across the Mason Dixon Line, I would be happy. I had a strong feeling that Falls Creek area would be the best to set up camp for the night, and it was only 0.7 mile from the Mason Dixon Line. We could do this.

Sure enough, when we descended into the gorge, we followed old woods roads to a lovely spot with great camp sites and fire rings. It looked like it would be absolutely perfect. Jillane seemed to like it at first too. She didn't want to continue on to the state line from here, but I egged her on. She left her pack and we headed up hill gradually away from the lovely creek. There were masonry ruins and a lot of stone walls, as well as more old roads on the other side. I don't know what used to be there, but it was substantial.

We climbed to the top where we reached a level grade on a power line. This it turns out was the old trolley right of way I was looking for. The AT guide to Pennsylvania often leaves out important things and some serious descriptions, and this time it did not mention that we actually were to follow the right of way, not just cross it.

Old trolley line

The trail followed the trolley line right of way around a curve and out to Pen Mar Road. We crossed the road directly and continued on the right of way directly on the other side. There was a nice view to the right along another power line clearing of the Cumberland Valley. The trail continued to a sign and a foundation, citing that this was the site of the trolley station, post office, and "Jims Pop Corn Stand Ice Cream Hot Cold Sandwiches".

Jillane had a look around and immediately started finding old bottles in the many foundations throughout the area. I walked on, and the AT led to the left, away from the trolley right of way to pass a stone pillar with a trail register mail box in it, then a routed wooden sign that read "Mason Dixon Line". I was happy to reach that point.

I hung out for a little bit while Jillane looked for bottles, but I wanted to fill my water bottle, so I continued on the trail ahead a bit, and she was going to meet up with me. The trail led across active railroad tracks, then onto another bit of the old trolley right of way, one that must have broke away at a junction point that is now obscured. The trail turned right and gradually ascended into Pen Mar Park.

AT on the old trolley line

I liked this section of the AT. It was different than just being in the woods. So often it seems they just put the AT the deepest in the woods possible just so that it stays away from roads and such, and it misses a lot of cool spots. The trail had character just before reaching the Mason Dixon Line.

I gradually ascended on the old trolley right of way, mowed wide through this section with a sign saying that the park closes at dark. The trolley line, when in service, reached Pen Mark Park which was at the time home to some sort of lookout tower as well as many park rides and such. When the trolley right of way opened up into the present day park, it was not quite what it used to be, but there were pavilions and picnic benches everywhere.

View from Pen Mar Park

I felt out of place in this park. the signature white blazes continued across the open park lawn heading south. There was a lookout pavilion to the right. I walked over to it, and checked out the amazing view. This was an outstanding spot. The sun was starting to set, and it cast a nice shadow over everything. Two young guys and two young girls sat in the place enjoying the view, and were quite intrigued by my backpack. One guy asked if I was going to Georgia. I explained briefly that it was only a weekend trip.

The four youths really had very little idea about hiking and backpacking. I chatted with them a bit about where we were going and how we go about backpacking and hiking. They seemed more interested as I went on, which sort of surprised me.

Pen Mar Park

When Jillane wasn't showing up, I figured I'd better act and get back soon. I asked some sort of employee guy on a golf cart where I could get potable water, and he pointed to the nearest building which had a fountain on the outside. I filled up my bottle with great tasting water and headed back down the hill on the trolley right of way to the Mason Dixon Line. I passed back into Pennsylvania to find her still digging for bottles.

I waited with her for a little while, but wanted to get the tent set up before dark, so I continued over the line and back along the trolley right of way. After all, it was only just over a half mile away. I was satisfied with what we'd done by now anyway; this was the seventh time and place I'd ever hiked across the Mason Dixon Line (first was on Brandywine Trail which I did again with Jillane, then twice on Mason Dixon Trail below Chadd's Ford where it zig zags, again on Mason Dixon Trail along the Susquehanna, and then on the NCR Rail Trail near New Freedom PA) and sixth different place I'd crossed.

At the Mason Dixon Line

I headed back down the trolley right of way to the foot path, back to the Falls Creek area where we'd decided on a camp site not directly on the AT, but slightly up hill, still within sight. I set the tent up and then went over for a dip in the stream to clean off. It was quite nice. I read for a little while, but it soon got too dark for that. Jillane was gone for about two more hours, and from when she first got to the bottle pile, it ended up being three. I was starting to get worried, and she wasn't answering any calls. I didn't bring a flashlight down with me, or on the trip at all (I actually don't have a headlamp currently even with all of my night hikes).

Eventually, she called me back to let me know she was alright. I could see her coming from a long ways away through the tent, heading down the trail.

I had already gathered a ton of wood at the fire pit to get a good fire going.

Fire

When she arrived, I used her lighter to get it lit. The wood was actually a bit more moist and gave a bit of trouble, but some paper towels helped it along. Once it was going, the wood was otherwise great to keep it going.

While we were relaxing, we started hearing clamoring coming from the trail to the south. Soon, a horde of kids came down carrying coolers and carrying on loudly. I don't think they expected to see us at the site. They were probably intending to use it. They headed up stream a bit over a knoll and proceeded to party loudly, literally all night long. It was annoying, but I still had no problem getting to sleep. Jillane did, and it really ruined an otherwise perfect camp site for her.

Day 3

By early morning, I was still hearing the sounds of the partying kids. I couldn't believe they were still up. Jillane hated it. We got a late start again, and the kids were all headed out even before us, carrying their coolers off through the woods and back up the hill.

Our camp site

We too headed out on the AT across the foot bridge and along the woods roads heading gradually back up  hill to Buena Vista Road, the way we came. I tried some wild grapes hanging over the trail near the intersection which didn't taste too bad. When Jillane caught up with me, she wanted to take a break. There was an abandoned road with posts going up the mountain just to the west of the AT, and she started looking around for old bottles. It turned out there was an old bottle dump up there, and so we stopped for a bit. She decided to hide her pack up against a tree there for the rest of the trip, and we'd come back to get it later. She did end up finding a very nice old Coca Cola bottle.

Abandoned road

We continued again up and over Mount Dunlop, a pretty easy one that's only about a half mile to the top and the same back down. We crossed Old Rt 16, then descended to current Rt 16 where I took a quick dip in the Red Run. On the other side, we ascended a bit to Mentzer Gap Road again where Jillane took maybe an hour to look for more bottles at the place she had looked before. While she did this, I went and checked out some cool rock outcroppings to the south side of the road. I climbed up the most prominent one and sat down for a bit, then went further down the line, and jumped out to isolated ones, sat on others. There were some big spiders in the things, which stopped me from doing more. I'm not afraid of spiders, but the bite I had gotten about two weeks prior was so bad that it must have been a spider. I'd been stung since that time and it was not nearly as bad in comparison.

When Jillane was ready, we broke away from the Appalachian Trail to follow Mentzer Gap Road to the west, up hill a bit, then turned right on Rattlesnake Run Road, a little used dirt and gravel road into Michaux State Forest. This would be part of our return route. The up hill onto the South Mountain formation on this road was very gradual and easy compared to the AT. It was sad though because there were so many places where people had been dumping their trash along the way.

Along the way, I thought I spotted the horrible Giant Hogweed growing along the road. It sort of looks like Queen Anne's Lace on sterroids, but it turns out it wasn't. I photographed it to check, and this had leaves that were more like garlick mustard, not Giant Hogweed. Giant Hogweed is horrible and can badly sort of burn the skin.

We crossed the AT on the road and continued gradually up hill with countless side roads to the left and right that were not on the state forest map or my AT map. We headed up over South Mountain, then began gradually descending on Rattlesnake Run Road. I walked ahead, and a little black butterfly with spots was landing on me. I tried getting a photo, but it flew off before I could capture that.

The road came closer to Rattlesnake Run and there were some nice rock outcroppings off the road. I stopped to wait when I got to the Chickadee Trail. The road we were walking was red blazed as a trail route which turned left into the woods. Also from here, the blue blazed high water route for the AT along Antietam Creek turned off. We turned left onto that trail, which was very pleasant along Rattlesnake Run, and joined the Antietam Creek. The creek had a wide pool where it intersected with the Appalachian Trail at Antietam Shelter. We made this a break spot because we could get more water again at Old Forge Picnic Area as we'd done the day before.

I laid down in the water and just enjoyed it. It was like a meditation. I felt really great. When Jillane got back I joined her at the shelter and sat for a bit before we moved on. We took the AT again the way we had before, from Old Forge across Rattlesnake Run Road and then up across Old Forge Road. There was a giant ant hill I checked out by Old Forge Road. We soon reached the blue blazed trail that continued up along Tumbling Run from the AT. We turned from here and headed gradually up along the lovely creek.

Tumbling Run trail

I really like this trail. It was narrower and kept close to the water. As we walked, a huge group of kids hiked on by us, heading not to Tumbling Run Shelters but to Deer Lick apparently. We let them all pass.

The group reminded me of myself, when I was about 15 on my first trip to Michaux State Forest. We were coming closer to that spot where we were, but I can't remember where exactly we ended up. I saw the rock outcroppings getting larger, and wondered if any of it was where my friends Andrew Hughes, RJ Morholt, and I headed out to do bouldering, free climbing rocks. We reached a trail intersection where Chimney Rocks Trail continued straight toward the AT and the other trail went to the left to cross Tumbling Run on two foot bridges. We stopped for a break here and I got in a nice little pool of water just down stream.

Hermitage Cabin

From there, the trail continued up hill and passed the Hermitage Cabin, a nice back woods cabin. No one appeared to be around. The trail curved to the left, then the right and soon came to a spot with a bit of a view. Behind me, I saw a rock that looked very familiar. When I had camped here, there was one I was bouldering on, probably a bit high to be doing without a safety rope, but I was going for it, and I slipped and fell off, landing on my back. This looked like it must have been the spot. There were fewer rocks on the ground, which is how I didn't get hurt. I knew we were close here.

View at Schaeffer Rock

Schaeffer Rock

Soon, we came to the spot I remembered so well: Schaeffer Rock. This was where I had done the rock climbing training with the boy scouts. It was just as I'd remembered it. There were even climbers out there clamoring about on the rocks. Reaching this spot was cool obviously because it was a place I really loved, where I'd spent a weekend with my friends camping, and where I said one day I'd connect a hike to, but it was also more than that.

I remember things so much better when they actually have connection by foot, but even I question that sometimes. Is it just me being Obsessive-Compulsive when it comes to trying to make everything connect, or is it really something where I can't interpret things as well without that connection? I get teased by my friends about it, but I realized years ago that this was true. Whatever it is about my mind works best when I connect it physically.

I have never been so sure of that as I was reaching Schaeffer Rock, and feeling so much come back to me in the hours and days that followed.

I remembered arriving, the car ride to the place, so vividly, and those memories were pretty much gone. I remembered driving a gravel road and crossing the Appalachian Trail on the ride. I remembered hearing of Chimney Rocks even though we wouldn't head to that place on this trip. Then, I remembered two guys and a girl who gave us the training course, and then the girl's name came to me. It was Amy Guyson (spelling uncertain), and everyone called her "G". She was a pretty blonde haired girl in a baseball camp, and she would egg us on to keep climbing. Andrew and I of course took a liking to her at the time. Prior to arriving at this point, much of the trip was lost on my mind. I only remembered climbing and my friend Edge Fuentes's dad getting angry for us for wandering off in the dark when there were sixty plus foot cliffs around.

I found the area where I'd been camping, remembered setting up my tent, and that I'd brought four brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts for my breakfast and that Mike Ayers guilted me into giving him one of them. I remembered them calling RJ "Spider" because of how easily he clung to and climbed the rocks. All of these memories were coming back, and by a few days later almost the entire trip had returned to my mind, vividly and with such extreme detail that I am absolutely amazed.

I sat down for a few moments and took my pack off there. I felt a bit overcome by how quickly memories were coming back. It was like someone opened a tap to where they were stored. It was clouding over above us, but I don't think they were calling for any rain. Because I was all stuck on memories and my own amazement at them, Jillane pointed out to me that it was about to rain. She was right. I hurriedly got my pack cover out and we secured her stuff under it as well. We had to get a move on, it was ready to pour.

The sky let loose even before we left Schaeffer Rock. There was a guy out on the main spire of the rock across the crevice who reached the top just as the sky let loose. He was happy with his accomplishement and went on belay immediately after. We got drenched and just headed back to the blue trail down toward Swift Run Road.

The road had a few switch backs heading steeply up to the right. We moved on to the right heading up hill, and the heavy rain was causing the surface of the dirt road to wash away before our eyes, but not badly enough to prohibit driving.

Swift Run Road

We passed another cabin building and the road seemed to go up hill forever. It was only gradual, and it would level off, then go up more. We took a break when we got to a gas line crossing. There was a bit of a view and the rain stopped. I was ready for the hike to be done with, now that we were soaked. If someone had picked us up for a ride on this stretch I wouldn't have minded. We did the acceptable amount of miles and made the connections I wanted. Still, no one offered. We headed further up hill and crossed a small stream through a pipe on the road, which I think is the head of the Tumbling Run (I don't know what Swift Run refers to, same creek?). When we reached the top, it was the unmarked intersection of Swift Run Road, Snowy Mountain Road straight ahead, Rothrock Road to the left, and Chimney Rocks Road, closed, to the right. We continued straight ahead on Snowy Mountain Road, now gradually descending along the edge of Snowy Mountain.

Snowy Mountain Vista

We headed down hill and reached the Snowy Mountain Vista, connecting with where we'd been on the previous hike. This limited view is off into the Cumberland Valley I believe, and it was getting somewhat cloudy. It was looking like the rain might start up again. We were getting pretty close to where we'd left Jillane's car. When I saw the car it was a good relief. We had finished before dark and could now go back to get her pack and some food.

The end on Snowy Mountain Road

We had been talking about stopping at Sheetz again for a couple of hours, which is exactly what we did, even before getting her pack. We also stopped for her to look for more bottles at the old station site in Pen Mar.

I've now done almost all of the AT in Pennsylvania, and everything else coming up is only looking more interesting. I can't wait to get out and explore some more.