Hike #697; Lancaster to Chesapeake Bay Backpack

 Hike #697; Lancaster PA to the Chesapeake Bay Backpack

5/2-5/10/13 Lancaster to Chesapeake Bay/Perryville MD with Jillane Becker

Jillane and I at A New Beginning Bed and Breakfast

Jillane and I always try to have a backpack trip in the Summer, but now that I have two weeks of vacation, we opted to try for two of them, and do one in the Spring. Jillane would choose the Summer location, and I would choose the Spring.

I really wanted to build off of where we'd left off along the Conestoga Trail in Lancaster, finish the trail headed south. We'd talked about finishing the trail together because we'd enjoyed it so much up to this point, despite the long road walk stuff.

I planned to pick this up where we left off and head south to the Mason Dixon Trail east bound, and just see how far we'd get. I was worried about our transportation, so I planned a route starting at a train station, Amtrack in Lancaster, and finishing up close enough to another Amtrack line where we wouldn't have to rely on anyone else.

As it turned out, we didn't need this at all because Major Tom Conroy dropped us off, and Mr. Buckett and Eric Pace picked us up.

I really loved the diversity of this trip; it was probably the most diverse backpack we've ever done I think.

Day 1

Major Tom brought us to the grocery store on the corner of the Old Philadelphia Road, one of the earliest paved roads in the US, where we'd followed the Mason Dixon Trail in the past. Just across the Conestoga River bridge from this point was A New Beginning Bed and Breakfast, just off the trail route where we could spend the night. The price was pretty inexpensive, really barely more than any of the dive motels in the area, and this way we got breakfast and snacks in addition to the pleasant place to stay. It was a 1913 brick homestead remodeled and decorated lavishly.

We first went in to the Weis Market to get some snacks and such. We looked around for a bit, hungry from the long ride, and then went for a bit of a hike with Major Tom. Since he drove us all that way, and I had to hide money in his car when he wouldn't accept any for helping us, I wanted him to be able to see a bit of what we'd be walking. We followed Pitney Road north for a bit, which the trail follows, to where it turns in to the industrial area and out along the Conestoga River. We passed that point, then turned left at the tracks on the section we'd followed before. Someone had mowed around the utility poles parallel with the tracks where the trail went. We followed the route out to the Conestoga Viaduct, the large stone arch bridge over the river and roads. We hung out under the bridge for a bit, which was nice. I couldn't find anything on any planned extension of the bridge, so I still don't know why there are protruding stones on the down stream side.

When we began to follow the river down stream, Major Tom didn't want to go through the higher weeds, so Jillane went on through and I accompanied Major Tom back to the road to follow it back. Jillane ended up finding a big pipe and lovely blue robins eggs in a low nest.

We re-joined just down Pitney Road and headed back. I climbed up an abandoned driveway to look for ruins or something, but found nothing. Major Tom said goodbye to us at the New Beginning B&B, and we met our host, Denise, who showed us around. We stayed in the Serenity Room, which Denise told us was her favorite. It was quite cozy. We settled in for a bit, and I had tons of tasty chocolate chip cookies that Denise had made.

After a bit, we decided to head back out to find some dinner. We walked back across the bridge over Conestoga River and past the Weis Market. There was a lot of stuff, but it wasn't really the nicest part of town there. We couldn't decide on anything to get, and eventually Jillane settled on a pizza from one of the places, I think Little Ceasars, and then we went back into Weis Market for a few more supplies.

We headed back to the B&B to rest through the rest of the night. I think we ended up watching some of Family Guy and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Day 2

We both overslept and ended up late for breakfast. I thought it was quite great, a mushroom and cheese egg sort of thing with potatoes. Even though I don't care for bacon, I ate some and it was the best it'd ever tasted for me.

We started getting packed to move on from there. Denise packed like three bags of cookies for me and scones for Jillane to have along the trip. None of them made it any longer than the next morning with me.

We followed the Conestoga Trail route along Conestoga Drive, which was lovely with it's huge old estate houses and amazing flowing ornamentals of Spring. The trail followed the road down hill, and then turned off the road to the left, as a paved path. I found a four leaf clover just as we were starting, but chose not to pick it.

We'd already done this section before, but it was a different feeling in the Spring. It was strange seeing urban youths on the path, who started at us uncomfortably, as they were certainly not used to seeing backpackers coming through on this trail. We passed some old foundations and came out to Duke Street. On our last hike here, we turned right on Duke Street and walked back in to Lancaster. The bridge was closed that time. This time, we followed the trail across the bridge and viewed the river, and on the other side turned to the right over grassy knolls into Lancaster Central Park.

The trail guide wasn't very descriptive in these sections. The trail went down over the knoll, crossed an old concrete bridge, then followed the access road up hill to the left. Another trail kept going through the woods, and would have been a better route, but oh well. It rejoined the Conestoga Trail just after it turned away from the road.

The trail became a simple foot path and descended along a slope, across a tributary on a little bridge, then climbed to Indian Maiden View, a nice overlook toward the west I think it was. Someone was smoking pot up t here, as we could smell it and hear awful coughing.

The trail continued on, across an open grassy area, then descended for a bit through some nice woods. There were a lot of very large trees in the area, and it fast became anticlimactic there were so many. There were more side trails, but one unmarked one led to the right to the Rock Ford Plantation. This was the former home of General Edward Hand, one of George Washington's top generals. The home was built in the late 1700s and is the oldest extant historic building in Lancaster. The area is called Rock Ford because there was no bridge, and carriages would ford the stream below the rock outcroppings where it was shallow.

We enjoyed a nice break at Rock Ford Plantation. Two older women asked us if we'd been on the Appalachian Trail (of course). Everyone always equates backpacking with the AT. We told them we were on the Conestoga Trail. I think we just confused them more.

The trail headed up through woods and an open park field which was once part of Rock Ford Plantation, then followed a paved road briefly. There was a latina woman dancing to a loud walkman as we went by. The trail dipped down through woods, and we said goodbye to this sort of urbanization until we reached Havre De Grace.

The trail descended through woods beneath lovely giant Yellow Poplars, and soon reached an abandoned road, now path, along the Mill Creek, a tributary to the Conestoga River. There was a covered bridge, Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge just up stream from us, so we went to check it out. This bridge was moved here from it's original spot over Conestoga River to protect it from future floods.

We turned right, and followed Conestoga Trail down stream on the abandoned roadway, in what maps call Kiwanis Park. The road began to ascend for a bit, and near to the top we turned left onto a washed out foot path steeply to the edge of Mill Creek. It wasn't blazed very well, but it was obviously the trail.

The trail continued along Mill Creek, first along a dug in side hill trail, and then gave way to a wider flood plain, and even some field edges and old farm lane parallel with the creek.

This section was unbelievably lovely, and reminded me very much of the sections of Conestoga Trail along the creeks to the north. The trail eventually came out to a farm house on a small road, and followed that out to Golf Road where we turned left.

There was enough of a wide edge to Golf Road that we didn't have to walk on pavement the entire time. We picked up some golf balls and threw them to golfers by the end of the road. We had to turn left on Rt 222, one of the busiest roads of the entire trip briefly, then right into Roslyn Ave to Conestoga Drive. The road section paralleled the river, but we couldn't see it. The saving grace of most of this development was that almost every house had some sort of interesting and unique tree in it's yard.

We headed down hill and turned right onto Eckman Road, which led us further down and across Mill Creek on a nice old through style truss bridge, now closed to traffic. We had a nice break by the bridge.

We climbed the hill on the road section on the other side, and Jillane spotted an old railroad trestle to the right, below the road. I had no idea there was a rail line here. It was interesting to see something like that there. It paralleled the road for some time, and crossed it twice. There was a quarry area on the right with a couple of underpasses still in place. After passing an historic stone house, the trail turned left onto Brenneman Rd. We could see the abutments to a rail bridge over Brenneman to the right.

We turned left, and soon the road made a ninety degree angle right. Jillane found on the corner the abandoned Kreider-Snavely Cemetery, which was really cool, hidden behind ornamental evergreens from sight of the road.

The trail soon continued straight on Millwood Road through sort of a cut out area, then headed down hill to turn right on Schultz Road. We passed another B&B, which had all sorts of "house of the lord" religious stuff  on it. We continued as the road became more open, and led us to the village of New Danville, where we visited another old cemetery.

We turned right on an older road alignment that dead ends, then left onto New Danville Pike heading south. We passed a Turkey Hill mart, so we had to stop for some sustenance. It was a good thing because we wouldn't see anything else for quite some time.

The trail continued along New Danville Pike for a bit, then turned right on Long Lane. I was thinking this would be a pleasant back road, but the first stretch of it was really busy and not exactly the best road walk. The farm views were pretty great, and we got a nice view of the Millersville University, but the shoulder was narrow and it wasn't great. I wondered why this was the route, and eventually found out that Long Lane as well as Conestoga Blvd beyond were the original route of the ORIGINAL Conestoga Trail, the native American trade route. The route was absorbed into the colonial roads after being settled by Europeans.

The Long Lane section got better when we got beyond Stehman Road, which leads to the village of Slackwater, probably named for the old Conestoga Canal. It was then the little used back road I was hoping for. This section unfortunately had no Amish buggies I was hoping for. We did pass the former Postelthwaite's Tavern, which served as the Lancaster court house in the 1700s for a time.

The trail stayed on Long Lane all the way to the hamlet of Rock Hill. There, the Rock Hill hotel stands on the left, constructed in the 1700s. There was a state access to the Conestoga River to the right, which we had to of course check out. There were masonry ruins along the river to the right, which certainly must have been a remain of an old canal lock. I read on line that there was a dam that was recently removed at the site, which would have easily supplied a slack water canal section. The masonry at the site had later concrete additions. It was certainly wide enough for a canal, so I guess this must have been it.

We looked around to see if there might be a place we could stealth camp, but really found nothing. We continued ahead, and Conestoga Trail turned onto Conestoga Blvd, the historic trade route, and passed a lovely old through style truss bridge over the river. Along this section of the road, we didn't see any canal remnants, but it certainly must have been here with a wide enough area in most cases for it.

Soon, the trail turned left into the woods next to a little cascade over rocks, where a stream enters the Conestoga. We headed into the woods, and the trail crosses next to a small bamboo grove and concrete foundation ruin. There were also steps up to where there was once a house or something. We looked around for a bit, and found an excellent spot to camp up on a bluff overlooking the Conestoga River, but out of sight from the road. We set up camp well before dark, and Jillane made us some noodles and stuff for dinner. This was exactly the area I'd intended to get to for the day.

Day 3

I woke up early, as I tend to do, and went for a walk. I headed off to explore the ruins, found another foundation on the hillside higher above the stairs. I went up and down the trail ahead, and back down to Conestoga Blvd and River, checked out the old stone arch bridge, then made my way out onto the stones along the river to look for canal remnants. I saw a lot of stone, but nothing obvious that looked like anything to do with a canal. There was fog rising off of the river which looked amazing. I enjoyed the view for a little bit before heading back to the camp site to wake Jillane.

We packed up from the stealth camp site, then continued on along the trail as it turned away from the little tributary. The near sound of a mower blared somewhat close by as we were packing up. It turned out to be some guy mowing a steep slope below a power line next to a zip line. It was a trip to see this guy with a push mower on an almost vertical slope.

We crossed the open area, and passed the giant, zip line over a fifty foot drop, then turned up hill gradually. The trail crossed a little creek and skirted near to a field heading up hill. It picked up a woods road, turned onto a foot path, and then passed some sort of mini game farm with deer in chain link fences. The trail emerged next to a home behind the Zion Cemetery. We headed through the cemetery and came out on Main Street in Conestoga. We passed a church, as the trail turned left on the road through the village, which said Bethel Evengelical on it. Was this settlement called Bethel? I know the village of Conestoga is marked on Google Earth just up the road, but this fits in with it. I know it was Conestoga Twp, but this part might have been called Bethel. Not sure.

The nice little town was rather upscale. We didn't see any Amish, and the people appeared to have money. One lady stopped us and asked if we needed water. I was good, but Jillane took a bottle.

The trail turned off of Main Street onto River Corner Road. This was a bigger road, with an old school turned industry on the left. We had to go up hill steeply to where the trail turned left onto Hilltop Road. This was a nice, small road with some great views from the hills. It passed some railroad fan's house with all sorts of old signs and such, and then headed down hill with a small park area and overlook to the right. I was really looking forward to this section as being an Amish area with rustic dirt roads and such, but it ended up being more like homes of rich farmers. On the guide, it read "No, you are really way down in the country". I thought it would be something great, but it ended up being a barn that read that on the side". The road was very very nice, but not so unlike the farm roads we have back home.

The trail turned left onto Meadow Lane, then right on Sickmans Mill Road, followed by a left on Pequea Creek Road. Still all very nice back roads with barely any cars, but they were sometimes very open and hot. Jillane used her umbrella by the time we got on Pequea Creek Road. This road headed up hill, crested and descended steeply to a nice area parallel with Pequea Creek. There was a family giving their kids rides on a trailer drawn by a tractor as we walked by. I was thinking it's not all that different from home, but I suppose for so many people this is just totally different. It did have a very homey feel, a sort of slow lifestyle.

The road came close to Pequea Creek and was quite pretty. We passed an old bridge abutment, and then came to another bridge over the creek to the left, a truss bridge that was also closed to traffic. We went out onto it to have a look.

The road soon turned up hill to the right, away from the creek and past a farm full of cows. I started talking to them, and they all congregated together. Only one moo'd at me, which was cute. We talked to them a bit, then moved on up hill along the road.

The road went down hill and over a creek, and passed a large pig farm with the words "Bacon Acres" on the side of it. There were a lot of pig screams, which Jillane thought sounded like they were being slaughtered. She might have been right, but I also thought of my friend Action Adam's pig, Taylor, and how he made all sorts of screaming sounds all the time for no apparent reason.

We went up hill and made a hard left turn onto River Road, heading down hill. This was a slightly larger road, but not overused. We saw a few cars, but not many. The road descended, and Jillane pointed out the Martic Forge railroad trestle ahead in view, towering above the valley of the Pequea Creek. It was quite a sight even from far away. We descended further, and soon the road was along Pequea Creek again. The trail turned off of the road to the left, and followed the edge of the creek. This was a lovely section full of Mayapples.

As we continued, the Martic Forge trestle came into sight. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a high speed line called the Enola Low Grade Line. It's currently under development as a rail trail by Lancaster County.

Jillane and I took a break directly under the trestle. It towered high above us with it's deck girder truss in the middle plainly in view. I went ahead to take some pictures, and then waded through the deep Pequea Creek to the other side. There was a steep ladder board that led to the top of it, which I tried to climb until wasps started coming after me. An Amish buggy went by on that side of the creek, and some kids in Mennonite apparel went by while we were there.

I waded back across the creek,  and then climbed up over the road on the other side. There was another wooden ladder thing on the near side of the creek, so I climbed it a ways, and it ended. I then bushwhacked up to the top of the trestle. There was a hole in it that could be climbed through by way of a wooden structure hanging from the east end. I climbed into it, and it was pretty rickety. I then realized I could get on the trestle by just walking around.

There were galvanized posts that probably held a chain link fence that was taken down from next to the trestle. The deck seemed to have some tough railroad ties, but a lot of them were in poor condition, especially on the former westbound track part. There was also a great deal of evidence that portions of the tie decking had been set on fire and weakened. It made some interesting noises as I walked across that was no consolation to me. A guy went across on a bike, along the eastbound track side while I was on it. That made me feel a bit better. But no one else came by. The rail bed in both directions from the trestle was covered over in a three quarter inch gravel, not really the best thing for walking. It was extremely exposed, and I couldn't see us wanting to follow this route for any amount of time.

I climbed back down after walking back and forth across the trestle, then reached the Conestoga Trail. We continued on from here, and the trail climbed to and crossed the creek on Marticville Road. It then turned right briefly on River Road, and passed the former site of the Martic Forge Hotel. Only the foundation remained of the historic building that burned down in 2003. It was reportedly built in 1900 and once served as a trolley station. A trolley line once followed the Pequea Creek from here to the Susquehanna River, and the Conestoga Trail followed this right of way most of the way between those points.

At first, it wasn't evident that it was a trolley line. It soon started to look graded, but washouts, missing bridges, etc, often bore no resemblance to it's former heritage. We crossed a few scenic creek inlets on a well built and graded trail, passing through State Game Lands 288. To the right, the Pequea Creek soon was strewn with giant boulders and had some very nice cascades. One spot known as Suzie's Hole warned paddlers to portage the area due to extreme danger.

We continued along the trail along the trolley right of way until we came out to cross a road at the Colemanville Covered Bridge. This bridge was apparently a replica of the original that was built around 1856. Still quite a handsome structure. The trail continued on the camp road to the Pequea Campgrounds, which followed the trolley right of way. There was a camp store, but we didn't stop. I was originally thinking we'd end up camping at this site, but I'd found Tucquan Park campground further ahead, and Jillane and I decided we could go to the further one instead.

We continued along the trail, which left the camp road and became a simple dirt and grass path through open areas. It passed by a couple of mobile homes, which seemed to be semi permanent residences, and entered woods, looking once more like a rail trail. When a side trail went left, a sign ahead read that the trail was for local residents and Conestoga Trail hikers only. I don't know who else might want to go through there....

The trail passed along the creek and eventually came out into a drivable dead end road, with an abandoned and collapsed house above to the left.

It seemed like only every third house in this little community was lived in at all. Some stair cases led to where homes obviously were, some were collapsed and in deplorable shape, and others were simply abandoned and looked reasonable. Some of them were completely covered over in vines to the extent where only the shape of the house was visible behind the vegetation. It was really an interesting area.

The trail emerged from the Trolley Road to a marina where the Pequea Creek entered the Susquehanna. It was quite a sight to see. The trail went out to Bridge Valley Road, turned left, then left again up hill into a development. We stopped for a break at a little deli place called Hoggie's. It was sort of a hole in the wall little spot, but I was glad it was there. I had a sandwich, since I was so hungry, and we got some drinks.

From here, we followed the trail up hill, then it turned right onto Ridge Road. It passed some former cottage sites, then climbed steeply up the bluffs above the Susquehanna, passing some nice big trees and offering some seasonal views of the river.

It didn't seem like long and the trail descended again, passed by a mobile home area, crossed Bridge Valley Road, followed by a small creek, and began to climb again. It crossed a seemingly abandoned road near a house, and climbed the bluffs above the Susquehanna once more.

After we'd gained a great deal of elevation, we went by the largest tectonic cave in the eastern United States, known as "Wind Cave". There were three kids coming up behind us, without packs, and they went right in. I wanted to go in and explore, and Jillane went ahead a bit to take a break. After the kids were in, I followed shortly. It went down, and there were sort of steps in place for a bit. I went down and back up the other side, and the cave went to the right a bit. I could see up through the cave to the surface, where there was a small crack. The guide I brought said that most of the caverns were un-traversable, but the three kids there told me that you could get out the other side. I went in a bit, but they got too far ahead of me, and I couldn't see so I decided to go back.

On the way back out, I used the walls to guide my hands, but there was a deep side cavern, and I fell to smash my face into the side of the wall. Fortunately I wasn't hurt and made my way back out the main passage. I went up hill, rejoined Jillane and we continued on the trail. The trail passed through some seriously tight and rocky areas I was not expecting to find between interesting rocks. A lady I passed going the other way said there were more of them ahead.

The trail followed the bluffs above the river for a while, but then descended to cross House Rock Run. We then climbed steeply up the other side once more. On the way up was another tight rock section called Fat Pack Squeeze. The trail continued to climb, soon up onto a large rock with a narrow section in between, with a very steep and far drop off to the right. There was an alternative route marked below this spot. I was glad to take the top way, because it led to the top of House Rock, possibly my favorite view on all of the Susquehanna Bluffs. It even had "House Rock" scrawled into it. I could see the Norman Wood Bridge beyond crossing the river, which would be our route the next day.

Jillane went on ahead, and I took a bunch of pictures before beginning the descent to Brubaker Run, another creek crossing. We wend down and back up, and there were some more nice views, but the sun was going down. We kept moving along and made our way down to Tucquan Glen. The Tucquan Creek is a more popular spot along the Susquehanna, with trails going up and down both sides of it. The Conestoga Trail hit another trail which went both right and left, but we went left. The trail at first followed a woods road. We were to turn off of Conestoga Trail to reach the Tucquan Park campground which was shown as not being very far away. I was relieved when at first the trail was just an old woods road, and on the maps, including Google it was shown as "Tucquan Glen Road". We soon found out the road was long abandoned and absorbed into the trail system, and it crossed Tucquan Creek several times. The trail however did not. Conestoga Trail turned right and crossed the creek, but we had to make our way out of that gorge to the east. We began to follow another trail, which was sometimes on the road, some times dug in or constructed on the edge of the creek, which could often be quite narrow.

Eventually, we came to the parking area for the preserve on the old Tucquan Turnpike. It was disappointing to see that the right hand turn to the south we needed to make led up hill toward our destination. It seemed like forever walking the road to the Tucquan Park entrance. Even after getting there, the dirt camp road seemed to go on forever. I called in when we had cell service and payed for a camp site. We walked to the store, which they had graciously left open for us since we needed some nourishment. They barely  had anything there compared to other stores, but we fortunately found menus to local pizza places that delivered until late. It was really dark and we hadn't even found a camp site yet, let alone let up the tent.

We ended up walking back and forth on the camp roads, because the map wasn't oriented north and I was having trouble reading it. We eventually found a spot near the shower facilities where a whole biker group was staying (and being loud). I called and ordered us some food from the pizza place, and they agreed to deliver. I called them back and told them I'd be on the camp road, directly adjacent to our site, to pick it up.

A guy in a BMW showed up to deliver our food. We were so hungry. Jillane and I split a calzone that must have weighed five pounds, and she barely ate any of it before getting stuffed. I had an entire order of pizza fries and finished the calzone without even feeling sick.

We had some nice showers and despite the loud bikers, partying all night long, I think we both slept pretty well! This ended up probably being our most difficult day of the backpack. We needed the rest.

Day 4

I woke up early as I always tend to do and did some wandering around. The bikers were already up to some extent too, being loud but not as bad as the night before. They were taunting each other in the restrooms relentlessly. I went back to the camp store for some more snacks and such, and tried to figure out where to set my phone and cameras up to recharge.

I had a stroke of luck when the cleaning lady came by and offered to open the handicapped shower for me. I not only was able to have a very nice and more private refreshing shower in a full bathroom, but I had my own plugs with which to charge my stuff. I hung out at the entrance to the bathroom or close by for quite some time to get stuff done. I was able to hold the room off until Jillane was up so she could use it as well.

From the camp ground, I was told there was another way out via a trail that would lead us more directly to Tucquan Glen, but we didn't see it. The guy who told me was fat and driving an ATV so I probably shouldn't have given it as much thought. We wandered to the power line in the camp ground before saying screw it and headed back on the road the way we came.

I noticed a bit the night before, but certainly during the daytime I could see old stone lined edges for drainage on the former Tucquan Turnpike. Quite interesting. I got to Tucquan Glen first, and talked to some Mennonite girls in nice dresses, speaking properly while I waited. I moved on down the road from them and they all giggled hysterically as I walked away. I wonder what they were talking about.

When Jillane arrived, we took the trail on the opposite side of the glen to head back down. It ran close to the other trail, just across the narrow but often deep and rocky creek. It didn't take long before we reached Conestoga Trail, which then headed down the creek on the other side too.

There were some nice wooden bridges deep down in the glen, and some places that would have been perfect swimming holes had it been a bit later in the season. The trail went down hill and reached the railroad tracks along the Susquehanna at a nice old stone bridge. The trail then turned hard left at a rocky outcropping and followed it steeply up hill. I let Jillane go way ahead of me for the next couple miles.

There were some really amazing rock formations as we reached the top, and the trail seemed to be intentionally routed to go past or even over and through the more interesting looking ones. We continued along the trail until we got to Lower Rock Vista. There was an outstanding view up the Susquehanna from here, but just way too many people around to enjoy it, none of them with serious backpacks or any backpacks at all. We soon reached the Pinnacle Overlook, the highest point along the Susquehanna we'd reach, with amazing views  up and down the river of the slack water Lake Aldred. We sat there for a long time, and some people asked us how far we were going. I thought we were going to have to give up, but Jillane wanted to keep going enough, so we moved on.

The trail ahead was much easier, now just a woods road for a time. It soon came to another foot path with more views along the way. As we descended more, there were views of the Norman Wood Bridge ahead. When I set up what I thought we could achieve each day, I wanted to get just to the other side of Norman Wood by this day. I thought we might get further since we had done more than I anticipated the day before, but that didn't work out.

The trail continued to descend until it reached an old roadway along Kelly's Run, near where it joins the Susquehanna. There was an old through style truss bridge below, with no decking, that was for the access road. The trail turned left here to follow also Kelly's Run Nature Trail, which loops from Holtwood Recreation Area. We passed a few people on this stretch, but not many at the point we were at now.

There were a few masonry ruins at this point of the trail, but as it continued up stream along Kelly's Run, the glen got deeper and narrower. The trail got to points where tiny steps were carved into the rocks, made of a material called Wissahickon Schist. The cliffs and cascades in this glen were outstanding.

We continued up stream until the narrowness of the glen became less, and Jillane found a map of the local trail system on the ground. The stream itself soon showed signs of some sort of past control, with vertically laid rocks that apparently the creek was supposed to run over. It's a curiosity why such a thing would ever be built.

After a fork in the stream, the trail turned right and followed the smaller fork, below a giant cliff face. A guy walked by here looking for his friend's dog that went missing in the preserve. It was starting to get later, but I knew we'd end up finding a place to camp.

The trail leveled off a bit, only climbing gradually. It also became wider and obviously more used. We made our way across a power line, then into some more dense woods. I read in the pamphlet about a previous land owner's grove of Norway Spruce Trees. I knew these trees supply adequate cover for camping, so I figured we could try that, but we first headed into Holtwood Recreation Area. It was a wide grassy areas with a pavilion and water fountains that we turned on. As we walked out of the woods, three people came racing out hollering, and scared the bejesus out of us, or me anyway.

It was Bijal Shah, Lyz Hagenbuch, and Ric Giantisco. They had decided to do the 17 mile section of the Conestoga Trail from Martic Forge all the way to the southern terminus as a day hike. They hurried off to finish the trail before dark, and I wasn't sure we could make that, but we did decide to try.

The original Conestoga Trail route in the next section was closed to a place called Face Rock, which has more views, so we'd have to go back to do that section. The trail now followed a rather nice back road called Bethezda Church Road. We continued on roads out to Rt 372. We were now seeing more Amish buggies going by us. Apparently even the highway is a popular through route across Norman Wood Bridge. As we descended toward the Susquehanna on the highway, Jillane was nearly run down by three consecutive Amish Buggies barreling toward her. With the cars nearby and such, it's more dangerous for them to try to stop the horses I guess.

We continued on the highway out onto Norman Wood Bridge. I had pictured a serious bridge with pedestrian walkways, but such was not the case. This road had barely any walkway on the edge at all!

The sun was just setting as we began to cross the bridge. It was probably the most amazing time of day we could have done this section of the hike. I took a million pictures up and down stream. The Susquehanna was stunning with the grass and tree covered rocky island protruding very obviously from the water. Up stream, we had a good view of the Holtwood Dam, the longest dam I had ever seen to date. Maybe Conowingo a bit further south might be a bit longer, but I have doubts.

As we walked across, Amish Buggies came passing the opposite way, and when the horses saw our giant backpacks, they spooked and began going into the other lane with traffic coming. Jillane warned me we should switch sides. When the horse was getting spooked, I hurried across and apologized to the gentleman with the reigns, to which he smiled and said "it's okay!".

We made our way to the other side, and Conestoga Trail turned right at River Road, then right again into the Lock 12 Recreation Area. The historic site is owned by PP&L and managed as a park. The trail went down hill, turned left at restrooms and joined the Mason Dixon Trail. I wasn't sure that was the same blue blazes yet, so we continued on Conestoga Trail. It passed some lovely old lime kilns to the left, then headed over a lovely foot bridge over a creek, then reached the site of Lock 12, part of the Susquehanna Tidewater Canal. The trail went up onto the well preserved lock walls and continued up stream parallel with the Susquehanna. The Conestoga Trail blazes went left up hill, and we followed them to a kiosk. At the top was the sign that showed Mason Dixon Trail and Conestoga Trail, then Scout Trail in the other direction. We had reached the southern end of the Conestoga Trail.

Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to celebrate the first single long distance trail Jillane and I completed together. We had to find out where we could camp. We got on Mason Dixon Trail and followed it southbound, past the restrooms and lime kilns again, then off to the riverside and beneath the Norman Wood Bridge, which was a great view despite it growing darker all the time.

The trail continued along the old canal towpath for the most part, and then passed the ruins of Lock 13, also in pretty good shape, though overgrown. The locks are numbered down stream, interestingly. From here, the trail crossed a weird low area with some strange plants. Blazes were hard to see in this spot that often is flooded, obviously. The trail then went onto Peavine Island. The island was topographically amazing. We followed the trail on it for a while until we got to where there was a cliff face and a spot where someone had obviously made a makeshift shelter. We opted to turn off here and look for a spot. We found a fire pit and sandy beach along an island cove, beside the Susquehanna. It seemed perfect so we set up camp.

Before long, we heard sirens going off. This was unnerving. The site obviously goes under water, but had not in some time. We didn't get the good night's sleep we wanted because there was always that fear of rising water, even though it probably would only seldom touch the island. We found out later that the sirens run drills constantly, and that it's not a worry unless it sounds for more than a solid three minutes. Regardless, signs indicate to get away from the river or any water's edge if that siren is heard, with threat of prosecution. Where we camped, there was no such sign however.

In Havre De Grace

Day 5

I again woke up first, then did some exploring, camera in hand.
I went back to Lock 12 a ways back on my own in search of more water since we were running low. The day before was only about 11.7 miles, but took a long time, and we used a lot of water. I figured we'd be fine at Lock 12, but the problem was that when I reached the restrooms there were signs warning not to drink the water from the area. I had to walk all the way back, but first explored more of the ruins. There was an interesting former mill site we'd missed called the Anderson Mill I checked out. There was a map that explained what was in the area. I noticed this time an old abutment of where a covered bridge once led out to Peavine Island and across the canal. The island apparently once had a hotel on it and more, and the canal passed along it.
I eventually headed back, then explored all over Peavine Island. The water had dropped quite a lot over night. Of course; I knew how pumped storage worked from the models at Yards Creek from when I was little. My grandfather explained it that water was pumped up at night when people use less power, then let out during the day to generate for more net energy gain. I then realized that the water level would soon come up, possibly higher than it was when we arrived and it was already being drawn back.
I continued looking around, and climbed some rock ledges out onto the river. There was a line of rocks just shallow enough that I could walk across the cove on top of them. This place was spectacular. I climbed out onto the rocks and looked up stream on the Norman Wood Bridge. Just as I watched, an Amish Buggy was the solitary vehicle crossing the bridge. It was an amazing scene I was unable to capture with my camera. I didn't even think about it until it was too late. I just enjoyed the visual.
Jillane got up and we packed up our stuff to go. I was glad no hoodlums showed up the night before. The area was obviously used relatively often, but since we were there on a Monday I suppose it wasn't as much of a party night.  We headed back out along the cliff face, then head to climb up on the Mason Dixon Trail and follow it further out onto the island. I'd found better, higher up camp sites during my exploration, but oh well, too late. The trail descended and crossed back off of the island by way of giant boulders that could be pretty easily stepped on. One had another carved step out of it to get up. We saw kettle holes from erosion in the rocks, similar to what we had in Van Campens Glen back home in Warren County.
The trail climbed very steeply up from the river, then reached River Road, a seldom used little road section and turned left, southbound. Along the road, there were a few houses, and one had a guy in the yard messing with his chickens with a southern accent. I asked him if we could refill our water. With his thick accent he agreed and said "Yep. We got water and electric and everything up here". I'm not sure if he was being sarcastic or serious.
The trail turned left off of the road onto a short drive to the old canal once more. To the left it was into someone's yard, but still had water, and the trail followed the towpath to the right. This led us along a pleasant section to Lock 15 (We never heard or saw anything of Lock 14). It was a nice little spot, probably at least as good as Lock 12 was in terms of canal interpretation, but it's probably newer, and it does have less stuff overall.
The trail went a bit beyond Lock 15, then turned right up a boat launch access road back to River Road and turned left.
After a hard corner, the road and trail together climbed the bluffs above the Susquehanna to leave the river's edge. This would be another long and tiresome road walk, although this one was much lesser used than the first disappointing one on the Conestoga Trail this time. We got a little bit of a view of the Muddy Run dam on the other side of the reservoir from the top, then moved on from the river.
We passed a cemetery and some horses and cows, and bought some asparagus at a roadside table. It was pretty good. The trail turned left onto Slab Road and continued, then we got a view of the Peach Bottom Atomic facility which we were to reach as well later on. The trail turned left onto McKinley Road and past an historic old mill ruin, then left again on Delta Road. This was one of the busiest roads we walked.
We were tired by the time we got to the top of this, and hungry, but I had cell service once more. I did a google search, and found a pizza place that would deliver to us at an upcoming street corner. I ordered an entire pizza as well as two sandwiches we could have for dinner later on. It didn't take all that long for the guy to show up with our pizza on the corner of Delta and Gaging Station Road. He asked what we were up to, and when I told him we're hiking from Lancaster toward Havre De Grace MD, he asked "What made you decide to do that???". I don't think he realized we were tracing a trail route, which is what most people assume when I tell them. They just think we're walking the road. We pigged out and felt quite a bit better.
Gaging Station Road, also known as Paper Mill Road, was the next route. We saw a cat as we walked down it, but it did not come out to greet us. As we began to descend, we chatted for a bit with a guy working in his yard about his son who is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail after never really having hiked before. He had not hiked the Mason Dixon Trail despite the fact it goes in front of his house. The guy was very friendly, and was an employee at Peach Bottom where we were going. He told us the section coming up was very pretty.
He certainly was right. We descended through fields to reach the road bridge over Muddy Creek. Once on the other side, the trail was a foot path leading gradually down hill along the stream. It was at one time an old roadway which has simply become a foot path over the years at this point.
We waited a bit before going down, as there was a tractor trailer trying to cross this bridge, where the road angles at the approach. We didn't think he would make it, and if he did thought he'd collapse the bridge. We watched him for some time, and he actually made it.  A second guy in a tractor trailer behind him made it as well. It turned out there were a few of them, and as we walked down the trail, which paralleled the road we just walked on the other side briefly, we saw lines of them passing, which means they got over, despite the fact they had to keep going back and forth to maneuver.
The understory in the Muddy Creek gorge was the most diversified I've ever seen in a single place. Aside from the Mayapples and Garlic Mustard, there were several other species I did not recognize, but also the small shrubs, poison ivy, what looked like Jewel Weed, and more. There were a lot of big Sycamore and Yellow Poplar, as well as some Ash on this trip, but one again we came to some really nice giant Hemlocks, although so many of them are diseased and there were plenty of standing dead ones. It was still nice to see a lot of big ones.
The creek went from being rather stony and shallow to deeper at times and more cascades with giant boulders. It was very nice, and the trail became more obviously graded, showing it's past as a roadway. We also passed some masonry ruins of a former hydroelectric facility that once existed in Muddy Creek Gorge. There were great camp sites all over in this area. It was too bad we didn't see something like this either earlier or later. We stopped for a nice break and cleaned off in the freezing cold water. If only it'd been warmer. The cascades in some google things are known as Snap Falls. There was a black sweat shirt that was laying on a log when we arrived, and Jillane brought it along in case she got really cold and needed something.
The trail turned us away from the creek for a bit, climbing high above it for some views, then up along a side stream following the woods road. There was a ruin of a water tank along the road up hill. The trail became a foot path, then crossed the tributary, and picked up a woods road on the other side. We ended up following old woods roads for a lot of what was left of the Muddy Creek section. At one point, there was a cool spot where a built up old road had stone sides and reached abutments for a former bridge. We crossed here, and the trail remained on the road for a time high above the Muddy Creek.  Jillane spotted at an obscured outlook area a fantastic view of a waterfall dropping into the creek. It've taken a lot of time to climb down to explore it, but I really want to go back and try some time.
The trail turned up hill and seemed to lose the woods road. It was mostly a foot path from this part as I recall, occasionally picking up old woods road sections. I was ahead of Jillane, and she called back to me about a snake. I was shocked to see a large Copperhead sitting in the middle of the trail. I must have stepped right over it. It was coiled and looking right at us. Jillane went up hill around it, and I found a stick with which to move it off to the side of the trail. Maybe it was too cold, because it was not fast to react to me, sort of just flipping over and taking  a second to start moving along.
The trail crossed a couple power lines, and then started to descend on a foot path back toward Muddy Creek. The creek must have reached Susquehanna slack water by this point, because the water was calm and we could see the roofs of homes nearby. The trail continued to descend until it reached Coal Cabin Road, a small back road at the private community of Cold Cabin. The trail followed the road past occupied and unoccupied cabins close to the Susquehanna for a while. At a little park, the road and trail together turned right, up hill away from the Susquehanna again. It went up hill a bit, then turned left onto Grove Road. We descended a bit on the other side, then the trail turned left onto the dirt Robinson Run Road, which was really pretty. While walking this section with pretty Robinson Run below us, Jillane poked at some sort of dead animal within the lower stump hollow of a tree.
The road reached another small community of homes known as Coyne Lock, certainly because there must have been a canal lock here at one time. I think the remains of the canal must be under the water of Conowingo Dam at this point. We saw nothing of it for a while.
The trail continued on the road past the last unoccupied house, then headed into the woods on the abandoned earlier route of the road which was now long abandoned. This was the last place I figured we'd have to camp, but we could find next to nothing. Everything would involve either brush clearing or some sort of pain, and the Peach Bottom facility was just ahead. This section was the absolute worst section of the trail we hiked because it was so badly overgrown. It was also full of stinging nettle, and we wouldn't really have anyplace to wash any of it off.
I called Peach Bottom and let them know we'd be passing through their property in the morning, and we set up camp under a giant, amazing Beech tree and had our sandwiches.
Day 6
We both got up early and packed up the tent, then moved on across the Peach Bottom facility. The trail entered Peach Bottom at the corner of Grove and Lay Roads and climbed through woods to an open area beneath the microwave towers. Posts with the MD Trail blazes on them showed the way. We went past the tower, then past several sub stations, some of which had no fences around them. I was afraid if we were anywhere near them they would arc on us.
The trail followed a main access road to the tower, turned off on a grassy cleared couple of paths, then followed utility lines for a bit out to a gravel road going down hill. We could actually see the reactor buildings from this road. The guide said to carry picture ID on us at all times, and so we did, but we were never questioned.
The trail turned right off of the road down to an abandoned railroad right of way. My friend told me that when these places are built, the only way to haul components in are by train or boat because of it being too heavy and/or clumsy or something. The trail went right on the rail bed, then turned off of it just before a cut to reach Atom Road, their main access road.
We followed Atom Road briefly, then crossed a small stream and climbed up hill parallel with another for a ways on a foot path. This section wasn't terrible, but not as well cleared as previous sections. The foot path came to an old woods road, which in turn came to a closed old paved road where we went right. We eventually hit Baldwin Road and turned right.
Baldwin led to a left on Krick Road. On the right before this turn, we saw two Bald Eagles off across the expansive farm lands. A couple of dogs came out to visit with us at a sharp bend in Baldwin.
This road walk was really pretty nice too. It was very rural, and we passed orchards, farms, and cows. The trail turned right on Orchard Road, then left on the very pleasant Cooper Road, a winding dirt road with a pleasant, moderate grade.
This was probably my favorite section of road walk for the entire hike. The road just winded around, sometimes rural and sometimes rustic. There was a nice little cascade in a creek off to our left, and the ruins of some sort of mill race with nice old stone work, all but forgotten by all but those who hike by on Mason Dixon Trail. I at first thought the raceway was an old roadway, but we soon came to the foundation of a former mill in a level area, and could see the remainder of the raceway ruins.
We came soon to the intersection with Tabernacle Road. I was enjoying the road section so much that I didn't realize until I checked it at this point that we were now at the Maryland border. I had thought this would be a more main road, but it was a lovely intersection of two dirt roads, with the boundary just a couple of feet onto Tabernacle. We crossed into Maryland and continued slightly up hill on the dirt road.
Tabernacle came out on Rt 623, Flintville Road. The trail turned left here to follow the road. This road walk section kind of sucked because there was nothing to set it apart from anything else, plus it followed a gorgeous back road section. We stayed on the road for a bit, then at a dirt entrance lane to Broad Creek Scout Reservation, the trail turned right, then left onto a foot path roughly parallel with Flintville Road.
I went ahead here, and the trail passed through an area with some sort of wood piled up, where obvious scout activity goes on. There was a sign that said 99 or so miles to the Appalachian Trail the opposite direction behind us, but it was broken. The trail then skirted a police dog training area, and re-entered the woods. There were a few masonry ruins as the trail zig zagged a bit heading gradually down hill. It began raining very hard just after the police dog area, which was really a drag. We came back out at Flintville Road just before the big bridge over Broad Creek. It poured as we walked across.
On the other side of the bridge, the trail descended on a gravel drive to a public creek access spot, which was nice, and we took a break here. I walked up and down the access area, and checked out the ruins of where there used to be a cottage. There was a weird but classy foot bridge over a tributary leading to the former house site, and it went further beyond to an existing home. It must be a drag some of the time to get out there, especially if equipment is needed.
After a while, we moved on along the trail, which went across a re-decked former road bridge, the predescessor to current Flintville Road, called Old Flintville Road. The trail followed Old Flintville Road gradually up hill, turned off to the left, then more up hill, sort of back and forth until it became an obviously more used road. These roads are somewhat vehicle accessible, but probably not legally or safely. This was middle of nowhere cottage settlements only.
Jillane got ahead of me, and there was a side trail to a good overlook of the Susquehanna, showing two states. Someone had had a tarp shelter here, but it was all apart and a mess. When I went to see the view, she was already there in a chair. Thanfully, the rain stopped just before reaching this place so we could enjoy it a bit and get an UN-obscured view.
The trail followed some of the road, then cut off to the left on a dug in foot path. It was really a fantastic section descending the hill gradually.We passed a box turtle and some interesting natural rock formations that sort of looked like waffle patterns.
The trail reached and crossed a creek, then re-joined abandoned river road, which became used river road at a cul de sac. It was a steep climb to the cul de sac, but we made it. There were only a couple houses on this drivable section, and we followed River Road from here, which passed beneath a power line. We saw another bald eagle here.
When the access road turned inland, the original River Road continued roughly parallel with the power line, and the trail followed it. We had to duck under some fallen wires and make our way to where it once crossed another stream, with barely a pier in place. Jillane pulled herself up the other side using an electrical wire laying on the ground. We traced the wire ahead parallel with the road but couldn't determine which house it went to. Someone was using this area, because they had a walking path in to their site from up hill from us.
The trail remained on the old road/power line going up and down too much for quite a time. Eventually, the road left the power line and moved closer to the Susquehanna. It was nice. At a fork, a lower road led to a house while we headed slightly up hill next to a rock outcrop. A power line afforded us views out toward the Conowingo Dam down stream. We continued as the trail entered a Christian Camp property. There was an abandoned house off to the right we couldn't get to because a guy lived right next to it.
The trail made it's way up along the road, then had a re-route that was different than in my guide. It said it passed next to an abandoned building or something, then cut into the woods, but there was an obvious disturbed area where a building was just removed. The trail now crossed this area and was re-blazed through woods. I could see further on where the original trail came in. Beyond this point the trail had crappy old faded blazes. The route was obvious though. We continued on to an outdoor classroom with a view out across the Susquehanna and took a nice little break. We then made our way along the foot path closer to the Susquehanna and out to the end of Glen Cove. There were masonry ruins of some old building out on the end of the cove. The trail headed in along the edge of the cove, near to the docks of Glen Cove Marina. The trail then turned onto a long boardwalk along the edge of the cove, and across the Peddler's Run Foot Bridge. We then came out on Glen Cove Road at Glen Cove Marina. The guide said there would be a store here, but it was unfortunately closed when we arrived, much to our disappointment. Still, we were able to clean off a bit in their nice restroom.
The Glen Cove Road was originally part of Rt 1, and the bridge that originally crossed the Susquehanna here was blasted out prior to the construction of Conowingo Dam. The original town of Conowingo was destroyed as well. After our break, we followed the trail shortly down the road, then up hill to the right on a foot path beyond the boat storage area.
By this point, my shins were killing me, and swelling up badly from all the up and down hiking, as well as probably the road walking. The rest of it was fine. Still, the woods in this section were very nice, and the ups and downs became much less the further south we went.
The trail soon came to the Clark Farm. Mr. Clark was an early proponent to the Mason Dixon Trail who graciously let the trail run through his property, and so we have a weird trail section where we enter his farm by opening a gate, and then closing it behind us. The trail headed down hill along the inside of his farm fence, then along the edge of an open field. Another gate we had to open and close behind us led us into a field with big horses in it. They were very curious and got closer. Jillane was a bit nervous, how they were descending upon us, and they were quite large, but we had no trouble. We found a stile over a fence, and assumed it was the one where the trail exited, but were mistaken. We had to go back under the electric fence and make our way back to the trail further on, then go down and up through more fields until we got to the correct stile, in better shape further down.
From here, the trail continued to descend to a gravel road near a dock where they had what appeared to be a weed harvester parked, for invasive algeas and such that accumulate on water bodies. It said in my guide that a rustic camp site was along Hopkins Cove on the north side, so we followed a green blazed trail from the end of the woods road, but found nothing of significance. It was really awful, the trail ended and there was no site. We made our way back to the road, then got back to the Mason Dixon Trail after searching for a good place to camp, and eventually settled on a spot up hill and away from the trail a bit. Unfortunately, it started to rain before we could get the tent up, so it, and we got soaked.
Jillane made the rest of the ramand noodles I'd had in my pack for our dinner, and we had a nice night's sleep.
Day 7
I woke up and did a little bit of exploring, walking back and ahead along the routes we'd taken. There wasn't as much to see at this site. The sweat shirt we had found in Muddy Creek Gorge a couple days before had gotten very badly soaked in the rain storm the night before, and was just too heavy to try to carry all day again, so I hung it on a branch near what appeared to be a popular fishing spot on the south side of Hopkins Cove with hopes that someone would pick it up and put it to good use. I found a Lancaster Hiking Club hat as well along the trail the night before.
We packed up and made our way along the trail, which was very pleasant. It followed some woods roads for a while, then foot path close to the Susquehanna, by a big warning sign with great river views, and in land along Policeman's Cove. It then headed up hill and across a little stream before coming out near Conowingo Visitor Center and pool. The pool was closed, but we had to check out the visitor's center.
The place was quite cool. The lady behind the counter gave us tons of maps and brochures. There was so much information to be had. The place was full of historic photos from before and during the construction of the Conowingo Dam. We spent quite a bit of time looking through stuff here, and refilled our water bottles.
The Mason Dixon Trail used to go right past Conowingo Dam, but is no longer allowed to do so, so we followed the current route across Rt 1 and along former roadways and paths where the Conowingo workers village was when the dam was being constructed. Conowingo is an indian word that means "at the falls". A section of the trail through here had steps made of old tires.
The trail emerged from a foot path onto the old village road, next to a large two family abandoned house. We of course had to go in and look around. We spent even more time here than we spent at the Conowingo visitor's center, but it was a really cool old house. It had obvious fire damage on the third floor, but most of it was really solid. A vulture hung around waiting for us to leave creepily. There were Goosebumps book stickers hanging on the door to a bedroom upstairs, so I would say the place hasn't been abandoned for all that long, maybe the 1990s.
The trail followed the roadway out to Shuresville Road where we turned right. There were not many blazes here. We then turned left on Shure's Landing Road. The trail went down hill past some old home sites, then reached the river access just below Conowingo Dam, and the trail turned right to follow the abandoned railroad that was constructed for the purpose of hauling materials for the dam. The railroad tracks were laid on the former towpath of the Susquehanna Tidewater Canal.
After another break, we headed south on the rail trail section, where we made some more good time. The tracks were still in the entire way, which was interesting to see. At one point, there was a wet area where the former canal is overtaking the trail, and a long boardwalk was built of the rail bed, right over the tracks. Very strange.
We continued, and watched places where the rails were off to the left, about to fall into the river. We saw two more Bald Eagles sitting out on the rocks in the river. Quite a site. There were also a lot of Great Blue Herons, some of which I could get really near to, and we could now see down river to the Rt 95 bridge over the river.
The trail eventually turned left, away from the railroad tracks, which disappeared into the weeds, and remained in a luch understory on a foot path. The rail trail is part of the Lower Susquehanna Greenway, and that trail went right as a multi use path, while the Mason Dixon Trail is hiking only by the river.
We met a nice guy from Perryville MD down there, and we chatted for quite some time. He was picking up litter, citing that he uses the park enough and this is his way of giving back. We were now in Susquehanna State Park, and we started seeing a lot more patrons, mostly fishing, not hiking. Jillane had a Metrotrails business card to give to our new friend, so he could get in touch with me about getting out and doing some hiking.
The trail eventually came back to the railroad tracks, and used the rail bridge to cross over Deer Creek where it enters the Susquehanna on a through style girder bridge. On the other side, the Mason Dixon Trail descended on steps and followed Stafford Road to the right. We followed the road for a bit, saw one blaze, but then following the description there were no blazes from two parking areas. We could see where some people were going, but the trail just wasn't easy to find, and it was way out of the way. It goes back down to Stafford Road as per the description just ahead anyway, so we turned back and got on the tracks again heading south.
There were ruins of an old canal lock where the trail and railroad departed. Being from canal towns in NJ, it's amazing to see so many historic remnants with nothing to showcase them. There were signs here and there, but if this were the Morris Canal, there'd be interpretive signs everywhere there was a parking lot or site like this.
We saw a ranger walking the tracks, which was surprising since we don't see much of that in NJ, PA, or NY. I asked if I could ask a question and she looked totally annoyed. I wanted to know if the tracks could be followed south to Rock Run historic site, which is part of Mason Dixon Trail, and she said yes.
We followed the tracks, and she followed us shortly behind, which was weird.
There were some serious washouts in the rail line, but we were able to walk it. I stayed up on the rail at times when it was badly washed out below. Much harder to balance with a big pack and tent. Soon, we came to the "Jersey Toll House" where a covered bridge once spanned the Susquehanna. I don't know why they called it a Jersey Toll House. It was where the bridge toll was collected. Abutments were still in place where it would have crossed the canal, which was in nice shape here, but not watered, and where the piers were across the Susquehanna, there are now piles of rubble.
Rock Run was one of the nicest historic sites we visited. It was originally part of the "Land of Promise" tract, settled in 1760. There were many historic buildings and interpretive trails around. We saw more Mason Dixon Trail blazes by this time, at the Rock Run Road where the mill keeper's house was. The site has an historic grist mill built in 1794, site of the first bridge over the Susquehanna in 1818, the canal which came in in 1839, and the mansion on the hill from 1804. The mansion was the home of James Archer, the Brigadier General who left the US army to join the Confederacy in 1863, and was captured in Gettysburg the next year.
We had a walk around, admired all the structures, and then continued on Mason Dixon Trail which passed by the grist mill on dirt Stafford Road. Soon, the trail turned right and climbed the Susquehanna Ridge. It was another very nice foot path section, but it was obvious that mountain bikers keep it open because it is so circuitous. We came to an outstanding overlook of the Susquehanna with some cliffs in view on the east side. We sat here for a bit and enjoyed it. We were getting closer to Havre De Grace all the time, where we'd find a motel room for the night, and for the first time since leaving Lancaster.
The trail descended to a foundation ruin at the intersection of Stafford and Lapidum Road, and turned right on Lapidum. The road paralleled a nice stream with some lovely little waterfalls while within Susquehanna State Park. We continued up hill on the road as it left the park, passed through woods and farmland with residences, then crossed I-95 on an overpass. The road walk up hill to Level Road, Rt 155 seemed to go on forever. My shins were killing me again. We turned left on Level Road, a very busy  highway, and passed a sign saying we were entering Havre De Grace. It was a relief. Our friend who was picking up trash at Susquehanna SP stopped his car to see if we wanted a ride, but we both turned it down and thanked him. We were almost there. Another religious lady stopped and asked each of us if we wanted to come to dinner, some sort of church thing, and we thanked her too but declined.
Just before the trail turned left onto Graceview Drive, we got our first view of the Chesapeake Bay, from the road down into the town. We were in Havre De Grace Heights, a small residential community. I was so happy we were going to make it to the bay.
We took a break at a school off of Graceview, then the trail turned left onto Quarry Road. The quarry it takes it's name for is the reason the trail had to follow the awful Lapidum/Level Roads sections, because it reaches right out to the river and has obliterated the railroad tracks.
The trail headed past ball fields and then down hill to a police shooting range where it got tough to spot. It descended somewhere here, but I had to look around a lot. I was surprised to see it descended over some very tough giant boulders. With large packs, this was not an easy spot, especially after so many days. We made it down to an old woods road, which descended to the railroad tracks once more. I saw a tunnel into the bluffs to the left, so I went to check it out. It had a tent in it, obviously used recently, so I took off out of there.
The tracks were washed out again at this point, but the trail continued next to the river parallel, then back onto the tracks themselves. This was a really awesome section where they took screenings and filled in between the rails, so the trail was directly on the tracks. The surface was nice and relaxing, and not to hard for the aching feet.
We passed the former Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge high above us, and a train went by, then could see the Thomas J Hatem Memorial Bridge beyond, with lovely cumulus cloud formations beyond it. We kept going on the tracks south, with wetlands around us at time. When the trail reached the Hatem bridge, it turned left off of the tracks, which were overgrown ahead, and the trail turned off to the left through North Park. The section we had just walked was co-aligned with the Joe K/North Park Trail, which makes a loop. We crossed two creeks on nice foot bridges out in nice mowed town parkland, then came to the historic lock house, the southernmost lock tender's house and the end of the Susquehanna Tidewater Canal. The lock walls were still in place, with a plaque on it from when it was built,  1839. The lock walls appeared to be a marble or something. They really looked rather new, so I thought at first it was a reproduction until I saw the plaque.
The lock house museum wasn't open, nor would we have spent much time this time because it was getting late and we needed the rest of a room. I'd called the Super 8 a couple blocks from the trail route and a room was to be held for us.
Jillane spotted a giant Ailanthus tree in the park. Horrible.
The trail followed the somewhat rough looking residential streets out to Rt 155, at which point the guide says to find a ride across the Hatem Bridge because there is no pedestrian route. We would not go this way, but rather a more traditional way. I hate getting in cars when I'm backpacking, but I'll get back to that later...
From Rt 155, we turned left and could see the Super 8. There was one more motel, but I didn't like the temperament of the guy on the phone, and they got bad ratings.
We reached the motel and I went in and paid with cash. We made our way to our bottom floor room, and I headed back out without the pack to the Weis Market just up the road to get us some much needed food. I loaded my cart up with Celeste Pizzas, brownies, drinks, and candy bars. I started pigging out before I even got back. We had a microwave in the room, so I made us some pizzas. I wasn't thinking properly, as I should have ordered some from another nearby place rather than go to Weis, but oh well. We were both pretty well knocked out for the night.
Day 8
I woke up early again, and headed down stairs for Continental Breakfast. This one was good, with waffle maker, cereals, pastries, and more. I ate at least four waffles, and brought those, pastries, and cereal to Jillane. After stuffing myself up yet again (after I'd lost an obvious good amount of weight), I got together all of our dirty clothes and walked back to a laundromat we'd passed by the night before. There was a nice old lady there I chatted with who had lived in Havre De Grace her whole life. She told me how nice the waterfront is, and how "boats are the focus" in town. Nautical stuff has never been a big interest to me, but is more so now because I read a book over a year before about "Protecting NJ's Environment". I found some of the ocean chapters to be quite interesting. Also, since I've been doing my Jersey Perimeter hikes and being closer to it often, I think I'm building a different kind of appreciation for it.
The laundromat had a sign hanging that said "no dancing". I thought that was funny. I questioned what kind of people patronize the establishment. While my clothes were drying I went to a mini mart and to a nearby thrift store to see if there was anything Jillane would like. I saw one tee shirt I might have liked, but I have more than enough of those.
I walked back to the hotel from the laundromat and sorted through some of my stuff while Jillane got ready to head out again. We decided to get the room for another night rather than lug the packs around Havre De Grace, and make our way to the Chesepeake Bay with a light load. We could continue with the packs tomorrow.
We wandered back to the thrift store I was at earlier, and Jillane looked around much better than I did, and found two good books of interest, on Allentown PA and on geology of Maryland. Many questions were raised about that during our trip to the north.
We sat down and had some pizza at a place called Seasons. It must be a chain. They serve the pizza with a fork and knife. I'd had pizza in many different states, and it's always weird elsewhere. It was alright, but nothing special. We headed back to the hotel to drop off the stuff we'd accumulated (it's a good thing we were nearing the end of the trip because I'd also accumulated several pounds of maps and brochures from Conowingo the day before), then walked up the road in the other direction.
We turned left off of the highway at Lewis Lane, and there were stores on the corner we  decided to check out. We started with the "Save A Lot" grocery store. I guess it's the same company as Save-On. Inside, I laughed at some of the items including "Bubba Cola". I said to Jillane something about how it's evident we're south of the Mason Dixon Line. I later found out that Bubba Cola is sold in South Jersey from my friend Oscar Alvaredo. We also laughed at the generic versions of other sodas, especially the generic Mountain Dew. This one had one called Mountain Holler. We continued on to another dollar store sort of place where they had Mountain Explosion. Weis also had Mountain Thunder. When I worked at Walmart, they had Mountain Lightning.
We continued on Lewis and crossed the Amtrack railroad tracks. There was a constant whistle of trains in this town, as they always pass by. Lewis Lane intersected with Old Post Road, and we tried to cut a corner to the left across a school field, but there was a water filled trench next to railroad tracks. I realized these were the same tracks that used to continue north to Conowingo Dam that we'd been walking. We turned left on Old Post Road, right on Bloomsbury Road, then left into a park over a foot bridge and skirted the fields heading south to Alleghany Street. We turned left on Giles Street, then right on Chesapeake Drive where the bay came into view between yards. We'd finally made it to the bay.
The road was nice, with stately houses, one of which was very old and had won the historic preservation award. It was also the most well groomed garden yard we'd seen the entire trip. Chesapeake came out to Commerce Street, and we turned right, then right again into Millard Tydings Memorial Park with some nice big trees. The road on the north side had some nice old buildings, and there was an open area and marina we could walk by on the waterfront. At the end of the marina area there was a lovely boardwalk along the water with an old hotel overlooking the bay.
There were more interpretive signs on this stretch of walkway than anywhere else on the entire trip. The boardwalk was adorned with Star Spangled Banner National Historic Trail signs, as well as plenty of maritime stuff and history of buildings. The town was sacked during the War of 1812, which appears to be the biggest theme of all history in the town other than nautical stuff, including Captain John Smith who sailed up the Susquehanna from this point in an effort to find a trade route to the west.
We made a turn off of the boardwalk to visit the Havre De Grace Maritime Museum. We spent some time here looking at all the displays. It was actually very nice. There was a wealth of old maps, ice saws, duck guns, native american exhibits. The part we both seemed most interested in were the native american petroglyphs that are now under the waters of the Conowingo Dam. Some of them were busted off and on display at the museum.
We returned to the boardwalk and waterfront pathway, and I went onto a foot path out to a jetty to touch the bay. After I was satisfied with my connection to it, we continued around the Concord Point.
There was a light house constructed in 1827 still standing at the point, which was quite nice. It was small, but pretty. We didn't have an opportunity to go in, but we walked around and read all the signs. The light keeper's house, built the same year, was still standing next to it.
From here, we headed north a bit, a lot of the way on the Lafayette Trail. The trail is a marked road walk that passes by pretty buildings and significant points. It's marked with a blue line along the sidewalks of town. It reminded me a lot of the red marked Freedom Trail through Boston that I'd hiked in 1996 I guess it was. The oldest building in town, pre-revolutionary was now a bar in town, and we passed it as well. I believe it was called the Rodgers House.
We visited a few stores including a music store, some antiques and such. We continued to the former Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, now Amtrack over the bay, and took a break in a park built on the site of the bridge's predecessor. We later found out it was the earlier rail bridge, but ti was converted to a double decker vehicle bridge. It was demolished because it was thought it'd be needed for war time scrap during WWII.
We made our way back in to town and had dinner at an expensive place that seemed like the most popular one in town. The food was good, but not very big portions for the money. We even had to wait a long time to get in. At least I got to have a Maryland crab cake, which is what it's known for.
After eating, we followed more of Lafayette Trail through town, but then headed west again. Congress Ave led back to the school area, and I could see on my phone that there was a paved trail from the intersection of it and Juniata Street we could cut across.
We got on the paved trail which crossed fields and ball courts, then went to a level and crossed the abandoned tracks once again that we followed the day before. We crossed a foot bridge over a creek, then entered wide open fields to the middle school and the boys and girls club. We then reached Lewis St again and headed back to Rt 155.
From here, we crossed and walked on over to the Weis Market once again for snacks or something, and laughed at more generic food names. I think this one had Mountain Showers instead of Mountain Dew. We sat out front and snacked on some ice cream for a while. I got some Stephen Colbert American Dream thing that was pretty good. Then we walked back to the hotel to close out a very nice day together.
Day 9
As usual, I got up early and again fixed up breakfast for myself and Jillane from what was offered in the Super 8 lobby. This time they had yogurts in addition to the stuff from the day before. I pigged out a lot again.
We started the day off well and made our way from the hotel back into the north part of town, basically the same route we walked when we arrived. Jillane found her walking stick she'd left under the porch of a pizza place that night and carried it with us from there.
I'd been in touch with Havre De Grace Marina, and we were offered a ride across for $30. I figured this would be a great way to go across, and satisfy my wish not to get in a car while adding some diversity to the trip.
Our boatman, Chris, was at the marina when we arrived. He had a nice small boat, but big enough to fit our packs. He told us it didn't have a name, and I forget what he told us he'd call it if it did have one.
He pulled us out of the marina, which was actually the former basin for the Susquehanna Tidewater Canal, and pointed us head on into the lock so we'd see the view boatmen would have had in the 1840s traveling into the lock. Rather than go straight across, Chris took us up and around the Garret Island, and we saw great views of the bridges and an old half sunk barge. It was nice to have him there, because he could answer all of our questions and show us things we wouldn't have known about otherwise.
He dropped us off at the pier on the Perryville side, which is right where the trail leads along and away from the river. Perfect. This was also the historic site of the South Susquehanna Ferry where travelers would have crossed prior to the bridges. I was so glad we'd crossed this way.
The steam boat, the Lantern Queen, made it's way up the river when we arrived. It just added to the diversity of the trip and reminded me the different place we were in. Just above the pier was the historic Rodgers Tavern, which was in operation at the time of the ferry. It's preserved and being worked on now. There were some nice giant trees in the yard that I could not identify. We spent some time resting here. Our friends Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews and Eric Pace were going to pick us up and go to dinner with us, but they ran a bit late, so we kept on going.
We followed the trail along the Old Post Road under the railroad bridge again, then into the Perry Point VA medical center property. The trail turns left somewhere here, but it didn't seem all that obvious. I read that there was a proposed reroute of the trail down into Perry Point Park to the south, which would end up being what we were about to hike anyway.
We headed as close as we could to the waterfront on Perry Point. The medical center was originally a gunpowder plant in the early 1900s, but was not needed and promptly converted to hospital. The buildings were pretty neat. This was the hottest day of the year, and there wasn't nearly enough cover on the Perry Point peninsula. The houses for the workers at the site were either abandoned or sparsely lived in which made it seem like a weird ghost town.
When the hospital property ended, park land began and we saw tons of feril  cats. We tried to pet them, and they'd get close, but not close enough. A lady and young girl showed up to feed them, and she said there were hundreds on the peninsula, and we'd see more. A few might let us pet them. I saw more, but none could I get close to.
We headed on along the park, and Jillane stopped at a pavilion while I walked to the very end of the Peninsula, Stump's Point, and then headed back with the Furnace Bay to the north of me. After a break at the pavilion, we continued on the road along the north side of the park, but found no good trails really. Just the road. It went from the open area into woods, and then Mason Dixon Trail showed up from a closed road to the left where there was some sort of construction. We continued on it over a creek bridge, which was next to a sewage treatment facility so we weren't going to swim as much as we wanted to.
The trail turned left onto Firestone Road and crossed over a road built on the former rail line prior to the construction of the current bridge over the Susquehanna, then we crossed the current active tracks. The trail reached Broad Street/Rt 7 and turned right. We followed it here, but it was totally open and out in the sun. This would not be a nice section if we were to continue to follow the trail east. We followed it only to the intersection of Coudon Blvd and turned left on it instead. I'd have to come back another time to revisit the MD Trail. We turned away from it for the last time and followed Coudon to a creek underpass, and we were going to take a dip until I climbed down to find a Copperhead laying on the rock. He disappeared into it and I was done with that spot.
We walked further on the road and came to the Perryville Branch Library.
This was a great stop. Nice restrooms, and there was all sorts of local history we wouldn't even have the time to cover all of. Right in the front, a picture on the wall already gave me the information I wanted about the history of those Susquehanna rail bridges. We also found books in the local interest section that gave us even more. Unfortunately, the library closed within 45 minutes of when we arrives, so we couldn't see much more.
We headed from the library across an open field toward the Perryville Middle School, and wandered around the front of it.
We sat on the lawn to take a break, and Mr. Buckett and Eric pulled up to save us.
Jillane and I covered nearly 110 miles from Lancaster to Perryville. It was nice to be finished, but I also didn't want it to be over yet.
We celebrated with an all you can eat buffet dinner at the Shady Maple back in Lancaster County before heading home. I'm certain I gained back all the weight I lost on the trip.