We left our wonderful hotel room and hiked north out of Harpers Ferry after saying goodbye to Puddin's family. We were happy to be hiking north again. We crossed the bridge over the Patomic River and shortly were hiking in Maryland. The weather was good and the terrain was delightful. It started getting a bit rocky, but knowing that Spanky and Sleeping Beauty were not very far ahead of us kept us motivated.
A butterfly hitching a ride on my shoulder
We got within 2 miles of catching our buddies, but the rain kept us held up at the shelter for the night.
The next morning we slept in for a bit while it kept raining then ate breakfast and caught back up with Spanky and Sleeping Beauty. Also, Caboose caught up with us the night before. We hadn't seen him since Fontana Dam. It was good to be back in our group and the 5 of us hiked on in the rain. We made it 15 miles before stopping at the shelter. Along the way we passed a bunch of cool and historical areas being not too far from Washington DC.
An old archway off to the side of the road.
An old barn from the 1800's
One of Puddin's favorite parts of Maryland was the tunnel of rhododendron bushes that were in bloom.
These were about 10 feet tall
Our shelter for the first night.
In our travels we passed the Washington Monument
The view at the top was clouded in, but it was an amazing stone structure.
We crossed over I-70 which was the closest point to Sleeping Beauties home back in Maryland.
The weather cleared enough for a couple of pictures.
Puddin taking in the view.
And finally we have crossed the Mason Dixon line. We walked from Maryland into Pennsylvania. In this pic you can see the Yankee on the right and Puddin still down south. We hitched a ride into Waynesboro, PA and gorged ourselves at the Chinese buffet. After that we had to get to the post office and a couple of miles down the road to our hotel. We met John, a retired truck driver and forest fighter and he was kind enough to drive us around for all of our errands and take us back to the hotel. It saved us a ton of time and frustration and he is just another one of those amazing people you meet on the trail who are willing to offer their services to a couple of people in need.
Sleeping beauty had some serious chafing issues so we all got a hotel room together. He was happy to be done for the day and be able to take care of his body.
This is As happy as Spanky gets. He was happy to be back together too.
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