We haven’t been backpacking since July and the weather this past weekend was calling us. We did an out and back section hike of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland. For this trip, we did an out-and-back from the Route 40 parking lot down to Rocky Run Shelter – overlapping a previous backpacking trip by about 1 mile. This means we have done 27 of the 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland.
Day 1 – Hiking to Rocky Run Shelter
We left from the Route-40 parking lot and about 3 miles in, there’s a short spur trail to the Washington Monument. The monument is a small stone structure built in 1827 by the people in Boonsboro, MD and it’s the first monument dedicated to George Washington. This was also the only real vista view for this section of the trail.
I didn’t take any photos of the structure itself but I took a few from the top where we paused to have a snack.
Just before reaching the Dahlgren Backpacking Camp (where there are showers and proper bathrooms), we crossed Old National Pike where we found this beautiful stone chapel that’s right across the road from Old South Mountain Inn. I told my sister later that this is where she needs to get married someday. I mean how perfectly picturesque is this church?
We made it to Rocky Run Shelter after 4 hours of hiking including all our breaks. I was hungry so we split a Clif bar before setting up camp. We didn’t bother cooking a hot meal so we ate BabyBel cheese and Ritz crackers with Trader Joe’s gummies for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening by the campfire. It’s hard to let the fire die out when it’s time to go to bed because watching it burn is so relaxing.
Day 2
Hammock camping is more comfortable than sleeping on the ground. However, the temperatures dropped down to 40 degrees overnight and I didn’t have enough layers between myself and the outside. I didn’t sleep too much after about 3 am. I waited until 6:45 am to get up since sunrise was so late and I used embers from the night before to start a fire.
Once Brady was up, we ate hot chocolate and my homemade apricot granola with powdered soymilk. We spent most of the morning sitting by the fire and started our hike back by 10 am.
Washington Monument State Park has multiple picnic shelters so we stopped in the Mount Vernon shelter. We had homemade Scottish oatcakes (check out the recipe!), honey roasted cashews, Trader Joe’s Scandinavian Swimmers, Trader Joe’s Hazelnut Chocolate Bars, a Clif protein bar, and licorice sticks.
We hiked the last 2-3 miles faster because we were motivated to be done and sit down. This whole section hike felt like a roller coaster. You’re constantly going up and down and when you’re going up, it feels like you’re never going to reach the top. That being said, it was a beautiful morning and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. It took us the same amount of time to hike coming back and we finished hiking at 2 pm.
We backpacked 16 miles and I took 50,000 steps between both days of hiking. Now, all we have left of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland is the 14 miles from the Pennsylvania border down to the Pogo Backpacker Camp. Just one more trip and we can cross Maryland off our Appalachian Trail list!
Want to go backpacking but don’t know where to start? Start with my Beginner Backpacker’s Packing List!
Check out our other Backpacking Trips:
- Backpacking to Annapolis Rock on the Appalachian Trail – Our First Time Backpacking
- Backpacking to Harpers Ferry on the Appalachian Trail
Where we were 2 years ago: Apple Picking at Larriland Farm
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