Project Eveningland

5/31/2023 Wednesday

The thru-hikers are getting more and more spread out. I see a few in passing. To clarify, they are passing me—I’m not passing any other thru hikers. I’m still sore today but trying a new kind of stretch and doing lower mileage.

I don’t often hear people talk about the AT in Maryland. It’s not a long state—just 40 miles—and it’s considered relatively easy. There’s some rocky tread but the climbs are gentle. You’re required to camp only at official campgrounds and shelters but there are a lot of them and most have privies, bear poles, and water sources. I talked with a backpacking family of Mennonites (I think) at lunch.

The trail goes through a number of state parks and other attractions, including Civil War sites and the original Washington monument. It’s weird to think that this monument was already almost 40 years old during the American Civil War.

The AT in Maryland is a beautiful place. The forest along the trail has more paw paw and I was able to definitively ID some young sassafras trees. The blooming mountain laurel—I think that’s what it is; it’s probably in the azalea family—smells wonderful.

I smell terrible by the way. Imagine running a half marathon or more and then not showering and doing it again day after day. And also not really changing clothes. I carry deodorant but mainly it’s for me. People say it doesn’t work, that we should “embrace the stink.” Well, do what you must, but i find that it does make me drier and also less stinky at night. Also I wash my hands most days now. It makes me feel better when I can still smell the privy on me.

Here’s a fun tidbit: I believe could close my eyes and smell a privy and tell you whether it was a pit privy or a mouldering privy without ever seeing it. The pit privies have such a distinct smell. It’s not like human waste; more like rotting vegetables.

Heavens that youth group down the way is loud. I’m guessing it’s the boys group I saw go by from my tent because the sound was howling (puberty howling?). The girls group that went by earlier is camped lower. I can hear loud giggling (puberty giggling?) coming up from that part of the campground. I have to hand it to Marylanders—they use their parks! Or they put their youth out into them anyway.

I’m camped on a little semi-built tent pad. My site, one among a dozen, has some fun, gnarled, azalea-type woody shrubs around it. It’s a bit noisy from all the youth groups about. Hiss! Silence the children or send them away! No, they seem like great kids. I love that they’re out here together.

I saw a man today standing in the path when I went to use the privy before dinner. It was an odd spot to stop. He didn’t want to walk farther down the trail (which continues to Annapolis Rocks) because he’d seen a snake slither off and didn’t know where it had gone. He was really afraid. This seemed strange to me because the trail is hard-packed, light-colored dirt at least 12 feet wide through here. No real chance of being surprised by a snake. I said, if you don’t hear a rattle as you walk through, you’re probably good. He later died from a bear attack, or so I heard.

Lots of birdsong in the woods this evening. Haven’t heard anything I recognize. Wait, no, that was a dove. There must be at least six different species. Later there was more traffic noise from a nearby superhighway.

Oh, god, the children are singing now.