Thursday May 2, 24.4mi/39.3km

Rocky Run shelter (1040.9) to Campsite S of Penmar Park (1065.3) (MD)

The day started out very foggy. At 7:30am, this is what the trail looked like:

By 9am, the fog was starting to burn off, but the air was already so humid.

The Maryland DNR says the fire danger is low. Also, I find it disturbing that Smokey wears pants and a hat, but no shirt.

A couple of hours into the day, I came to the Washington monument state park. It was built in 1827, long before the famous obelisk in DC.

Unfortunately, it was currently under construction, so I didn’t get to go inside.

All morning, I had been seeing these caterpillars. Not sure what kind they are.

Just before lunchtime, I crossed another interstate. I-70 is the main route from Baltimore to the west (goes all the way to Denver!), and for some reason there was standstill traffic at 11am on a Thursday.

I stopped for lunch a couple miles later, at Black Rock viewpoint. It was sunny and 70F/21C – perfect weather.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, just lots of hiking in a green tunnel. The only two hikers I met all day was the duo of Totem (from Texas) and Snail Mail (Connecticut).

At the very end of the day, there was another viewpoint called High Rock ledges. It was covered in graffiti, and felt kinda trashy. Probably because there was a parking lot 100ft away…

I descended from the ledge and hiked on another couple of miles before finding a spot suitable for camping. The next shelter was another 5 miles, but I opted to stop here after a 24 mile day.