We hiked this section on September 23, 2006.
This was the most crowded section of the trail to date. There were rock climbers and noisy hikers everywhere! We started out the hike with a bunch of boy scouts and quickly hustled to get ahead of them. The weather was overcast all day long. Zero's pack was sideways all day long, but she was just happy to be hiking.
We stopped to take some pictures at the Pine Knob Shelter. This shelter has several tent sites and a privy behind it. The shelter is also very close to the road so I am sure it gets lots of weekend campers.
Pine Knob Shelter
On the way up to Annapolis Rocks, we passed a large group of rock climbers. They were all carrying their gear to Annapolis Rocks and taking their time climbing up the hill.
Annapolis Rocks
View From Annapolis Rocks
We saw the care taker's tent on the blue trail leading to Annapolis rocks (maybe this was the ridge runner's home?). It started to drizzle as we reached the view so we did not stay long. The drizzle actually felt good while we were hiking because it was a very warm day.
We took a quick break at the Pogo campsite. This campsite had a privy and several tent sites but no seating area (i.e. no picnic table or log benches). We decided not to have lunch here because there was no shelter from the rain.
We then ascended to the crest of South Mountain and followed the extremely rocky path. Were these rocks originally here on the crest of the mountain or did the trail maintainers move them here? Is this a preview of the famous PA rocks?
South Mountain Rocks
This kind of hiking is not fun! Thank goodness we had our hiking poles to steady us on the rocks. The trail gave us the beat down today!
Zero and Raftingirl on South Mountain
Before the descent we met 2 SOBO hikers slack packing for the day. The rain finally stopped but then the bugs came out!
Turtle
The descent down the eastern slope of South Mountain was steep, slippery and rocky. Python slipped on her ass while descending on the rocky slope but was not hurt. Very hard on the knees and toes.
Injury report
Python got her very first blister and subsequently returned her hiking boots to L.L.Bean.
Dirigo developed plantar fasciitis . Plantar fasciitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the foot caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia that supports the arch or by biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation.