MD

... I was only in Maryland for 16 hours, but I still have some stories to share....

15 May 2015: 39 (43.3) miles to the PA boarder

Not only were we pushing to finish the 4-State in general but we were also going for an impressive time as well since there is an argument in the thru-hiking community about if the 4-State should be done in a single calender day or 24-hours. We are in the camp of the 4-State should be done in a single calender day so we were going to sign trail-logs all day so our fellow hikers could tell we didn't cheat.

We woke up at 2:30am and were on the trail by 3am. We would have finished the 4-State by 8:30pm (our goal was also to avoid hiking in the dark in the evening when we were exhausted, that is something we learned from the 24-hour challenge, at night we become slightly delirious and stumbled over everything). But instead we finished the 4-State at 9:15pm because of the following story:

We were 4 miles from the MD/PA boarder, gitty with laughter because the challenge was almost over and we were exhausted. At the time we were trying to come up with a parody to the Maroon 5 song "Daylight" because the sun was starting to sink down and it would be dark in about an hour and a half (but in the woods it becomes dark long before the official sunset). We were singing the opening lines  at a fast, determined pace when we passed two 14-year-old girls who called out to us “Are you lost too?” Of course, we stopped and stared at them in mild disbelief replying, “No… are you?” As it turned out, they were in fact lost. The girls were part of a track team that come out to run trails. However, the coach failed to explain how the blazing system worked and failed to point the girls in the right direction before running off. When we found them, they were heading south when they needed to be heading north. By this point, it was getting dark and the girls did not have flashlights. We had to put the two kids between us so Poppins could shine her headlamp on the ground for them to walk while I searched for the white blazes in front. Durning the four mile trek we got about 215 frantic calls from the girls parent, which slowed everyone down.  We were almost to the park when who shows up on the trail, not the coach, not the frantic parents of the girls, but my wonderful parents yet again. they were a little suprised to find that Poppins and I had some young children in tow, apparently my parents knew nothing of the drama unfolding back at the park. Eventually the frantic parents were calling every 5 minutes (because I think they don't understand how long it ACTUALLY takes to walk a mile) which was continuing to slow us down. I sent my dad ahead to the park to calm the parents down so they would stop calling us and because apparently he was the only capable male figure within  a 2-mile radius. I'm still shocked that it was my parents that came tottering out of the woods (the park was less than a mile away) and NOT the parents of the lost children or the COACH WHO LOST THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. My mother stayed with us, probably for Poppins and my sanity if nothing else since we had been talking to 14 year olds for the past 2 hours. Everyone ended up getting back in one piece. We handed the girls off to their frantic parents (no coach in sight) and continued toward the Mason Dixon Line, my parents following close behind.

The last 0.4 miles to the boarder (yes, that is how close we were when we dropped off the girls) I was thinking:
A. Reaffirming my decision to never have children
B. If I accidently pop out a baby make sure it grows up to be a resourceful pre-teen and knows whining is not the right answer
C. For the 10th time today, I have wonderful, capable parents...
D. (as we walked up to the boarder) Poppins and I are badasses

There was no boarder sign for WV/MD. Which was a travesty 

Randomly walked through a historic site, museum thing called Garthland

We deemed this "the 4-state" arch way. I'm sure it was built for us

Snack break & mom's sign

After a while I got excited about using the sign. Here we are at lunch, next to the Washington Monument... no not the one you are thinking of, the one in Maryland, it is actually the FIRST monument to George Washington... or something like that, I didn't pay attention or try to find out

Freaken Maryland yankees. It is C-U-L-P-E-P-E-R, it is not spelled like it sounds. Oh well, Culpeper is one of the top 10 most misspelled things in the country... oh look at that (I know you can't see this), even my spell check on my computer does not know how to spell it, lovely 

Oh top of the Washington Monument, no not the one you are thinking of, yes the one I just mentioned above

The best way to walk over an interstate, it is kind of magical. Also, we were going to moon the cars passing below but some daywalkers appeared... maybe another time

Over half-way done

Can't really see it in this picture but I'm waving my trekking poles around and hitting all the dandelions making a dandelion seed cloud

5 miles to go!!! Last log book stop. 

Log book at the MD/PA boarder... I was a little out of it

I like mom's sign at this point