Maryland Challenge 2008

WIND, that is the story of the day from our Maryland Challenge adventure on December 31st!! I didn't think it was possible for the wind to blow that hard all day, turns out it is. Otherwise we had great weather conditions, no rain, temps in the 30s at the start, trail was totally dry, stayed dry at stream crossings, doesn't get much better than that.

Joe, Paul, Mark, Amanda, Cathy and I started around 7am from Pen Mar on Wednesday morning in the dark. We quickly headed north to the PA line and then turned back around to start our journey south to Harpers Ferry. The first 9.6 miles was mostly uneventful. There were the usual climbs, lots of rocks, some pretty views, and then the wind started to kick it into high gear. There were leaves blowing up hill at us and tree branches falling. The wind roared so loudly that we thought it sounded like a train coming, only the train never passed and the roaring wind continued the whole day. Paul and Mark both had close calls with large tree branches falling, but fortunately they were both ok. We passed through our first aid station at Wolfsville Road really quickly because the wind chill made it too cold to stop for very long.

Our next section started off with a climb and then we had some long stretches of really runnable trail. We saw a couple people in this section as we got closer to I-70, otherwise we were mostly on our own all day. We got to our aid at I-70, about 18 miles so far, and were greeted by Lorrin, Bill, Mical, Erik, Katie and Megan. It was really great to see everyone and to fuel up. But it was also really cold so we didn't hang around long here either! Mical and Katie joined us at this point, Paul took over with baby Erik, and we got moving.

The next section is about 5 miles, it was really nice to have some new energy and conversation in our group. Katie and Mical picked us all up and kept us moving to the Turners Gap and our next aid at the South Mountain Inn. Coincidentally we ran into some of our WVMTR friends in this section. Turns out that Bradley Mongold, Paul Davis and Kavara Vaughn don't live far from the AT in MD and were out for a run on this section. We exchanged brief greetings as they blew past us. It was fun to see those guys and provided us another lift!


We blew into the parking lot at the South Mountain Inn about 2:17 pm. In past years we've been in this next section when it got dark and needed to carry lights from here on out. I realized that with our earlier start this year, we could get all the way to Gathland before sunset, I was happy to leave my headlamp behind for a few more miles and get this whole section done in the daylight. The wind was still really strong, the temps were starting to drop, and I grabbed another layer here. Katie decided to continue on with us, this was great, we knew she'd help keep us moving.

Next we headed out for the climb up Lambs Knoll. This climb seems to take forever to me, this year was no different! We finally made it to the top, checked out the great views from White Rocks and continued on our way. Joe, Mark and Katie took off, Cathy, Amanda and I dropped back a bit but we were still making pretty good time, especially since we still had daylight. We made it to Gathland about 4:19, grabbed some food, some more clothes, and took off. We made it until about 5:20 pm before we had to turn on our headlamps. Joe and Mark had taken off at a faster clip. Cathy, Amanda and I pushed on. The wind continued to blast us, some parts of the trail had leaves piled up as high as our knees. We finally got to the really rocky section that proceeds the descent down the switchbacks at Weverton. We really all seemed to slow down through this section. I was wishing I'd grabbed another layer at Gathland. I was trying to think about hot, miserable runs (e.g., Catoctin, XMP runs on towpath, etc) and think warm thoughts. Cathy was talking about hot chocolate. We were darn cold. We finally got to the bottom, greeted our frozen crew, picked up Mark and Joe, and headed down to the towpath for the FINAL 3 miles. Once again the guys took off, we plodded on. When we got to the bridge that crossed over to Harpers Ferry, I decided to skip it, Cathy and Amanda went ahead and crossed to touch ground in WV, they then made the return trip to MD and down the towpath to the finish. I was there waiting with our frozen crew of Bill, Jim, Katie and Megan. Joe and Mark had already made the same bridge crossing and finished.

We then made our way quickly to the cars, said quick goodbyes to Jim and Cathy since they were heading back to VA, and headed down to Lorrin and Joe's for chili, soup, and celebration! Did I mention that I cranked the heat in the car the whole way home!? Megan had to stop the car and take off a layer because I was baking her out of the car.

So this was our 3rd year of the MD Challenge adventure, we completed the approximately 40.5 miles of the AT in MD, from PA to WV, in just under 12.5 hours. Amanda is the only one that's made it all three years. Joe completed the whole thing for the 2nd time. Mark, Cathy and I completed the entire Challenge for the first time this year!! Here are my pictures from the day. Thanks to Bill, Lorrin, Katie, Megan, Mical and Paul for crewing and running with us.

Happy 2009 everyone!