Sugar Knob Cabin Wrecking Crew

Saturday 20May06 - 9:15am at Larkin's country store.
Our raggedy group formed. Keith, Catherine, Terri, Ron Smith, Valerie, Leena, Sam, Suds, Tuna, myself and two pugs. 4 men, 5 women, 3 dogs. Age range 25-83. Suds unloaded 4 very large bottles of wine out of his delapidated Prius. As Keith started handing out supplies, we stood around and gawked at all the gear. Paint cans, tools, brushes, buckets, a case of beer, a box of food, a 10 foot aluminum gutter. I started unloading things out of my pack to make room.

We started our hike along Little Stoney Creek. The weather was beautiful. About 90 minutes later we arrived at the cabin. The trip in was uneventful, but beautiful. The cabin is small with a large fire pit in front. It sits directly on the trail, and about 100 yards away from a cool spring. We placed the beers and wine in the river to keep them cool. After setting up camp and eating a sandwich, I started to paint.

About 3 hours later, Suds was still not with us. Keith had gone back down the trail to look for him and neither one of them had made it to the cabin yet. We all worried a bit, but figured Keith had everything under control. About 5 hours after we had started on the trail, Keith and Suds made it. Apparently there had been an altercation with some timber rattlers, and Suds had to go bushwhacking around the hazard. Luckily, everyone survived unscathed, including the snakes.


We painted and sanded into the late afternoon hours. Around 6, happy hour began. Beers cracked open, the wine flowed, cheese and peperoni and chocolate and salsa, steamed trout, Suds' homemade bread and whiskey. It was an extravaganza. Catherine returned from her trail maintenance trip around 6. She had been hiking all day with four single male 20-somethings, and she didn't invite me along - so Catherine and I are no longer speaking. Seven younger hikers on their way through stopped to have a drink. Four of them stayed and partied with us through the night. The highlights of the evening were Suds' singing, Tuna's chair collapsing, the imitations of Ron Eshleman (aka Ben Finklestein) "I can't make it, I have to study...." and the story of Keith's dumpster-diving in Jefferson. Tuna had Catherine laughing hysterically. The most notable highlight of the evening was the birthday cake that Keith had packed in for Terri. The cake was in the shape of a cabin, complete with an edible roof with awnings and decorations. The cake was delicious. We all sang happy birthday and drank and joked. It was a good time.

Sunday 21May06
Sunday morning began the most extravagant effort of community breakfast making I've ever seen. There were 4 stoves and a full blown fire going to cook pancakes and eggs and ham. There was orange juice and breads and jams. The meal was wonderful. Terri's pancakes were very good. Almost as good as Art's apple pancakes. The 4 drifters who had decided to stay for happy hour were treated to a bed and breakfast. They ate and then continued on their way, probably discussing amongst themselves about those crazy old people with all the food. After breakfast, Tuna and I hurried to finish our painting so we could hike up to Big Schloss. Tuna was telling Valerie about his Nano Schloss, and Val wasn't impressed. So he gave up and Tuna and I headed off to the Mill Mountain trail with the two pugs. About 7 miles into the trip, Jada refused to walk any further. I picked her up and slung her over my shoulders and hiked the rest of the way down the Big Schloss Cutoff Trail. Tuna and I made it back to my truck by 2pm. We were back to the Baltimore area by 5.

It was a great trip.