Hike Across Maryland 2007

Saturday, May 5th, 2007

When I moved to Maryland, through various people I had been hiking with, I heard about the Mountain Club of Maryland. Rumor had it that these people were the most intense, most serious hikers of all the clubs I had heard about - including the National outdoors club, the Maryland outdoors club, the Sierra club, and the Winnies. I was intrigued because I cannot resist anything deemed "intense" or "extreme". Am I as intense? Am I as extreme? Only one way to find out. So the more I hiked with the Mountain Club, the more I realized that these people and I were on the same page. It's raining? So? What does that have to do with our backpack? Snow on the trail? What else would you be doing if not hiking?

I tried to explain to my family that the hike I was planning to do on May 5th was a big deal for me, that I was going to need their help and support. They didn't understand. I asked them months in advance to reserve the weekend for me. They wouldn't. I finally bribed my mother - if she would drive the 3 hours from south Jersey to Harpers Ferry on May 5th weekend, I promised I would drive the 3 hours from Baltimore to Wildwood on May 12th weekend for Mother's Day. She reluctantly agreed. I paid a friend of mine to drop me off at the firehouse in Blue Ridge Summit. I arrived planning to get right to sleep. Ron, Barry, and I laid on the floor giggling like school girls at a sleepover party. From 8:30pm until 12:30am, I watched the hands of the clock swing around. Tried to will myself to sleep. It wasn't particularly noisy or uncomfortable, I was actually quite comfortable. I guess my mind was just whirring, and I was anxious to get started. In the night, once I rolled over and saw a man in white briefs underwear, a Tshirt, and socks, walking through the firehouse full of people to the bathroom. I was a little disturbed, but tried not to let it bother me. I finally got to sleep around 12:30 and woke a little after 3. I forced myself to eat a little bit of breakfast.

We made it to the starting point by 5:15 and we were off. The first 10 miles I was averaging 3.5 mph. I was a bit concerned. I had wanted to start out strong and maybe fade towards the end as I got tired. If I was already at 3.5 mph, there was no way I would average higher than that, so I thought. My goal was a finish time between 10 and 11 hours. That's an average speed between 4.1 and 3.7. The first half of the hike was a real mind game. I was already bored by 4 hours in and I knew I had several significant climbs and a lot of miles ahead of me. I hadn't seen anyone on the trail for a while. After the 10 mile marker, at the top of the 2nd big climb, I started feeling light headed. I hadn't eaten much that morning so I knew I had to eat. But I was hiking at a pretty good pace and I needed to breathe. I didn't want to eat. I forced down some peanut butter crackers as I walked, taking small bites so I could breathe around the bites. This turned out to be my method the whole hike. It was important to keep food going down continuously, but I didn't want to stop to catch my breath to eat, so I developed a chewing/breathing pattern that ended up working out pretty well. I kept the sugary food coming almost the entire walk. I stopped to change my socks at mile 15, at the top of the climb past Pogo campsite.

I really liked getting to I-70. I don't know why. I had driven under the AT overpass over I-70 many times, but I had never hiked any of the AT in MD before. Plus, I knew I-70 was pretty much the halfway point. And it was the end of a very long, boring stretch with no checkpoints. Seeing the checkpoint at Boonsboro Rd was very motivating. The volunteers there were very encouraging and I felt energized after leaving them.

The lunch stop was the only checkpoint where I sat down for a few minutes. I first made a wrong turn and ended up going up to Washington Monument, thinking the trail went up that way. I had to turn around and backtrack. The most amount of time I spent at any checkpoint was here at Washington Monument. I think I was there for 6 minutes or so. I was hungry, and the sandwich really hit the spot. I filled my pockets with vanilla sandwich cookies, they were my life blood for the second half of the hike. They looked kinda like this, but they were a little skinnier. They fit very nicely into pockets and were easy to breathe around while chewing. They packed a lot of sugar which is the quickest form for your body to convert to energy. Two thumbs up on the vanilla sandwich cookies.

Around mile 24, I came upon an National Guard Army platoon. Their backpacks looked awfully light to me. But they moved to the side for me to pass, and gave me some encouraging words about "staying motivated". I just grunted at them and tried to put some distance between us. The climb up to Lambs Knoll wasn't as I had imagined it in my head. It wasn't nearly as steep as I had pictured, which was a nice surprise. I missed the shelter at the bottom, so I wasn't aware that I had started the climb until I was already halfway through it. At the checkpoint on top, I joined up with Steve Williams and he kept me moving a lot quicker than I might have on my own. We soon arrived at the next checkpoint. It seemed like forever before I got to Weaverton cliffs. I kept walking and looking for blue blazes, I didn't want to overshoot the trail when it cut off to the right. Finally I got to the switchbacks and I basically jogged down them. I hit the checkpoint at the bottom and kept right on going. Jim Koury, Steve Williams and I started out together on the toepath, but they quickly outpaced me. I walked the longest 3 miles EVER and finally saw the steeple poking out above the trees. When I got to the railroad bridge, I saw that there was a flight of stairs. I thought, "Of course there would be stairs...someone told me that there was no more climbing on this hike..." I felt lied to. I also cursed the stairs as I climbed. But I knew that the end was so near, so I kept pushing. At the top of the stairs, my mom gave me a hug and took some pictures as I pushed her aside so I could get across the bridge.

Things I might do differently next time. If I ever decided to do it again (and if I try to better my time), I'd have to perform stronger in the first 1/4 of the race. I think I might have been playing head games with myself that first half. I would double check to make sure I had clipped my toenails back as far as I could. I might stop halfway and re-adjust my laces on my shoes. I would load a lot more songs on my Ipod. I'd fill my water bladder with gatorade instead of water right from the beginning. I'd have a beer or glass of wine the night before so I could get some sleep.

40.9 miles
Final finish time - 3:54 pm
10 hours and 39 minutes
Average speed: 3.85 mph
Cost: $25 and two toenails