Ensign Cowell Shelter to Highway 16 in Waynesboro

Day 3

Thursday March 31

Ensign Cowell Shelter to Highway 16 in Waynesboro

12.4 miles  

We were up at 6:15 and leaving the Shelter by 7:45.  The path got somewhat more rocky after leaving the shelter.   We crossed a stream with a 2-board bridge  then we rock-hopped across another stream where Wait-up got his boots wet. 

There was about a mile of steep switch-back climb up to Raven Rock Shelter.  Then it was a slow rocky descent from High Rocks Trail down to Pen Mar Park.  It was about two miles of rocks with no ground to step on at all.  Foot pain!

 Then we reached the Mason-Dixon line!  This site, marked by a stone monument and a crudely constructed sign, signifies the historical survey line that separates Maryland from Pennsylvania, surveyed by Mason and Dixon 1763-67.

 

Somewhere along here, it dawned on one of us that we had parked our car at a spot about 5 miles from where we had originally planned and that was going to add that distance to our hike today.  We had our heart set on only 12.4, not 17 miles!   The shuttle drivers we knew lived too far away to have them come to us for only a 5-mile drive, so we did some brainstorming.  I am a member of a women’s Facebook hiking group so I decided to put up a post asking if anyone lived in the area who could give us a ride to our car from Highway 16.  Luckily and surprisingly, someone does and she agreed to meet us!  At 4 o'clock we made it to Highway 16 and had a short wait before Nancy and her husband arrived.  She was a trail angel.

 After three days and two nights in the woods, we were ready for a hotel bed and a shower and, of course, a good meal.  We drove to Greencastle Comfort Inn where we spent the night.

 

Ensign Cowell Shelter