Flat Stanley Rohland on the Maryland AT section 5

My Maryland hike with Uncle Dave, Mommy and Daddy.

Hi Friends,

I’m so excited. Mom and Dad have been very busy packing baby for our fall vacation. This year instead of going to Canada, we’re going to do more AT hiking south of Pennsylvania.

Our first hike on vacation was in Maryland on September 29, 2007. This is the first time I’m getting to hike in Maryland. Maryland is a state just south of Pennsylvania, which is where we live. We are hiking with my uncle Dave who came down all the way from Connecticut to meet us and hike with us.

This is a picture of all of us at Gathland State Park in Maryland. This is where we started our hike.

This actually was a special hike for Uncle Dave. I won’t tell you why at this point. This is a monument to war correspondents from the Civil War. A correspondent is a person who’s job is to write newspaper articles. The monument was built by a war correspondent who owned this land at that time.

Before we started, we looked at a map for the section we were going to hike. The hike would be from Gathland State Park to Turner’s Gap. 

Here is a picture of a map they had at Gathland Park. It was confusing to me because I thought it was upside down. They had North pointing down. Whenever I look at a map, North is usually pointing up.

Boy Scout Troup 875 from Hyde, Maryland.

 

On the hike we met up with Boy Scout Troup 875 from Hyde, Maryland. I like having my picture taken with Boy Scouts. I hope to be a boy scout when I get older. They are very polite and friendly. They also seem to really have fun hiking and camping together.


A little while later we met another group of people. They belong to the Mountain Club of Maryland.

They give their time so that the rest of us can hike on such a great trail. It is a lot of hard work to take care of the trail. On this day they were out just like us to enjoy the trail.

Potomac Mountain Club. 
power line clearing

The trail crossed this power line clearing where you could see for miles. I got to climb in a tree for a better look around since I’m so short. 

Do you see me in this picture?

Another thing that was really fun was looking for the biggest acorn that fell from the trees. Some of these acorns will grow into oak trees and some will be food for the animals like squirrels. Here is the biggest one that I found.

My really big acorn.
Battlefield from the Civil War This hike took us past a battlefield from the Civil War. There is a monument here dedicated to General Jesse Reno who died in battle here. This was the battle of Fox Gap. 

This is a picture of how the battlefield looks today. I think it might have been much different during the Civil War in 1862. The land could have changed a lot in over 100 years.

This is a picture of how the battlefield looks today.
Uncle Dave went over the 1000 miles total of trail that he has hiked.

As I said earlier, this was a special hike for my Uncle Dave. Most people who hike on the Appalachian Trail keep a diary or log of where they have hiked and how many miles of the Appalachian Trail they have hiked. On this hike, Uncle Dave went over the 1000 miles total of trail that he has hiked. Here is a picture of Uncle Dave and me when he reached that milestone.

That's it for this trip. 

I'm still looking for you on the AT. Don't forget to send me your AT picture. My email address is stanley @ rohland.org. I just need to know your first name and where you hiked. I will put it on the Kids on the Appalachian Trail page.

I would like to hear about your AT adventures too. Send your story and picture to me and I will put them on my website. Don't forget to take me with you. You can get a picture of me to take along. Just go to http://www.flatstanley.com/template.htm.


 

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