Appalachian Trail (day 47) - Brampton Gap Shelter to Raven Rock Shelter / mile 1062

"What was the most difficult part of the Appalachian Trail for you so far? - Norovirus." Diva

My second and last day in Maryland, tomorrow I'm walking into Pennsylvania. Bad weather is back on the menu.

It was raining all day and it was fairly cold so I was snacking a lot to keep myself warm. At around 9 AM I've arrived at the Dahlgren Backpack Campground which had hot, free showers! I didn't take a shower though as it was cold and wet.. also I didn't have a towel I could dry myself with, sad times. I've met Danglish here, a local American coming back home to support his aging parents after 16 years spent working in Germany. He was hiking the 40 mile Maryland section of AT and meeting them tonight for dinner at Harper's Ferry which was his favourite town in US.
The trail was quite rocky and was crossing many roads, I've seen few school groups hiking south, every time they would see me someone would shout "hiker!" and the whole group would stop to let me through, it was quite funny. I've also met a girl called Broadway, she was heading to the same shelter as me but she was much faster and soon enough she disappeared in the horizon.

I've arrived at the shelter quite early, I could have walked longer but there was no campsite for another 6 miles and the weather was getting bad, so I decided to call it a day. Shelter was full. Broadway, her tramily and a family of six day hikers took complete reign over it. I've set my tent nearby and came back to have the dinner under the shelters roof. I've talked a bit with Diva, he was a trail worker, fixing sections of AT but also other trails if required, this year he decided to thru hike it as well.

I've finished eating, stored my food in the bear box and went to tent just before the heavy rain arrived.

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