January 13, 2013
Section Miles: 14.6 Total Miles: 70.5
The weather people promised us a 60-degree day on Sunday the 13th, so we took advantage and prepped for our next section, leaving the house at 5:00 am to ensure an early start. There were antique stores waiting at the finish line, and we wanted plenty of time to peruse. I'm not sure what the weather people were smokin', but it seemed to us like it never left the 40's, with a dense fog that made driving perilous and hiking drippy-wet and cloistered.
From what we could see through the fog, I don't know that we missed much. This section alternately traversed patches of woods, roads, subdivisions, power-line easements, highways, farms, random houses in the woods, settlements, towns, and even an RV park, all strikingly similar to sections of the Mason-Dixon Trail, and none of it very much interesting. At one point I was totally turned around and honestly thought we were heading in the wrong direction - hadn't I seen these houses before? Same blue tarps covering the piles of firewood, same wooden play structures with the yellow plastic slides, same vinyl siding on the windowless walls, same trucks in the driveway? You aren't exactly hiking through people's back yards, but if you reach your hiking pole out just past the no-trespassing signs, you can often touch 'em. I'm glad it's done. Maybe I was just disappointed in the weather.
The trail did pass by a couple of beautiful farms or estates (we weren't sure exactly what we were looking at through the fog), and a fascinating, lost-in-time "Crystal Springs" attraction, where locals had been coming for years to bottle-up spring water from coin-operated spigots until the department of health shut it down just days before we arrived.
The best part of the day, by far, was off-trail, visiting the antique dealers in Denver and Adamstown. Apparently this area is noted for its concentration of antique stores and malls, which by our small sampling range from wonderfully tacky, people-watching paradises, to some of the finest shops around. Drop by if you're ever in the area, and don't miss out on Stoudt's Brewing Company for lunch or dinner.
