Caledonia State Park to Harpers Ferry Saturday, May 17 to Tuesday, May 20 (4 days)

Going in, the weather looked fine. Could we be so lucky? As Bob says, “We’ll see.”

We did very little prep for this trip, depending on the trail’s relative accessibility and the rumor that it’s one of the easiest sections on the AT.

This trip was fantastic. We got wonderful weather. We actually hiked this SOBO, from Caledonia to Harpers Ferry. Our nightly stops:

1. Friday, 16 May 2025 in the Quality Inn.
2. Saturday, 17 May 2025 (9.6 miles), we stayed at Tumbling Run Shelter, arriving early (around 3pm). We had a beautiful spot near a babbling creek. It was still quite hot when we arrived, so we thought we’d take a dip in the creek–but the water was extremely cold! The shelter was actually quite close to a road, we found out when we went for a little walk at dusk.
3. Sunday (18.1 miles), we arrived at Raven Rock Shelter a bit early, around 4pm, and so we decided to push to Ensign Cowall Shelter. A Highlight of today was passing through Pen Mar Park, a historic amusement park (see photo above).
4. Monday (15.7 miles), we considered staying at the Dahlgren Backpacker Campground, but we had a horrible experience with the local Dominos Pizza joint, and the campground was eerily empty, so we decided to move on after dinner. We stayed at Rocky Run and it was beautiful–peaceful and well away from the highways.
5. Tuesday, 20 May (15.4), we arrived back in Harpers Ferry. Lauren and I each had a whiskey and a beer on the Coach House patio upon arrival. For dinner, we went to Mi Degollado Mexican Restaurant in Charles Town. We stayed again at the Quality Inn, where we had stored our car for $10 per day.
6. On Wednesday, we walked around the town a bit and had lunch at the Coach House, sitting next to a drunkard who kept getting kicked off the train. He was brandishing twenty dollar bills and gratuitously tipping the two bartenders. By around 1pm, we were driving home.

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/iTxb3zvXpTjZVEQx5

Total days hiking: 4 Total miles: 58.8 Average miles per day: 14.7