Tuesday, 28 April 2026, Cumberland, Maryland.
(Day 807 TS) 50°F. 6:30 am, rain
Journey On™, Day 73
After a long day traveling, photographing and enjoying the
National Road National Scenic Byway (and All-American Road) and then completing the entire Road Journey by stopping to get a photograph of the Zero Monument in Cumberland, Maryland, I then move on to my next Road Journey. However, since that one must needs have me start the Journey On in Bar Harbor, Maine, I have decided that I will, during my drive north to Maine, stop at some of the scenic viewpoints, the high points and those places which I have been before during my days of walking the Appalachian Trail. That was a different time and a different life.
The first stop was at where the AT crosses a hard surface road, now known to me as Foxville Road (Maryland State Highway 77), and I stop to take some photos of the trailhead. I have looked in my book and on 27 June 1978, after leaving out from overnighting at Pine Knob Lean-to, with it raining in the early hours. I write:
"Pause at the new Hemlock Hill lean-to for a morning break and during the rest at this lean-to hear the constant drone of cars on a road not too far on the path ahead."
"Later, cross the hard surface road, follow more gravel roads, walk along Raven Rocks and the climb in the rain trough the woods and arrive at Devil′s Racecourse lean-to for lunch."
The Wayfarers Journal, Episode One: Journey to Katahdin, by Tommy Michel
Excerpts from pages 185
(m6fo-md-at-2026.0428.1806) Do you see all three white trail blazes.
Well, on my most recent journey here in Maryland, I have come to learn that the hard surface road is now known as Maryland State Highway 77 and locally as the Foxville Road.
Leaving the Appalachian Trail on Foxville Road I driver further east until I arrive at Catoctin Mountain Park, turn left through the entrance and drive mostly north through the park and eventually exit the park onto Raven Rock Road (Maryland SH 491) then left at Fort Ritchie Road, past the former Fort Richie (US Army Intelligence and Communications base, established in 1926 and decommissioned in 1998).
Next, I turn left on Pen Mar Road, alongside the Lake Royal dam, then drive to and through Pen Mar Par during which, I see the Pavilion and take a few photos. The last time I was here was on 27 June 1978, arriving "at the pavilion only moments before thunderstorm lets go of its deluge."
The Mason-Dixon Line, is a demarcation separating four US states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and West Viginia, surveyed beginning in 1763, established the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary, then it was halted by the Indian Wars in 1767, but resumed in 1782 and completed in 1784. This line later came to be known as the boundary between the southern slave states and the northern free states, which demarcation disputes resurfaced during the American Civil Way, with border states becoming key figures in the dispute.
The Confederate States of America claimed the Virginian portion (now West Virginia) portion south and west of the line as part of its northern border, although Virginia never exercised meaningful control that far north, especially after West Virginia separated from Virginia and joined the Union as a separate state in 1863.
"Now the path remaining in Maryland is about one kilometer short of the Mason-Dixon Line (Day 80, 27.1 km)
"So, tomorrow, bring on Pennsylvania and another notch too."
A foot note to the above states: Maryland-Pennsylvania state line at milepost 91, erected in 1767.
28 June 1978, PenMar Pavilion, MD.
(Day 81 AT) 63°F. 6:50 am
23.1 kilometers
PEN MAR PAVILION, A LARGE OPEN structure has picnic tables scattered beneath its massive purlins and rafters.
Afoot on the path now and soon come across the Mason-Dixon Line near milestone 91, cross into Pennsylvania and soon afterwards my footfalls enter Michaux State Forest.
The Wayfarers Journal, Episode One: Journey to Katahdin, by Tommy Michel
Excerpts from pages 186-187
(m6fo-md-at-2026.0428.1907) Mason-Dixon Monument at AT
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