by The weather was just perfect this weekend and the leaves are starting to turn, and we had nothing special to do, so we did our favorite thing and went outside. Michaux State Forest is about 90 minutes from Baltimore, so too far for a half-day hike, but plenty close enough for a two-day overnight. We took the east side of the Rocky Knob trail up to the Appalachian Trail, spent the night at the Birch Run shelter, and came back down the west side of the Rocky Knob trail.
The eastern half of the Rocky Knob Trail lived up to its name. The rocks were crazy!
The colors were beautiful. I think they weren’t quite at their peak, but along with the blue sky and the weather, we could not have asked for more.
I’m pretty sure these are wild blueberries on the left. We’ll have to return when they are ripe!
The trail teased us with lots of almost-views before finally opening up to the view in the first picture above.
We do carry a bed so our pup has a soft and insulated place to lay down, but she generally ignores it in favor of curling up against a tree. Crazy pup!!
We were hoping to stay in the Birch Run Shelter, but it was closed for bed bugs!!!!! So we pitched our tent instead.
Some of the shelters along the AT have bear boxes where you can store your food overnight. Others, like this one, have these poles that you hang the food from.
The western side of the Rocky Knob Trail was much gentler and far less rocky than the eastern side of the loop. It was a lovely walk down, with equally gorgeous colors and the added bonus of some pine forest!
That sums up our weekend hike. It’s not our typical “squeeze in where we can” hike, but it is nice to do something longer when we can. There is more in our video, and my two-legged hiking partner “Z” chooses his trail name and introduces himself!