On a "Real" Trail

 

We did not do as much hiking on our vacation as we hoped. However, we did a six mile hike on the Mid-State Trail. This trail runs mostly north and south Pennsylvania. We stayed at R.B. Winter State Park which the trail runs through.

We hiked three miles out and then back with our packs. Finally we hiked a trail and not a flat service around our neighborhood. As noted in most of the AT blogs we follow, PA has lots of rocks and this was true on the portion of the Mid-State we hiked.

The trail elevated most of the first three miles with lots of PA rocks on the trail along with some good tree roots and limbs across the trail. In many places the tree limbs were close to the trail and Michelle hiking first received all the spider webs.

The trail uses orange blazes and was well marked. As much as going up a rocky trail coming back down was interesting too. When we started the bugs were few and far between. About 2.5 miles in we passed standing bog/pond and the mosquitoes had a field day from then on. A lesson learned, always bring the bug juice along!

Michelle decided I should lead the way back down the trail. Ya gotta love spider webs across your face.  We both enjoyed
some "real" hiking. I was surprised to be sore not in the expected places, but at the top of my legs. I felt it every time I crossed my legs, moved them driving the car and other times - a complete surprise. But we finally hiked!