4th of July

Black Forest Trail
Where: Tiadaghton State Forest, PA
# Days: 3
Mileage: 42

Nothing says 4th of July like being out on the trail!

After Tania, Dave, and I went to Black Forest Trail over Memorial Day weekend, I decided I still wanted to finish the loop.  Enter long holiday weekend.  Dave and I decided to finish the 42 mile loop.  And since we knew we'd really be pushing ourselves, we decided the pup should stay behind.  Poor Sheldon.

 Headed out Thursday, got started on the trail around 1pm.  Of course as soon as we started to hike, a thunderstorm rolled in.  We kept pushing, hoping it would quickly pass, and thankfully, the storm must've gotten stuck in a valley between two ridges, because while it was certainly very close, it never quite came on top of us.  Got about 8 miles in that day, before settling in on a nice river campside just as it started to rain again.

Friday morning we woke up, and just started cruising out some miles.  The day was pretty mild, in terms of elevation gain/loss, and we manged to squeak out around 16 miles before settling in to camp, at another riverside site.  Unfortunately, since neither of us had remembered to bring a watch, we didn't know, until another camper arrived to pitch a tent with us, that we had finished hiking somewhere around...4pm.  Too early if you ask me! 

Also too early was our wake up the next morning!  530am David wakes me up, blegh.  Not such a bad thing, though, because we had another big day ahead of us.  17 miles later, after trekking through the WORST many mile long unavoidable patch of stinging nettles I've personally encountered, we landed at a pretty dry river camp site, much buggier than previous nights, and long story short, decided to proceed another mile up the trail to the next campsite - so glad we did!  Beautiful little spring fed pond, clear as can be, and we fell asleep to the (very annoying) peepers greeting the night.

Technically, we took 4 days to complete the loop, but the last day, we had fewer than 2 miles to the car, so I'm not counting it :)  I will add, however, that the last day was most certainly the most spectacular view of the trip.

Hiking in PA isn't always the most visually rewarding (few views - all of the same two valleys) and the terrain is just challenging enough to not be totally boring, but not exciting enough to feel really proud of yourself after a long hard push.  Those were the longest days I'd pulled since the AT, though and it gave us a little confidence for our trip coming up to Vermont next week - an attempt of another 100 miles on the Long Trail.  I can't wait!

Black Forest Trail

Black Forest Trail
Where: Tiadaghton State Forest, PA
# Days: 3
Mileage: 16ish

 Decided to spend the holiday weekend on a little backpacking trip this year - me, Tania, David, and Sheldon the dog.  It was the dog's first backpacking trip, and David's second trip (we spend Halloween in the Catskills last year).  I must say, the trip was a huge success, mostly of course measured by Sheldon's ability to keep trucking, not leave us (he was off leash 98% of the time) and stick around camp.

We arrived at the trail head of a cross country ski trail on Saturday, and began hiking around noon.  We hiked somewhere around 6 miles, meeting up with the Black Forest Trail, before settling at a campsite near a small creek. 

even had a little time for Skip-Bo hehe

sleepy sleepy guy

Sheldon was a little anxious, but mostly did really great.  Tent situation - girls in one 2-person tent and boys in the other 2-person tent.  I got to test out my new REI ultralight tent, which was pretty cool.  Much smaller than the quarter dome, but a heck of a lot lighter - at 2 lbs 7 oz, the new tent is a pound and a half lighter than the old tent.  May not sound substantial to most people, but anywhere more than a pound can be shaved is a huge success in the backpacking world :)

Day two, Sunday, we hiked about 9 miles, all along the Black Forest Trail.  We had a few really nice views, LOTS of stream crossings, including a few we needed to de-boot for.  The exact reason I carry crocs as my camp shoe - lightweight, airy, but strong/protective enough for river crossings.  Tip to anyone who wants to hit up this trail - be prepared for water! 

Camp Sunday night was a much nicer campsite, a little more secluded, and along another stream.  The sound of the water all night was so great.  Sheldon slept like a rock the whole night the second night, and you could tell he was starting to understand the tent boundaries.  Great improvement over the first night where he kept trying to walk through the mesh parts of the tents!

he went right to sleep as soon as we stopped for the day

Monday we only had about 2 miles back to the car.  Passed a fire tower on the way, but it wasn't open to climb.  Stopped to have lunch outside along the way, and everyone was able to relax before heading back to work on Tuesday (except not me - I had to work Monday night!). 

Looking forward to the next trip, have a few bigger trips planned this year, so look for that!