Hiking the Appalachian Trail

I hiked the Appalachian trail today with Jenny and Suzanne. It was a beautiful fall day, and so much fun.

We went to Pine Grove Furnace state park in Pennsylvania to do it. Much of the trail is narrow and you have to walk single file. There was still plenty of fall color left on some of the trees.

We crossed a few streams, some of them even had bridges over them!

Sometimes the trail widened up and we were able to walk three abreast, which was even better for conversation. In the two hour hike we didn't run short of subjects to talk about!

I learned that much of the trail is marked by white marks (blazes) on trees and posts. However, sometimes, you really had no idea which way to go. Fortunately for us, Suzanne had brought a map which cleared things right up!

We hiked about 6 miles on the trail, which is actually 2,184 miles long, and covers 14 states!

Afterwards we stopped by camp El Wa Ho, near Gettysburg, which is the new girl's camp the church has purchased. Suzanne is looking for some good overnight hikes for the fourth year girls.

We might do another 6 miles next week in the same area. After all, we only have 2,178 more miles to go if we want to hike the whole trail!