Sun, May 15. Horse-Shoe Trail Finale (Section 13 - Stony Creek Road to end on the Appalachian Trail to the parking lot). 2D11.7
Tom and Dale were on the final leg of their Horse-Shoe trail hike. Along with five (5) more Appalachian Mountain Club -AMC members (or I fondly called us AM-Seers), we started our hike along the Stony Creek on Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.We had a gradual ascent on our first hill, seeing a snake on one of our stops, then we made a detour to the Fire Tower which provided us nice vistas of the Appalachian Trail, a Lake and a dam, and of course the Horse-Shoe Trail. We had lunch at the foot of the tower and head to the 'Boulder City' -- a section of the trail where you will be traversing a field of large boulders. At end of this rocky walk is the start of the second ascent on a rocky trail up to the very end of the Horsh-Shoe Trail.
We ended our hike with a little more than 3-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail (of course, rocky trails too). I actually joked that maybe they should call the Pennsylvania section of the AT to be 'Rocky Pennsylvania' :)
Side Trip: Back to the Udder Restaurant in Lancaster County for ice cream
Sun., May 1, 3C10 , 10 miles, brisk pace, some hills. Meet at Hopewell Lake parking lot at 10 am. Bring snacks and/or lunch. Especially bring water. Dale B. Incommunicado after Saturday 5pm. Hopewell Lake is close to Park Office, off of PA 345, south of Birdsboro, Pennsylvania, and north of PA 23.
A Large group of AM-Seers showed up for this hike. We started walking along the Hopewell Lake, passing through the Hopewell Furnace farm, onto the White/Red Trail to an overlook called Miller's Pt. The group decided to have lunch there (complete with insects hovering our heads :)We looped back via the Lenape and Boone Trail to the Hopewell Lake Parking Lot.
Sat.,Apr. 23. Susquehanna State Park, near Havre de Grace, Maryland. 2C12.Tom organized yet another good hike near the Chesapeake Bay. We carpooled from Valley Forge Park to another meeting place near the Brandywine River Museum in Chester County and on to Conowingo, Maryland. We found the trailhead close to the Conowingo Hydro-electric plant.
We started following the Mason-Dixon Trail (a flat trail) leading to the Susquehanna State Park. The park has nicely-groomed trail and offers some interesting points like a n old furnace, a eco-filter area, and the Susquehanna Creek. We hiked along ridgeline on our way back.Side Trip: Price's Seafood in Havre de Grace, Maryland. The spiced crabs were wonderful!
Mud! Mud! And more mud!
The Evansburg State Park, located at the borders of Collegeville and Norriton, lived up to its reputation --- that it has the muddiest trail on Southeastern PA. But die-hard AMSeers as we are, Tom, Dale, Karen and I went on and traversed the 5-mile White Trail of the park. We live for challenges like this and we were rewarded by a nice 'high-degree-of-difficulty' hike (not to mention the very dirty boots)...
Sidetrip:
Tosco Pizzeria along Ridge Pike. The veggie pizza was great!
Tom and Dale were on the final leg of their Horse-Shoe trail hike. Along with five (5) more Appalachian Mountain Club -AMC members (or I fondly called us AM-Seers), we started our hike along the Stony Creek on Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
