This next ten mile loop hike on the AT started within Pine Grove Furnace State Park which is inside the beautiful Michaux State Forest. Amos and I hiked a half AT/ half forest road loop that started at the parking area for Camp Michaux. I've done a post on this historic site before so won't revisit it here but we did cruise through the old CCC camp and military intelligence camp site before setting out on the AT. We met two Friends of Michaux State Forest volunteers who were busy hacking away at the substantial undergrowth.
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| The AT crosses Michaux Road just west of Camp Michaux |
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| Symbolic half-way point (the actual halfway point is south of here) |
Since the AT changes a little each year, so does the half-way point. We came across the more permanent halfway marker knowing that the actual halfway for this year is about nine miles south. Due to rerouting, closures, new trail sections opening, and other modifications, the AT can vary in length from year to year by a few miles.
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| American Toad |
This is Timber Rattlesnake country and I kept Amos on a shorter leash until we made it to the forest road, although I nearly had a heart attack when walking through some thick understory of blueberry he jumped up and screamed and tore ahead by a few feet while looking back to where I stood. "OH NO!" I said - waiting to hear the buzzy-buzz next to me. Instead the fattest American Toad I have ever seen hopped out into the sunny trail. WHEW!
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| Lunch lay-down among the pine needles and dead cicadas |
On the trail every hiker we met stopped for a few minutes to pet Amos and chat. Section hikers Amtrack and Iron Fly were hiking all of PA this summer. Baltimore Jack and Scooch (two old friends) were on the AT for the third time this year doing a few hundred miles of "old men stumbling." And then we met poor Cricket who was having second breakfast at Tom's Run shelter and nearly lost it to always-starving Amos.
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| The new shelter and a small pavilion behind it have replaced the old CCC-built shelter. |
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| All that remains of the CCC-built 1935 Tom's Run shelter |
The springs at Tom's Run were deliciously cool and Amos spent a long time wading and lapping the water while Cricket told me about her thru-hike so far. "The trail community is amazing," she said. "I can be alone when I need or want to be or walk with people who care about each other and the trail whether day hikers or section hikers or thru-hikers, but I have really loved the trail towns. My gosh. What if all of America was like the AT community?" Well said. Maybe that is why I love it so much, too. Cricket is just out of the military and she's headed to a new job on the West Coast come October. I wished her well and we exchanged FB contacts. Meanwhile Amos was snuffling through her pack having detected turkey jerky...
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| Steep climb out of Tom's Run to the ridgeline |
We hiked another five miles until we came to where we left off last time near the Mitchner cabin haul road and purple gate where we had lunch in the soft pine needles. Extra padding was provided by hundreds of dead cicadas. From here we jumped out on the shady forest road and walked five miles along the breezy ridge to the car. We took our time and enjoyed the ravens calling and all the small birds making feasts out of cicadas dying in the road.
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| Eastern Tent Caterpillar |
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Fly Poison, Amianthium muscitoxicum
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Heading off the mountain to where I parked the car Amos and I finished a week of hiking in PA, unplugged and out-of-signal-range. It helped too that for some reason Verizon throttled my data use from last week in Illinois so I could only really use the phone and even then it was spotty. I turned on the news driving home and almost immediately turned it back off. Next week is a conference in Iowa and then back to work. But the mountains are calling me louder and louder each time I leave them. One of these times I'll stay.
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| Forty miles in the PA mountains this week...time to go home. |
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