mafogle
New member
In preparation for a longer trip this summer I took my daughter J. and her friend M. on their first overnight backpacking trip last weekend.
We started at the Eckville parking lot and hiked south to the Windsor Furnace shelter, planning to loop back on a blue trail the next day. The weather didn't look good, we drove most of the way there in rain. But it slowed to a drizzle as we got off Rt 78, and stopped all together when we started hiking.
This is an interesting piece of trail, the AT makes a big S as the Blue Ridge suddenly shifts 5 miles north, and resumes its NE course. At the north end of the first mountain is a spectacular out crop of rock called the Pinnacle, and at the south end of the second mountain is the Hawk Mtn sanctuary.
There are multiple hiking trails between the curves of the S and on adjacent state forest and game lands. So even thought there were plenty of day hikers, we didn't see too many people on the trails.
The trail from Eckville climbed to the ridge in good shape, rising about 1000', just steep enough at the end to make the girls slow down and catch their breath and let me catch up. For the most part the trail was more of a fire trail than hiking trail, in great shape. Much better than the usual PA AT experience of continuous hardscrabble and boulder fields.
The girls did great, making the ~5 miles to the shelter in 3.5 hrs, 2hrs less than my son's boy scouts troop when we hiked the same trail a few years ago.
We found the camp site around the shelter a little crowded with two large groups tenting near by. But there were just a few hikers at the shelter with a fire already going. And a little later three through hikers strolled in - a woman and her brother hiking together and a solo woman hiker. They started back in feb and jan respectively!
Just as we finished cleaning up dinner (ramen noodles and tofu), and as it was growing truly dark, there were a couple of distant flashes of lightening and then the sky opened up and poured. Rain fell off and on for the rest of the night - and even though the girls got a little wet in their tent over night (which reminds me I have to check that fly) they didn't complain one peep.
In the morning the rain had let up, and we headed back N on the AT after a breakfast of scrambled egg and bagel sandwiches. We boiled the scrambled eggs in a zip-loc bag, a trick I'd seen the boy scouts do, but hadn't tried myself. While the clean up was nil, fuel and water usage was too much for backpacking.
On the way to Pulpit Rock the trail took on more of its familiar nature. At the Rock we had lunch (apples, dried fruit, and nuts - my pack feels lighter now) and a great view over the valley. I don't think we saw very many hawks, but plenty of vultures cruising on the currents of air.
From here we decided to take a blue trail and cut off the 3mi hair pin loop of the pinnacle trail. At about the right place on the AT for the blue trail to enter we came across a set of blue blazes leading to the NW, but no sign of a trail to speak of. Could this really be the trail on the map? We scouted a little further down the AT - no blue trail. Then further down the tailless blue blazes - more blazes.
We could play it safe and keep on the AT and never find the blue trail, or we could go off on an adventure and follow the blazes (~1mi across the loop). Off we went, map and compasses in hand - here and there the blazes were hard to spot but they continued on, but never the slightest trace of a trail - except for the blazes. At one point, as sleet began to fall, and we wondered where in the blue blazes we were?- the real trail came in from the right joining its former track.
We finished the remainder of our 6 miles that day, under partly cloudy skies, arriving back at the car by 2pm
A great first backpacking trip. I think they had just the right amount of all the right ingredients.
-Martin
We started at the Eckville parking lot and hiked south to the Windsor Furnace shelter, planning to loop back on a blue trail the next day. The weather didn't look good, we drove most of the way there in rain. But it slowed to a drizzle as we got off Rt 78, and stopped all together when we started hiking.
This is an interesting piece of trail, the AT makes a big S as the Blue Ridge suddenly shifts 5 miles north, and resumes its NE course. At the north end of the first mountain is a spectacular out crop of rock called the Pinnacle, and at the south end of the second mountain is the Hawk Mtn sanctuary.
There are multiple hiking trails between the curves of the S and on adjacent state forest and game lands. So even thought there were plenty of day hikers, we didn't see too many people on the trails.
The trail from Eckville climbed to the ridge in good shape, rising about 1000', just steep enough at the end to make the girls slow down and catch their breath and let me catch up. For the most part the trail was more of a fire trail than hiking trail, in great shape. Much better than the usual PA AT experience of continuous hardscrabble and boulder fields.
The girls did great, making the ~5 miles to the shelter in 3.5 hrs, 2hrs less than my son's boy scouts troop when we hiked the same trail a few years ago.
We found the camp site around the shelter a little crowded with two large groups tenting near by. But there were just a few hikers at the shelter with a fire already going. And a little later three through hikers strolled in - a woman and her brother hiking together and a solo woman hiker. They started back in feb and jan respectively!
Just as we finished cleaning up dinner (ramen noodles and tofu), and as it was growing truly dark, there were a couple of distant flashes of lightening and then the sky opened up and poured. Rain fell off and on for the rest of the night - and even though the girls got a little wet in their tent over night (which reminds me I have to check that fly) they didn't complain one peep.
In the morning the rain had let up, and we headed back N on the AT after a breakfast of scrambled egg and bagel sandwiches. We boiled the scrambled eggs in a zip-loc bag, a trick I'd seen the boy scouts do, but hadn't tried myself. While the clean up was nil, fuel and water usage was too much for backpacking.
On the way to Pulpit Rock the trail took on more of its familiar nature. At the Rock we had lunch (apples, dried fruit, and nuts - my pack feels lighter now) and a great view over the valley. I don't think we saw very many hawks, but plenty of vultures cruising on the currents of air.
From here we decided to take a blue trail and cut off the 3mi hair pin loop of the pinnacle trail. At about the right place on the AT for the blue trail to enter we came across a set of blue blazes leading to the NW, but no sign of a trail to speak of. Could this really be the trail on the map? We scouted a little further down the AT - no blue trail. Then further down the tailless blue blazes - more blazes.
We could play it safe and keep on the AT and never find the blue trail, or we could go off on an adventure and follow the blazes (~1mi across the loop). Off we went, map and compasses in hand - here and there the blazes were hard to spot but they continued on, but never the slightest trace of a trail - except for the blazes. At one point, as sleet began to fall, and we wondered where in the blue blazes we were?- the real trail came in from the right joining its former track.
We finished the remainder of our 6 miles that day, under partly cloudy skies, arriving back at the car by 2pm
A great first backpacking trip. I think they had just the right amount of all the right ingredients.
-Martin
