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Sunday, February 18, 2024

Horse Shoe Trail Section 4 Route 100 to Downed Tree and Back

The title of this section would have been Route 100 to Warwick County Park if it weren't for the downed tree (and thensome). We attempted to go around to the left but it became obvious pretty quickly that we weren't getting past this obstable without significant climbing through and over thorny vines and branches. 


So we  turned around. Turning around gave us two crossings of the same creek and double the views of the pond at Welkinweir. 

Keep Smiling Keep Moving
-Paula 

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Horse-Shoe Trail Section 3: Warwick County Park to SGL 43 at Harmonyville Road.

Last weekend we had hoped to once again attempt the section between Brightside Farm Park (BFP) and Route 100. However, weather, wind chills and a blood donation have kept us off the trail for too many weeks and 11.1 miles felt like too much. Instead, Elaine, Dave and I went to Bryn Coed Nature Preserve and, despite getting lost, had a wonderful time. We covered 5.5 miles that day. 

Returning home from that outing I decided to refigure the sections to build back up to 10 to 12 miles. The other thing I decided was that two attmpts at BFP to Route 100 was enough for now. We are already out of order so we'll go back to that later. That brings us to today's section, 5.9 miles from Warwich County Park and the SGL 43 parking area on Harmonyville Road. 

This section follows French Creek with several crossing of streams feeding into the Creek.

January snow and rain has the Creek
running at a decent height and pace.

Stream crossing were plentiful today.
Rock for hopping were jsut as plentiful.
No one got wet 👏

The perk of this section is the ease of visiting St. Peter's Bakery post hike. 💖

The question of the day is "Why is the village alled St. Peter's"? While I can find many refernces to the village and its history, none shares the origin of the name. If you know, please let us know. 

Keep Smiling Keep Moving - Paula 



Sunday, January 14, 2024

Flexibility Revisted

Since this is a four day weekend for me, I planned on two hikes. Friday and again today. If the title of this post has not already clued you in then, SPOILER ALERT, I did not hike today. 

Physically I have recovered from Friday. Expected wind chills in the mid-20s to start is tolerable. Been there done that and have a few tricks up my sleeve for that. Some of them literally up my sleeve*. The snow of course was not an issue. It was the rain mixed in followed by high winds with gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range. I'd end up with a chill that would last until next weekend! 

So instead I opted for a short walk to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts. I had received a Wawa rewards coupon for free birthday coffee good until 1/14/2024. Today is 1/14/2024. Except apparently that means midnight before the coupon expiry date. Still got my coffee just had to be flexible yet again. 😎

Keep Smiling Keep Moving (even when the weather and your coupons conspire to try to make you frown) LOL

-Paula 

* Or down your sleeve as the case may be. Put your hydration tube down your sleeve in below freezing weather and your water will remain water :) 

Friday, January 12, 2024

Horse-Shoe Trail Section 2: SGL 43 at Harmonyville Road to Gravel Lot on Geigertown Road.

Today's hike is brought to us by the letter F for Flexible and Fall. 

Flexible because even the best laid plans may go awry when you forget that you are hiking on a Friday not the weekend. The planned section for today should have picked up where we left off two weeks ago (at Brightside Farm Park) and ended at Collinson, Inc on Route 100. Fortunately, I remembered last night that parking at Collinson is only permitted on weekends and holidays as they have a business to run during the week!! So much for my plan to hike each section in order. 

In case you are wondering (and if you're not, skip ahead), I couldn't switch my hike day to tomorrow due to yet another round of heavy rain coming tonight. 


After leaving my car at Giegertown Road we travelled in Dave's car to SGL 43 at Harmonyville road and hiked together to Hopewell Furnace (about 2 miles). From here I continued on to my car and Dave went back to his. 

The remainder of the hike was in and around the grounds of Hopewell Furnace area and French Creek State Park. Signs informed me I was travelling in and out of permitted hunting areas as well. I was properly dressed for that and felt safe. It was strange, though, during well signed "No hunting" areas to hear the sound of gunshots coming through the trees from the Gun Club not too far away. 

I saw a couple, a single hiker and a mountain biker today. The mountain biker was coming up behind and I stepped off the trail to let him pass. He stopped and commented on the condition of the trail. In spots it was very wet with boot sucking mud. He said "I've been coming here for 30 years and have never seen it this bad". I asked where he came in from. He said Harrisburg. I let him know that the snow they got in Harrisburg last week and this past Wednesday was all rain here. 

The trail here (as in much of PA) was full of rocks and roots. Many of it camouflaged by leaf cover which brings me to the other word of the day FALL. I'm impressed with myself that it only happened once. But it was a doozy. My sunglasses and Perki went flying. I am fine but suspect I'll be feeling it tomorrow. It was a bone rattler. 

The rocks, roots and mud made for slow going to day. 10.25 miles and 4 hours & 43 minutes after leaving Dave's car I was re-united with mine. 


Keep Smiling Keep Moving - Paula 

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Horse-Shoe Trail Section 1: Washington's Headquarters to Brightside Farmpark

I've decided to celebrate my 65th year by tackling a hiking bucket list item  - an end to end section hike of the Horse-Shoe Trail. And now that it's been said 'out loud', how is that I'm in my 65th year already? I guess time really does fly when you are having fun. 

Since my first hike on this trail in December 2012, I've hiked all of Maps 1 though 4 and a portion of Map 5. Some of the sections on these maps I've hiked multiple times. Now, I will make a specific effort to start at the beginning and continue one section at a time to the end. With Dave's help we'll car hop our way across the state from Valley Forge to Harrisburg.

With the help of the 2023 HST Trail maps, I've divided the trail into 12 sections averaging 12 miles each. I am limited to weekends and will need to work around other weekend commitments. I'd love to finish before Memorial Day. I'll hike in rain and snow. I won't hike in thunder and lightening (not on purpose anyway) and I prefer not to hike in a torrential rain. So we'll see how weather affects our schedule. 

Also, it hasn't snowed more than a dusting in almost 2 years in eastern PA. Now that I've made these plans, I feel a blizzard coming on. No, I won't hike in it but it's a good thing I miss the snow or it would be tougher to laugh at that.  

For today's section we left my car at Brightside Farm Park and took Dave's car to Washington's Headquarters. My watch measured .38 mile from the rest room near the HQ parking lot to the Henry Woolman monument that marks the eastern terminus of the Horse-Shoe Trail. 

It was not possible to get us and the monument
in the same photo.

Dave and I hiked together to the spot where the HST and the Valley Creek Trail meet (about .3 from the beginning of the HST). Dave went off on his own hike out to the Covered Bridge and I continued on to my car. 

Those who follow my hiking trips on Facebook know that I take A LOT of pictures. I can't help it. I'm enamored of Mother Nature's beauty and the many animals and people I see on the trail. For this end to end adventure though I plan to limit my photo taking. At least on these first sections that I've travelled so many times already. Today I challenged myself to find something interesting to photograph at 2 mile intervals only. There were times when I wished I hadn't made that challenge to myself but I did stick with it. 😀

For those in the know of this section, the Tinman is back. On the opposite side of the trail now. It was nice to see an old friend. Tinman was not at a 2 mile interval though so no photo. Despite how much I wanted a selfie. 

This section by trail map definition is 10.4 miles. There is a re-route at about mile 3 and this combined with the distance from our car brought my total mileage today to 11.44. I feel pretty good considering my last long hike was 12 miles on August 12th. Since then our outings have been inconsistent and usually in the 4-6 mile range. So yeah considering all that ... I feel pretty good. My joints and many muscles are tingly but I can walk up and downstairs without two footing it and only wobble the first few steps out of the chair. At my age, the wobble is there more often these days regardless of whether I've been hiking. Today it takes a few more steps than usual. There is no doubt I'll sleep well tonight. 

The hike began a little before 8 am. It was 36 degrees with a bit of a breeze. I wore two layers on my torso with a fleece pullover on top of that. About 7 miles in I wished I had a lighter jacket to change into. I had two layers on my ears to start but was able to remove the headband at about mile 5. I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into quarters and ate one piece at 2, 4, 6, and 8. I barely drank enough water trying to avoid the need to pee. This section does not have opportunities for that. 

One section down. 11 to go. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving -Paula 

P.S for those who wonder what happened to  wanting to do the Brandywine End to End in April, I've abandoned that idea. The need to maintain a certain pace to make the cutoffs is the main reason. While I can keep the pace it leaves little room to enjoy the hike. The secondary reason is the lack of consistency in our outings (mentioned above). I don't think I have enough time to work up to a single 28 mile hike.