HST Section 7 Rt 10 to Rt 625

 

I was so looking forward to today's hike and it did not disappoint. Truth be told, few of them do. All week the weather called for bright sunshine with temps in the low 40s to start and low 50s by the end. And that is exactly what we got. 

We left Dave's car at Brecknock Police Station where an Eagle Scout project resulted in an access trail to the HST. We then drove together to drop my car at Plow Farms and began hiking west together. The trail starts on a downhill here and then climbs and climbs. Just when you think you are at the top the trail rounds a bend and there is more UP. It was a good workout. 

At the five mile mark, Dave headed off on the blue trail toward his car.
He told me later that he ended up wandering off the access trail
and probably put in another half mile trying to get back to his car. 

I continued on to the end at Rt 625. The blazes in this section were faded and there were these weird jumping bugs that wanted to land on my face so I had to put my sunglasses on even though I was in shade. This made the blazes appear even more faded. It was slow going up the hill and trying not to go off trail. 

This was our last section that includes trail we've covered before. Next time we go out we will have about 3 more miles of 'old' trail and then it's all new stuff. Well except for the 11 mile section that we missed several times back in March and decided to move on. We will go back to that later to make the end to end official. 

Also, after this trip we will likley start doing 2 sections back to back with an overnight stay in between. The trail sections are more than an hour away now. It's a very long day getting there, hiking and then returning home. So to test myself, tomorrow I am heading to RCSP to put in another 8 mile hike to make sure my body can do back to back days. 

I'm pretty sure I can but I will likely sleep very soundly tomorrow night! 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula 

HST Section 6 Geigertown Road to Rt 10

This sectio begins in a gravel parking area off Geigertown Road near the Birdsboro Gun Club. A recent re-route of the trail here take one off hte gun club property but you can still hear it. I find it weird but not scary. Of course that may be becaause I know where the sound is coming from. 

Dave and I hiked together to the spot where the access trail from the Birdsboro Picnic Park joins the trail. Dave returned to his car and I continued on to mine which we had previously left at the old Plowville Farms on Rt 10. 

I enjoyed this most of the section a lot. Spring is springing so the woods are full of new life. The elevation change provides a good work out but with enough breaks to not feel overwhelming. 

I was dreading the last two and a half miles. I had done this once before and it stuck withe me. The last stretch is all on Buck Hollow Road to Rt 10. It is a windy road with no shoulder to speak of and it's mostly uphill. I almost did somehting I've never done on a hike. I almost turned on a podcast on my phone to distract me. Almost.

Instead I tried to find things to look at (while dodging trucks) and that worked. Sometimes I have to work hard to invoke Keep Smiling Keep Moving. 

-Paula 

HST: Filling The Gap

Well sort of ...

The plan for today was to finish the piece between the downed tree and Warwick County Park. Hiking is like life. Things don't always work out as planned. 

The plan was this: 

Step 1) Park a car at Warwick County Park. DONE. 

Step 2) Drive to French Creek Elementary School to leave the second car. DONE. 

Step 3) Hike East to the downed tree or 2 miles whichever came first. Downed tree is not a thing on the official trail maps so I had to guestimate where it likely was based on our mileage back in Febraury. I guessed it was about 2 miles. At 2 miles we were steps from the right spot. I have to admit I was impressed with myself. LOL. Also, we discovered that a re-route around the downed tree had been created since we were last there. DONE.

Step 4) Turn around and head back to the elementary school. DONE. 

Step 5) Hike West to Warwick County Park. Here is where things went off the rails. Getting to the park required a crossing of French Creek. We hiked the half mile from the school to the Creek and this is what we saw: 

I was going to have to jump in a few places and 
likely was not going to make it. 
Even Dave, who is taller, was going to have trouble. 

I knew there was chance that crossing the creek was not going to be possible but I had to try. I have crossed this spot on French Creek before, but today was not a good day for that. Had the creek not been rushing so high and fast we might have tried it knowing that our feet would get wet. But not being able to seeing clearly what we'd be stepping into it just wasn't safe. No one was going to die if we tried but other injuries were not out of the question. 

So we turned back toward the School. 

Once back to Conventryville Road I could have turned left and followed the road detour to Mt Pleasant round and back to the trail. My heart wasn't into a road section. So I had Dave drive me to the Mt. Pleasant trailhead and I hiked to the car from there. 

I'm counting the whole section done because I have hiked the road section at least three different times and crossed the creek a few as well. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving

-Paula 

HST Update and other Keep Smiling Keep Moving projects

I was surprised to see that the last Horse Shoe Trail attempt was Febraury 18th!! Wow!! Weather, seasonal weekend work duties and having a other things on the weekend to do list has kept us off the trail for these past six weeks. I'm itching to get back. With luck and good weather, that will happen soon. 

Meanwhile, I've re-worked my milage expectations and pretty much accepted the fact that I may have to go into next year to finish. Had we been able to stick to my original (admittedly ambitious) plan we'd be more than halfway done by now. That's ok. Life (and hiking) are a marathon not a sprint, right? 

When dayight savings time started (March 10th) I embarked on a plan to walk every day. Not the first time I've attempted this and time will tell if I stick to it. I feel better when I excercise every day and that should be enough to keep me going. But it isn't. 

DST is significant because on weekdays I need to walk after work. Although I could easily complete 2 miles in the time I have between waking up and leaving for work, I can't get it out of my head that something might happen. I am prone to twisted ankles for example and it's very dark in the mornings right now. How embarassing would it be to call the office and say I won't be in becaues I'm a klutz. 

My goal to start was a minimum of 2 miles every day. My average from March 10 to March 31 is 2.14 miles/day. I did NOT walk every day though. Rain, and a few after work obligations gave me some zero days. I only made the average by walking longer on weekends. 

My goal for April is going to be 3 miles per day and no zerio days. On days it is going to rain (as predicted for the first three day of April) I will substitute another indoor workout. Since I can walk 3 miles in an hour or less, the substitute work out will be 1 hour. 

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving (and thanks for reading this) 

-Paula 

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