Hot Air Balloons, Pygmy Goats, and Ice -- lots of ice

Today Sara M. and I completed Map 2 of the Horse Shoe Trail. Put another way, we have now completed 28 of the 140 miles that stretch from Valley Forge in Chester County, PA to the Stony Mountain on the Appalachian Trail in Dauphin County, PA. We started in March 2018. In sections we completed 23 miles from Valley Forge to French Creek Elementary. Illness and vacations set in then and we just got back on track this weekend.

I know I speak for both of us when I say although we are determined to finish the trail together, it never has to be just the two of us. We welcome company anytime. Our H-ST hikes as well as other hiking, biking and running adventures are posted in a Facebook group called Perkis People. Feel free to join the group to stay on top of the events. If you are not a Facebook user, message me with your email address and I'll find a way to let you know what we are up to.

Now onto this week's hike. After the flash freezing of the last weekend the temps in our area came close to 60 on Wednesday and we had plummeted back to the 20s for Saturday morning. It's all about the layers. We met at St. Peter's Village and carpooled back to French Creek Elementary School.

Before leaving St. Peter's though we spotted this hot air balloon. It was impossible to miss. It came so

close to us I could hear and see the flames. I can't imagine how cold the balloonist must have been. Later that day I saw posts from others, miles away, who saw this as well. It was quite the colorful spectacle against the clear blue early morning skies.

This was a short(ish) hike only 5 miles. We (I) need to work back some hiking strength and endurance. Plus the cold - I wasn't sure how comfortable or uncomfortable it was going to be. It took my hands the longest time to warm up but once we got moving it wasn't too bad.

We took a detour around the French creek Crossing. The crossing is significant and beautiful. However, I've never made it across completely dry. In this weather - and with a rain swollen creek rushing to get by - it was smarter to go around. The detour is all road walking but pleasant enough with the scenery. Sara and I hadn't been out together in 2 weeks so we spent the time catching up as well.

Back on dirt the dirt trail, most of today's hike was spent in Warwick County Park. We had a few small water crossings, most of them with ice formations like these. Some of them looked as if they were frozen in mid jump. This photo will give you a taste of what we saw but the real life view was much more spectacular.

As the trail approached the picnic area of the park, we took a detour to the park rest rooms and then returned to the woods to continue the hike. After signing the trail register, we climbed the hill and re-entered the park picnic area from above where we stopped at the rest rooms. We went over the Bridge to Nowhere - a transplanted Fink Truss pedestrian bridge - and on through the park. Just before crossing Rt 23 (for the third time this morning because of the creek detour) there is a road section down the aptly - and perhaps lazily - named "Hill Road". It was here that we met a family of goats. The 'kids' had no interest

in us. Mom, Dad and Uncle Howard however - just to the right of the photo - watch us closely.

From here it was just a half mile to the trail that would lead us away from the Horse Shoe Trail and back to the parking lot where we left one car. We put on jackets, stowed our gear, and wandered into town to the bakery for hot drinks.

We had hoped to play some pinball in the arcade there but it wasn't opening until noon. I didn't want to hang around for an hour and a half and Sara was ok with that.

I posted some of our photos to the Horse-Shoe Trail Facebook group. Another group members shared that 'back in the day' at the end of the school year 3rd graders would hike the trail to what would be their school for 4th grade. The 4th grade school building is not the school district maintenance building. What a great share. Social Media has it's benefits. :)

Keep Smiling Keep Moving
-Paula