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.
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!
EDIT the next day - I succeeded in back to back hikes. My brain was not entirely with the program when I started out but after a few minutes of stern talking to, it was fine. And I feel pretty good.
Keep Smiling and Keep Moving
-Paula