Beauty and the Beast

Pennsylvania is beautiful with it’s farmland, mountains, forests and the Susquehanna, Lehigh, and Delaware Rivers. Let’s take a look at some of the scenery.

Despite its beauty, Pennsylvania has a sinister side and a well-earned reputation that we’ll cover in a moment.

Day 25 – Duncannon to stealth site (18 miles)

Day 26- Stealth site to Hertlein campsite (17 miles)

Day 27 – Hertline campsite to Port Clinton (18 miles)

Day 28 – Port Clinton to Stealth site (16 miles)

Oh, The Pain

Pennsylvania lulls in hikers like a siren. At first, the trails are smooth and flat and enjoyable.  Slowly, it begins to introduce a few stones. Eventually, you can’t take a step without hitting a rock. They come in all shapes and sizes – each rock includes an upward pointing edge, like the top of a pyramid. Every step involves hitting a stone that delivers a small punch to some part of the bottom of your foot. After 30,000 daily steps, your feet come away quite battered. This goes on for a hundred miles, and this is what it looks like.

How to Get Through

At this pointof my journey, I thought I would be hiking 20 miles or more each day. These rocks force you to slow down,  so I’m usually closer to 15 per day. Also, it’s funny but your feet have an incredible ability to recover and by morning you’re ready to go again.

Sometimes during the day you’re lucky enough to come across us an ice cold stream to soak your feet in for a few minutes. You become so thankful for these small pleasures.

Enough about rocks.

What’s Out of Place?

This overturned car is in the forest miles from the nearest road.

How about the no parking sign in the middle of nowhere.

Now, I need to soak my feet.

Thanks for listening.