View Full Version : 2019 Pennsylvania Trail of the Year
Mid State Trail
https://www.media.pa.gov/Pages/DCNR_details.aspx?newsid=543
I just finished this trail a month ago and really enjoyed it. Highly recommend this trail especially for folks that like to get creative with turning point to point hikes into loops.
Is this trail as rocky as the eastern part of the AT?
Mid State Trail Hike 50! CelebrationMid State Trail Association, the all-volunteer non-profit group that cares for Pennsylvania’s longest and wildest footpath (2019 #PATrailOfTheYear !) announces the Hike 50! Celebration in honor of Mid State Trail’s 50th anniversary.MST began as a project of Penn State Outing Club in 1969, and grew to cross all of PA in association with Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (five state forests, eight state parks, and general support directly and through Keystone Trails Association), Pennsylvania Game Commission (six numbered game lands), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tioga-Hammond & Cowanesque Lakes, and about two dozen private landowners.In 2019 (through New Year’s Day 1/1/2020), hike 50 kilometers (km) along Mid State Trail – 10 km each (individually or cumulatively) in at least four different parts of Mid State Trail:• Everett Region – from MD Route 144 north to US Route 22, guidebook sections 0 through 6;• State College Region – from US 22 to PA Route 192 at Raymond B. Winter State Park, guidebook sections 7 through 11;• Woolrich Region – from PA 192 north to PA Route 414 at Blackwell, guidebook sections 12 through 16;• Tioga Region – from PA 414 north to the New York State border, guidebook sections 17 through 20.The final 10 km to make a total of 50 km in 2019, can be (individually or cumulatively) along more of Mid State Trail beyond the minimum in each region – and/or along a list of trails from Virginia to Ontario, Canada, that connect to MST.Hikers do not need to register with us until the Hike 50! is completed. However, hikers on this quest are encouraged to use the social media hashtag #Hike50MST See form posted in the Files in the Mid State Trail Facebook groupAny questions, e-mail
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AegisIII
01-28-2019, 00:33
Is this trail as rocky as the eastern part of the AT?
No, it's not as rocky as the AT in eastern PA. So now you need to ask the next most obvious question.
(edit: bolded the wrong "as" initially)
I just finished this trail a month ago and really enjoyed it. Highly recommend this trail especially for folks that like to get creative with turning point to point hikes into loops.
Sounds interesting. Did you do it all at one go? And did you turn it into a loop? How is water & resupply along the trail?
u.w.
Sounds interesting. Did you do it all at one go? And did you turn it into a loop? How is water & resupply along the trail?
u.w.
No, it took me multiple trips, most day or overnight hikes to complete the trail. I tend to do high mile days which gives me a bit of flexibility in putting together some interesting loops. Here is a good example. Just south of Pine Creek Gorge the MST heads to Little Pine Creek SP. I looped using the Pine Creek rail trail and a short road walk up to the park. In the State College Area there are usually forest roads at a lower elevation that parallels the ridge that the MST runs. That holds true down south as well but I ended up hitch back on my last three trips due to much shorter days in December. I also did two cars on the northern 50 miles which I hiked with son using two cars.
As as far as a comparison with the AT, in general I did comparable miles per day. The MST can be a bit more overgrown in some places but I think you would find it closer to the AT tread of southern PA. I had no issue with water since I usually hiked three seasons, late fall through spring.
Here is a good example. Just south of Pine Creek Gorge the MST heads to Little Pine Creek SP. I looped using the Pine Creek rail trail and a short road walk up to the park.
Although word of this is only slowly filtering out, the Tiadaghton Trail has been resurrected from the Waterville access area of the Pine Creek Rail Trail, over to the back of Happy Acres campground (immediately adjacent to Little Pine SP), so one would have had an alternative to, say, a rather scary roadwalk of the Little Pine Creek Road. The part of this TiaT on the northeast face of Huntley Mountain ridge is about as rocky as Tuscarora Trail north of Colonel Denning SP, but instead of being a flat pile of ankle twisting railroad ballast, is about on a 2H:1V slope too.
No, it's not as rocky as the AT in eastern PA. So now you need to ask the next most obvious question.
Come to think of it I guess I haven't seen you since our hike over the heart of Section 3...