View Full Version : first timer out on the trail
colorado josh
09-17-2010, 22:29
My wife and i are heading out on the a.t. for the first time and it will also be our first over nighter as well. We live in southern Pa about an hour east of caledonia state park. Just wondering if you guys can recommend a section of trail that would be good for beginners in southern pa area or md area.
IronGutsTommy
09-17-2010, 23:24
while i cannot help with your question, i do wish you both enjoy your hike. always envious of people residing in PA or VA, as theyre around the middle of the trail, with many options for section hikes and a good home base for flip flop thru hikes as well
mweinstone
09-17-2010, 23:28
i belive i discovered the tamest and best place on the AT for the first kiss. at 14 it was my first hike alone and at 9 it was my son maximilions first trip.it is as easy as it is ruggedly beautiful. it has the premeir veiw in pennsylvainia and history of the ironmakeing in the mountains that helped win the revolutionary war. their is an obsevatory on this peice of AT as well as the interesting history of dans pulpit and pulpit rock . it passes gold spring and pocohauntass spring and other intermitent springs of high calibre beauty in this hikers opinion.once intimate with the topography its possible with help from those in the know, to navagate easily to stephanee spring. an unknown secret invite only garden of tricks.or maby a bag o tricks. but in any case their is the wonderfully fun and quite safe from storms shelter, windsor furness shelter. and the country lanes surrounding the towns of port clinton and hamburg and eckville are the most corn sided easily walked or hitched for the fun of exsploration a hiker can find outside of hiker dreams.to boot for a hoot cabellas is a mile away with the taxidermy collection from hell.i love it. all of it. the place? where am i speaking /drooling of?none other than the simple 6 mile or so walk to the pinnicle from the state game lands public parking lot at the end of resivoir road in the beautiful hamburg watershed. oh god let me die in my beloved spot in the stones that were once the windsor furnness buried in nearby woods in raspberries where only the few know to look and get red and sticky and stuck and stuffed with the love my trail gives. can i come?
IronGutsTommy
09-18-2010, 00:45
wow, with a speech like that you can convince an agorophobic to hit the AT. "those are the people scared to go outside
I had a major blowout with the family this morning. I think I was actually foaming at the mouth at one point. That was just one of the highlights of my incoherent tirade about people needing to spend more time outdoors. I go a little nuts when people especially my family treat the outdoors like it was just another one of the channels on television, somewhere in the upper digits. Something that you don't have to do, and most people don't, but is you choose to it must come after essential everyday stuff like school, socializing, shopping, dinner parties, latest book or movie in the theater. Something that is strictly liesure, or inconvenience, and why we have automatic garage door openers and shopping malls with indoor parking and indoor pedways. Welcome to the New Great White North. Daughter has a birthday coming. Doesn't want to go outside this year. So outdoors has suddenly become something you might do once a year, or not.
Go outside. Everyday! Not just birthdays. Especially Birthdays! But what does this crazy man with three heads know, foaming at the mouth like a lunatic? What does he know? He never gets sick. Most people get sick and have to avoid such places right, or have more important things to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7rhLUbuvcA
Moose2001
09-18-2010, 10:35
For first timers, I'd suggest any of the AT SOUTH of Duncannon. North of Duncannon is where the infamous PA rocks start. Not the best place for a first time to "enjoy" the trail.
"And if anything should go wrong, there's soma. Which you go and chuck out of the window in the name of liberty, Mr. Savage. Liberty!"
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ch. 16
Anyhow, have an awesome hike.
Enjoy each and everyone one, like it was your last, but also your first.
Looks like nice weather. Take your time and enjoy the hike.
Dennis
LIhikers
09-18-2010, 18:48
My wife and i are heading out on the a.t. for the first time and it will also be our first over nighter as well. We live in southern Pa about an hour east of caledonia state park. Just wondering if you guys can recommend a section of trail that would be good for beginners in southern pa area or md area.
Sure, start at Caledonia State Park and go south, or north. Either way you'll enjoy yourself. How many days/nights are you planning to be out?
colorado josh
09-18-2010, 22:13
My wife and I are planning just a over night. We have been hiking plenty and we have car camped plenty but this will be our first over nighter on a trail. So I figurekeep it easy the first time out.
Kerosene
09-19-2010, 08:53
My future wife and I backpacked from Duncannon to Harpers Ferry in June 1979; her first-ever backpacking trip. We just celebrated our 30th, but I haven't got her back out there again :(. Her knees bothered her by the end of the hike.
I finally got my 20-year old daughter out, where we did 24 miles around Franklin, NC this past pay over 3 days. A much slower pace, in decent weather, where I forced myself to walk at her pace. I really wanted it to be fun for her, so I carried most of the gear, limiting her pack weight to 15% of body weight (16 pounds with consummables). As it was late Spring down south I could get away with lighter gear and didn't have to carry more than 30 pounds myself.
I recall that the AT south of Caledonia SP was pretty nice. You might also consider starting 15-20 miles north of Harpers Ferry and walking into town, as you'll get a nice view of the Potomac.
while i cannot help with your question, i do wish you both enjoy your hike. always envious of people residing in PA or VA, as theyre around the middle of the trail, with many options for section hikes and a good home base for flip flop thru hikes as well
Amen to that!
900 mile drive to the Whites last summer from MI. We're an 8 hour trip to Front Royal.
Wherever you end up, enjoy!
-pfann
Toolshed
09-19-2010, 10:29
You can find a nice ridge walk on the section just south of Pine Grove Furnace State Park (About 30 miles N of Caledonia SP). If you start at Shippensburg Road, it is a nice ~10 mile hike into Pine Grove Furnace SP, with a nice shelter (if you like shelters) at about the 6 mile marker. gentle trail, nice footing.
colorado josh
09-20-2010, 21:54
Thank you everyone for the replies. I will have to post pictures once we come back from our trip.
MkBibble
09-20-2010, 22:44
wow, with a speech like that you can convince an agorophobic to hit the AT. "those are the people scared to go outside
actually that's the first time i've understood what mweinstone was actually saying...