Bill's Hiking Journal

About a year ago, I had heard about a new trail that opened up in Rothrock State Forest, near State College, PA. The trail is a stretch of land donated to public use by the Clearwater Conservancy. Apparently, the evil housing developers were eying up the property, so your tax dollars helped to buy it. I'm an avid hiker, but demonizing people who build homes isn't right, in my opinion. Anyway, it's good land, and this is probably something I don't mind my tax dollars going to.

After all this time, I was happy to get a look at this stretch of land, a thin strip, really, bordered on both sides by fences and farmland. Finding the entrance was a chore just by itself...

Erin and I took a much-needed hike around Gettysburg National Battlefield Park, and while it sprinkled a bit, the weather was nice.

Erin and I didn't want anything too strenuous, so we decided to hike between two vistas on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.

We started out at Fisher's Gap and decided to hike over to Spitler's Knoll and back. Our trail guide suggested that this was a nice hike, and it was exactly as advertised.

Erin and I hiked up the blue trail, which is considered "backwards", I guess. It was nice to see that there are now blue blazes clearly marking the path, even along the road you start out on. We hiked up, over to the Mike Lynch Vista, and then down. It was startling to see how the poplar trees have taken over the section of the mountain near the Nittany Mall overlook.

Erin and I stopped on our way back from Gettysburg to check out the Big Valley Vista. The climb is about 300 feet vertical, I'm guessing, but not too far for a nice autumn day. I was quite disappointed to see that some young trees have blocked the view of the reservoir...somebody needs to climb up there with a chain saw.

The vista was a bit further along on the Mid State Trail than I remembered from my last hike up this hill, but it still only took about 10-15 minutes to get there.

Well, it had been a while since Erin and I went hiking, so Mount Nittany was the natural choice. We just did a slow hike up the hill and over to the Oak Hall vista. Not a bad leg stretcher, but boy am I out of shape!

Well, it took me a long time to find this thing, and now I know where it is...this was just a quick jaunt up to a viewing platform atop Stone Mountain in Huntingdon County.

I was eager to get hiking this Spring, since it had been quite a while. Erin wanted something short, so I figured the Lakeside Trail at Bald Eagle State Park was a good choice.

I enjoyed my last hike of the Jackson so much, that I decided to drag Erin along and do a shuttle from Jo Hays to Shingletown. Here is a gallery of the hike, which, for some reason, isn't in chronological order.

The weather was a bit chilly, but not bad. The leaves still had plenty of color, and the views were excellent.

It had been a long time since I've hiked the Jackson Trail, and I nearly forgot why it was one of my favorites, despite the rocks.

The views are, in a word, spectacular.

Erin and I visited Manassas National Battlefield Park, and decided to take the shorter of the two trails.

I'd hiked this hill before, and it was grueling. I was anxious to see how my new-found mountain legs would do. I also wanted to get some photos, since this was the highest peak in the park, and it was very hazy. Erin and I geared up and hit the Lower Hawksbill Trailhead.

This was just a short little hike on our first day of camping. The weather sucked, since it was not only really hot, but very cloudy as well. None of the vistas on Skyline Drive were clear, but I figured Stony Man would be ok, and at the least, it would be a little leg stretcher...well, sort of.

After my last (bad) experience trying to make a loop out of Shingletown Gap, I thought I'd give it another try on a trail that is a little better marked. If only my GPS's batteries didn't fail...

After my last (bad) experience trying to make a loop out of Shingletown Gap, I thought I'd give it another try on a trail that is a little better marked. If only my GPS's batteries didn't fail...