Wandering the Pennsylvania Wilds

 

It's that time again. Time to hit the trail. To plan, prep, pack and after this flurry of anticipation, walk into the unknown. Our long walks have become annual. These, our autumnal pilgrimages, are my opportunity to place both feet firmly on the ground and let the wonder seep in. 

This year, given all that it has delivered, I decided to do a twist. Rather than walking end-to-end, from here-to-there, I will walk in circles. That's right. I plan to walk many miles and end up right where I started. This will afford me the ability to plan less, to schedule less, to stop looking forward and be in the now. I have discovered in the last few years that my home state, Pennsylvania, has enough miles of trail that it alone could likely keep me hiking the rest of my days. But even more surprising is the number of loop trails it encompasses. I have set my sights on several, most within the Pennsylvania Wilds region. The Quehanna Trail. The Allegheny Front Trail. The Susquehannock Trail. The Old Loggers Path. I've done my fair share of planning for these treks, however, how many I'll hike I have yet to decide. I've got almost four weeks.

Most of my long hikes have included my father. Most all of them he delivered or retrieved me from the trailhead. Many of them he joined me for several days. On one - my thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail - he hiked hundreds of miles with me. Just last autumn he drove with me six hours to the start of the Tuscarora Trail in northern Virginia. In February he passed from this life into the next. I had a friend tell me now he is everywhere. And I firmly believe that. I told him in his last days of all the trails he'd see with me when his body would no longer hold him back. 

My saddleback, block-headed, coonhound (a Florida native once gave this description of Amos) will be joining me, and we'll be in good company I know. My only goals for this hike are to be. here. now. The last year has been one of letting go, adapting, of embracing every day even the hard ones. Sometimes reluctantly. And so, that's what we'll be doing while we're walking in circles in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Willingly. All while listening close to the chitter chatter of birdsong and breeze through the trees, lingering with asters and witch hazel and blue-stem goldenrod, struggling over rocks and roots and sweating up summits, sitting in the dirt, sleeping close to the earth, and eating mostly the same thing every day. I'm sure there will be much more I have not anticipated. That's the deal you make when long distance hiking - a surrender to the unknown. But I'm ready. Service will likely be minimal, yet I'm looking forward to sharing the story with you as it unfolds.