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Hiking in PA...

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    • Drybones wrote:

      My next opportunity for a long hike will be January, I'd like to start back at Harper's Ferry and do the next 400 or so miles north but I'm thinking PA in January may not be a good plan...any thoughts on that? My youngest son recently moved to CA and has sent me some photos of great trails there, he said there is an ocean trail he's planning to do, don't know how long it is but three weeks of beach hiking wouldn't be a bad alternative.


      Long distance hiking in winter is seriously hard-core. More clothing and gear to carry, the trail itself is tougher, days are shorter and nights are longer. Basically everything is stacked against you. On the other hand: you'll find plenty of day hikers in the White Mountains on most winter weekends, unless there's a storm actually in progress.

      Not quite sure about the situation out west. Northern California (and OR and WA) are cold and perpetually wet all winter -- it rarely gets much below 45 degrees F, but overcast sky, mist and light rain are the norm.

    • Drybones wrote:

      My next opportunity for a long hike will be January, I'd like to start back at Harper's Ferry and do the next 400 or so miles north but I'm thinking PA in January may not be a good plan...any thoughts on that? My youngest son recently moved to CA and has sent me some photos of great trails there, he said there is an ocean trail he's planning to do, don't know how long it is but three weeks of beach hiking wouldn't be a bad alternative.


      Snow, ice, and rocks could definitely be interesting. :/
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General

    • Astro wrote:

      Snow, ice, and rocks could definitely be interesting. :/


      You can say that again. I don't do anything resembling long-distance hiking in winter. I switch to peak bagging. Sometimes, I have to leave the trailhead with microspikes, crampons, ice axe, snowshoes and poles, and switch among them during the day as the snow conditions change.

      Some of the Catskill peaks are easier in winter because you can snowshoe over the Catskill Crud (geologically, the same formation as the Pennsylvania Rocks). I understand the Poconos very seldom get snow depth that would make that possible, which makes winter hiking there sound pretty dreadful.

      I go through a pair of microspikes every 2-3 years. The quartz conglomerate rock just eats the spikes. You can only resharpen them so many times.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.