Horse-Shoe Trail, Pt. I

Oh! That's right! I started a blog two years ago! I do wish I had kept up with this, because we’ve explored some pretty great trails over the past two years: Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, a gorgeous loop on the Tongue Mountain Range on our honeymoon, Mt. Mansfield/The Chin—Vermont’s highest point (although in the interest of full disclosure, we did not climb that one—we drove up the mountain and hiked across the ridge due to time constraints and an injury), plenty of great spots close to us in Pennsylvania, plus, our first overnighter after getting fully outfitted with backpacking gear thanks to our wedding registry.

Here’s to hoping I stay a little more dedicated to the blog this time around. I need an outlet for writing that isn’t technical/scientific (as at my day job) or formulaic and research-based (as for grad school).

What prompted my return to the blog? We’ve started our first long-term hiking project! We’re going to complete the Horse-Shoe Trail in 2012. It’s a 140ish-mile connector trail that goes from the Appalachian Trail on Stony Mountain (Dauphin County, PA) east to Valley Forge National Historical Park, which happens to be in our backyard. We got the complete map set for Christmas (two, actually—Eric bought it for me, and my mom bought it for Eric) and started with the first five (okay, 4.9) miles on Saturday, February 4.

The map set is really complete, with detailed descriptions and directions to parking areas at various access points. We parked at Washington’s Headquarters in Valley Forge NHP and started there. It really is a sin that we haven’t explored Valley Forge and our nearby walking trails more in the nearly two years we’ve been in Phoenixville.

The first bit of the HST is in Valley Forge NHP and we passed forks in the trail that would lead to the Upper and Lower Forges and a historic covered bridge, which was the original starting point of the HST. We have to get back and check out those spur trails. There are some neat ruins of an old bottling plant early on (see photo of my husband as Sasquatch) before just enough of an incline to get the blood pumping.

The thing about the HST—at least this first leg of it—is that much of it cuts literally through people’s backyards, sometimes it’s on a street, and it certainly doesn’t always feel like “real hiking.” Nonetheless, it was nice to spend a couple of hours outside, and we had fun picking out houses where we’d love to live.

I think this project/goal will be great to have as a go-to hike when we don’t have time to plan something out or go too far, and since it cuts through Chester, Lancaster and Lebanon counties, where we have friends scattered all throughout, hopefully some of the day-hikes will include friends. Our next two weekends are pretty busy, so it’ll probably be a while before we get out again, but I’m glad we started.

Distance: 4.9 miles (Valley Forge to Rees Rd. access point)

All-in-all: In itself, not a great stretch, but the HST is pretty impressive and we’re looking forward to completing it this year.

Links: www.hstrail.org

www.nps.gov/vafo/