I completed my longest hike of 2020 – 22.6 mi near Pine Grove, PA. I definitely struggled towards the end of this 8.5 hour hike. Although it was a large distance, the trail has really become rocky in this section, which slowed me down considerably as I was consciously trying to find a good rock for each and every step. The jagged rocks really wore out my feet too – I ended up with two big blisters on the side of my heels, which I think are likely caused by these rocks rather than the distance. Here’s a picture of some of the more rocky areas of the trail.
There were a few overlooks but the most scenic area was a small watering hole off the side of the trail. Seemed like a nice area to camp with some rope swings over the watering hole. Unfortunately, it was relatively close to a highway so I would expect a lot of people camp there.
By the end of this hike, I think I had started to get dehydrated although I still had a large bottle of water remaining. I was getting quite nauseous so when I finally got back to the car, I stopped at a McDonalds and got one unsweet iced tea and two bottled waters and slowly forced myself to drink all three on my drive back home, even though I didn’t feel particularly thirsty. It was a good hike although I will need to avoid hiking this long again on rocky trails such as this one.
Garret Bonnema 