.October 8-13, 2005
Well this is the start of my first Appalachian Trail vacation. I have eleven days off, nine of which will be for hiking. Lynn and I have arrived in Carlisle, PA. With her crewing me, I will hike from the Pennsylvania border up to Swatara Gap. I had planned each section out carefully but the threat of a week of rain has caused me to shift my sections around.
We got our things settled in our motel room about 4:00 pm.
"You want to go do a section of the trail don't do?" Lynn said.
"Yes, of course I do."
So we set out to find the trailhead and do a short section together. We were in the Cumberland Valley. This section was close to our motel, very flat, and had roads intersecting it about every mile or so. We decided, I would hike each day and then we would do one of these small sections together each night. As a result, it actually took me several days to complete a small eight mile section. Rather than have 5 or 6 individual essays, I am lumping them all into one.
The first day we hiked in the rain up to the Harrisburg Pike Footbridge. Here's a picture of Lynn looking like a Jedi Knight with a choke hold on Snoopy Dog.
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I crossed my first of many stiles used to help hikers over fences.
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We crossed lots of farms like the one below.
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One evening when we were hiking by a cornfield, Lynn stopped.
"Do you see that deer?" she said pointing to a deer just few yards into the cornfield.
"No. Where?"
"There."
"Oh yeah."
We got real quiet so he wouldn't run.
Just then another deer, which we had not seen, took off. We both jumped a mile and got a good laugh out of it.
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Doing these small sections was a great way to end each day because Lynn and I got to hike together. Having to get back to the car each time, we hike each of these small sections both north and south.
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