After a long delay, the weather is finally starting to change - making this past weekend a great one for hiking and biking.
Started the weekend off escorting 3/5th of the biker chix on a York Heritage Trail Ride on the 11 mile segment from Hanover Junction to the York Market The Biker Chix made friends immediately.
After some coffee and snacks at the York Market while listening to a celtic music trio (2 fiddles and either a bassoon or a giant bong) we headed back. I took off at higher speed for a longer ride down to New Freedom PA, where they were running the steam locomotive and excursion train.
The Chix were apparently attacked by a rafter of turkeys along the trail but they survived the scare, put their bikes back on my car and then drove down to New Freedom to pick me up, where they also enjoyed artisanal grilled cheese sandwiches at the New Freedom Rail Trail Cafe.
The next day Carl and I did an old favorite, the the 6.8 mile section of the Appalachian Trail between Gathland State Park in Burkittsville and Weverton Cliffs. We did it the hard way - going north to south means you immediately climb up 800 feet to the top of Weverton Cliffs, where the arrival of fall gave us a great view to the west.
That 800' elevation gain is done in the first .8 miles. The next 6 miles is a pleasant traipse through the woods, with a stop to check out the Garvey AT shelter along the way. We are in a September-long drought, so lots of leaves falling already and the trail was almost sandy in many places. Lots of people out hiking with dogs on the trail, maybe there was a Hike with your Hound festival.
At Gathland, we admired the oddball monuments to George Alfred Townsend (GATH) and shuttled back to the base of Weverton with another fine day outdoors in the books.
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