Mid-State Trail Backpack Trip
I have a map of Pennsylvania on my office wall. It is a KTA map of the major hiking trails in the state. I have push pins for every trail I have hiked and over the years many of the major trails have gained pins. There are a number of truly long distance trails without a pin: the AT (I am saving that one for retirement), the Baker trail (near Pittsburgh and not easily backpackable due to it not being on public land, the North Country Trail and the Mid-State Trail. The latter has gotten my attention over the past two years or so. Up to this year I have backpacked/day-hiked the section from Woolrich north to Antrim. The section north of Antrim is not easily backpacked due to the private land it crosses. But, from the vicinity of Waterstreet, PA to Woolrich it is very backpackable. This section was my intended target for this trip. Of course, the logistics of a linear trail are tougher than the loops I normally hike in PA. So, after arranging for a drop off at the trail near Waterstreet, I prepared for the hike in July.
I started this trip at the intersection of the trail with PA route 000. It starts off on a dirt/gravel road and proceeds north. It was near mid-day and already quite warm. The walking was mostly in shade, but it was still warm and humid.
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| Trail near start of hike |
After the trail eventually turned into the woods there was a trail register.
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| Trail register |
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| View to the west |
The stone/boulder fields along the ridge were plentiful and slow to traverse (because I did not relish falling and possibly breaking a leg). Frankly, every time I thought I was out of the boulder fields another would start. And the trail in-between wasn't exactly easy to traverse either. It was often difficult to find a place to put my feet that was flat, most stones were at some sort of angle. I will state that this section of the trail was the roughest, slowest going I have ever encountered. The view below, taken just after 6pm, shows what I am talking about.
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| Another view to the west |
After this point I started thinking about stopping for dinner, although I was conscious of how much distance I felt I needed to make for the day. Anyway, at about 7pm, after having had something to eat I stopped alongside the trail to find a place to camp. There were no logical spots to be seen so I bushwhacked a bit off trail towards the middle of the trail. Although quite tired, I set up camp and because it was not a pre-existing site with a fire ring, I did not want to make one of my own so there was no campfire this night. Fortunately, my fatigue made sleep much easier to obtain.
The next morning was still warm, but I decided to get as early a start as I could while it was relatively cool. After some more walking along the ridge I came to the below view where the power-lines crossed the ridge. There were views to both the east and west (usually the trail offered views of either direction but not both) .
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| View to the west |
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| View to the east |
I eventually crossed route 26 which is a a bit of a busy highway. From here the trail went downhill to some scattered camp areas with some springs (at least on the map) along the way.
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| Junction of MST and Jackson Trail |
Stopping for lunch, I was not feeling especially hungry, a sign of dehydration, but because I would soon stop for water I wasn't too concerned. Awhile after resuming the hike I found a decent spring, but it was fairly close (eyeshot) of an occupied hunting camp (the occupants were mowing their 'lawn' and doing assorted other chores. I tried not to be conspicuous, but I was uncomfortable filling my water containers there. When I was done I resumed walking and did see a couple of other small springs, but none as full as the one I had stopped at. During the day's hiking I was very conscious of the mileage I felt I needed to make so I could complete the trip on the day I wanted to. So, I pushed on, not stopping to refill my water containers until I truly needed to. Late in the day I was approaching the part of the trail that goes away from the ridge and actually heads south for a while.
When I reached the Little Flat fire tower location (now removed) there was a small group of young men (early college perhaps). I have no idea what they were up to, it definitely wasn't hiking. I suspected a beer party of some sort, but I didn't stick around to see. A little while later I reached the Tom Thwaites memorial, seen below.
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| Tom Thwaites memorial |
I hiked a bit longer and reached an existing camp site (with fire ring) so I stopped for the night. After setting up camp I decided to walk down the trail (to get food smells away from my campsite) to eat. I prepared some chocolate milk (from powdered milk and Quick). Usually this tastes really good but this time less than two minutes after finishing it, the milk came right back up and I then experienced dry heaves. This felt awful and the experience left me concerned about how my body was reacting to the heat and humidity. I did eat some small amount of food, but left my main dinner untouched. I had never quite experienced this before while backpacking (I came close one time on the Donut Hole trail) so I was naturally concerned. I did have a campfire (a small one) that I sat by for awhile but I was so tired I I got in my hammock and had no trouble getting to sleep.
The next morning was overcast and threatened rain. I packed up as quickly as I could reasonably do so to get a start before the real heat of the day. It rained a bit before I stopped for breakfast.Not too long after resuming my hike I reached the Detweiler Junction, the point where the MST is joined by the Greenwood Spur Trail.
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| Detweiler Junction |
After some more hiking I stopped for lunch. It was quite warm again and I ate some food, but not with any enthusiasm. It was quite lush with vegetation like Mountain Laurel. Anyway, after starting the hike again it wasn't long before something black in the bushes caught my attention to my left. I stopped walking and out onto the trail walked a large black bear. It stopped on the trail about 15 feet ahead of me and stared at me. I just looked back thinking about (a) the fact my phone was off (I could only take a picture if I turned it on and waited for it to boot up) and (b) wondering why it didn't just run away like almost every other bear I have encountered. It kept looking at me and I wondered what it would do. I wasn't scared because I have encountered other bears, but I was a bit nervous and did not want to be too nonchalant about the bears presence so I could take a picture. It moved off slowly to my right into the bushes and I waited for it to move further away. But it came back out onto the trail. Here is where I got nervous, it looked at me again and took a step towards me, At that point I started yelling at it to scare it away. It finally walked back into the bushes, slowly but surely moving away. I resumed walking and not stopping for any reason, although wishing I had been able to take a picture. Even so the image of that bear is etched into my mind, it was that close. Long afterward I wondered why it wasn't so uncomfortable with my presence that it didn't make any threatening gestures. My suspicion is that it has been around humans before and so was not afraid of me.
After awhile the trail started back uphill. This section was a bit painful, I kept having to stop to rest which meant I was losing energy (because of dehydration). After the trail level off there was a little bit of hiking before I reached the Penn Roosevelt state park. There was a water fountain which I partook of, it was only sort of cold so I did not enjoy it. The trail resumed its uphill climb after the state park. After about twenty minutes or so another hiker appeared. He asked if there was camping near the park that did not require payment. I told him I saw none, he seemed disappointed. I was having to rest more often and this was slowing my progress.
I eventually reached the tri-county point (TRICO point on the map). Finally, not long after this I reached a pre-existing campsite. This was a sight for sore eyes. I put down my pack and unloaded just a few things. I then lay down on the ground just as I was. I must have fallen asleep because I awoke an hour later (I was that tired). I set up my camp site and had a bit of dinner. Like earlier, I was in not inclined to eat much and drinking made me nauseous. I did manage to have a small campfire that I sat by for awhile but I was so tired I did not do that long. Lying in my hammock I started wondering a bit more seriously about my condition.I was clearly suffering from dehydration but I had thought I was keeping the worst at bay. However, with my inability to make any time and my low energy leve,l plus the nausea made me think I needed to do something else. I looked at my map and decided that if morning did not bring an improvement in my condition that I should seriously consider bailing out on the hike. That idea was very, very unappealing, but I also did not want to make myself so sick I collapsed on the trail without anyone around. The nearest point I could reasonable expect to be able to be picked up from was US Route 322 where the trail crossed the highway near a roadside rest. I slept pretty soundly but still felt tired in the morning. I got up sort of reluctantly but thought I needed to escape the heat of the day. After breaking camp I set off down the trail. It became clear as I hiked that I was not any better. I had no energy and needed to rest after awhile.It took several hours just to go about five miles when I came to the place the trail goes under US Route 322. The culvert has a sidewalk that goes underneath the highway and a handrail to keep you from slipping, just in case. Other than ducking my head just a tad (I am only average height) I came out the other side.
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| Culvert under US Route 322 |
Immediately after the culvert the trail goes up fairly steeply up hill. I knew that if I wanted to go to the roadside rest I needed to find the side trail off the main trail. After a false start uphill (the trail was not obvious right away) I went uphill (with some effort) long enough to reach the side trail. The side trail, which was occasionally blazed, gently went downhill. After about 20-30 minutes I reached the roadside rest. I was hoping for a drinking fountain but there was none. I still had some water with me but wanted a reserve. So, this was bad planning on my part. After calling to arrange a ride back from where I was I rested right there. I had virtually no energy at this point and could have easily slept the whole time I was waiting, but I was worried about how my ride would find me. Over the course of the hours before I was picked up I gradually worked myself close to the roadside rest exit. As a side note, none of the people stopping in their cars at the roadside rest asked me how I was or if I needed help. Maybe if I had approached them they would have given me a lift, but as I had a ride coming I did not do that. Anyway, I was eventually picked up and made a decent recovery after that.
Postmortem
In hindsight, there was some lessons learned and some alternate actions I could have taken. I probably should have taken a 'zero' day on the trail (i.e., no walking) at a location with a water supply where I would have rested and gotten myself re-hydrated and re-energized. I would have failed to totally complete the hike but I think I would have completed a bigger fraction of the hike. Now I have a sizeable part of the original hike still left to do which brings me to the lessons learned. I got into a vicious cycle on dehydration. Getting initially dehydrated made me nauseous which then in turn made it hard to drink (and eat) which weakened me further. So, I think I needed a decent electrolyte replacement drink and something to soothe the nausea, like ginger. These are things I will look into for my next summer backpack trip.
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