White blazes in my own backyard!

Or at least they're within two hours of the backyard I grew up in.

I'm at home in Delaware for a short visit, and since everyone had to work today, I drove out to Berks County, Pennsylvania this morning to find the Appalachian Trail and do a short little hike - only five miles total. The trip served two main purposes. First, after spending a lot of last week in a car, I felt I needed to remind my legs what it's like to hike so that when I set out in August to do another week or so (this time up in VA/MD), I'm not starting from scratch and hating the first 20 miles like I did last time. Secondly, I took 476 up to PA, and 476 conveniently runs through Conshohoken, where the closest REI is located. I wanted to pick up a couple things before Hannah and I venture to the Firefly Gathering on Wednesday.

I also picked up trekking poles!! On my hike two weeks ago me and Jill scrounged up walking sticks after seeing everyone else happily chugging along with fancy-looking trekking poles. I'd always thought the poles were for old people and Europeans (I remember the Austrians walking around parks with them). I was totally wrong. Having four points of impact, essentially four "legs," makes climbing up and down mountains a lot easier. You have better balance, better shock absorption, you get a good rhythm going, and your hands don't get all puffy and swollen from hanging useless at your sides. I got the kids' version. They were 30 bucks cheaper, several ounces lighter, and have a cool snake painted on them.
My mini-hike was lovely. The point I hiked up to is at a relatively low elevation (1200-something feet, I think?) and the forest was more open to sun, and drier, and it was 80-90 degrees out - so it felt really hot. The stretch I hiked went past the Windsor Furnace shelter in Berks County Park. I missed the darker, cooler forest I found in NC two weeks ago, but it was also kind of cool to hike in landscape that looks a little more like the area I grew up in.

It was unpleasantly hot and sunny at Pulpit Rock, but the view was worth it. I ran into a couple south bound thru hikers. We traded taking pictures of each other. One of the guys was just settling into a mushroom trip, after having been given some by "some random guy down the trail." He was enjoying his afternoon.

Some kind soul thought to install an umbrella for shade.