[at-l] BFT

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

skeeter wrote:
>For those not familiar, or that think all of Pa's hiking is rocks and
>poison ivy ala the AT, check out <<http://www.kta-hike.org/>>.
>
>There's something over 2000 miles of trails in Penn.

Actually, there's over 8,000 miles of trails in PA - not counting the 
rail-trails.  But only 2000 of those miles are marked and maintained.  And 
even then, few of them get the kind of maintenance that the AT gets.

>Jim, so tell us about the Thunderswamp Trail. I haven't been able to find
>much more than a brief description...

That may be all there is.  The Thunder Swamp is a trail "system" - one 30 
mile loop with about 15 miles of side trails located in NE PA.  I'm not sure 
what the trail condition is at this point - the DCNR Trail Coordinator for 
that area for about 8 years just didn't give a damn.  There's a new guy in 
there  as of last summer who does care.  So it could be better than I think, 
but I don't really know - we haven't hiked it for a few years.

We did hike the Pinchot Trail last Labor Day weekend though, so we know it's 
in fairly good shape.  Of course, that was after we'd spent the previous 
weekend with a trail crew cutting our way through the high-bush blueberries 
and rhododendron.  The Pinchot is a short trail - about 25 miles and close 
to NYC (so it can be relatively crowded), but still nice.  But it's not 
well-watered.

BTW - I almost forgot - for Sparky - the Allegheny Front Trail is another 40 
(?) mile loop trail in central PA that circles Black Moshannon State Park.  
We spent nearly four years (part-time of course) helping to build it.  We 
even conned the Weathercarrot working on it one weekend.  We'd like to see 
it get used.   For information, try:  http://aft.altoona-pa.com/

Walk softly,
Jim

Another PS - don't expect instant answers from me - work is busy and the 
puter at home is down for unkown reasons.  And we're out of town every 
weekend.