Northeast trip — November 13-16, 2014

Sounds like fun. I'll stay tuned to this thread.

For evening activities I could also bring my backpacking movie theater if interested.

Sounds great, Kevin! Approximately a 5-hr drive from my location.

I would not mind driving over the day before and camping at the start point. Is this possible?

What is the typical weather mid-November?

Many thanks to you and Mark for your organizational efforts.

Doug – We'd love to have you along…Movie theater or no movie theater!

Bob – If you come Wednesday night it would be best if you could drive straight to Penn Roosevelt State Park and camp there. It allows pets and offers pit toilets and that's where you'd start your hike on Thursday morning. I think my plan is to head to Poe Valley State Park Thursday morning and wait there for Mark and Ed (his brother-in-law) to arrive from the Cleveland area. We'll then leave one car in the campground and drive to a mid-point in your hike to start hiking to the campsite.

I had planned to hike this section of the MST many times and for whatever reason, it never happened. I'm checking my calendar, this looks like a great time…

Thanks to inspiration from Andy F's suggestions, I went down and did a Seneca Creek/Spruce Knob hike earlier this week, in time to catch the fall colors which were at or slightly past peak depending upon elevation. Mostly peak, so I was a happy camper. A little damp, though!

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=95961

I've been watching the long-range weather forecast like a madman for a while now. It has gone from good to not-so-good and is now good again.

The current State College forecast is for sunny/partly cloudy for the duration with daytime highs of upper 30s/low 40s and night lows mid 20s. I'll be very happy if that sticks.

Have fun boys! just wanted to say that your idea of the Northeast is kinda funny :D haha

seriously. have a good trip but when you want the northeast come further north.. NH spring-summer goood times

Jake, I hope to get back up to NH sometime… used to do a bunch of stuff up there, almost all in winter, as far south as Chocorua and north to Randolph, including Franconia, Pemi, Carter, Prez, Guyot, etc. Mt Washington many times.

Used to enjoy staying at Pinkham until it was overrun with group BS and an average AMC member couldn't get a reservation any more. I quit AMC a loooong time ago… right after they spent an extra $50,000 of member dues to put in a wheelchair ramp at a remote hut. Clearly they did not need me any more.

Ya i'm not in AMC and don't stay at the huts, though i do use their water faucets :)

last few years i've done the NH 4k's, presi in a day, pemi in a day. Would like to do the Hut traverse.. maybe as a 2 day (those 1 day hut traverse guys are nuts). I've only done a few things in the winter, Carrigan was the biggest one. My skinny butt isn't built for the cold.

i do need to head south one of these days too.. Grayson highlands look sweet and Smokeys etc.

Yeah, that's my fault – Mid-Atlantic is more accurate now that we know where the trip ended up. Wasn't sure at first so I didn't want to rule anyone's locales out. Would love to get up your way at some point.

How was the trip?

I think Kevin is planning to do a more detailed trip report later, but I think all will agree it was a smashing success!

Here is a link to the Caltopo map for the trip: http://caltopo.com/map?id=497P
The blue line is the actual track.

We really did have a great time, and although it got a little colder than the seasonal norms and there was a bit of snow, at least it didn't rain. Tough to pull that off for 4 days straight this time of the year.

Kevin's "catered" dinner the second night was simply outrageous. How often do you get specialty recipe chicken chili, chips w/guac and salsa, fresh veggie w/ranch dip, Margaritas with lime and salt (I was told they were non-alcoholic but I honestly would not have known otherwise), desserts and a warm roaring campfire while UL-ing?

We were so glad that Steve Hanlon was able to join us, and if ever there was an epic component to this event it was his night hike on one of the most brutal sections of the trail which was super-rocky, camouflaged in deep leaves with a thorough coating of snow on top. It is not the least bit hyperbolic to say that it's a miracle he didn't sustain any injuries.

So with that I'll conclude my brief teaser and post a few photos…

Group photo at end of trip: Standing L-R, Steve, Brian, Ed, Cliff, Me (Bob), Kneeling: Kevin, Cyrus (dog) and Mark

Ed stirs the chili… YUMM, YUMM!

Kevin's catered feast!

We got a little dusting of snow the first night

Brian nearing the top of the first climb out of Penn Roosevelt State Park

Mark crossing the bridge leading to the tunnel

Steve, King of the Pyramid! On the throne!

Sumptuous digs at Poe Valley State Park. Cyrus seemed to sense that there might be some tasty morsels coming his way.

Kevin brews up some Starbucks coffee for us!

Mark enjoying his Margarita!

Oh, and we did some hiking too, about 30 miles – Just right for the season and terrain.

Looks like a fun trip! Sorry I missed it!

Bob,

Thanks for the photos and the write-up. I've been swamped with work and life since we got back but I do promise to post my log soon…

It was a great trip and really fun to get to meet and hike with some other BPL folks.

-Kevin

PS – Sorry for the confusion about the margaritas…What I meant to communicate was that alcohol is not allowed in PA state parks, not that there wasn't alcohol in the margaritas! There was indeed.

>>>>not that there wasn't alcohol in the margaritas! There was indeed.<<<

LOL, Oh I know. ;-)

That was just a little plausible deniability for the potential "hall monitors" out there!