Hiking South from Highway 501 on the Appalachian Trail

When I was sick and lay a-bed,

I had two pillows at my head,

And all my toys beside me lay

To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so

I watched my leaden soldiers go,

With different uniforms and drills,

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets

All up and down among the sheets;

Or brought my trees and houses out,

And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still

That sits upon the pillow-hill,

And sees before him, dale and plain,

The pleasant land of counterpane.

"The Land of Counterpane," by Robert Louis Stevenson

Our good weather days are few and far between.  We got another one today and seized the opportunity to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail that follows the ridge of Blue Mountain above the Mennonite farms of Lancaster County.  To us, as you'll see, the scenery below reminded us of "The Land of Counterpane."

Pennsylvania now requires masks in public to protect against Covid-19, but, as a matter of personal protection, we believe it's important to use masks and glasses whenever we pass other hikers or hike in their "slipstream."  As it turned out, because today is Saturday and many people in Pennsylvania are chafing at their mandatory isolation, we encountered many other hikers on our section of the Appalachian Trail.  So we started the hike at the trailhead, on Pennsylvania Highway 501, in full gear:

The trail lost no time heading out to viewpoints looking to the South:

We passed two viewpoints within the first half mile of our hike, but we'll share those with you on the return portion.  After we enjoyed those views, the trail got down to business, throwing rocks and boulders at us without break for at least a half a mile:

About 1.5 miles into our hike, we came to Fisher Lookout, named in memory of Bob Fisher, a president of the local Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club, which was responsible for laying out and now maintaining sections of the Appalachian Trail running along Blue Mountain ridge.  It gave us expansive view of Lancaster County as Spring began its bloom:

Continuing South, the trail flattened and grew less rocky -- a welcome change for our feet, which were already getting sore after just about 2 miles of tramping:

Kathy imagined herself leaping over this dead tree and collapsed in an imaginary fall in the attempt.  Neither hiker nor tree was injured in the making of this photo:

David always enjoys adding some photos of details along the trails, including such things as this little mossy hollow at the base of one tree --

-- and this furry vine working its way up one of the trees:

We stopped for lunch at our turnaround point near Highway 645, where, on a side trail, we discovered this unexplained, and very uncorroded, snow shovel (and, by the way, where is all the snow, anyway?):

Along this stretch of the A.T., we spotted three side trails leading south from the main trail.  Each side trail was marked with unique-color blazes -- blue, green, red, and even this trail with lilac purple blazes:

Working our way back to our trailhead, we stopped at an expansive viewpoint along a powerline easement that dove steeply down to the trees and farmland below:

David stopped again to spend some time with a fun guy he spotted --

-- and then leaped up onto a dramatic rock overlooking the trail and valley below --

-- from which vantagepoint Kathy looked relatively miniscule on the trail below:

Just around the corner, we returned to Kimmel Lookout, where we took our last, long look at the Land of Counterpane below:

Returning to our Jeep, we were happy that we had had a chance to stretch our legs today, while expecting two or three days of rain hereafter.  Ah, we take what we can get.