Hiking the Horse-Shoe Trail from Pinacle Drive to Brecknock

These days the Horse-Shoe Trail is our go-to hiking destination, because it is so close and we haven't really exhausted very many sections near our campground.  Today, the forecast is very hot, perhaps 90F, but we wanted to get out for at least 6 miles.  So we were up early, gave the cats a quick walk, Kathy prepped breakfast burritos for our turnaround meal, and we drove the 12 miles to our trailhead.

Here it was, where PA 625 meets Pinacle Drive.  This part of the trail has beautiful wooden markers at each road crossing, and we paused to admire this one before we set off up Pinacle Drive.  You can tell it was early, because we each had our mug of iced coffee for the trail:

Pinacle Drive is a gravel road that climbs a ridge as the trail works eastward.  There are houses secreted along the road, but not many, and no housing developments.

After about a mile, we found the spot where the Horse-Shoe Trail climbs a ridge away from Pinacle Drive.  David points the way:

This sort of trail is more to our liking:  soft dirt and fir needles underfoot, greenery all around.  All that was lacking was a cool breeze to cool the already climbing temperatures and cut the humidity.

People are generally very respectful of Eastern trails, and that includes the Horse-Shoe Trail.  But there are spots where desire gets the better of responsible trail citizenship.  Whoever these lovers were, they didn't appear to be giving love to this tree:

After about 2 miles, we crossed a private driveway and spotted this old horseshoe imbedded in the growing bark of this tree.  More recent blazing has painted it yellow, but the horseshoe has been nearly swallowed by the tree's enlargement.  We speculated that horseshoes may have been the original blaze design when the trail was laid out in the 1930's.

In other places, woodpeckers, bugs, resident birds and other natural forest inhabitants may have also used the trees that so proudly wear the yellow blazes:

We crossed two powerline easements, filled with tall grass and wildflowers, thorns and blackberry bushes.  It's still too early yet for blackberries, but Kathy found a few that have already grown dark and were "nearly" sweet.

We passed cornfields and wheatfields --

-- for much of this trail is laid out through farmland from where it leaves the Appalachian Trail in Dauphin County, through Lebanon and Lancaster and Berks Counties, into Chester County and Valley Forge.

Beyond the wheat field, we reached the top of a rise where we had a powerline on one side and views north toward the Appalachian Ridge on the other:

This looked like a mighty nice breakfast spot to us!  Breakfast burritos with fiddlehead ferns, black bean salsa, egg, potatoes, cilantro, sun dried tomatoes and parmesan cheese...yum!  It felt good to get off our feet and doff our sling bags to feel the cool air on our sweaty heads and backs.

After eating, we wandered a little way further west to try to get a view down into the next valley, but as soon as we started walking, Kathy spotted this turkey making his way across our path.  At first, he didn't see us, but when we started talking excitedly about him, he raised his head, turned, and did his turkey trot into the trees.

In the Appalachian Forest, which is so close to civilization, wildlife is chiefly of the small kind.  There can be black bear, Eastern coyote, bobcat, and even elk, but generally the largest wildlife are deer, with the vast majority being squirrel-size or smaller.  This specimen, a dragonfly, Kathy later discovered with research was a widow skimmer.  If you look closely, his wings stretch out, colorless and clear, from the beautiful black wing sections that are immediately apparent:

Most hiking trails in Pennsylvania stretch through State Game Lands, state forests and other private hunting areas.  This section of the Horse-Shoe Trail is no exception.  However, it was remarkable that, as we passed through these private lands, we saw three hunting blinds.  We're sure we could have found more had we looked more diligently.   Of the three, this one -- a palace -- was by far the most impressive:

The Horse-Shoe Trail was conceived with both foot and equestrian travel in mind.  We were pleased to see that one of the landowners provides a little trail magic to horseback riders who pass through.  This was a rest station for horses, with a huge jug of water, two watering buckets, and places to tie the horses up.  Didn't see any cookies for the riders or hikers, though.

These woods are thick, and relatively little light gets reliably to the forest floor, so it is not too common to find wildflowers.  But they do show up periodically, as did these little white aster-like flowers:

We missed it hiking out, but as we worked our way back along our path, we spotted another horseshoe nailed to our tree -- which pretty much confirmed our theory that horseshoes were the original blazes on this route:

We were almost back to Pinacle Drive to walk the last mile on gravel road, when we made this last turn and were greeted by a little group of aletris.  We saw many individual blossoms of this variety on this section of the trail, but we don't think we've seen aletris before on any of our hikes.  They are quite striking.

It was only another half hour until we found the Jeep where we left it.  Other than our hikes on the two sections of the Horse-Shoe Trail heading east and west of our campground, this was the closest trailhead for any hike this year.  

In a matter of 10 minutes or so, we were home -- welcomed by our weekly vegetable box straight from local farms.  Kathy eagerly set about inventorying and washing all the veggies, while David worked on this blog entry.  Almost immediately, it was lunchtime.  We don't usually hike in the mornings, but with the hot weather, it is more comfortable.  What's more, we have the bonus of a whole day left to get other chores done.

May your fresh vegetables be many and your rotten ones few.  Look for another blog entry we're planning for you!  Cheers.