Caledonia State Park to Woodrow Road

Day 6
Sunday, April 3
Caledonia State Park to Woodrow Road
15.1 miles

Another slackpack day!  Started out pretty cold today - 29 degrees, feels like 16 at 8:00 this morning.  It was cold and windy all day with snow flurries falling. 

The trail going north out of Caledonia State Park is a wide, flat trail.  Very pleasant hiking.  In fact most of the trail today is that way.  Pennsylvania has not warranted its reputation for “Rocksylvania” yet.  The pictures below will attest to the beauty of the forest with mountain laurel thickets.

Quarry Gap Shelter is a unique and popular shelter on the AT.  It is a beautiful log structure with a front porch, a metal roof and an open common area in the middle with a sleeping area on each side.  The sign over the entrance proclaims that Jim Slauch is the innkeeper and he obviously does a great job at it.  As we passed it, we took not of the well-manicured surrounding and the little gate with a hello sign welcoming hikers.  A spring runs in the front yard – how convenient is that? 

The highlight of our trip was crossing the 2016 midway point.  We were looking for it, but almost missed the small sign on the left side of the trail in the middle of nowhere.  We have hiked 1094.55 miles!!  But we also have 1094.55 miles left to hike!  Now we are looking forward to induction into the “half-gallon club” when we reach the Pine Grove Furnace General Store – an AT tradition.

At 2:30 we reached Woodrow Road where Bob and Sandra had parked our vehicle.  Then we went in search of our half gallon of ice cream.  Upon reaching the general store, we were very disappointed to find that they had not opened for the season yet!  Oh, what a disappointment!  We will have to wait on our half-gallon club induction.  But we did tour the AT museum located across the street. 

Back at Trail of Hope Hostel, the good folks at the church had prepared lasagna and salad and we joined them and a trio of new hikers for dinner.  After doing our laundry, we drove to Econolodge in Carlisle for the night.

Highway 16 to Caledonia State Park

Day 5

Saturday April 2
Highway 16 to Caledonia State Park
15.3 miles

A slackpack day!  We parked our vehicle at Caledonia State Park, Bob picked us up and took us to Highway 16, Waynesboro.  We started hiking at 8:40.

It was a fairly easy day, with only one major incline up to Chimney Rocks with rock steps going up.

We crossed over three or four boulder fields which looked worse than they were. They were short-lived  and easy to manuever.

Highlight of the day was Chimney Rock overlook.  It was obviously a local favorite with lots of people there.  Children and dogs were leaping around the high cliffs, making us quite nervous.  The view below was of solid forest, fields, and reservoir. Not a house in sight. Beautiful!

Made it back to Caledonia State park by 4:00.  Weather was cool (40-50 degrees) and felt really nice today.  Back at the hostel saw that several other hikers had joined us in the building. 
Church had a free food and gospel sing tonight, open to the community.  We hit town at the right time.