2024 Blissful Hiking Review in Images

This was the year of finally returning to the Appalachian Trail (AT) and working my way northward, accomplishing 356.6 miles from Palmerton, Pennsylvania to Bennington, Vermont in three separate hikes.

But first came some hiking shakedowns in Shenandoah National Park, including a stay at the Jones Mountain Cabin, once owned by a mountaineer Harvey Nickols whose wife is buried on a knoll above the cabin. (cabins are rentable from the PATC)

 

Good waterfall hikes also added to a cardio workout until I could backpack. 

But my first test began on the AT at Palmerton, PA and ascending the rocks that turned out to be tough. That night I inadvertently became entwined in a search and rescue with dogs and drones (the hiker in question was deceased in his tent a mile from me, I found out later). There is never a dull moment on the AT,

Finally I left these series of rocks behind and crossed into New Jersey. I have always been partial to the NJ views on the trail (this is my third hike of the AT).

I left the trail to attend Trail Days in Damascus. Though a bit damp,  it was good to reconnect with hikers. I did not realize at the time though that this town and other places on the  AT would be devastated by Hurricane Helene that fall, leaving it scarred and heavily damaged. Many places are still struggling to come back alive after such devastation. 

The fall saw me continuing my AT northward trek, into New York and then the New England states where I enjoyed the coming fall colors and even witnessed my first snow and ice on the trail at Mt Greylock in  Massachusetts. I ended the section hike for 2024 at Bennington, Vermont.

I also did a weekend in the Cranberry Wilderness of West Virginia - remote and yes, a wilderness setting but with some interesting campsites. We hope to explore more of our sister state in the future.

So what does 2025 hold?

The plan is to continue hiking the AT starting from Bennington and hopefully see the trail to its conclusion at Katahdin in Maine and a third finish of this famous trail. Of course, I will sprinkle in other small backpack trips in Shenandoah and West Virginia. We are looking as well to the future and our first adventure overseas on a trail. 

Stay tuned for 2025. 

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Blissful Hiking Adventure books  - the Appalachian Trail north and south and the Florida Trail

*Coming in 2025 - "Bears, Blood, and Breakthroughs - The Life and Times of an Appalachian Trail Ridgerunner". Six years of adventure in Maryland and Shenandoah as an AT ridgerunner.