Sampling the Appalachian Trail-October 2026

The initial trip preparation was satisfying, as usual, but an hour before heading to Angie’s, I experienced an unwelcome event. I had waited for Doug to return from his mountain bike ride, as he had to drop me at Angie’s for an overnight. It was growing dark, he had left his phone and I was worried. Good wife that I am, I grabbed keys and headed for my car to begin a search for him. The rescue mission was short as I missed a step in the dark and fell forward, chin first, onto the hood of the car. It felt like I bit into an apple…but it was my teeth going through my lip! I had enough presence of mind not to drop the fob and to cup my hands under my chin…now flowing with beautiful red blood. I attended to finding a cloth and stemming the flow and entered the garage again. This time I intended to drive myself to the emergency room. 

In the dark driveway, I noted my wayward husband just getting out of his car and I told him to get back in to be my chauffeur. On our way to the hospital he shared the story of the mishap on his bike that had caused HIM to have four stitches in the very same emergency room that would see me now, a very short time before.

The staff was tremendous and the four stitches in my lip and one on my face were not too painful. The doctor was a delightful intern and it gave me hope for the future! The stitched husband left the stitched wife at Angie’s house where a sleepless night ensued.

Currently, after a very early wakeup call, we are nearly at the Baltimore Airport where Angie and I will begin our adventure. 

We have had many bumps along today’s road; an overactive toddler with a parent oblivious to the discomfort she was causing others, an hour spent at Hertz trying to get our hands on a vehicle she had already paid for, and a trip to a couple of ERs to deal with some stitching issues…you really don’t understand the culture of another city unless you spend some time in a medical facility! Throughout the drive to our lodging we relaxed into the contentment of catching up on life, soaked up the vibrant fall colors, and visiting the cute towns of York and Hershey Land where we felt young and happy.

We awoke, the next morning, in Marvelous Ms. Mary’s little, old, adorable, yellow house where we slept okay considering the constant street noise… I should have recognized the clue of large containers of earplugs in every room. It was a very comfortable house and the host was very accommodating. 

We started our day with a trip to Boiling Springs where the plan was to visit an Appalachian Trail Center and to walk around Children's Lake. It was a man-made lake directly on the Appalachian Trail with the town all around it and it was darling. There were lots of kids in canoes and ducks and geese gracefully floating around. One tends to forget that on any long trail hiking will pass through urban and rural places!

When we finally got to the ATC office, where our challenge was to say “hello” to the staff, we found it deserted with doors locked and no furniture inside. It was super-challenging to complete that challenge! So we mourned the ghosts of the office past and were on our way. It was an interesting little town, but not as booming as Carlisle where we were staying.

Our next step was supposed to be the Table Rock Hike. In my planning, I had accidentally put the Town of Table Rock into the search instead of the HIKE of Table Rock. So we did the search, drove another hour and, eventually, found the right place for our hike. 

The problem, when we arrived, was that the fog was so thick we could barely see and the whole point of the hike was the amazing views. Angie had a work meeting that she wanted to join by phone so we agreed to wait until after that meeting in the car to see if the weather would change. In that 20 minutes, it changed from foggy to sunny! We waved goodbye to our rain gear and headed the 2 miles out to the point. It was, as advertised, a very beautiful view. The Table Rock was more of a Lumpy Couch Rock and we spent just a little bit of time before turning around to walk back to the car. 

There was an immediate cover of black clouds and we spent the 2 miles on the way back to the car getting soaked to the bone and walking in a not very safe manner to the car. I saved taking a tumble for a walk on the rainless sidewalk that evening! It seemed like much longer than 2 miles by the time we returned and shed our wet clothing! It was really worth it though!

I can easily say that now that I am warm and dry! We warmed up and took a little walking tour of the town of Carlisle, which is quite cute and has a lot of shops downtown for those with an  interest in decorative things. It was a good way to end a long day.

Today was the day to visit our cousin, Jackie, and her wife, Susan. They chose a spot not far off of our route where we met for lunch and it was absolutely wonderful to catch up with them. 

After lunch, we headed for the Sunrise Mountain Overlook. It was a gorgeous drive, narrated by really bad scary stories that I read to Angie from books about the area. The best part of them was how remarkably bad the writing was! Really, a scarier thing about the day was Angie backing into a parked truck in the parking lot of the cafe where we got milkshakes. None of it was as scary as my destroyed mouth with the ever-changing purple tones!

The overlook was a tiny walk from the lot and we met many nice folks enjoying the treasure of the view that stretched to include fields and farms and cities and hills. All combined to make a lovely tapestry of reds, golds and oranges with splotches of other colors denoting farms and ponds and homes.

Our last challenge of the day was The High Point Monument Hike. It was a great hike with just enough of a workout! We strolled through a parking lot back into the woods feeling sort of half-way done with the hike. After a bit Angie checked her map and said we had about a mile left. After a mile she reported that we had about a mile and a half left. It was starting to get dark and I was feeling tired and cranky. We stomped quickly through the rest of the hike and were quite happy to reunite with our car! On our way back to our Greenwood Lake rental we picked up dinner before checking in. We wound up and up a twisty road in the dark and discovered a wonderful house with a tilted driveway and 3000 wooden steps up to the deck leading to the front door! We dragged our luggage up and were met with a defective keypad. While waiting for the rental rep to save us we ate pizza and fettuccine in the car. Once we were in the house it was sort of a dream. It was spacious and modern and, we would see the next morning, had a view of trees, sky and Greenwood Lake. We slept well in the quiet, comfortable house!