Hike #23 - Nolde Forest; or, "Can't See the Forest for the Trees…"

August 24, 2011

Hiking Nolde Forest

Hiking with Impunity drove out to Berk's County, PA, which is fast becoming a favorite area of ours to hike! Using the book, AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Philadelphia as a reference again, we decided to go to Nolde Forest and tackle the book's 8-mile hike. While this was not a difficult hike - most of the trails were level - there are two decent elevation gains over the course of the two loops that we travelled.

Hike #24 - French Creek State Park; or, "Navigation: Successful"

August 24, 2011

Scott's Run LakeHiking with Impunity hit French Creek State Park's trails today. We hiked on 6 different trails, including the famous Horseshoe Trail - an approximately 135 mile trail that runs from Valley Forge National Park to the Appalachian Trail right outside of Hershey, PA.

To plan the hike, all we used was the state park map and our (finally developing) good senses.

No guidebook. No advice. No suggestions. And, most importantly, no heat exhaustion! (see Hike #8: French Creek State Park; or, "How to Get Heat Exhaustion without Really Trying")

We'll be bringing you all of the information about our latest hike, including which trails we hiked and a boat-load of pictures, within the next week! Remember to subscribe to our newsfeed to stay up to date with all of our newly published articles (either by entering your email address in the sidebar, or visiting our Hiking with Impunity Newsfeed and subscribing there).

Happy Trails!

Hike #21 - Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain; or, "Ghosts, Kidnapping, and . . . Ornithology?!"

August 11, 2011

We planned this hike at Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain after consulting 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Philadelphia, by Sandra and Gareth Kear as well as AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Philadelphia, by Susan Charkes. Both books list different routes by which one can hike; however, we wound up choosing the hike listed in the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) over the 60 Hikes book mainly so that we could start building toward a review of this guide-book as well. It has been my experience that guide-books are only as good as the accuracy of the maps and directions, and we will explore this book and its accuracy in more detail once we've used it to plan more hikes.

Hike #0 - Lake Nockamixon & Peace Valley Nature Center; or, "We're on a Mission!"

August 9, 2011

It's interesting, because looking back over the past five years, we had been slowly building to this point. On every trip we took, Francesca and I would eventually find ourselves on a local trail with nothing but ourselves, a bottle of water, and a trail map (if one was available!).

Hike #8: French Creek; or "How to Get Heat Exhaustion without Really Trying"

August 9, 2011

French Creek State Park truly is an amazing place to go for a nice hike. They have over 35 miles of trails to choose from that cover a decent sized portion of the 7,730 acres. We had decided to go to French Creek because of the diversity of trails as well as a recommended hike by Backpacker Magazine. We had also researched the trails on the Pennsylvania State Parks Website, and found that this particular hike would give us the most bang for our buck in showing us many different areas of the park. (It should also be noted that the famous Horse-shoe trail, which runs 130 miles from Valley Forge to the Appalachian Trail, also cuts through the park.)