Appalachian Trail
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Trail Hiked: Cumberland Valley Overlook via Appalachian Trail, Cumberland Valley Overlook from Valley Road
Distance Hiked: 13.94 miles
Elevation Gain: 1,939 ft.
Duration: 5h 34m
"Someday this will be a stop along the way rather than the starting and ending point," I kept saying to myself on this bright Saturday morning. Having been in Washington state only a week prior, slick conditions from night rain seemed all too familiar, along with the whole "being in Washington state one week and central Pennsylvania the next and needing to hike a mountain on the Appalachian Trail while I was there" thing, but that's too oddly specific to be a cliche, which makes it all the more peculiar that it happened twice. Cue Botchamania Taz animation: "But I digress..."
I was not raised in an outdoorsy family, which teithfully becomes a bigger understatement the more I consider it. I grew up less than a mile from this trail, and this overlook I could see from the house I lived in for over 20 years. Yet, the idea to hike up that way never even occurred to me when I was younger. Maybe I didn’t notice it because of all the sports I played for many years, but the more I got into hiking, kayaking, and wanting to be in the woods, I noticed how many people learned these things from their parents or other relatives, and we’re just used to pretty much everything. I had to learn everything all on my own as an adult, and things that seem to be common knowledge to most outdoorsy types, our lessons I learned the hard way because I didn’t have anybody to teach me. In contrast, with this hike, I’d officially hiked the entirety of Cumberland County on the Appalachian Trail, and since they were all out and back, I’ve done it both northbound and southbound. This was reassuring that sometime in the near future, I’d be able to thru-hike this trail.
Many people I grew up with in Pennsylvania, and others that I know now in Minnesota, they all learned how to camp, and learned how to live in the wilderness from their parents. That’s the part I still haven’t approached, or I’ve already done this hike. Yet, when even my grandmother is asking me where all this hiking and outdoorsy stuff came from, because it certainly wasn’t from my family, I’m never exactly sure how to answer. It seems like it happened by accident, and once I got a taste of it, I just had to keep going and improving. I’ve gone from “what even is an actual hiking trail?” to “I just hiked Mount Si last week (future post), and the elevation gain was too paltry on this one, so I’m going down the other side just to do it back again.” I’d also gone from thinking these were mountains, to hiking ones triple the size of this one, and feeling I needed a bigger challenge. Things sure can change with a lot of practice
The hike itself? Well, this state is called Rocksylvania for a reason. It’s where hiking boots go to die.
Just bring it.
