Hike 798 miles on these trails to win coveted Pennsylvania hiking award
Today 5:00 AM
The West Rim Trail along the rim of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon is one of the trails required of hikers trying for the State Forest Trails Award. (PA DCNR graphic)
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The Keystone Trails Association (KTA) and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources awards the State Forest Trails Award to anyone who hikes all 798 miles of 17 trails in Pennsylvania’s state forest.
The KTA launched an annual Hiking Awards Program in 1961 to recognize hikers “whose enjoyment of Pennsylvania’s trails might serve as an example and inspiration to their peers.
The recent norâeaster that bedeviled much of the Northeast was a godsend to the Alleghenies.
About a foot of wet-based powder descended upon Laurel Ridge, creating nearly perfect conditions for cross-country skiing atop Laurel Summit â conditions that have been exceedingly rare there for the past two or three winter seasons.
Rarer still was that those conditions persisted into the weekend, giving my close friend, neighbor and outingsâ companion, Tom Gray, and me the opportunity to âgo out and play.â
Just the drive in along Laurel Summit Road was worth the trip. Snow laid plush on the landscape, precisely lined the limbs of the now-leafless hardwoods, and sat squarely on the boughs of the evergreens.