Gettysburg is an uneasy place. So much bloodshed. So much pain. And yet there is beauty on the battlefield, the forests and hills, the monuments placed skillfully so as to invite reflection.
In Gettysburg
Stopped at the side of the highway as our tour bus waited at a restroom, I could see a distant cluster of towers on the mountain to the west. “Hey, that’s Pen Mar!” We’re visiting Gettysburg on foot, led here by a deepening interest in the Civil War history we’ve discovered along the Appalachian Trail, […]
Mason-Dixon Line
Here we are reaching the Mason-Dixon line! I was thrilled to find that the AT followed an old streetcar line here. Dad would have loved that discovery.
Peanut Soup
We get pretty creative on the trail, trying to make one-pot meals more interesting. It took two months before I figured out how to make pasta with tomato sauce and cheese “as good as home.” We’ve met hikers who use soup mix with noodles, or crush Doritos into their ramen noodles for flavor. We learned […]
Pine Grove Reflections
Pine Grove Furnace State Park south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is notable for being the mid-point of the Appalachian Trail. In the heart of winter, it gets icy.