“Next year can we hike the ‘Thousand Step Escalator?’” — Anonymous hiker.
I don’t curse. However a vulgar word rhyming with “duck” expelled from my frustrated throat with such force that people all the way in California stopped what they were doing to look up curiously. Walking on an excessively rocky ridge overlooking serene, green central Pennsylvania dairy farms, I kept stubbing my toes. Fun at first, the rocks had become brutal. So dense, there was no ground to walk except for on top of the rocks; so misshapen lay the rocks, one had to concentrate to find stable, comfortable footing. A flat rock felt delightful to tread; but most were angled or, worse, pointed. It hurt! They bruised my toes badly. The “duck bomb” flew when my toe struck a rock—yet again—on its most sensitive sweet spot. I stopped to check if I broke my toe. My x-ray vision proved deficient to see any fracture—but it did not feel broken to the touch. After stretching it, I could continue walking. However, I noticed that the rocks shredded the bottoms of my brand new Altra Superior trail runners. Bits of the rubber tread hung off the bottom of each shoe in flaps. I couldn’t walk with them in that condition. Summoning my inner “Rocky,” I said to myself in a husky voice, “cut me, Mick, go ahead cut me,” and I took out a pocket knife to slice off the loosened tread so I could continue the fight. I later learned Adrian suffered the same fate with his shoes. They were also brand new until the SST trail rocks did their worst. He tried a duct tape field repair which worked until the trail quickly made his temporary fix even more temporary. Even Kylie’s big toe turned black!
When brick makers in 1936 cut a staircase of approximately 1,000 steps up the side of a mountain cliff to ease their access to raw materials, they may not have anticipated what a great backpacking trail feature they created. Yet, in 2023, the Thousand Steps Trail now headline an irresistible Pennsylvania long trail called the “Standing Stone Trail” (“SST”). How irresistible? One DCULer, Cassie, who now lives in Boulder, Colorado, and who has access to all that the Rocky Mountains has to offer, flew back east to hike the thing.
Spoiler alert: The “Thousand Steps” are actually much more than 1,000 steps—a fact that is particularly and cruelly distressing when one sees the number “1,000” marked on the millennial step despite the staircase continuing its ascent. As DCULer Logan observed, “I guess calling it the ‘Thousand, Thirty-Seven Steps Trail’ lacks the marketing punch that the ‘Thousand Steps ’ has.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this trail. On the one hand, it featured some of the most beautiful hiking in the East. We walked along a gentle brook framed by leafy rhododendrons on a soft carpet of pine needles and spongy moss. The soft sounds of the water was more soothing than a Japanese garden. We walked along abandoned rail grades that extended for many miles with easy climbs and descents on wide trails with greenery all around. It was fun getting fresh, hot pizza—twice—in towns the trail blazed through. We also had perfect weather. After a Thursday night dipping close to freezing, the remainder of the trip was delightfully cool in the low 70s with no humidity.
On the other hand it was miserable. We walked 8 miles on an asphalt secondary road, we climbed straight up a mountain on a soulless gravel road under oppressively hot direct sunlight, the pizza restaurants did not sell beer, nor did the convenience stores (what the heck is wrong with Pennsylvania?!?), and, of course, we had the rocks!
We started our journey after work on Thursday by setting up the shuttle—no small task considering the SST is a 80+ mile linear trail descending due south from State College, PA. Karan (“BA”), Mike, and I did the heavy lifting on the shuttle, leaving Cassie, Logan, Kylie (“Faceplant”), and Adrian to start hiking in the waning daylight. (An eighth hiker, Yuna, would join us on the trail Saturday).
We joined the hike much later in the evening after driving up and back to State College to drop off a couple of cars. We didn’t start hiking until 11:00 p.m.
I like late night hikes, and enjoyed this one. As DCULer Chandler (“Willy Wonka”) always says, “night miles are free miles; if you can’t see them you can’t feel them.” I agree. We hiked almost 7 miles in the dark, with a 1300 foot climb on a very rocky path. BA led the way. I was behind Mike who groaned and whinnied every time we climbed down rocks, which occurred frequently. BA stopped to warn Mike that the SST was not going to get easier and if he was in too much pain after just a few miles he might want to reconsider this trip. Mike would have none of it. He told us that his knee and back gave him constant pain and that he just suffers through it. BA looked at me and me at him, each of us blinding the other with our headlamps in silent negotiations of whether we should encourage his self-extraction. However, we took Mike at his word and were frankly too tired to do anything but get to our campsite and go to sleep. We arrived around 1:30 am and pitched tents in a rocky wooded area. I felt lucky that a rock under my tent was perfectly positioned as lumbar support. I slept easily.
Friday through Monday consisted of the variable hiking paths I previously described. The SST is really a series of independent trails linked by paved roads, gravel roads, and linking paths. We crossed state parks, game lands, private property (with permission), and two towns. The towns each featured pizza restaurants, which really brightened our moods. The combination of the tough trail, plus the heavy food inspired a group siesta nap—unusual for a DCUL VMO trip.
The eight-mile road walk was truly unwelcome. It was in direct sunlight; and the hot asphalt hurt our feet unlike the more pleasant feeling walking on a wooded trail. However, we passed the time in conversation under the shade of our Tactical Rain Deflection Devices.
The trip was not easy, albeit we handicapped ourselves by setting a big mile itinerary. Many who thru hike the SST set aside seven to ten days for the trek; we did it Thursday night through Monday morning—three days of big miles with two days of short “set up and clean up” hikes. Our splits, per Cassie’s GPS were:
Thursday Night: 6.7 miles (1300 feet of elevation gain)
Friday: 29 miles (5,000 feet of gain)
Saturday: 24 miles (3,800 feet of gain)
Sunday: 27 miles (4,500 feet of gain)
Monday Morning: 6.3 miles (1,600 feet of gain)
Yes, that is a total of 93 miles and 16,200 feet of gain—much more than hiking Pike’s Peak Trail in Colorado twice.
Adding to the challenge was the need to manage water. Long stretches of the trail lack reliable water, so we had to carry a lot of heavy water on them. Exasperating this was the fact that we chose some “dry” campsites. As it turned out, we carried more water than necessary. There were plenty of uncharted streams, but we could not count on them in advance.
The DCUL crew on this trip were physically well matched. We were a strong, fast group and wound up hiking together for much of the trip. This was very nice. BA often took the lead with the rest of us following like ducklings. On climbs, Faceplant and Cassie would set a killer pace that everyone else struggled to match. (Adrian, Logan, and I were no match).
We ate together and camped together.
Mike and Yuna are in a class of their own. I tried at one point to follow them but the experience was surreal. I’m a very fast hiker, but I could not catch up to them no matter how hard I pushed myself. At one point I started jogging. I would see the back of Mike’s pack at points and then, like a ghost, he was gone until I saw him at another stretch, just out of reach. I later learned that he was struggling to keep up with Yuna. She explained that she felt a burst of energy. Let’s bottle that and curb global climate change! Mike later learned he could more easily keep up with Yuna by holding hands with her, which was sweet to watch.
I marveled to Adrian how lucky we were to avoid rain in Pennsylvania over Memorial Day weekend. Every other time I’ve hiked in the Keystone State over this holiday I endured at least two days of rain. Of course, I jinxed us by bringing it up. On Sunday night, after we were long asleep in our tents, a downpour awakened us. Spoiled by the dry, pleasant weather we had enjoyed up to that point, we did not take the usual rain precautions. BA , Faceplant, and Cassie scampered out of their tents to lower flaps and take in uncovered gear. After five minutes the rain stopped as abruptly as it started, prompting Cassie to shout out in annoyance, “is that it?!?!?” As if to appease her, the rain started again after a time but, politely, ceased well before daybreak.
The SST trail started at a junction with the Tuscarora Trail and ended at a junction with the Mid State Trail. Thus, it is a good trail to link the two for an epic hike from the Shenandoah National Park to Upstate New York and beyond. When we reached the end of the SST at the Mid State Trail junction we looked out for DCULer Michael Martin (Uturn) and his crew hiking that trail that same weekend. (Yes, DCUL is so active it supported two Pennsylvania Memorial Day Weekend backpacking trips, each exceeding 80 miles). Unfortunately, we did not see them.
We turned left onto the Mid State Trail to climb our last mountain before reaching the cars we left for ourselves when setting up the shuttle Thursday night.
As we started our drive home, I announced, “well that is not something you see everyday.” Cassie said, “I’ll say,” and BA started shooting video. A team of horses pulled in front of us on the road. They had neither riders, saddles, nor human minders. They were galloping forward on the road in full equine glory—two abreast with a white horse holding up the rear, his mane flowing in the wind and waste dropping defiantly from his bottom. Freedom! Symbolically, they were the vanguards of our our own feeling of freedom from the rocks of the SST as the trail receded in our rear view mirror and the prospect of a big victory breakfast laid ahead of us. Having competed this challenging trail, including the Thousand Steps stairway, we started to feel like we were in heaven. A “stairway to heaven.” Hey! That is kind of catchy. Someone should write a song about it.
—-David O (Spider-Man)
DC UL Backpacking 