Mid State Trail, Third March, Memorial Day 2025

For this Memorial Day weekend, we decided to undertake the “third march” of my second MST section hike, which we’ve been doing in slightly longer chunks than we did for the first iteration. This section of roughly 100 kilometers or 62 miles would take us from just north of 322 (Stillhouse Hollow Road) to just shy of 220 and the Susquehanna River (we stopped at Ramm Road).

After the debacle of getting out of DC on a Thursday evening for the second march and with just sixty miles to do, we opted to leave Friday morning, 5/23. Janice, Zak, Evan, Dmitri, WB, B~~~, and I rendez-vous’d up in Pennsylvania in the afternoon, left a few cars where Ramm Road and Pine Mountain Road meet, and then drove back down the line to leave a cache. It was raining on us a little and I got a bit confused by the intersections, but people set me right. In a somewhat chaotic scene (dirt bikes passing, rain falling), we set up the cache at Kalbfleish Road, night to an old fire tower site that, we hoped, would accommodate a large party for Sunday evening. In fact, the cache was so well hidden that others would have trouble spotting, even knowing it was there!

Anyway, we drove back south to the Sand Mountain Trailhead. As we got started, it was cold and wet for Memorial Day weekend. I actually wore my hardshell Friday evening, as we strolled down Stillhollow Road. I tried to talk those who had not been with us on the second march to go up the steep southbound pitch, but they were too smart. This would be the most difficult weather we’d experience for the weekend. We were treated to a really rather cool several day stretch, with only the occasional bit of drizzle Friday and Saturday–Sunday and Monday were perfect hiking days and we had good sleeping weather each night, down to the 40s, I’d guess. No rain at night, unlike last time.

So, north we went, with fairly easy walking … except for the frequent passages where the trail was submerged to the vast quantities of rain that had fallen. Impossible to keep your feet dry. After a sharp drop, we edged around Poe Valley State Park, regained the ridge, and eventually arrived at Little Poe Valley, where there was a nice campsite to accommodate us all–we would have great campsites the whole way (16km or 10 miles, ish).

Saturday morning, we were up and walking at 7am. North through Poe Paddy State Park, through the tunnel (all mountains should have a tunnel through them!), then a long flat stretch along Penn Creek.

Very easy walking, which got harder as we skirted a property line near Cherry Road, and then had a quite substantial climb up Rupp Mountain. Before long, though, we dropped down and enjoyed fairly relaxed walking to the Hairy John Picnic Area, where most took a long break. From there, there was some stout up and downing (and a beautiful spring at Cinder Pile Spring (seriously, this thing would not look out of place in an Italian village)), before we reached the campsite at Pine Creek Hollow Road (30km or 18.6 miles). People had talked me into stopping a little short–this was certainly the best campsite for a group our size. WB found some cryptic writings in the woods and we pondered their significance. We had a merry campsite, were joined by Buttercup (another backpacker at camp is a rarity on the MST), and passed a great night on trail.

Sunday, we were in for a long day, maybe near 24 miles, with a surprising amount of gain. Everyone was up early, hoofing it towards R.B. Winter State Park. Aware that there was Jen’s low mileage group ahead of us, some wanted to try to catch them–they had a 9 or 10 mile (16km) head start, so that would be tough (impossible). I arrived at R.B. Winter around 9am, or so, crossing a group of Amish lady backpackers. Too early for concessions. Onwards. Probably the toughest trail conditions for the weekend happened around White Deer Creek Road, where a clear cut obliterated the trail for maybe 100 meters. This wasn’t too big of a deal. Just cut to the road and find the trail again (I’d note this area for trail work as the trail has been in quite good shape this May). I crossed I-80 and took a break on the other side. Zak, WB, and Brian caught me here. In the remaining miles, well, I got a little tired. 38km with maybe 1,200 meters of gain was a lot. When Brian and I reached the creek north of Cove Road, we were kvetching about having to cart water uphill for the end of the day (Who designs these trips, anyway?!), but it wasn’t so bad.

I got into low gear and climbed for the road, the campsite, the cache, Jen and her group, and a really fun evening with 14 other backpackers. We drank a lot of beer (in honor of Russ Evans, I had filled the ManCans), recited poetry, enjoyed the fire, and went to bed early.

The wake up call was 5:30am Monday–we had a lot of logistics to do, but the remaining walking was easy enough. Easy plateau miles, a very steep drop off along a property line (always trouble on the MST), and we crossed 880 at Ravensburg State Park. We edged around the plateau, climbed back up, then walked down Ramm Road to the cars. All eight of the folks on my section did the whole thing, as did Jen’s low mileage group. For us that was 62 miles or almost exactly 100km with 9,000 ft or 2700 meters of gain. We’re well positioned for the fourth and fifth march, which will happen in the fall. Really, we should have two very nice sections ahead.

For now, it was all over but the logistics. The shuttle cars headed south. Brian and I helped with the low mileage group, then collected the cooler. We reconvened at Skeeters in Selinsgrove (a pretty good destination for DCUL, really), then headed home!