travel light, wake early, walk far
Before exiting the Buchanan State Forest, I signed the last trail register, pausing to reflect on how lucky we are to have the Mid State Trail. Thanks to DCUL for starting the trend and to Evan for getting me hooked.
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It had all of the traditional ingredients: a returning Massanutten finisher (me), a first-time finisher (Max!), a Halfassanutten participant (Sophie), a Mininuttener (Sharon), a trail injury sacrifice (Chris), a new variant finisher we will call the Markanutten (Mark, duh), and lots of trail magic.
The hike was going faster than expected, and Ashley and I thought a reroute would mix things up. Down a hemlock and rhododendron filled hollow to the Hamburg Reservoir.
The trail was well maintained. While there were some blowdowns, they seemed to be easy to pass. And we even saw some trail maintainers on Sunday too.
