JK_PA
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2023
I never heard of the Horse-Shoe Trail until I moved to within hiking distance of its start in Valley Forge. It’s a 140-mile hiking and equestrian trail in southeastern Pennsylvania that heads generally west/northwest from Valley Forge, through the Hershey area and ends at the Appalachian Trail. I hiked the first 14 miles from Valley Forge when I first arrived in PA but then life got in the way of continuing. With no family vacation/trips planned, this summer sounded like a good time to section-hike the remaining 126 miles of the Horse-Shoe Trail. My first section-hike of the year was in June and Saturday (Aug 30th) was my fourteen of the year and the final-section hike to complete the trail. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania now for 18 years and I feel like I saw more of PA this summer than all the previous years combined!
As for the hikes themselves, I got into a nice rhythm of driving from my house to the location on the trail where I wanted to end that day. Then I would take my bike out of the car and bike for about an hour to where I ended my previous section-hike.
I then locked my bike to something secure enough to keep an honest thief from stealing it and proceeded to hike the Horse-Shoe Trail to my car.
The trail is a true mixed bag of hiking experiences. Sure, there are many miles of quintessential hiking trails though woods. It has been years since I hiked regularly. I had forgotten how much I truly enjoyed just being on the trail!
The vast majority of the wooded sections were well-enough maintained but there were some miles where a trail in the traditional sense was nowhere to be found due to overgrowth. Those miles were spent bushwhacking in search of the next tree with a faded yellow blaze marking the trail (which added a little adventure to the hike).
It is not all woods hiking though. There are also many miles of hiking on asphalt:
As well as hiking through farmland:
There are also some interesting historical sites along the way. Hopewell Furnace was the nugget find for me (and it’s free!). It’s a restored 19th century historic village for cast iron production and you can tour the original blast furnace, the ironmaster's mansion, a blacksmith shop and an operating full-scale water wheel (which was really cool!). I knew nothing about the place until I stumbled upon it while on the trail.
There was also interesting wildlife/livestock along the way.
To enable continuous connection between historical sites, state parks and state game lands, the Horse-shoe Trail also runs through yards of homeowners so a big “thank you” to all the landowners who kindly give permission to hikers like me to walk through their property.
What amazed me most about the Horse-shoe Trail was that I had the trail to myself. For one stretch of the hike, I went 37 miles without seeing another hiker on the trail. I did see some hikers along other sections of the trail but that was mostly when the trail traveled through a state park.
I averaged about 9 miles per hike (shorter hikes when I first started and longer ones once I got my hiking and biking legs back). Due to logistics, a bike shuttle was not feasible for the final 9.4 miles of the trail so my 14th section-hike of the summer and final section-hike of the Horse-Shoe Trail was 18.8 miles roundtrip. It has been about 25 years since I day-hiked that long so I was exhausted when I finished but it did make for a memorable way to complete the Horse-Shoe Trail. The celebration Scotch on my back deck when I got home sure tasted good!
As for the hikes themselves, I got into a nice rhythm of driving from my house to the location on the trail where I wanted to end that day. Then I would take my bike out of the car and bike for about an hour to where I ended my previous section-hike.
I then locked my bike to something secure enough to keep an honest thief from stealing it and proceeded to hike the Horse-Shoe Trail to my car.
The trail is a true mixed bag of hiking experiences. Sure, there are many miles of quintessential hiking trails though woods. It has been years since I hiked regularly. I had forgotten how much I truly enjoyed just being on the trail!
The vast majority of the wooded sections were well-enough maintained but there were some miles where a trail in the traditional sense was nowhere to be found due to overgrowth. Those miles were spent bushwhacking in search of the next tree with a faded yellow blaze marking the trail (which added a little adventure to the hike).
It is not all woods hiking though. There are also many miles of hiking on asphalt:
As well as hiking through farmland:
There are also some interesting historical sites along the way. Hopewell Furnace was the nugget find for me (and it’s free!). It’s a restored 19th century historic village for cast iron production and you can tour the original blast furnace, the ironmaster's mansion, a blacksmith shop and an operating full-scale water wheel (which was really cool!). I knew nothing about the place until I stumbled upon it while on the trail.
There was also interesting wildlife/livestock along the way.
To enable continuous connection between historical sites, state parks and state game lands, the Horse-shoe Trail also runs through yards of homeowners so a big “thank you” to all the landowners who kindly give permission to hikers like me to walk through their property.
What amazed me most about the Horse-shoe Trail was that I had the trail to myself. For one stretch of the hike, I went 37 miles without seeing another hiker on the trail. I did see some hikers along other sections of the trail but that was mostly when the trail traveled through a state park.
I averaged about 9 miles per hike (shorter hikes when I first started and longer ones once I got my hiking and biking legs back). Due to logistics, a bike shuttle was not feasible for the final 9.4 miles of the trail so my 14th section-hike of the summer and final section-hike of the Horse-Shoe Trail was 18.8 miles roundtrip. It has been about 25 years since I day-hiked that long so I was exhausted when I finished but it did make for a memorable way to complete the Horse-Shoe Trail. The celebration Scotch on my back deck when I got home sure tasted good!
