Adam Funari's Blog

Myself and Liam, a good friend of mine, had been planning to hike the Loyalsock Trail for years. Every year, we would say that it would finally be the year we would get our things together and go do it. This continued for a good many years, and while the actual outcome of each year didn't get much different, we did begin amassing a good bit of backpacking hear, bought in pieces each year with the hope of finally taking our trip. At the beginning of last year, the time we had been waiting for had finally come. We had all the gear we needed, we were old enough to convince our parents to allow us out on the trip, and we had enough warning to take off from work for the time we needed. We planned for weeks, buying the few small items we still hadn't gotten previously, and eventually the time rolled around to begin our trip. We packed our things, and after a big breakfast and a short car ride from our cabin, we were finally at the beginning of our hike.

Despite it's name, the trail does not follow the loyalsock exactly. It does, however, start and end at the loyalsock. We began our trip near Williamsport PA, on the lower end of the trail. The mountains there are steep and densely packed, making for a tiring hiking experience. This would be the longest stretch of the hike, taking us a few days. We powered through this area to reach a park called World's End. World's End is a beautiful place, with a larger valley than the other's near it, allowing for some great overlooks and views. We stopped off at the visitor center there to buy some snacks and go for a swim. After World's End, we were on the tail end of our journey and after another day and a half, we were done. At the end of a trail is another interesting place, called the Haystacks. It's an area of the Loyalsock where the bedrock has been eroded into large bulbous outcroppings, making for a great swimming spot and an interesting landmark.

Camping every night was an interesting experience. While we had both been camping numerous times before, setting up tents on the go and having to make/break camp every evening and morning was challenging. The weather also didn't help on some days, with 2 out of our 6 days consisting mostly of rain, mud, and misery. Despite this, the time spent at camp was nice. We brought with us lots of food, both MREs and snacks consisting of granola and fruit leather. While we didn't make a fire every night, we did use a small gas stove to heat our food, and it worked like a charm. We also brought a bear bag with us and made sure to hang our food every night. On one night we also camped with some fellow hikers, they were coming from out of state and we had a good time talking around the camp fire we had made earlier.

All in all, hiking the Loyalsock Trail was a great experience. It was, admittedly, an ill-advised introduction to backpacking. We had never hiked more than day trips before, and by the end of the week we were completely destroyed . Despite this, we were convinced we wanted to continue next year with a new trip. The weather hadn't been perfect, but on the days when it was nice it was truly fantastic. After taking a small detour to explore the Haystacks and go for a much needed swim, we ended our journey and were picked up by a friend in her car. After we got back, we made a list of camping gear it would have been nice to have that we forgot to buy. Thankfully though, we had done pretty well during our stocking up in the years previous. The Loyalsock trail was a great hike, and I'd recommend it to anyone feeling up to the challenge, as long as you don't mind a bit of mud.