Horse-Shoe Trail Section 2

Brightside Farm to French Creek Elementary School
December 2, 2012
section miles:  14.0    total miles: 25.8

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Our second section on the Horse-shoe Trail covered 14 miles - a little more ambitious than we originally planned.  We wanted to end this leg at Welkinweir gardens (12 mi), but a special event was taking place and the parking lots were closed when we arrived, so we drove on another couple of miles and dropped the second car at the elementary school. Welkinweir looks very interesting, and we made a note to come back and visit in the spring. If you plan to park there, you may want to call in advance.

The first 8-10 miles of this section were mostly road walking, with a quick-dip into the woods for respite here and there. But this is not lets-hurry-up-and-get-this-over-with road walking.  This is a touring amble through miles of beautiful horse-country and gorgeous estates, with some historic homes and architectural gems in the mix.  Granted, there was the occasional McMansion lawn-farmer and a few subdivisions here and there, but the overall walk was exceptional. Each bend in the road seemed to bring us a new favorite, but hands down by the end of the day was a garden cottage that looked like a hobbit home from Lord of the Rings, round doors and all.

Postscript: a couple of weeks after completing this section, we saw the following article posted about the hobbit house: http://news.yahoo.com/far-shire-hobbit-house-pa-country-225634144.html 

Here's another link which takes you directly to the architect's page: http://www.archerbuchanan.com/portfolio.asp?isection=3

At one point Rene commented that she felt like she was on a "home and garden tour."  She also  did her best to impress me with her knowledge of the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

"People who live in homes like these have house managers."

"I have a house manager."

"Very funny."

The road walking was gentle, with relatively modest ups and downs, the traffic was light, and there was often plenty of room to walk off the side of the road in the grass if you so desired.  The occasional loose dog announced his presence, but all were well behaved and did not leave their property.  Beyond 10 miles you begin to spend more time on trails than on roads, navigating across some farmland and hills which become significantly more challenging.  You will traverse several ridges as you pass through the Welkinweir region and arrive at French Creek Elementary.  The good news is that the trail tends to switchback or climb gradually up the steeper hills, but there were a few sections that headed right-on-up and left us gasping for breath.

I'm writing this a week in arrears, as we're stuck at home with rain moving through on the day we planned to hike our third section. I believe that is where we will start to pick up more trail than road, and we're looking forward to the challenge.  In the meantime we're working hard at the gym to get ready for the hills that are looming in our future.  Sadly, gym attendance appears to stimulate the body's natural need for cheeseburgers and french fries, so I'm not entirely sure we're making any real progress here.