Funny what you find in your own backyard...

I had to make a weekly trip to Lancaster, Pa, today and took one of my dogs with me. On the way back, we stopped at a local park to hike. We walked about three or four miles and just when I thought the trial ended, it picked up again a few feet away and so we kept walking.

Eventually, we came across a guy from the USDA who was cutting some leaves for samples to study some bug that's killing maple trees. We talked for a few minutes and I told him that I was really surprised that this trail went so far, and explained that I have lived in this area for twenty years and had no idea all this was here.

I truly thought the trail only went for a couple of miles, but he laughed and explained that it's called the "blue trail" and is a part of the Mason-Dixon Trail that goes on for several hundred miles, that if I kept going, I could walk one way all the way to Maine and if I went the other way, I would meet up with the Appalachian Trail and could follow that a couple hundred miles to its Southen end.

I've lived here for about twenty years and had no idea this was right outside my back door.

 

That's pretty cool! If you follow it on down, you will be near me. The Appalachian Trail ends a couple of hours north of here on Springer Mountain. I've hiked it a few times (just a couple of miles, not the whole thing). It's beautiful!

 

I thought Springer Mountain was a Neil Young song.

Maybe we'll come down and see you sometime. I'm definitely intrigued by this trail.

 

Stop it! You are making me homesick!

 

You're thinking of "Sugar Mountain".

Tim Reynolds

 

No, I think that's a Grateful Dead song.

 

Where are you from, Randy?

 

You're probably thinking of "Sugar Magnolia".

Tim Reynolds

 

Upper East Tennessee. The Tri-Cities area. It's beautiful this time of the year!