Hike For Discovery: Caledonia State Park - Gather Around the Fire Ring

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photos coming soon
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"; } if($row[WallpaperName800x600] != null) { $output .= "Wallpaper 800x600
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Before TV, before newspapers, even before we moved into houses... the fire ring was the gathering place to tell stories
and share personal experiences.

Hike For Discovery

Team In Training - HIKE

Stories

Tall Tales

Ghost Stories

Photography

Nature Photography

Random & Wonderful Photos

Ruins Of Patapsco State Park

Works of Art

Your Fire Ring

Other Sites to Visit

Friends of ENWR

Cow Run Backpacking

Chuck Keiper Trail Backpacking

Meet the 2007 HFD Team

Aileen Goss
Andrea Hoffman
Brianna McMullen
Cindy Kiamko
Cindy Vogelberger
Clint Reach
Deb Donofrio
Ellen Brooks
Erin Noseworthy

Greg Palmer
Heather Mitchell
Heidi Sowers

Jessica Koman
Joel Shalowitz

Kate Brotman

Kate Greenberg
Kendra Plemmons
Kevin Pearson ‡
Kim Guercio
Kyle Bray *
Lisa Fronc *
Lauren Allen †
Olivia Darden
Patti Harden **
Paula Finkelstein
Terrill Esposito
Tracy Kight
Rosamaria Somarriba
Samuel Somarriba

** Hike Leader
* Mentor
† LLS Staff
‡ Honorary Team Member

Hike Hero - Gary

A Hike Hero in the Hike For Discovery program is a person that is currently fighting a blood cancer. The members of each group hike in honor of this individual.

The Hike Hero for the Maryland Chapter is Gary Todd. He first discovered he had enlarged lymph nodes during a visit to the hospital after having chest pains during a hike in late November 2003. In June 2005 he began feeling tired and experiencing night sweats. At first he thought he was worrying unnecessarily because of his impending retirement the next year. However, after a number of tests it was diagnosed with Stage 4, Non-Hodgkin�s spleenic lymphoma.

Gary underwent a chemotherapy treatment in six cycles over eighteen weeks and on January 1, 2006 went into remission. Unfortunately in late March of 2006 he began to feel sick again and in mid-May he began treatment with Rituxin*. He has been diagnosed with chronic lymphoma and will be taking Rituxin every ninety days for at least the next two years.

* Rituxin is an advanced and less invasive medicine that was made possible by money donated for research. It attacks only the cancerous cells and leaves healthy cells intact.

www.HikeForDiscovery.org

Apr 7, 2007 - 10th Training Hike

Caledonia State Park/Michaux State Forest

About The Park | Photos

Time of Hike: 9:00 AM
Distance Hiked: 7 Miles
Temp During Hike: Low 30.9 �F High 36.0 �F
Elevation Change: 900 Ft

For this hike we left Maryland and headed north into the mountains west of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Our destination was Caledonia State Park where we planned on picking up the Appalachian Trail (AT) for a 6 hour out and back hike.

The weather was cold again, in the low 30�s, and not what we had originally expected after the 70 degree temperatures earlier in the week. All the training hikes had prepared us for the cold so we pushed on without another thought about the weather.

The Appalachian Trail
provides a walking path
from Maine to Georgia

We got the steepest part of the trail out of the way first when we climbed over 400 feet in half a mile to the top of the ridge. From there the walking was mostly level and easy for about a mile before we began the second major climb of the day. This was a much more gradual 400 feet up to the next ridge past the ruins of the Locked Antler Camp and the Quarry Gap Shelter.

After reaching the ridge we traveled along a dirt forest road for a little while before picking up the AT again. We followed it farther up the mountain under some power lines and up to the highest point of our hike just over 1900 feet where we stopped for our lunch break. It was a good thing that this was our turn around point because while we were eating lunch the temperature dropped to below 30 degrees and a heavy snow started falling.

The trail had much more to offer than just a challenging climb up the mountain. It was the day before Easter and at 2 points on the AT we found small pine trees decorated with Easter Eggs. They made us all smile, a nice bright moment in a cloudy and cold day. We got to talk to the person responsible for the decorations on our return trip. The �Innkeeper� of the Quarry Gap shelter was out doing a little trail maintenance and told us about how he and his 7 year old granddaughter had come out earlier in the week and decorated. It�s always nice to hear about children enjoying nature.

About Caledonia State Park and the AT

The 1,125-acre Caledonia State Park is just west of Gettysburg, PA and is adjacent to Michaux State Forest. The park offers many recreation opportunities including hiking, camping, and swimming. It also contains a portion of one of the country�s great National Scenic Trails, the Appalachian Trail.

The Appalachian Trail, commonly known as simply the AT, is America�s first National Scenic Trail. It stretches 2,175 miles through 14 states with end points in Maine and Georgia. It was conceived in 1921 and completed in 1937. Every year 1000s of people hike the trail, many of them attempting to hike the entire length.

For more information about the park & forest visit:

For more information about the Appalachian Trail visit:

Photos