I have hiked the Old Loggers Path seven times with my brother-in-law. Each time, we have taken various children along with us - my nieces and nephews, and my daughter, who is now twelve years old (see her story below).
The OLP is one of the best trails I've ever had the chance to hike. As a loop, you don't need to "repeat" any of the trail. It is a perfect length to do a one- or two-night (or more if you want) backpacking trip, making it perfect for a weekend get-away. The trail offers ups and downs, vistas and valleys, wildlife viewing opportunities, pristine forest scenery, and stream crossings. The terrain is difficult enough to offer some physical challenge, but also not too much to prevent our kids from coming (or ourselves, as we grow older). When we complete the loop, we all feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. There are plenty of water sources, and the OLP seems to supply just the right amount of "pre-established" campsites.
We travel from the "inner ring" suburbs of Philadelphia to enjoy this isolated trail at least once each year. Strapping on our backpacks, we head out for a 2.5-day hike, camping under the starlit sky, away from television, technology and all of the comforts of modern life - the only thing to entertain us is nature and our companionship.
For me, the most rewarding part of my experiences with the OLP is to have been able to watch my daughter complete her first hike, and to know that she enjoyed it so much that she has chosen to return each year since then. And each time, we get to spend bonding time together - a type of quality time we cannot match in the busyness of our normal worlds.
Above the Clouds
By Maya Stevenson, age 12
“Ughhhh,” I groaned as my dad shook me to wake me up. “Just a little bit longer,” I mumbled.
“I already gave you that ten minutes ago,” my Dad replied. “Now do you want to go, or not?”
“I'm coming.” I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked over at my clock. It was only 5:20. I slowly climbed down the ladder from my bed.
“Hurry up, they will be here in ten minutes!” My Dad whispered into my room trying not to wake up my siblings. “And don't forget to brush your teeth.” I changed from my pajamas to black Under Armor, a yellow field hockey t-shirt, tan pants, and my red jacket. Then, I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, and brushed my teeth. I quickly raced down the stairs and popped a blueberry waffle into the toaster.
“They're here!” My Dad quietly shouted to me. I grabbed the waffle, some blankets, a pillow, and raced outside. It was still dark. I jumped into my Uncle Jimmy's red van and greeted my cousins Sammi and James. I got buckled in, and pulled a cozy blanket around my cold body. From what I heard, it's going to be a long car ride, I thought. My Dad told me it want take around three hours to get there. I smiled to myself as I fell asleep, thinking about how lucky I am to finally be able to do what I wanted to do for years—hike the Old Loggers path, a 27 mile and three day hike.
I yawned. “Are we there?” I mumbled.
“No, we just stopped to get gas,” Sammi answered. I silently watched the water drip down the windows. It has been raining the whole car ride. Hurricane Irene had just passed, so everything was wet and the rivers and streams were overflowing with water. Everyone was awake again. “How much longer?” Sammi asked.
“We still have about a hour left,” my Dad answered. By now it was 7:45. For the next hour, my cousins and I played a few games, like hangman, in my pocket, and we drew pictures.
Finally, we reached a road with a sign that pointed to Old Loggers Path. We started riding along the road. “Bump, bump, bump,” went the car as it bounced along the wet and rocky road. It started to get so bumpy that my Dad and James got out of the car and moved the rocks and sticks that were in our way while Uncle Jimmy drove slowly along the road. After about fifteen minutes of slow driving and waiting, we found the parking lot. We parked in front of the “Old Loggers Path” sign. We got on our hiking boots and backpacks. My backpack was between ten and fifteen pounds, but it didn't feel that heavy. I buckled the belts that went around my waist and below my neck. I was ready to go.
“Where do we start?” I asked my Dad. “Just follow the orange markers,” he replied. I looked at a couple of trees and spotted one that had a orange rectangle painted onto it.
“This way!” I called out, and started walking. The start of the hike was along a road, with trees surrounding it. Soon, I found a tree with an orange arrow that pointed into the forest. This is where we started going uphill. For a while, we traveled on yellow, orange, and brown leaves with some tall, skinny fall colored trees adjacent to us. After about a hour, we started walking along the side of a mountain. We were still towards the bottom of it so it wasn't too far down, but I was still a little scared that I was going to fall.
We kept walking, sometimes up, sometimes down, but following the orange markers the whole time. Then, around 1:00, we came across a small boulder and had lunch. I had a turkey sandwich.
“How many miles did we travel so far?” Sammi asked.
“About 4,” My Uncle Jimmy answered. It felt good to sit down for a little, and we felt light because we didn't have our backpacks on to weigh us down. After about fifteen minutes, we started walking again.
We walked the rest of the day, with the wet leaves and sometimes squishy mud beneath us. Later that day, we reached camp. There was a small stream near us, and a fire pit to the right of where we set up our tents. The first thing I did when we got there was sit down on a log, take off my backpack, and switch my hiking boots for my brown moccasins. My feet really hurt from a ll that walking, about 11 miles.
While my Dad and Uncle Jimmy put up our tents, Sammi, James, and I searched for firewood. We found a bunch of small twigs and dry leaves to start the fire. Once it started getting bigger, we added some thicker sticks and logs to it. I put my hiking boots and socks next to the fire to dry, because they were still a little wet from all the mud and little streams intersecting the trail. Next, we set up our sleeping bags and Sammi and I went to get some water for dinner. Uncle Jimmy handed us the pump and reminded us not to let the “in” and “out” tubes touch. We went down to the little stream near our campsite and started pumping fresh clean water into empty bottles. When we got back to camp, James already had the kitchen set up on the flattest rock he could find. The kitchen is a small burner that we can use to boil water.
"Every year we have cheese steaks for dinner on the first day of the hike,” my Dad told me and Sam when we asked what we were having for dinner.
“Another tradition is that we have the new kids do the dishes,” James added. “Now, who wants to help me warm up some cheese steaks?” he asked as he got the cold steak, ketchup, and rolls out of Sammi's bag.
“Me!” Sammi and I said at the same time. “Okay, both of you can help,” he said, and showed us how to cook the steak. After dinner, we all sat around the campfire and told stories, some scary, and some funny. Around 9:00 my Dad told us to go get some sleep. “Tomorrow is the hardest day,” he said. “There are two vistas and a river that we have to cross.” And with that, James, Sammi, and I all went to bed.
The next morning, we had blueberry bread that my Mom made for us, oatmeal, and spam. We didn't stay at camp too long before we started walking. After about a half hour of walking on the soggy ground, we started uphill. It was very steep and rocky for the first few minutes, but then became a little easier. At the top there was a vista. We sat down and took off our bags. It was the first vista for this trip. It was a little scary, being so high up, but very beautiful. The other mountains that surrounded us were yellow and orange because of the trees and their colorful fall leaves. You could see a few houses and patches of blue, which we thought were lakes. After about ten or fifteen minutes, we had to leave. We went downhill again.
A little later, we came to a big river. It was too deep to walk through and we couldn't find a way across. There weren't any fallen trees or rocks to help us make it to the other side. My Dad and Uncle Jimmy said that there used to be a tree that they crossed, but it wasn't here now. About half an hour later, after walking up and down the bank looking for a way to cross, Sammi and I finally found a skinny tree with lots of branches. It was hard to get over because there was so many branches that it looked like a big bush, but we finally made it, with only my Uncle Jimmy's bag getting wet.
Not even an hour later, the trail started getting really wet. At some point, the water reached past our ankles so we had to take off our shoes and socks and walk barefoot. My feet got really cold, but there was no other way to get past this part of the trail. My Dad and Uncle Jimmy told us that this has never happened before. Yesterday, when my dad told us today was going to be hard, I didn't think that it meant that it would take us 45 minutes to cross a river and that we would have to take off our shoes and walk through pods of water! And we still had another vista we had to climb.
The trail to the next vista wasn't too steep, but it was very long and tiring. When we finally made it to the top, we took about a thirty minute break. The vista had a road leading up to it and a wooden picnic table.
After our break, we started hiking again. This time, the trail went downward and it didn't take too long to get down. About an hour after the trail stopped going down, we reached a campsite. This one had a smaller stream next to it then the first one, but it was still deep enough to wash dishes and purify water. Again, we set up two tents and Sammi, James, and I collected firewood.
That night we ate different kinds of food from a bag. There was chicken and rice, chicken dumplings, and beef stew. I personally thought the beef stew was the best. There were a few hard parts in it, but it was better then the chicken and rice or the dumplings.
The next morning we had more oatmeal and lemon poppy seed bread. It was cold, but delicious. When we were done breakfast, we got our backpacks and started following the trees marked with orange. We were hiking up a mountain and there was a sign that said “Vista .1 mile.” We decided to go there because it wasn't too far. On the way up, there were a lot of bushes and different plants on both sides of us.
This vista was the most beautiful one out of all three. We were above the clouds. When I looked out at all the surrounding mountains with their orange and yellow trees and down at the clouds below, I felt like I finally accomplished something great. It was a great feeling, and I felt like I deserved the beautiful view. Those two and a half days of hiking with heavy backpacks and eating food from a bag that had been heated up over the fire has finally paid off. I have worked hard these last two days, preparing and actually going on the hike, and my reward is this beautiful view that not many people my age have seen. I thought to myself and smiled happily. I am definitely going on this trip again next year.