22 April
Destination: Sprout Point Vista | Today’s Miles: 6.1 |
Start Location: Masten | Trip Miles: 6.1 |
After a hearty breakfast at The Buttery Biscuit, Bob and I made a stop at Sheetz to pick up a hoagie, half for lunch and half saved for dinner. This has become our first day habit. Always better than freeze dried meals.
We then headed to the parking area for the Old Loggers Path near the stop sign in Masten, a ghost lumber town. There were five other cars in the parking lot when we arrived. As we were getting ready to start a gang of eight boys and men came in. When we filled out a trial log book, we saw that they were a Boy Scout troop from New York state.
Bob and I were hiking about 10:30. The trail was mostly old rail road beds so the elevation changes were gentle. Temperature was 45 at the start but sunny. Once we were moving it was comfortable.
We stopped for lunch at the Grove Road crossing and filled up with extra water since there is none at our planned campsite. A worker on a tractor drive by and stopped to ask us if we wanted some bottled water.
From there it was less than two miles to Sprout Point Shelter, 0.1 miles off the trail. It is a new shelter in nice condition. There is no privy or water. No tent sites there either. Sprout Point View is just a little farther and we were able to find spots to set up our tents.
Bob and I found a tree for our bear bag (food bag hung on a tree to keep it away from bears) and gathered some fire wood. It will get down around freezing tonight and a fire will be nice.
The vista offers a view where we should be able to see both sunset and sunrise. We are relaxing a bit before our dinner hoagie and waiting for sunset. It has gotten up to about 60 and with the sun is pleasant until the wind starts blowing.
Looks like photos may have to wait…