For a quick review, the Standing Stone Trail is a trail in central Pennsylvania that runs generally north to south and extends from Greenwood Furnace State Park to Cowans Gap State Park. It links the Mid-State Trail in the north to the Tuscarora Trail in the south. Thus, the former name of "Link Trail." The name change was to give the trail some identity in its own right; I would say that personally I probably pay more attention to a trail with a legit name other than the word "link" in it. Apparently "connector" trails are beneath me! The KTA has a nice map that shows the location of these trails.
So, this year's journey picked up at route 655 just northeast of Fousetown on April Fool's Eve. Rather than an early Friday start, some guys wanted to get up on the trail Thursday evening to reduce some of our Friday and Saturday miles. Hence we got on the road and didn't get vehicles situated and our feet on the trail until after 9PM. We got into it right away with a solid 3 mile climb to the top of the first mountain to the edge of Rothrock State Forest. It was a beautifully stark and dark evening with some views of valley lights, punctuated by two going on three inches of fresh snow. Bedding down close to midnight, we had a chilly night's sleep on the snow pack.
Friday morning came with continued snow, flurries, and chill - and that's no April Fool's joke! But, as we dropped down off of Jack's Mountain we began to realize that elevation was the demarcation between winter and a cold wet spring day. Halfway down the mountain the snow diminished and by the time we went down the Thousand Steps none was in sight. We stopped in Mapleton on a park pavilion for lunch where we spread out and hung most of our gear to air out and dry a bit. Apparently we were a town spectacle - quite a number of cars pulled into the park and pulled right out! A kind Mapleton resident filled up our water across the street before we headed out of town for another long pull back up Jack's mountain. We met at the top and then cruised down the ridge where we met up with three more friends to camp along Singer's Gap Run for a total of about 14 miles on the day.
Saturday brought a slight improvement in weather, although another snow squall blew in on our climb up to the Throne Room. We were looking to make Saturday a pretty short day but we kept struggling to find a decent campsite, so our day extended to around 11 miles. On the positive side, that made for a quick 3 mile jaunt on Sunday and a lunch run to Hoss's; on the negative side, it caused us to push into State Game Land to stealth camp - not something we planned on doing.
So, what's my overall take on this trail after completing a large portion of it? Well, the camping situation is definitely sketchy, thus our Saturday night botched campsite. The trail maintainers are calling it "premier," but I still debate that moniker and deem it a "hidden gem in central PA." It's good enough that I'll go back for those last 20 miles next year anyway.
