https://pmags.com/east-to-the-wildness Practical advice and musings on the outdoors, hiking, backpacking, ski touring, and camping. Fri, 17 Nov 2023 23:21:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://pmags.com/east-to-the-wildness#comment-500539 Thu, 23 Apr 2015 13:11:25 +0000 https://pmags.com/?p=7284#comment-500539 Your post here describes why I love the state of Pennsylvania for backpacking so much from the perspective of someone on the east cost. Like you say, the long trails (for me the AT) are not really a wilderness experience but more of a social experience in many ways. That can be fun sometimes but usually when I get out I want peace and solitude by myself or a few close friends, the feeling of really being away from it all. The area of Pennsylvania on the rugged Allegheny Plateau contains a couple million acres of public land with a huge number of well maintained trails and trails long forgotten that very very few people use or seem to even be aware of. There are places you could hike on a trail for 100 miles and probably never see another hiker. Like you say about the great plains this is an area that will never be truly popular. There are some views but for the most part you are in the woods. It has a much more subtle beauty and solitude that I have come to love. There are very few towns (and that is being generous calling many of these places towns), just a million acres of endless forest and very, very few people.

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