Even before I went on vacation to Puerto Rico over the holidays, I had intended to focus this month’s Pushing Boundaries on hiking and walking. My Christmas hike gave me the gift of a story and reminded me of the need to provide some safety precautions with my planned essay. Spoiler alert: My now fractured wrist may have saved my life.
One of the highlights for tourists to Puerto Rico—along with snorkeling, beach time, old city explorations and bioluminescent bay kayaking—is to explore the El Yunque rainforest, the U.S. National Forest System’s only rainforest. My son met up with some friends on our second evening in Puerto Rico who told them that going to the waterfalls in El Yunque was great, but that it was best to sign up for a formal tour. We did some research and found that tours were expensive, and if we wanted to drive there on our own, it was recommended we arrive before 7 a.m. or we’d risk not getting admitted to the rainforest behind all the tour groups and buses.
Exploring a forest full of people dumped off from tour buses seemed inauthentic. Who wants to be part of a crowd in a rainforest, which should be about tranquility and nature? My son did some more Googling and discovered a state forest with the highest peaks in Puerto Rico as well as pretty much the same vegetation and waterfalls as the touristy El Yunque. We opted for that.
The drive to the south-central Toro Negro Forest in our compact rented car was picturesque and thrilling as we went up a road so steep we feared the car might flip over backward or roll downhill.
We were the only vehicle to park at the start of the trail that led to the Observation Tower (El Torre). We passed only one other group of hikers. The trail up to the tower was mildly challenging, wet and slippery as we traversed two bridges and many rocks covered in moss and algae. The view was well worth the hike up, but then we had to repeat our steps back to continue on a different loop of the trail.
As we approached the bridge that I had slipped on a bit on the way up, I was reminding myself to be careful a moment before my feet swept out from under me. I fell backward, legs sprawling up into the air and caught myself with my hands, barely stopping the momentum that was leading me toward the edge and into an eight-foot ravine. My prescription sunglasses flew off my head and into the ravine.
I knew immediately that both of my wrists had taken more torque than they could handle and sat for a second holding them until the pain subsided a bit. Finally, with the help of my son and husband, I got back up. We finished our hike with me holding my throbbing right arm up at an angle that looked like I was doing a queen wave to anyone who passed by.
It wasn’t until five days later, when I could get into an acute injury clinic back home that an X-ray confirmed a minor fracture in my wrist (top of my radius). I had to sneak out of my splint to type this blog.
That leads me to point out a few safety precautions for hiking:
- Always be sure to dress appropriately for hikes. Because we hadn’t packed hiking boots for our trip to Puerto Rico, I was wearing new running shoes that weren’t up for the slippery rainforest floors. Wear proper footwear and also consider the weather. It’s best to dress in layers when taking cold weather hikes, so that layers can be shed as the body heats up from vigorous hiking. Gore Tex or other waterproof shells can also make hiking in unpredictable weather more comfortable.
- Carry water and snack/protein bars.
- Let someone know hiking plans/routes.
- Carry bug spray (I recommend natural sprays that aren’t as sticky and stinky and are better for nature) and sunscreen.
- Consider wearing a hat.
- Carry pepper spray, bear spray and/or a knife for safety.
- Generally, hike with others for safety, especially at night.
- Check dates of hunting seasons, and if hiking during that time, wear orange. Hunting is permitted for some wildlife on some Sundays as well.
- Have good maps—some state and national forests provide trail maps at ranger stations, but consider printing out or taking screenshots of maps before going.
Another great guide for hiking is the popular app AllTrails, available for free or for a plus version for $35.99 a year. For anyone who hikes regularly, the plus version provides some great perks that we were able to take advantage of in Puerto Rico even after we got high into the mountains. I had downloaded the trail map from AllTrails before we drove up the mountain and this version will work even without cell service to show GPS on the map. We found this invaluable as we navigated the rainforest.
My husband and I returned from Puerto Rico in time to take our annual New Year’s Day hike. Again, AllTrails was a valuable tool. We ventured into Perry County to an area called Lambs Gap Loop. Located off Lamps Gap Road in Marysville, the trail covered parts of the Darlington Trail, which straddles the Perry and Cumberland County lines, crossing over the Appalachian and Tuscarora trails as well.
Some of the loop we walked was not well marked and a bit rough. My downloaded map from AllTrails helped us to refind the trail whenever we wandered off course. We did discover by trying to match the map to where we were walking, however, that whoever had mapped out this loop had taken a few wrong turns here and there. Any AllTrails members are encouraged to submit new trails to the app, which will be reviewed by modifiers before being added to the app.
The Lambs Gap Loop was rugged and wild, all of which made it fun. We crossed over a stream, saw a cairn created by a previous hiker, walked along state forest roads and encountered only one other small group of people briefly. They were hiking a different trail that we crossed over. The parts of our loop that overlapped the Darlington Trail were marked by tree blazes. Otherwise, we sometimes felt like original explorers watching the ground closely for what looked like a trail.
The Susquehanna Style area is full of mountain trails (check AllTrails for a specific area) and a wide variety of nature hikes. Another of our favorites is Rausch Gap, a 6.9-mile trail in Lebanon County that includes ruins from a town, cemetery, and railroad (see link at bottom for more information on getting there). The Cold Spring Rausch Gap loop encompasses a small part of the Appalachian Trail.
I love a good urban hike almost as much, if not more, than one in the middle of a deep forest. I recently joined a Harrisburg hiking group to walk on the paved Greenbelt from Veterans Park off Elmerton Avenue in Harrisburg past the former state mental hospital and through the tunnel under Cameron Street to the Farm Show. We enjoyed Farm Show favorites like pulled pork and Pa. Dairymen’s milkshakes and did a quick tour through the animal halls before retracing our steps back to Veterans Park for a hike of more than seven miles.
On this night hike, it was important to use headlamps and to travel together in a group. We encountered a police officer who advised us to stick together and also to be wary of an “explosion of coyotes” that had been spotted in the vicinity. We whooped it up enough to keep any coyotes at bay.
Walking the streets of downtown Harrisburg is also one of my favorites, with coffee shops, monuments, gardens and murals all part of the scenery. Sprocket Mural Works, a nonprofit whose mission is to “nurture community pride and civic engagement through creative action,” has been helping to sponsor murals painted throughout Harrisburg since 2014. The tour map (linked below) now features 55 mural stops.
In my January blog intro, I stated that my mission was to get readers to push their boundaries past the familiar. I mentioned a college roommate who had grown up and lived in the Mechanicsburg area her whole life who was unsure she could figure out how to get to our meeting spot of Passage to India along the river in Harrisburg. I realized that I am a hypocrite as I, too, often avoid crossing that river or venturing too deep into counties outside of Dauphin County. I decided to practice what I preach by getting out of Dauphin County last month for an urban hike in Lititz.
Starting at the Lititz Springs Park—where many of the events for the Lititz Fire and Ice Festival will take place from Feb. 16-25—I strode down the shop and restaurant filled Main Street until I got to Cedar Street, where I turned right so that I could enter the Moravian Cemetery. From there, I walked through the campus of Linden Hall School for Girls and back onto East Main Street until I reached Oak Street, where I turned left for about a block until I reached the Warwick-to-Ephrata-Rail-Trailhead. This paved trail meanders through farmland, past the Warwick Township office, and continues on until it reaches downtown Ephrata.
While I walked only about 3 miles of the 7.1-mile trail, I easily surpassed 10,000 steps on my exploration of Lititz and found plenty of coffee shops to refuel my tank.
With 10,000 steps being the gold standard for cardiovascular fitness, hiking is a great way to achieve good health. While some studies now say that 7,500 steps might be enough, or that intermittent running with walking is even better, or stair climbing helps even more, it’s clear that walking is good practice.
I love double-tasking—getting my steps by walking to the grocery store or the post office or to the gym each morning. Any excuse or way to fit in a walk is a win. Luckily for me, I can also still get my exercise with a good walk even with a splinted wrist. Now, I just have to watch out for snow and ice.
For more information about Rausch Gap, go to http://www.stonyvalley.com/rauschgap.html. To learn more about the murals in downtown Harrisburg, visit https://sprocketmuralworks.org/tour/ and for information about the Warwick-to-Ephrata-Rail Train, go to https://www.traillink.com/trail/warwick-to-ephrata-rail-trail/.
