Black Forest Trail

“I am planning on trying the Black Forest Trail at the end of September beginning of October. Anyone have any thoughts or interest?”

“but beautful. I am not a big miles guy. Also, I'm good for about 3 days on the trail then I need my own bed and a shower. Such being the case I broke this down into 2 loops of about 25 miles each. I did the northern part a couple of years ago. Ernesto forced us to cancel our attempt at the southern loop last year. We're trying again in July. You can find a description of the northern loop here: http://www.midatlantichikes.com/id194.html

There's a lot of steep climbs and descents w/o much aid by switchbacks. Once on the top of the ridge you'll enjoy a few miles of flat walking and great vistas.

Occassionally some stream crossings might be problematic.”

“this is a ruggedly beautiful trail. never do it in snow and/or ice”

“Good time to go. Maybe shoot for early-mid Oct and enjoy the color?”

“Spindlette is right. Late September, early October is a good time to go. The streams are at decent levels for crossing, daytime temps are still warm, overnights are cool. The colors are in full bloom the first two weeks of October. The nightime temps drop the second half of the month, we expect some early ice and snow here.

Gus”

“Awesome...
Right now I am training to run a half marathon and I am running it on 9 September. I was going to run the marathon in November but I was torn between backpacking or a marathon.. So I decided since I am going to miss out on a majority of the BP season training I would treat myself to a monster BP trip. The BFT seems to fit the bill”

“You'll love it!”