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Hiking in Pennsylvania
Taking a father-son trip on the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware Water Gap
My 10-year-old son Xavier had been asking for a father-son trip this summer, with an emphasis on hiking.
We’ve done a lot of hiking over the last few years in Wisconsin on the Ice Age Trail, around the greater Milwaukee area and in Door County, so we wanted to try something new outside our backyard.
It’s always been a dream of mine to take a family hiking vacation to Montana’s Glacier National Park, where I worked for a summer after college. After hiking from Alaska to Maine, I’ve still found no better hiking than in Montana.
Though there are plenty of family-friendly hikes in the park, I’m not sure he’s up for some of the hikes in Montana that are beautiful but more strenuous. I decided it’s probably not worth the considerable time, effort and investment needed to go to the park until he’s a little older.
So we settled on somewhere neither of us have ever visited: Pennsylvania. Specifically, the Delaware River Gap, Appalachian Trail and Poconos Mountains regions.
Why Pennsylvania? It started with Xavier studying Pensylvania for his fourth grade project, and discovered a lot of facts about the state.
There are also a lot of direct flights from Milwaukee (where we live) to Philadelphia, and considerable hiking in the Appalachian Mountains within a few hours of the metropolitan areas.
So we booked a long weekend in early August, and off we went.
Adventure Aquarium
But before we started hiking, a quick stop. By the time our flight arrived in the early afternoon, it was already above 90 degrees, humid and sweltering in Philadelphia.
We opted for an indoor and air-conditioned excursion the first day rather than a strenuous hike under the sun. Our first stop…
