Everything For The Outdoors: Black Forest Trail Trip Report

Our Liberty Mountain Sales Team that works out of Pennsylvania recently took a backpacking trip on the Black Forest Trail in Slate Run, PA. According to the trail guide, the BFT is not a novice trail: with demanding ascents and descents, challenging stream crossings, and rocky rough sections that will “test the quality of your hiking boots.” As a fairly new team, they felt this was a great opportunity to grow closer together over their mutual love for the outdoors, and to test out some new gear!

They headed out Friday afternoon, with three Gregory packs and a Vaude pack, ranging in weight from 20 to 39 pounds. The plan was to start out easy, hiking counter-clockwise on the trail before setting up camp. "We quickly came upon a deer. It didn’t take long for our Australian Shepherd to notice and try to take off after it. Now we know that the buckle on the new dog lead holds up to some serious force! We ended up adding a couple more miles when we faced a crowded campsite, and the next one being underwater. The section we hiked consisted of several steep ascents, but many of worthwhile vistas!"

Saturday got off to a slow start, but with some impending thunderstorms headed in they knew they needed to keep moving. The trail was pretty washed out, and at times you were just hopping from one side of the stream to the other in an attempt to keep your feet dry. With a storm on the way, the group decided to camp a bit closer than originally planned and reap the benefit of a less back-country campsite, in the form of a picnic table! They arrived to this new camp pretty early, which luckily gave them time to get all set up before the storm hit. There was some thunder and lightning, but mostly just lots of rain.

Sunday morning they got up and made coffee in preparation for the hike back out. A slow, morning sprinkle quickly turned into a downpour. Everyone rushed to pack up camp, chugged the coffee, and headed out!