Halfway Up the Appalachian Trail, Then a Renaissance Faire

September 12–13, 2026. Pine Grove Furnace, a night at Toms Run in Michaux State Forest, and Mount Hope on the drive home. This is the whole plan for the group, in one place instead of forty text messages.

The short version

We hike a couple of miles up the Appalachian Trail to the spot that marks the halfway point of the whole thing, camp overnight in Michaux State Forest, walk out early Sunday, rinse off, and spend Sunday afternoon at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire on the drive home.

This page is long on purpose. Everyone is responsible for their own gear and food, so I wanted you to have everything in one place. Read the packing list and the water section even if you skim the rest.

The honest word on distance

It is about 2.5 miles in and 2.5 miles out. Roughly 90 minutes of walking each way with a loaded pack.

If you have seen the “3.4 miles” number on the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s page — that is a round trip for a day hike to the halfway sign. Our camp is another third of a mile past that sign.

So the base trip is short, and that is on purpose. The walking is the smallest part of the weekend. What we are really doing is spending a long afternoon and evening in the woods with nowhere to be. If you have never backpacked before, this is the trip to start on. If it turns out you hate it, you are 2.5 miles from your car. And if you want more miles, there is a great optional loop — see below.

Saturday, September 12

6:30 AM — Roll out. It is about 2h15m from the Philly area.
9:00 AM — Arrive Pine Grove Furnace State Park. Park in the Furnace Stack lot; there is a marked section for overnight backpackers.
9:00–10:15 — Register the car at the park office. They want your contact info and our itinerary. This is the step people forget, and it is how they know not to tow you or start looking for you. Then: the Appalachian Trail Museum (free, opens 9 AM) and the Pine Grove General Store, where thru-hikers do the Half Gallon Challenge. Worth seeing.
10:30 AM — On trail. Top off water before we go.
~11:15 — Pass the signed side trail to Midway Spring.
~11:45 — The 2011 Midpoint Sign. The classic halfway photo. This is the picture from this trip.
~12:15 PM — Toms Run Shelters. Home. Pick a spot, set up, filter water.
Afternoon — Nothing. Deliberately. Nap, read, poke around, get a fire going. Or take the Sunset Rocks loop, below.
~5:30 PM — Dinner.
7:24 PM — Sunset. Fully dark around 7:50. Headlamps out before then.

The route, if you get separated: from the AT lot, follow the white blazes uphill past the AT Museum, turn left and walk the road past the General Store, along PA 233, then into the woods. Gentle climb, then a short stretch on gravel and about 0.4 miles on paved Michaux Road, then right back into the woods. Sign, then camp. White blazes the whole way — if you have not seen one in five minutes, stop and back up.

Sunday, September 13

6:45 AM — Up. Sunrise is 6:47.
7:30 — Break camp, coffee, pack out everything we brought in.
8:15 — On trail.
~9:45 — Back at the cars. Loop crew: more like 11:30 — see below.
10:00–10:45 — Fuller Lake. Clean up and change into human clothes.
11:00 — Drive to Manheim, about an hour.
~12:15 PM — Renaissance Faire. Gates opened at 11, so we walk into a faire already running.
~6:00 PM — Head home. Back in the Philly area around 7:30.

Optional: the Sunset Rocks loop

For anyone who reads “2.5 miles” and feels a little cheated — good news. Our camp sits directly on the Sunset Rocks loop.

The blue-blazed Sunset Rocks Trail and the white-blazed AT together form a roughly 7.5-mile loop between the park and Toms Run: about 1,000 feet of climbing, a genuine hands-on rock scramble along the ridge, and the best view in this part of Michaux. Toms Run Shelter sits at about its halfway mark, which means we get the option for free — no shuttle, no backtracking.

Two ways to take it, both entirely optional:

Option A — Saturday afternoon, with a daypack. Get to camp around 12:15, set up, eat, and be walking by 1:15. Figure 3.5 to 4.5 hours for the loop with a light pack, which puts you back at camp between 4:45 and 5:45 — before dinner, and well before the 7:24 sunset. Carrying water and a jacket instead of your whole kit makes 7.5 miles a completely different animal. The timing works without anybody setting an earlier alarm, which is why this is the version I would steer you toward.

Option B — Sunday morning, on the way out. Instead of retracing the AT, take the Sunset Rocks side of the loop back to the cars. Costs about two extra hours, so you would reach the faire around 1:30 instead of 12:15 — still most of the day there.

Option C is doing neither, walking the flat AT back, and being at your car by 9:45. That is the plan of record and nobody is keeping score.

Full disclosure: I am not doing the loop. I will be at camp with a book. That is not me talking you out of it — it is the best thing in this forest and you should take it if you want it. It just means the loop crew is genuinely on its own out there, which is why the next part is not optional.

If the group splits, these are the rules

We will have no cell signal and no way to text each other. So:

Nobody goes alone. Two at an absolute minimum, three is better.
Tell me your plan before you walk out of camp — who is going, which direction around the loop, and what time you expect to be back.
Hard turnaround at 4:00 PM. Wherever you are at 4:00, if you are not clearly close to camp, turn around and come back the way you came. Do not push on just to finish it. That is how people end up on a scramble in the dark.
If you are not back by 6:30, we start walking the loop toward you. Which also means: if you bail early and come back some other way, we will be out searching for nothing. Stick to the plan you told us, or make sure somebody knows it changed.
Everyone in the loop party carries a headlamp, even leaving at 1 PM in full daylight. Non-negotiable.

Four things about the trail itself

It is a scramble, not a walk. You will use your hands. It is rated intermediate-to-difficult and the footing is uneven the whole way along the ridge.
Skip it if it is raining. Wet rock up there is genuinely dangerous, and there is no version of this weekend where that is worth it.
This is exactly where the rattlesnakes sun themselves. Look before you put a hand down on a rock you cannot see over.
There is no water on the ridge. Carry everything you plan to drink — figure two liters on top of your camp water.

About showering Sunday — read this one

Fuller Lake beach is open May 1 through September 30, 8 AM to sunset, and there are changing rooms and showers at the beach house. September 13 is inside that window, so this should work.

Two honest caveats:

Expect a cold rinse, not a hot shower. The genuinely hot showers are in the campground washhouse, and those are normally for registered campers only.
Lifeguards stop after Labor Day, so there is no swimming — just the facilities. I will call the park the week of to make sure nothing closed early, but I expect we are fine.

Either way, pack for the possibility that there is no shower at all: a small camp towel, a pack of baby wipes, deodorant, and a full change of clean clothes including underwear and socks left in your car. You will be very glad about the clean socks. This is the single highest-return thing in your trunk.

What to bring

Everyone carries their own. Nobody is counting on anybody else’s stove.

The essentials

Backpack, 40–50L is plenty for one night
Shelter — tent, hammock and tarp, or a bivy. More on this below
Sleeping bag or quilt rated to about 40°F, and a sleeping pad. The pad matters as much as the bag — the ground pulls heat out of you all night
Rain gear — a real rain jacket with a hood. Not a windbreaker, not a poncho you will fight with. Also a pack cover, or a trash compactor bag lining the inside of your pack. A wet sleeping bag turns a fun night into a miserable one, and there is no bailing out at 2 AM
Headlamp with fresh batteries. A phone flashlight is not a headlamp
Two 1-liter Smartwater bottles and a Sawyer Squeeze filter. See the water section
Food — Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, Sunday breakfast, plus snacks
Boots or trail shoes you have already worn. See the footwear section
If you are doing the loop: a small daypack or packable stuff sack for water and a jacket

Clothing

Hiking layers in wool or synthetic — no cotton. Cotton holds water, stops insulating, and makes you cold
A warm layer for evening. Mid-September on the ridge drops into the upper 40s or low 50s after dark, and it always feels colder than the number
Dedicated dry sleep clothes that never get worn hiking. Non-negotiable comfort item
Wool socks, plus a spare pair

Small stuff that matters

Personal first aid: blister care (Leukotape or moleskin), ibuprofen, any meds you take
Trowel, toilet paper, and a ziplock to pack it out. There is a privy at camp, but know how to dig a cathole 6–8 inches deep and 200 feet from water, just in case
Bug spray, sunscreen, lip balm
Cash for Sunday — the faire’s food booths are cash only
A lighter, a small trash bag, hand sanitizer

Weather: mid-September up there usually runs low-to-mid 70s in the day, upper 40s to low 50s at night. I will send the actual forecast Thursday the 10th.

Water — the part I actually care about

Bring two 1-liter Smartwater bottles and a Sawyer Squeeze. This is not brand loyalty: the Sawyer’s threads screw directly onto a Smartwater bottle. That is the whole reason everybody on trail carries that specific bottle. The tall skinny shape also slides into a side pocket you can reach without taking your pack off.

How to run it: one bottle is your dirty bottle — it is the one that goes in the spring. The other is clean and never touches untreated water. Fill dirty, screw the filter on, squeeze into clean. Keep them straight; a Sharpie mark or a piece of tape works.

Bring the little backflush syringe. Filters slow down as they clog, and everyone forgets the syringe at home.

Bring backup treatment. A few chlorine dioxide tablets (Aquamira or Katadyn) weigh essentially nothing and cost a few dollars. Late-summer springs in Michaux can run thin, and filters do fail. Our water at camp is a spring behind the shelter near the old chimney. Filter or treat everything — it looks clean and that means nothing.

Carry a full liter in from the car so you are not arriving at camp thirsty and dependent.

Hydration rules of thumb

About half a liter per hour of hiking. Our leg in is roughly 1.5 hours, so plan on drinking about a liter on the way.
Plan 3 to 4 liters per person for the whole overnight — hiking in, dinner, cooking and cleanup, overnight, breakfast, and the hike out. If you are doing the Sunset Rocks loop, add 2 more liters for that afternoon; it is a real climb and there is no water up on the ridge.
Drink before you are thirsty. Thirst shows up after you are already behind. Sip steadily rather than chugging a bottle at a break.
Check your urine. Pale straw means you are fine. Dark yellow means you are behind and should be drinking now. It is the only real feedback you get in the field.
Electrolytes matter as much as the water on a warm day. If you are drinking a lot of plain water and sweating hard, you can end up worse off than when you started. Bring a couple of drink mix packets — LMNT, Liquid IV, Nuun, generic, does not matter.
A headache and a bad mood at 4 PM is dehydration about 90% of the time. Drink, then wait twenty minutes before deciding you are having a bad time.

Terrain and footwear

Central Pennsylvania is genuinely rocky — hikers call this state “Rocksylvania” and it is not a joke. On the AT stretch we are walking, the grade is gentle: no real climbs, no exposure. But the tread is loose rock, embedded rock, and roots, and it is exactly the surface that rolls an ankle when you are tired and not looking down. There is also about half a mile of road walking, which is easy but hard on the feet in stiff boots. The Sunset Rocks loop is a different story — that one is steep and hands-on.

On boots versus shoes: if you have any history of rolling an ankle, wear a mid-height boot. The cuff genuinely helps on this kind of rock, and it helps a lot more if you are doing the loop. If your ankles are solid, trail runners are lighter and perfectly fine. There is no wrong answer, but there is one rule:

Do not wear brand-new footwear on this trip. Whatever you bring, put at least a few miles on it beforehand. New boots plus rocky trail equals blisters by mile two, and you will be feeling it all Sunday at the faire.

Wool socks, not cotton. Cotton socks are how you get blisters.

Trekking poles are the single best thing you can add. They take load off your knees on the way down and they catch you when a rock shifts. If you have them, bring them. If you do not, a cheap pair is worth it. If you are scrambling Sunset Rocks, use poles that collapse and stow — you will want your hands.

Two things to be aware of. Michaux has rattlesnakes and copperheads, and September is still active season, especially on sunny rock. Look before you put a hand or foot somewhere you cannot see, and if you meet one, give it room and walk around — they want nothing to do with us. And ticks are real here. Treat your clothes with permethrin ahead of time if you can, and do a real tick check at camp and again Sunday night.

Tents, hammocks, whatever you have got

Both work great at Toms Run. There is plenty of hardwood for hammock straps and there are established, well-used tent pads. I have done this exact site with a hammock and tarp before and slept fine; this time I am bringing a tent. Either is a good call.

One thing worth knowing: the campsites are first-come, first-served. There is one shelter that sleeps four — a second one burned down years ago — plus a number of tent sites, a privy, a fire ring, and a pavilion. Nobody should plan on getting shelter space. Bring your own shelter, always. And if you are in a tent, being in the earlier group helps you claim a flat spot, since hammock folks can hang anywhere. Set up before you go do the loop.

Bear hang. There are black bears in Michaux and no bear box at this site. Bring 30–50 feet of cord to hang your food and anything smelly — toothpaste, wrappers, deodorant — or bring an Ursack. Nothing scented goes in your tent.

Camping rules here, so nobody gets a ticket: no permit needed for a one-night primitive stay in Michaux. Camp at least 25 feet off the trail, 100 feet from water, 200 feet from forest roads. Group size on the AT in Michaux is capped at 10 people — so if this thing grows, let me know and we will split into two camps. Fires are legal in September. Pack out absolutely everything.

There is no cell signal. Set up satellite texting before you leave.

Do this in your driveway, not in the parking lot. Once you are on the ridge you have no bars and no way to look up how to do it. This matters double if you are splitting off to do the loop.

If you have an iPhone 14 or newer running iOS 18 or later, you can send and receive regular text messages over satellite — not just emergencies. It is built in, and it is free right now.

Go to Settings → Apps → Messages and make sure the satellite option is turned on.
Then go to Settings → Emergency SOS and find the satellite demo. Run it while you are still in town. It walks you through what it actually feels like — you have to be outside with a clear view of the sky, and the phone tells you which way to point and to hold still. It takes practice, and it is much better to learn it now than during an actual problem.
When you have no signal in the field, the satellite option appears on its own in Messages and in the Emergency SOS screen.

It is slow — a message can take a minute or more to go out, and you need open sky, not tree cover. Walk to a clearing.

Everybody, regardless of phone:

Download an offline map of the area before you leave — AllTrails, Gaia, FarOut, or just Google Maps offline for the Pine Grove Furnace area. Make sure it includes the Sunset Rocks Trail if you are doing the loop.
Screenshot this page, or at least the route and the phone numbers.
Tell someone at home where you are going and when you will be back. I am registering our itinerary with the park, and I will send Michaux State Forest a note too.
Put your phone in low power mode and bring a small battery bank. Cold nights and no-signal searching both eat battery fast.

Sunday: the Renaissance Faire

Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire at Mount Hope Estate in Manheim, about an hour from the park. Note that we may skip it if the weather is bad, so buy online once it is looking good.

Gates 11 AM, site closes 8 PM. We will roll in around 12:15 with the day well underway.
September 12–13 is “Wizarding Weekend” — so there is a theme, and yes, people dress for it. Costume entirely optional; nobody will care either way.
Tickets: $38.95 adult (12+), $21.95 kids 5–11. Under 5 free. Worth noting the price jumps to $42.95 the following weekend, so we are catching the cheaper tier. Buy online ahead of time so we are not standing in a line.
Parking is free.
Re-entry is allowed with a hand stamp, so you can go back to the car.
Rain or shine. No weather refunds. Bring the rain jacket in from the car.

Three things that will save you grief:

The food booths and drink stands are CASH ONLY. Bring cash. There are ATMs on site but the fees are what you would expect. Most of the shops take cards; the food does not. You can also buy Coin of the Realm with a credit card — it works like cash, and you get a refund for what you do not use.
No outside food, drinks, or coolers. One factory-sealed bottle of water up to 34 oz per person is allowed.
No pets.

And yes — poutine. There was a poutine stand there last time I went, and finding it again is a stated objective of this trip. Bring cash for it. If it has somehow vanished, there are turkey legs the size of your forearm and we will cope.

Before you come — quick checklist

☐ Buy your faire ticket online at parenfaire.com — do this early
☐ Wear your boots or shoes a few times between now and then. Please.
☐ Set up satellite messaging on your phone and run the demo
☐ Download an offline map of Pine Grove Furnace and Michaux
☐ Get your water setup: 2 × 1L Smartwater, Sawyer Squeeze, backflush syringe, a few chlorine dioxide tabs
☐ Pack a clean change of clothes and a towel to leave in the car for Sunday
☐ Get cash for Sunday’s food
☐ Send me your name, cell number, and car make, model and plate — I am registering us with the park office and I need it for the overnight lot
☐ Tell me if you are doing the Sunset Rocks loop, so I know who is where
☐ Watch for my Thursday email with the actual forecast

One thing I will confirm the week of: that the Fuller Lake beach house is still open and whether there is hot water. I will let you know either way.

Numbers worth having in your phone: Pine Grove Furnace State Park 717-486-7174 and Michaux State Forest 717-352-2211.

Any questions, ask now rather than Friday night. Really looking forward to this one.

— Michael