The Loyalsock is a 59 mile point to point hike in North Central Pennsylvania. We heard a lot of good things about the trail and decided we could complete the entire trail in 4 days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalsock_Trail
I decided to post this hike in our backpacking club and made it clear there were going to be very long days. We had a member sign up that I didn’t know so I called him to assess his capabilities. Sounded like he was good to go so I let him join us. The first climb on day 1, I looked back to check on him and he was nowhere to be seen. He was a younger guy and was surprised that he could not keep up with the old farts. The rest of the day was hike and wait, hike and wait. We finally got to camp and he did not know how to set up his tent. Uh Oh. Day 2 was going to be along day. It was more hike and wait, hike and wait. We had a long hike to camp and it was going to get dark, the trip was falling apart. I waited for him at a creek and filtered water for him and told him the situation. I made sure he had a map and told him where we would be camping and to meet us there. We completed the hike set up camp, had dinner and he did not show. A couple of us backtracked on the trail to see if we could find him. We talked to other backpackers and they had not seen him. We assumed he got a ride on the road crossing and headed home. We also assumed his car would not be at the trailhead when we got there. Bad assumption. We completed the hike and my heart sank when his car was still in the parking lot. We decided the best thing to do was talk to the park and get a search organized. Leann told me to check my phone just in case. I did and there was a voice mail from him telling me where he was. We looked at a map and figured out where he was and went to find him. He was hiking by the side of the road, I pulled over and told him I was very happy to see him. He said he thought I was going to be mad, nope. On with the pictures.
Day 3 of the hike and we started calling it Loyalsuck, lots of pain but not many rewards, maybe the West has spoiled us. Friends of ours really like the trail and were anxious to hear our thoughts. We told them and they called us idiots for doing it in 4 days, maybe they had a good point.