American Pilgrims on the Camino - Philadelphia Chapter

Join us for a 6-mile hike in the beautiful John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge! This will be a flat walk at a moderate pace with opportunities to see some wildlife, as well as diverse habitats (freshwater tidal marsh, mudflats, woodland).

Lunch afterwards for those interested, location TBD

We'll meet in front of the Visitor's Center; introductions will begin promptly at 10:00, but please arrive early if you want time to check out the Visitor's Center (opens at 9:00, with great displays and nice restrooms). There will also be several pit toilets along the way.

Bring water and snacks; poles are optional for this walk (but this is a great chance to practice with them if you want).

Rain may postpone or cancel the walk, so keep an eye on the forecast and check back here for updates.

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This meetup group is hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of American Pilgrims on the Camino (APOC). APOC is a national non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the enduring tradition of the Camino by supporting its infrastructure, by gathering pilgrims together, and by providing information and encouragement to past and future pilgrims. All our events are free, but we encourage you to support the work of this organization by becoming a member.

Please note that all our events are dog free.

Join us for a 7 mile walk along the Delaware River, starting at Bull's Island State Park in New Jersey, about 1 hour north of Philadelphia. We'll follow the D&R Canal State Park Trail south to Stockton, where we will cross over the river and head up to Lumberville on the Delaware Canal Towpath. We will grab some lunch at the Lumberville General Store before crossing the river again to our starting point.

Restrooms are located at the start at the Bull's Island visitor center and at the halfway point.

Join us for an 8 mile hike in Wharton State Forest on the Batona Trail. The terrain is flat and easy.

There are restrooms at the start and finish in the Visitor's Center. Meet at the Visitor's Center parking lot in front of the Visitor's Center. My car is a white Fiat 500 with Camino shell sticker on the back.

We’re posting this event here in case anyone might be interested in signing up for a BIG hike! The Mammoth March is an annual, “20-miles in 8 hours” hike set in multiple locations throughout the US. The Delaware Valley location (Elkton, MD) is closest to us, and is scheduled for Saturday, May 30th, 2026.

20-miles is about 32kms, and this would be equivalent to a big day on the Camino. But signing up (and training!) for an event like this could be the perfect preparation for a summer Camino!

We are sharing the event here with an understanding that anyone who signs up takes responsibility for their own hike. This is not a group event like our other hikes! We already have a few members registered, and depending on who signs up we can look into carpooling, cheering each other on at the start (and maybe celebrating at the end). Some members may choose to walk together but this is very much a ‘hike your own hike’. For an event this long, people will have different paces and may have their own individual goals. If you decide to participate, please be comfortable with the possibility/likelihood of doing this hike on your own.

When registering you can pick whichever start time works best for you; 8:00am is the recommended start time for those who want to gather as a group and start the walk together! UPDATE It looks like 8:00 am time slots are already sold out. If you want to start with the group, go ahead and sign up for 8:30 - as we discovered last year, starting times are somewhat flexible, and if we all assemble around 7:45, we likely will be able to start earlier.