What we’re about
20s, 30s, and 40s (younger) adventure group, primarily focused around Skiing, Snowboarding, and the Outdoors. Lowest cost trips. Primarily based out of Philadelphia area, but with members who travel with us from all over USA. Goal is for new members to have a sense of community and to experience awesome trips to amazing mountains together.
Most trip coordination is done via Facebook Messenger. Please send a message to John Harper with userID jph183psu on Facebook Messenger so we can communicate easier. Often times people's Meetup settings aren't set correctly to receive emails, and if we send you a Facebook Messenger message first, it goes into a hidden section.
Please check your Meetup messenger every once in a while too, especially if you hope to attend a trip or meetup and haven't seen any communication about it.
We have some "sister" groups based in Philly, Boston, NYC, Denver with a lot of overlapping members that we hope to publish trips and events with from time to time.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Burlington 5K Race and Hops and Rocks Beer and Music FestivalRiverfront Promendae, Burlington, NJ
Are you looking for a fast, flat and fun end of summer 5K? Well we’ve got the one for you! The 2025 Hops and Rock 5K and Beer Festival in Burlington City NJ! On September 13, 2025 we will take to the beautiful streets of historic downtown Burlington City and race it along historic streets, a beautiful waterfront and finishing up at the Promenade with a beautiful view of the Bristol Bridge.
Signing up for the race and festival at the link below is the cheapest option for the festival, it includes VIP entrance which is an hour earlier. Unlimited 2oz pours of beer with about 20 breweries attending.
XPlore2025 is a $5.00 discount code for us.
https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Burlington/BRCRunsThirdStateHops5K
If you do not want to run the race, but still want to attend the festival, you can purchase tickets at this link.
- Beginner Friendly Backpacking Lehigh Gap with two hikes (join for any part!)Blue Mountain Loop trailhead parking, Slatington, PA
You are welcome to join for either hike (Saturday or Sunday), but primarily this is a beginner friendly backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail. The Sunday hike will be more challenging and it is more bouldering at the beginning than hiking. There are not bathrooms along the way (shovels are your friend), and there will be an unfiltered water source (spring) on Saturday night about 1/4 mile from our campsite. If you sign up for this, you must send me a facebook messenger message so we can set up a chat to coordinate (facebook messenger ID is jph183psu ).
https://appalachiantrail.org/explore/hike-the-a-t/interactive-map/
If you want to meet for Saturday's hike, just show up at 1PM, and if you want to meet up for Sunday's hike, show up at noon.
****** ITINERARY *******
SATURDAY 1:00PM: meet at “Blue Mountain Loop trailhead parking” in Slatington, PA 18080. If this lot is filled we can also leave cars at the D&L Trail Parking which is a short walk… We will hike up about 2 miles with 1000 feet of elevation to the campsite and set up to get a good spot and setup camp.
4:00 - Four mile hike along the ridge (without our gear) which is a loop
5:30 Collect Firewood
6:30 Start the campfire
7PM Sunset... Cook dinner... Enjoy drinks by the fire overlooking Palmerton and Bowmanstown (remember that beer is heavy)SUNDAY: 8:00-10AM... Wakeup, cook breakfast pack up camp
10-11AM.. Hike back down to cars and drop off backpacks.
11AM-11:30... Get cleaned off in the river with a nice "backpackers shower".
11:30-3:30PM... Hike 5 mile Lehigh Gap East loop which is Extremely steep/bouldering/climbing
3PM... Go grab a bite to eatGEAR: Personally, I haven't wanted to invest a lot of money into equipment, so I buy a lot of low cost, light weight stuff on Amazon. Here is a list of equipment I have and some others have recommended:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112puusaFbO3K5CFUOX-xpuQUk3nw7KFfCVI0pocmNK0/edit?usp=sharing
You MUST have GOOD hiking shoes for this, not sneakers.FOOD: weight is something to consider. I eat a LOT of the Mountainhouse freeze dried food while backpacking. It is about $10 a meal, but I think they are pretty good and they have a lot of calories which is good for these trips..... its only one night so keep it simple: Granola bars, tuna pouches and tortilla wraps, PB&J, beef jerkey, oatmeal, dehytraded fruit, backpackers pantry/peak refuel dehydrated meals (these brands are pretty good and usually a couple bucks cheaper at Sierra)
Alcohol.. You can bring it, but remember that beer is heavy and you are carrying everything up a mountain.
Feel free to join on the full event, or either the hike on Saturday, or the on Sunday with meeting times and locations extracted from the writeup above ;)
