Trail Magic and Campout at Bake Oven Knob

This one’s for giving back to the appalachian trail thru hiking community! For those that aren’t familiar, trail magic is a little tradition in the thru hiking community where strangers post up along the AT and give out free food to the dusty crusty thru hikers! As they walk by we feed them, talk, exchange trail stories, and enjoy this beautiful community! June is around the time that the thru hiking bubble will be strolling through Pennsylvania.

Think of this as a trail magic parking lot tailgate, and then about a one mile hike to overnight camp out, so bring your backpacking gear. There is a campsite across from bake oven knob shelter that is the plan to stay at. However, if you prefer the shelter, then go for it, it will be close by! There is an unreliable water source at the shelter. However, I never bank on that and just bring enough water since it’s only a mile and only one night.

You can choose to just do the trail magic tailgate or just do the campout.

As for ideas for the trail magic, anything goes really. Cheap ideas could be a cooler of soda/gatorade and chips. However feel free to go more extravagant!

I will figure out exact times once we get closer, but a rough estimate would be to meet at the parking lot around 10/11 am and then hike to our campsite 3/4 pm.

The hike out is short but fun. We will see the bake oven knob lookout and do a bit of scrambling on rocks, nothing crazy. It’s easy enough to bring your luxury items. If you are a beginner, this is a perfect overnight trip for you!

For the trail magic, don’t forget to bring camp chairs/games/tables/and anything you might want for chilling in a parking lot for a few hours.

More to be posted as we get closer! Can’t wait!