I never met Dr. Tom Thwaites, but I have few doubts that we would have gotten along.

If you ask most hikers, Pennsylvania is the backup plan for the backup plan. You could go to Colorado or Utah and get big mountains and yawning blue sky.

If you wanted to stay on the east coast, you could get a worthy adventure fix in New Hampshire or Maine or Vermont. But Pennsylvania? Yeah. Okay.

Tom Thwaites thought so, too. That was before he moved to State College to start his new job as a Physics professor and discovered its best-kept secret: the mountains, hills, and valleys of the quiet Pennsylvania woods.

Elysha Dyer, a/k/a “Yard Sale”

Go Wild! Meet Pennsylvania’s Mid State Trail. The Trek blog, 3/8/2021.