trails

Hiking itineraries and trail notes — routes worth the drive, mapped day by day. Real distances, meal stops, photos, and topo maps for every hike.

Two nights under the darkest sky in the East

A summer dark-sky weekend in the PA Wilds, built around Cherry Springs — a Bortle-2 park where the Milky Way casts a shadow. No backpack required: a warm base, green plateau day hikes, and two nights under the stars. Topo maps & honest night-drive logistics.

Susquehannock · dark-sky weekend · no backpack

The dark sky within reach of Washington

A dark-sky weekend in Shenandoah National Park, based at Big Meadows — the park’s night-sky hub and Night Sky Festival site. Honest about it: a Bortle ~4 escape from the DC light dome, not Cherry Springs — but the darkest sky an hour from the Beltway. Skyline Drive summits by day, an open meadow under the stars by night. Live forecast & honest logistics.

Shenandoah · dark-sky weekend · ~75 mi from DC

Three days in the High Peaks

A Lake Placid basecamp weekend — Balanced Rocks, the Indian Head & Fish Hawk Cliffs loop above Lower Ausable Lake, and a soft-legs finish on Whiteface. Six views, five topo maps, meal stops, one hotel.

Adirondacks · 3 days · itinerary

Acadia in five days

Maine’s national park on a long weekend from New Hope, PA — three hiking days on Mount Desert Island anchored on the Precipice iron-rung climb, Cadillac at sunrise, popovers at Jordan Pond, wrapped around the drive up and back.

Acadia · 5 days (3 hiking) · itinerary

Ithaca in four days

Ithaca is gorges — a day on Cornell’s gorge-cut campus, then three in the Finger Lakes gorges: Buttermilk and Lucifer Falls, Taughannock’s 215-foot plunge, and the stone stairs of Watkins Glen. Eight views, five topo maps, meal stops.

Finger Lakes · 4 days (3 hiking) · itinerary

What's here

• Two nights under the darkest sky in the East — a summer dark-sky weekend in the PA Wilds, built around Cherry Springs.
• The dark sky within reach of Washington — a Bortle ~4 dark-sky weekend in Shenandoah NP, based at Big Meadows on Skyline Drive.
• Three days in the High Peaks — a Lake Placid basecamp itinerary anchored on the Indian Head & Fish Hawk Cliffs loop.
• Acadia in five days — Maine’s national park from New Hope, PA: three hiking days on Mount Desert Island, anchored on the Precipice, bookended by the drive.
• Ithaca in four days — a Cornell campus day and three days in the Finger Lakes gorges: Buttermilk, Lucifer Falls, Taughannock, and Watkins Glen.

What's not here (yet)

• More itineraries — the Catskills and the Hudson Highlands. Wrong turns land on the 404 page, which suggests where you might have meant to go.

Where to look instead

• home.gf.cx — Dan's personal operating system
• assets.gf.cx — toolkit primitives (cards, media, dropzone, …)
• sandbox.gf.cx — the canonical subdomain template