Gifford Pinchot was against the formation of many National Parks, wanting instead to create areas that would be "managed" rather than "preserved". Thankfully others saw the value in not cutting down trees in say, Yosemite, but clear-cutting in many National Forests is due to his policies. Bainbridge Island had a Graduate Institute (recently acquired by Presidio) started by his grandson who has the same name and all I knew about the man was that he did believe in sustainability - balanced with usability.
Turns out that Pennsylvanians know all about the guy, seeing as how he was governor of Pennsylvania for eight years. He also has a nice park named after him.
Needing some time in the dirt I decided to stay a couple nights at his park and regroup. It was delightfully empty in the middle of the week and the camping areas are surrounded by super-easy walking trails. When I eventually got a map from a helpful park ranger I saw that there was also a trail that circumvented the lake in the middle of the park. Cool! Eyeing the scale on the little map and making some guesses about twistyness of trails I figured the route was four, maybe five miles around.
I totally need to stop guessing about things.
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