Posted By:	litolpea
Trip Date:	09/03/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	33.00
Pictures:	17

Another Notch on my Mid State Belt
(otherwise known as: Shelli is Colorblind)

Stay tuned for the trip log...

Posted By:	Bellalyra
Trip Date:	09/04/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	6

Our holiday weekend started out with rain on Saturday, but it was nice on Sunday and Monday.  The scenery was bedazzled with late summer wildflowers, a lizard thingy and a porcupine made cameo appearances, and a starry night sky on the overlook rounded out a beautiful weekend.

Three of us braved pizza making on our camp stoves, while another baked delicious muffins and biscuits.  My brain is not biscuit-friendly, and decided to make a mess instead.

Trail is marked with neon pink ribbons and looks like it will be rerouted a bit to deal with drainage and blow down issues.  Those who have hiked this trail many times may find a slight change of scenery in the future.

Couldn't have asked for a nicer group of people to share the weekend!  Many thanks to all of them for a wonderful trip!

Posted By:	clickchick
Trip Date:	08/20/2010
State:	wv
Miles:	24.00
Pictures:	0

This was my first time to Cranberry Wilderness area, and I have to say, it was a pretty spectacular place! The camping was awesome, many options were noted as we hiked. Water was VERY plentiful...not a concern the path we took and, as noted in the survey results, wonderful swimming (or wading depending on your preference) holes. We did not see much wildlife (a bit of a disappointment) but what we did see (bats, garter snake, garter snake eating a salamander, and blue crayfish in some moss(!!)) were enough to keep me happy. Lots of very colourful fungi this time of the year as well. I did not see any of the carnivorous plants Shark has seen, but perhaps i was just walking too fast and not looking around enough. Although the trail had very little elevation gain or loss, it was rugged in spots and, amazingly enough, uphill for 10 miles, no matter how gradual gets a little tiring for me....

I should also mention that there were 3 (i think) places where we had to ford streams/rivers. If the water was higher, the crossings might have been a bit tricky. Good to keep this in mind should you wish to go on this trip.

I am looking forward to going back!

Thanks to Joy, Handlebar and Dave C for a great time!

Here are some pics!

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	08/11/2010
State:	WY
Miles:	75.00
Pictures:	30

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

JohnK, Kevbra and I met at JohnK's house in North Olmsted with our sweet rented Dodge Caravan about 6:30.. This turned out to be a great vehicle for three hikers with big packs and ancillary trip luggage. We loaded up and headed out. We were around Chicago by midnight.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

We took a southerly route through Iowa and Nebraska and crossed into Wyoming around noonish. We stopped in Cheyenne and went to the Sierra Trading Post outlet (sweetness) and then had some lunch downtown. Then we began a VERY long drive north south across Wyoming. There is some stark high plains beauty, but I think we were all ready to get out of the car. We made it to our campsite at Flagg Ranch Resort just north of the national park boundary about 7:00 and set up. Kayaker 7775 and BigDave were eating dinner at the lodge but soon all participants were united. We stayed up a while and had a few beers around a fire. It was a beautiful starry night.

Friday, August 13, 2010

We got up and going around 7:00. We stopped for a buffet breakfast at Colter Bay Village. The breakfast was OK. We also picked up our backcountry permit. We then drove south to Jackson Hole. The ski resort there leaves a couple lifts open for the summer to carry day hikers, mountain bikers and tourists up the mountain. For $25, we snagged a ticket and took the 100 person tram up the mountain. We were deposited at the mountain top where we enjoyed a beer and began a 15 mile hike back down the mountain. We traveled around and into Granite Canyon. It was a pretty hike and good preview and acclimatization. We were just below 10,000'. On the way down, BigDave spotted a bull moose which we watched a while. We made it back to the ski resort around 6:00. We had a beer at the resort and then drove onto Jackson. This is a great western town. We ate at the Snake River Brewery. I'd recommend it. Thanks to JohnK for picking up the tab! As we headed back to Flagg Ranch, the rains came. This continued throughout much of the night.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Up early again...about 6:00'ish. We packed up soaking tents and got our packs ready for backpacking. We stopped and had some breakfast at Jenny Lake Lodge. It was a great way to start the day. Teton Taxi Service picked us up at String Lake Trailhead and took us down to US 22 at the Phillips Canyon trailhead while providing us with all the local knowledge. She also told us that if we called from Alaska Basin, we could have case of beer carried up to us for just $50!!! Well, we hit the trail about 11:00. Things got right down to business as we started the trip with about a 3000' climb. It was actually a tough day of hiking. We put in about 10 miles with plenty of ascent and descent. As we got up to 10,000', the scenery just got amazing. And the wildflowers were incredible. We saw another larger bull moose on the way up as well. There was plenty of traffic on all the trails. We made it into camp about 5:30 in the Middle/South Fork Granite Canyon zone. Camping in the Tetons is restricted to well marked zones that are denoted on your permit. These are fairly large areas. We camped in a stand of white bark pines with a 300 yard walk to water. It was in a broad bowl and there were at least 4 other groups camped in the bowl with us. A ranger came through and warned us that there was an increasingly unafraid sow with cub in the area and he encouraged us to be extra careful with food. We ate, caught some stars and were all in bed by 9:45. Great first day.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Up early..before 7:00, we packed up and headed out. It got down into the mid 40's. Our weather was very consistent throughout the trip: Highs in the 70's with sun and lows at night in the 40's. The stars were abundant but were increasingly washed out by the strengthening moon as the week progressed. We had to get up over an unnamed pass and dropped back into Marion Lake. This was a very pretty lake at the base of a shelf. We tanked up on water (the ranger had advised us to saying that water was rare on Death Canyon shelf..he was wrong about that) and again climbed up over another short pass and around Spearhead Peak. Over Fox Creek Pass and this put us on Death Canyon shelf. We lunched on the shelf. Death Canyon is incredibly beautiful. If I get back to the Tetons, I will put the canyon on my itinerary. In this case, we had the birds eye view as we stayed on the shelf. As the canyon unfolded on our right, peak after peak was visible on the left. The Tetons also became more and more visible ahead of us. Ultimately, we climbed over Mount Meek Pass amidst chirping marmots and curious pikas and descended the Sheep Steps into Alaska Basin. We went nearly to the top of the basin and set up the primeau campsite on a rocky bluff above Mirror Lake. We would spent three nearly perfect nights here. What a great spot. So, we set up, swam in Mirror Lake (ahhhhh) and had some dinner. Some of us did a little exploring around the Basin. Bedtime came early - 9:00'ish. We put in around 9.5 miles today. They were much easier than yesterday's.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Up early again. We had a breakfast and then got together for a day hike. We put on day packs and lumbar packs and started climbing. Up, up, up away from Alaska Basin. The basin is outside the the park. When we got to the top of the pass, we reentered the park. The view back of the basin was excellent. The view ahead down Death Canyon with peaks in front and lakes spread out was equally incredible. We could also see back down into the Snake River Valley. Wow. Someone had poured dirt into the snowdrift at top spelling out TETONS! Pretty cool. We continued around a shelf, traversing some snow and then up Static Peak. We all summited. It was a perfect day to be up there. Static sits at 11,303. Fantastic views. We stayed about a half hour eating our lunches. Eventually, another group of 4 made it up so we left the peak to them. We backtracked to the pass and then took the trail north around the other side of the loop. We climbed a saddle on "The Wall" just to see what was on the other side. We had to climb over talus to get there. Pretty challenging. But the view was great. We could see South Teton, Mount Wister, Buck Mountain, Kit Lake, and Snowdrift Lake. We were trying to put a loop together but it was exceptionally steep with a lot of snow. So we retreated back down to the trail. BigDave, kevbra and I continued up to Hurricane Pass. Clouds were thickening so we had to step on it. We got up there, checked out the scenery and headed back down to camp. It was about a 15 mile day hike. We ate and battened down the hatches in camp. Rain was imminent. Kevbra and I stayed up until about 9:15. As soon as we hit the tent, rain came. It was on and off through the night. It was the only rain we experienced.

Tuesday, August 16, 2010

Up early to clear skies! As we breakfasted, I heard a splash in Mirror Lake. We all jumped up and ran over to get a look. A bull moose had just jumped in the lake and was swimming behind a cow. They swam across and around the lake a bit and then slowly walked out and off in the other direction. Pretty friggin' cool. After we took a swim of our own, we started a dayhike down South Fork Teton Creek. This was very different

Posted By:	Mr P
Trip Date:	08/07/2010
State:	WA
Miles:	70.00
Pictures:	34

Wow - what a trip! Great weather, overly friendly wildlife, a very tough (but manageable risk) trail and macro (mountain vistas) and micro (wild flowers) scenery to die for. And dying was a possibility at several sections of the trail.  No one did - although skin cells on our feet died by the millions.  The degree of difficulty assigned by the organizer (10 out of 12) was really 10 squared on some sections. (The next Bailey Range trip will be assigned a 12 but some sections are off the scale)

We participated in a air med-evac of a hiker who broke some bones (on a easier section of trail) and enjoyed the the excellent food she left behind. Her hiking partner (a Oly Nat Park employee) joined our group to complete the Bailey Range Traverse and was an excellent trail mate. She showed us manly men up by skinny dipping in a snow melt lake so cold drinking the water gave me a brain freeze.
 
A day and a half was on sometimes steep snow where we broiled in the sun reflected off the snow. Who could believe traveling over snow could be so hot! 

This was a exceptional snow condition as a cool spring and summer had left much more snow than normal in the southern Baileys and provided plentiful water on northern trail sections that are normally dry.  The Elwa Snowfinger was easy because the top 3/4 of it was filled with snow (with a large stream tunneling under the snow so watch for thin snow bridges). We tried to exit the snowfinger too high up and had to backtrack. The snowfinger exit is to the right (south) 100 yards from where the vertical walls of the gorge start. Five of us were on the wrong side of the Elwa at the exit and wading across resulted in wet boots and feet. The next eight mile hike (two miles a steep semi-bushwack) to camp finished off our feet.

Three of our group went down the Elwa instead of doing the two 4000 foot climb days (with an 1800 foot half day added) and missed some excellent bonus scenery. 

The feet and knees will heal. The 10 pounds lost regained and already I am planning another Bailey Range Traverse - maybe next year!

Posted By:	yojiness
Trip Date:	07/24/2010
State:	ca
Miles:	20.00
Pictures:	0

Day one: Acclimatized by hiking in the Giant Forest in Sequoia that day. The trees were outstanding, a must see in person to believe how large they grow.
Day two: Start at Wolverton Trailhead and hike apprx 4 miles to Merten Meadows. elevation is around 9000 ft. Beautiful campsite in the pines with a creek, lots of firewood, beautiful flowered meadow in front of us and a view of the snow covered mountains.
Day Three: Base camp at the same place and dayhike up Alta Peak to 11,200 ft. appx 3 miles each way. Breathtaking views the entire hike and of course at the top.
Day Four: Hike to Panther gap, only a couple miles away on a ridetop. My boyfried wasnt handling the altitude very well so this was a change of plans but beautiful nonetheless.

This trip was a perfect backpacking trip. The weather was beautiful everyday in the low 80s but lots of tree coverage to protect from the sun. Water and firewood was plentiful. Had to get a permit and bear canister for the food. Only saw on average 5 other people each day (at the most!) I plan on returning for sure!

Joy

  

Posted By:	Keira
Trip Date:	07/30/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	22.50
Pictures:	0

3 days of excellent backpacking! Day 1 was from from the Fish Creek Dam Overlook to Cranberry Creek, about 7 miles. Relatively easy day with one major ascent and descent. Day 2 was to the headwaters of Boggs Run, about 8 miles. A few more big ascents and rocky descents. Beware the stinging nettle. Day 3 was about 7.5 miles back to the car. During the first half of the day is a very long ascent with a steep section at the end. Reach the road and its easy from there on out. Water was plentiful. There is an excellent campsite for the second night (if you don't stay at Boggs Run) just on the other side of Petes Run Rd. just before the no camping sign if you want to put in an extra mile or so. This campsite is dry, so fill up before you make the climb. Hiking this trail counterclockwise will give you relatively gradual ascents (still lung burners in some spots) and steep descents with the exception of a long rocky descent in 2 spots. Creeks are shallow, but the main ones had plenty. We didn't need to worry about finding water. Bring bug spray, the mosquitoes are aggressive.

Posted By:	Qi Wiz
Trip Date:	07/14/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	42.00
Pictures:	0

This was a great hike and the BFT is now my favorite PA trail.
Stats over 3.5 days:
Other Backpackers: 4
Dayhikers: 4
Timber Rattlesnakes: 3
Nice Views: many
Many thanks to JonW for good advice. Thanks to Footloose for joining me and being good company traveling and on the trail.

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	06/18/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	0

Condor, Lizzie, Stepbreathe, and I (Trailhead), all coming from different locations, met at the home of Trail Breaker and Sandyl around 2:30P on Friday, 6/18. We consolidate gear and bodies into two cars and headed out toward our trailhead in PA.  Prior to reaching the trailhead, we made a planned stop at Luigi’s Ristorante in DuBois for a most enjoyable supper. Departing Luigi’s, we took a round-a-bout way of getting to the trailhead, thanks to a senior moment on the part of the lead driver. We reached camp at 9P, it being just a short 200-250 yard walk for the cars. After tents were up, gear stowed, and food hung, we sat around talking but without the aid of a camp fire (that’s a first for me). We had headlamps but keep them off. It was very dark under the canopy of the trees and it was strange to carry on a conversation with people without being able to see anyone’s face. We finally retired around 11P.

Saturday 6/19 – We slept in until 7A. Fiddlegal was planning to arrive around 9:30, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast. Neither I nor Lizzie brought a sleeping bag, figuring the night would be warm enough to get by without one, but Friday night proved to be a little cooler than anticipated. A good solid sleep eluded us both. We broke camp and headed back to the cars to await Fiddlegal’s arrival which happened at 9:35. After introductions, we shouldered our packs at 10:00 and began the climb up Upper Pine Hollow.  We had 900ft to gain and the day was heating up fast with high humidity. In an hour we covered 1.8 uphill miles and made the connection with the Sinnemahoning trail. Another hour of hiking brought us to the spring at the head of Big Spring Draft trail. Here we refilled our water bottles and enjoyed the cold refreshing spring water. We continued along Big Spring draft trail for 25 minutes to a camp on our left just across a stream. This was a very nice setting for our lunch break. After lunch, we continued along Big Spring Draft trail to its termination at Wykoff Run Road. The amount of fern growth along the section of trail was astounding. In the seven years I’ve hiked here in the Quehanna I have not seen such high and dense fern growth.  Most of the trail was obscured by the growth. I guess that speaks for a very wet spring. Crossing Wykoff Road, we picked up Old Bailey Log trail and continued north, through the Gore Cut-Off and then onto Gore trail for a short ways before veering off to our camp in a very large meadow of high grass. The time was 5:00P. We set up tents and then settled down to make our evening meals.  After the meal we gathered some fire wood, lit a fire, and sat around telling lies – what I mean is interesting personal stories.  The day’s miles and the heat had us in a very drowsy state by 9:30 so we prudently withdrew to out tents for a much needed rest. Within 15 minutes the wind began to blow hard. A front was moving in and we now expected to be hit with a hard rain. I don’t know how long the wind continued to blow as I fell asleep, but it never did rain.

Sunday, 6/19 – We got up at 5:30, having decided the evening before to get an early start to beat the heat and also allow us return home at a decent hour. The night proved to be quite warm; Lizzie and I were very comfortable sans sleeping bag. My thermometer read 61.8?. We were on the trail at 7:00. We hiked Gore trail to Sanders Trail and followed it to the intersection with the orange blazed Quehanna Trail. Turning right, we hiked about 1 mile to Arch Spring were we dropped packs for a break and a chance to refill water bottles from the spring. Less that ½ mile after Arch Spring, we stopped briefly at a vista. From here, for approximately 2 miles, we were in encased in ferns again. You needed eyes on top of your boots (below fern level) to see where you were going. I do have eyelets on my boots but they didn’t seem to help much. Once through the ferns we started the very pleasant descent of Laurel draft. By 11:15 we were back to our cars. We rinsed the morning’s sweat off, changed clothes and by noon we were on the road to the Benezette Hotel for lunch. Pizza and Elk burgers proved popular and tasted even better when washed down with a beverage of choice. I had the good fortune to be the recipient of an exploding ketchup bottle – more clothes to wash. We made it back to Trail Breaker’s house by 5:00P. Gear was transferred to waiting cars, good-bye handshakes or hugs, as appropriate, were exchanged and the weekend’s adventure came to an end.

Posted By:	litolpea
Trip Date:	06/19/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	14.50
Pictures:	3

Friday night, car camped at Minister Creek campground after the shuttle. The Henrys Mills lot is RIGHT on 666, very easy to find. East side of the street before the bridge.

Saturday hiked CC on the Minister trail to NCT. Went east. FAB bridges, terrain was spiffy, nothing difficult although there were a few climbs for n00bs (Who did survive, btw).
Passed a couple of really nice camp sites, one being about 6 or so miles after we took off from MC camp...(indicated on the NCT map from the NEOH site) and another just a mile or so before hitting the Hunters Station shelter.
The shelter is in GREAT condition! Shinie! But we opted for the camp site right next to it, in favor of being closer to the river.

Sunday's hike out was very muddy, and a good descent towards the end.

All in all, great trail! MC we all know is pretty simple, but gorgeous! and the NCT in this section was a nice easier "moderate" trail.

NOTE: a LOT of down trees from the Shelter to 666. I guess there was a big storm recently.


Coming soon: See full report here:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=668038
pics included...

Posted By:	Neoman
Trip Date:	06/06/2010
State:	OH
Miles:	23.00
Pictures:	5

On Sunday morning, June 6, 2010, three of us set out on the Burr Oak trail for a two-night backpacking trip.  Burr Oak State Park is just outside Glouster, OH.  We parked at the beautiful Burr-Oak Lodge parking lot, which appears very secure.  We started our hike going clockwise, as was recommended by a very helpful previous post by “stjohnofthecross” (posting date 03/08/2004, “Burr Oak Backpack Trail”)  This 23-mile trip was intended to be a leisurely-paced one.  The great thing about this hike is that it is a full loop, taking you back to your starting point. 

We hiked about eight miles (in five hours) on the nicest-maintained stretch around the southern tip of the lake before stopping for the first night at a primitive site 1/3 mile past the Tom Jenkins Dam.  It was good to stop at the dam at the water and bathroom facilities.  This area is outside the domain of the State Park, so there was no required camping registration.  A fire ring and a small stack of dead wood awaited us.  The tricky thing was the slope of this site.  It was hard to find a really level place to set up our tents, so we slept at an angle—probably not a problem for everyone, unless you have a very slippery air mattress and sleeping bag!  LOL…just a small inconvenience.

Day two met us with a very pleasant breeze and mostly cloudy skies, but no rain.  The local marina operator said the lake fishing and boating activity was especially quiet this weekend because the weather forecasters scared many away with threats of rain.  This day we hiked about ten miles (in six hours), with a couple more trail options—some red-blazed, some blue-blazed—to choose from. 

We didn’t want to stop for even a break on the northern loop of the lake since the very swampy conditions might have made us a great meal for mosquitoes.  Still we only saw a couple of mozzies, perhaps because we were moving at a good pace.  There is one bridge that is out at the point “Wildcat Hollow Bkpk. Trail” near the trailhead sign.  This made us have to walk across a gentle 20-foot-wide stream that was about eight inches at the deepest (It had rained a fair amount the previous days to our trip).  We couldn’t find another access point across the stream, but had to just wade through it.  Next time I’ll add a pair of water shoes to my backpack!

There were several small brooks to cross, mostly across some well-built bridges, which added to the variety, and even some wooden steps up and down some steep climbs.  The yellow and blue blazes were clearly marked.  Overall there were almost no bugs to annoy on the dates we hiked.  The trail on the north side of the lake appeared much less travelled, and could use some maintenance, as quite a few thorn bushes (Multi-Floral Rose) were growing across the trail.  A pair of pruning shears would be good to take on this trip this time of year.  There were just a few greenbriars, and some patches of poison ivy mostly along the northern stretch of trail around the lake.  The hills were pretty gentle in slope.

We stopped at 4PM to make camp in the Dock #3 area, a flat, clean clearing with lots of fire rings and fishing spots.    A water fountain and latrine were available there.  There is a self-registration kiosk for camping at this site.

Day three, we packed up again and at 9 AM hiked the remaining five easier miles back to the Lodge, arriving there by 11:30 AM.

Our experience, since it was over mostly a Sunday-Tuesday, and that people expected lots of rain, was that we only ran across one group of four college-aged girls hiking the loop in the opposite direction.  Nobody else was on the trail that we could tell, and the lake activity was very quiet.

Do review the previous post by “stjohnofthecross” (posting date 03/08/2004, “Burr Oak Backpack Trail”) for other helpful comments.

Posted By:	hclayton
Trip Date:	05/29/2010
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	2

Another great trip at Minister Creek. I am glad that some of the members decided to enjoy the second night in the woods even though the trip was changed to one night.
Great Group, Good Food, and Great Weather
Thank you all.
And also a thank you to the children on the trip for their good behavior and great company. :)

Posted By:	Babu
Trip Date:	05/18/2010
State:	Ohio
Miles:	20.00
Pictures:	6

 

This hike begins at the start of the Stockport section of the Buckeye Trail and extends about 20 miles further down were the BT starts picking up on township roads. . This trail head is located at a very nice developed campground (campground K-aka Bicentennial Park, it’s free) on AEP property and continues on AEP property for most of the 20 miles. A permit is required and is very simple to get from the AEP web site-print it and sign it.

This trail has a lot of potential - pleasant woods, high vistas, maybe some fishing but bank access is a problem on many of the lakes, ponds and streams.

During this hike many sections of the trail were overgrown and there was a lot of fallen timber requiring detours. It had rained and there were many wet and really wet spots. We were probably the first ones on the trail this year and my guess is that it isn’t traveled very much. We saw no one else hiking. A couple of safety concerns: It was necessary to cross a beaver dam of 20-25 feet and a slip or a fall down 10-12 feet could have caused serious problems. There is a log bridge of maybe 150-200’ that is in poor condition with weak railings and poor footing. A couple of smaller bridges are not in good shape either. Too bad the whole section of trail is not better maintained.

A redeeming feature is that it is well blazed. Without the these very good markings it would be difficult to follow the trail.

At about the 7 mile point there is another developed campground (H) which is also very nice with potable water. It is free too. There are no backpacker camp sites along the trail.

Even in good condition this trail could be a challenge. This hike is probably not good for beginners. The second day, to where a car had been spotted, was 13 miles. That was too much.

There is a lot of water, so later in the spring and summer there will no doubt be many mosquitoes. In the winter there could be both slippery slopes and narrow paths.

A map of the whole Stockport section is available from the BT Association.

Dave, Chris, thanks for signing up for the hike. Hopefully we can get together again some time.

Tom

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	04/15/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	43.70
Pictures:	0

Black Forest Trail Log

April 15-18, 2010

Who:  JohnK, Big Dave, Rob, awesomeo, JonW (your author)

Day 0 – Thursday, April 15

Big Dave went over in the morning and day hiked the Golden Eagle Trail.  He set up camp, walked back to the Hotel Manor, had dinner, returned to his camp and went to bed not knowing when any of the rest of us would arrive.

JonW and awesomeo picked up JohnK and were on the road by 4 pm.  We ate dinner at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, each choosing a different burger.  During our meal, the waitresses paraded around two huge burgers that turned out to be two pounds each.  I can’t imagine what I would feel like after eating such a thing.  We arrived at the canoe access parking area along Pine Creek at 10:30ish.  We crossed Slate Run behind the Hotel Manor and looked for Big Dave.  We came to a campsite and had not spied Big Dave yet, so we set up and counted on finding him in the morning.

Rob had work obligations and could not leave until after 7.  He arrived at the parking area about 2 in the morning and slept in his car.

Day 1 – Friday, April 16

We got up and found Big Dave.  Rob came into camp while we were packing up.  We all got on the trail about 7:30 – JohnK, awesomeo, and I left shortly before Big Dave and Rob

There were turkey vultures at the crest of a promontory that the trail goes across that is overlooking Pine Creek less than halfway up the first climb.   A deer bounded ahead of me shortly after that.

By the first vista Rob and Big Dave had caught up with us and we completed the climb together.  We sashayed across the plateau and soon dropped down Red Run.  We stopped for a snack break where the trail crosses Morris Run next to a beautiful waterfall.

No rest for the weary – soon we were climbing the trail Chestnut Ridge.  By now the day had grown very warm.  We lunched at the campsite around mile post 10.  On we went across this plateau.  Rain came and we donned our rain gear.  Soon we crossed SR 44 and dropped down County Line Branch of Young Womans Creek drainage and camped below the climb out of the drainage.  We passed two backpackers in this stretch – the only hikers we had seen all day.  They had two dogs with them.

We set up camp and it started to rain again.  Everyone turned in a little after 8 – it was a hard day and tomorrow would come very early.  During the night it rained pretty hard in the wee hours.

Day’s distance:         16.2 miles

Elevation gain:         2600 feet

Elevation loss:          1900 feet

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	04/09/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	85.00
Pictures:	0

Friday, April 9, 2010

I drove out to the northern trailhead of the Susquehannock Trail System just east of Coudersport on US 6 arriving about 10:30. It was snowing...hard. I had not brought a shelter so my plan was to hike until the snow stopped as it was forecast to. So I hit the trail. It was a bit of a challenge as the snow reflecting off the headlamp seriously impacted visibility. Finally, about 1:30, the snow started to let up and I made a quick trail-side bivouac. There were a couple inches of snow on the ground. My simple sleeping system was my sleeping bag (30 degree), silk liner, pad and three person tent ground cloth that I wrapped myself up in. I am utilizing iodine tablets and my canister stove. I brought very little spare clothing (no fleece for example) and I kept my pack weight around 20 pounds as a result. I hiked in trail shoes. It was 29 degrees as I drifted off.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I slept in a bit due to the late night. I got up at 8:00, packed up my simple camp and hit the trail by 8:20. The STS is a nice trail. I think the biggest single elevation change is around 800'. There are lots of ascents and descents but nothing too incredibly dramatic. There is a ton of great camping and water everywhere. The trail spends most of its time following drainages. It is fairly remote which increases wildlife viewing opportunities. I saw a ton of wildlife. The birds were incredible and singing all day long. I heard wrens and warblers and owls and woodpeckers. I saw these birds and added turkeys, grouse scarlet tanagers and many others to the list. The streams were full of trout and more common mammals such as deer and squirrels were abundant. On this day, the sun was out and it stayed around 60 degrees all day. It was beautiful. I hiked counterclockwise around the loop and at mile 26, hiked through Ole Bull State Park. There is state park camping here, pavilions, water, etc. Also a paved road crossing. There are plenty of point to point options on the STS. I kept going making camp at the bottom of the very steep descent of Morgan's Hollow along Young Womans Creek. This is at mile 37 on the trail. I put in 31 miles today. My feet hurt. It was 7:30 and getting dark when I stopped. I made my simple bed, cooked my dinner and tea and soaked my feet in the creek while I ate. Then I hung my food and got to bed by 8:15. Stars were abundant. It was a beautiful night.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Up at 5:45, I had a cup of cocoa, packed up, and hit the trail by 6:15 on sore feet. Today was similar to yesterday. Again, plenty of camping and water. On this section, the STS and the Donut Hole Trail share a route for nearly 9 miles. At mile 49, the trail passes through the old logging town of Cross Fork. There is a store and a restaurant and two bars here. Also, plenty of places to park. I had an ice cream and a gatorade and continued on. I saw 5 day hikers today but saw no other people on my trip besides that. It was a little warmer today but still beautiful for hiking. No bugs, no ticks. Still plenty of wildlife. I traveled through the Hammersley wild area today. This would be a great place to plan a point to point hike through as Hammersley is stunning. Seriously gorgeous. Beautiful hollows, cascades, stream beds and forest. No roads for about 10 miles of trail. Go here. About 7:30, I reached mile marker 66 after a 29 mile day and made a nice camp near an existing fire ring. I went through my same night time ritual and was in bed by 8:30. The stars were so beautiful that I had to lay there under them and watch them until I passed out with my glasses on. It did get cold tonight. I had frost all over me and everything else by morning.

Monday, April 12, 2010

I slept in really late today. A combination of being tired and the morning being cold. I didn't get up until after 8:00 and didn't get going until 9:15. The weather was once again perfect, water was everywhere and wildlife was active. The camping, once again, is very frequent here. Today, I also passed through Patterson State Park. Parking and camping available here. I completed my loop by 4:00 after a 19 mile day and hit the road.

It is surprising to me that the STS is not more heavily used. It's a great, easily accessed trail about 4 hours from Cleveland. It's closer than most of the Mid State, the Black Forest Trail, West Rim, Old Loggers Path, etc. Check it out. If anyone has any trip organization questions, don't hesitate to email me. Chuck Dillon of Pine Creek Outfitters has written a great guidebook with notes on geology, history, flora, etc. complete with three accompanying double sided maps detailing the topography, road crossings and other trails. Appalachian Outfitters sometimes carries it but it is also available on line or at the Pine Creek Outfitters.

Posted By:	litolpea
Trip Date:	04/02/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	20.10
Pictures:	6

A Misanthropic Easter Event!

Went FAB. Our group was a great one...unfortunately, Enchantress had to work, so pulled off of the trip. But we ended up with 5 strong hikers who were up for the adventure. (PLUS Trail Monkey and his friend in training: Trail Monkey 2!)

Friday: Met at the Kellettville Campground. Though it does not officially open until May, you can camp (according to Fairweather, and that, we did.) The restrooms were not open, but the water was turned on.
Shuttled cars down to Minister Creek lot.
Went to Cougar Bobs (which you can walk to) for dinner. NOTE TO THOSE WHO DIG BURGERS: split one. OMG. huge.

Saturday: We broke camp (was a nice treat to have picnic tables at our camp sites for breakfast), got a start on the trail by 9am.
The day was already getting warm! I mean, REALLY warm.
Without leaves on the trees quite yet, it made for a very hot hiking day. The terrain was not that strenuous (I would honestly say the rating on the hike should be more of a lower end moderate, and at that, it's only due to the first few hills and distance), but with the heat, first time out for most folks after a long winter....it did tire folks.
The streams were plentiful, so water was never a concern.
The trail conditions were mostly dry with spotty mud and muck sections.
In fact, it was very AUTUMN like to be honest.
Kinda neat.
We passed a few of the camp sites that are on the NCT map. NOTE: the miles on the map are not that accurate. they indicate something like 18.7 to triple forks...when, in fact, it is 16.8. (like Fairweather said)
We ended up staying at a camp at 16.3 (the tent symbol on the NCT map) instead....it was nice. Secluded. And because the heat really did a few of our folks in, they saw it and said WE ARE STAYING HERE. lol
Who am I to argue?

Sunday: THE. BEST. WAY. TO. WAKE. UP. ON. EASTER! In your tent :)
The hike out was relatively quick. Just about 4 miles. Shuttle happened. Folks on their way. BOOM!
We were out.

Since we are not allowed to talk about the Easter eggs, candy and overall Misanthropic silliness (aka: THIS IS NOT A BLOG!), we will leave you with:
Trail was not as difficult as the rating.
Trail map for NCT portion was not accurate on the miles (we had a GPS)
(the actual mileage for the entire trip was closer to 20 or so)
Water was plentiful.
Weather was GORGEOUS.
Trailheads and camps are very easy to find.

I would recommend this trip for sure :)

Posted By:	panaha
Trip Date:	03/26/2010
State:	OH
Miles:	27.50
Pictures:	0

  all camps are well marked on the southern loop with the exception  of camp 6. no marker. however, it offers a nice fire ring and is right next to the water.

Posted By:	Shark
Trip Date:	03/05/2010
State:	WV
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	12

Trip Report for Dolly Sods – Winter Backpack (Attempt 3)

March 5-7, 2010

Attempt 1 – Cancelled due to warm weather and rain after some awesome weeks leading up to it.

Attempt 2 – Cancelled due to road closures on the ride down (up to 16’ drifts).

Attempt 3 – Near perfect snow and weather conditions with a minimum of 55 inches most everywhere.

Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.shereda/20100305DollySods#

Driving Down

Starting at Cooper’s Rock near Morgantown, the snow increased from the 10 inches we had in Pittsburgh, to about 30 inches.  By the time I got close to Deep Creek on I-68, you could see the huge drifts in many places.  You could also tell where they had brought in the huge, end loader mounted snow blowers to handle the 16 foot drifts since plows were useless.  Bear this in mind if you are ever attempting to make a drive down to this area in a forecasted blizzard.  Even more importantly could be the drive back if you are unfortunate enough to park your car where a drift might occur.  16’ drifts with only a pack shovel could take you until spring time to dig out.  It was also amazing how the weather forecast changed over the 3 days leading up to this trip.  The same abrupt forecast change could occur while you are out in the wilderness for 3 days also.  Just something to consider when planning.

Access to the Wilderness Area

For this trip, we tried something different.  The parking area at Laneville would have not been easily accessible although I know of one person that hiked up in Roaring Plains that same weekend.  Whitegrass Touring Center rejected a request to park and use their trails to access Dolly Sods due to limited weekend parking and Canaan Valley Wildlife Refuge rejected a request to park at the bottom of Forest Road 80 since the plow truck needs a place to turn around and we would be towed.  We opted to go to Timberline Ski Resort and pay $7 per person to ride the Ski Lift up to the top and to park in their parking lot although in the back near their new hotel.  We gave them our plate numbers to make sure we weren’t towed if anyone asked why the vehicles were there.

It was a little awkward attempting to board the lift with snowshoes, packs and pulks/sleds and the lift guys, although they slowed it down slightly, didn’t help too much.  They did better up top slowing it down to unload.  One thing to consider, if you decide to let your empty pulk dangle if you put your gear in the seat, it may be windy enough up top and your pulk will turn into a sail and will probably be ripped from your hands (we had little wind on the way up).  We also went up on a Friday and there were very few people in line. When we returned on Sunday, the wait was at least 30 minutes to get on.  The earlier, the better if you are going up on Saturday or Sunday to beat this wait.

Anyone who has hiked Big Stone Coal, Breathed Mountain, or Cabin Mountain Trail probably knows that the junction of these three trails is right near a bend about 1/3 of the way down the Salamander Beginner Slope of Timberline.  This was our access point in and out of the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.  We walked down from the top of the Mountain Ski Lift about ½ mile or so and then walked back out the remaining 1 mile on Sunday.  I loved the looks on people’s faces as they skied past us and our sleds.

One tip, make a brake for your pulk/sled out of rope knotted up and tied between your two pull ropes.  Keep it flipped up under a bungee cord when not needed but flip it down so it slides under your pulk/sled and it will keep it from rear-ending your shins on the way down groomed trails (or steep trails).  It worked well for me.  See pictures for an example.

Maneuvering

This was my first real snow shoe trip.

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	02/19/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	15.50
Pictures:	5

We all met up in Twinsburg, consolidated into 3 vehicles and met up again at Tall Cedars in Donegal by 9:15. We includes Youngvine, Kev78, Qi Wiz, Rob, Limeygal, artsyfartsy, and your author. We ate a bite, sipped a beverage or two and then caravanned up to the 271 trailhead. We were sorely disappointed to find that the parking lot had not been plowed. I can't believe we even found it! It was behind 5' bank of snow and under a blanket of 4-4.5' of snow. We put our hazard lights on and unloaded gear from vehicles to pile it on the snowbanks. Qi Wiz, Youngvine and your author then drove back down and around to Seward to fine the PA 56 trailhead. Also unplowed. So we drove into Seward and left a couple vehicles in a grocery store parking lot 1.6 miles away. We piled in your author's car and drove back up to 271, parked in a snowmobile trailhead about .6 miles from the trailhead, and then took a brisk walk in the 20 degree heat to our partially frozen compadres. We loaded up and headed out. It was probably nearly a mile in from the road to the shelter area. Snowshoe conditions were pretty good as there was perhaps a foot of powder atop the more consolidated lower layers of snow. Rob did have a mishap however as he fell into a void underneath a fallen tree and jammed his snowshoe. He snapped a trekking pole along the way. We got into the shelters about 1:30. I made hot water bottles and everyone else got to bed. It was a clear night with SPECTACULAR stars.

Up on Saturday about 8:00'ish. Rob received a late birthday cake with a candle for breakfast. We hit the trail by 10:00 in blazing sunshine. The woods were beautiful with hoarfrost stuck to all the trees. I was pulling my homemade pulk on its maiden voyage. Fun! It was a beautiful day to hike. Darn near perfect with temperatures in the lower 30's and brilliant sunshine. This section of trail from 271 to the Decker Ave. shelters is good for snowshoeing. It is extremely flat with the biggest climb (200' or so) coming from the shelter area to the main trail. We made remarkably good time for snowshoeing in 4' of snow. By 4:30, we were all at the Decker Ave. shelter area. Rob, Youngvine, Kev78 and Limeygal gathered a nice pile of wood and we had a "party" in the Youngvine-Kev78 shelter where the fire was. There was a lot of food, two MSR Dragonflys going for a few hours and plenty of beverage. It was a nice time. But we were all bushed and in bed by 9:00. It was around 25 degrees over night.

Sunday, we got out of camp by around 9:15 and climbed out of the shelter area. Again, this climb was our biggest of the day. The rest of the hike out to Seward was either largely flat or down hill. Around 1500' of elevation is lost. The weather again was sublime. It actually got above freezing later in the day making the snowshoeing slightly more difficult. Overall, conditions remained good though. Views of the Conemaugh River and Johnstown were excellent from the ridge. Youngvine and Kev78 beat us down the ridge and retrieved a vehicle. We were cozied in at Carol and Dave's Roadhouse for lunch by 1:00. Great lunch!

This was really a great snowshoe trip and I'm glad we had the group we did!

Posted By:	Youngvine
Trip Date:	01/15/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	28.00
Pictures:	7

Good times as always. Superhiker, Kev78, Youngvine, Rob and Canteenboy met on Friday night in Clarion at Vinny's. After a substantial meal, we drove to our southern park; Poe Paddy State Park to park one car. With snowy and icy road conditions, our drive back north to RB Winter State Park was quite slow for the first 10 miles. I wouldn't recommend this drive for any 2 wheel drive car. For some strange reason, it took us entirely too long to find RB Winter's parking lot at the trailhead. It's been 2 years since a few of us have hiked this section...the fog was nasty. Oh well. By 3:30 am, we were 3 miles farther south and at our 1st campsite. EARLY night, right? Canteenboy went with the full tent and the rest of us settled for plastic and sleeping bags under the stars.

By 9 am, 3 of us were on the trail and heading south to Harry Johns Park with full bellies. We had an unusual sighting of trail runners around 7:30 am and a few hunters and dogs in the late morning. They were out scouting the coyote population. After a lengthy break at Harry Johns, the group pulled out for camp 2 at a side trail; Bear Run. Plenty of water from a camp side creek, however, the area was pretty littered with toppled trees. Much more than I recall from our 1st visit. Nevertheless, we enjoyed hearty dinners, an adult beverage or two and a lovely fire. By 8:30 pm, the temps were hovering in the mid-20's and the group started breaking up and heading to bed.

Sunday morning, we awoke to a cloudy day. At 8:30 am, Superhiker was the first on the road, followed by, Kev78, youngvine, rob and canteenboy. Today was an easier jaunt with minimal ascents and a long stretch on a Cuyahoga Valley Trail-like retired railroad bed. Unfortunately, 37F and rain mixed in by 10:30 am and the weather was pretty miserable. But since our faces were staring at the ground, we caught a ton of cat tracks and even one recent set of bear tracks! The gang all met up again at the Railroad Mountain Tunnel and decided it was not worth the hassle and risk tackling the knife ridge in this nastiness. We strutted down the road through the recently closed Poe Paddy State Park to Youngvine's car. We quickly donned drier clothes and bolted to RB Winter. A SUPER icy road and freezing rain lead us north, but by 3:30 pm, both cars were on their way west to CLE.

Another fantastic time on the Mid State with great pals. Even with the garbage rain on Sunday, I must say this is my favorite trail in PA thus far.

Posted By:	disconnected
Trip Date:	01/30/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	20.40
Pictures:	2

Great Loop, Thanks to Mark.  Mark did his homework and the trip seems to work the best if you park at the Heritage Trail Parking Area to begin the loop.  Note, there are plenty of stream crossing you can stay dry with, but I would recomend hiking poles, especially in winter.  The West side of the loop has many ups and downs in short burst that get your heart pumping, the East side of the loop has more of a rolling feel.

For about a mile are around the Pioneer shelter area, the trail is heavily gouged by horses since this is a multy use area.  The tent spaces in Pioneer tend to be all inclined a smidge, and the pump runs with much sediment.  The communal fire pit is awsome and a great place to get together for dinner!

The Sioux Shelter area is mostly flat and has an excellent water source.  I did take us about 10 minutes for us to get it to the surface though.

I had a really great time on this trip and look forward to going there again.

Keep in mind that the park office is closed in the winter months.

disconnected

Posted By:	disconnected
Trip Date:	01/23/2010
State:	Pennsylvan
Miles:	11.00
Pictures:	5

Pretty rolling.  Tight Rondodendren area near the beging part of this stage.  We had lots of snow with a frozen crusty layer on the top making walking very difficult, luckily the terrain was mostly flat, with two climbs worth remembering.  Finding wood as the shelter area was a task since it was burried by about 3 foot of snow!  The pump was running which was nice.!

Located about 50 yards from the water pump there is a spring at the bottom of the hill side.  I was tired of walking through the snow, so I did not investigate what it was producing.  The water pump is high in Iron, but easy to deal with.

Dress warm, some of the shelter areas are on the hillside, and the wind whips through strong at times making things a tad chilly.. take the slack out of your tarps and you will sleep nicely.

Posted By:	Steve .none.
Trip Date:	01/09/2010
State:	PA
Miles:	11.20
Pictures:	10

I post this trip every year for the first weekend after New Year.  The warning is always the same; this is not a typical trip for the club.  The 2010 version may have pushed that warning to the limit.  It all started well enough: I posted and the trip quickly filled. 

Then old man winter decided to make an appearance.  The snow started falling and the temps started dropping.  Armageddon was just around the corner!  The weather reports and the uncertainty of the wood supply led many people to drop from the trip.  What once was a full trip of 24 ended up with only 7 hearty (crazy?) souls.

Jon, Ray Christy and Scott all headed in Friday night and parked at the shelter parking lot.  This is about 1/3 mile from the shelters and let them spend an extra night in the woods.    Jon and Ray were the forward observes and said they would call Friday night with an update on the amount of wood.  They called as promised and said there was wood but a chain saw was needed.  Ed and Anita planned to spend the day with us but had to leave for the night due to a family commitment.  I called Ed to see if he had a chain saw and if he would bring it.  He did and he would. 

Leann and I left Saturday morning and stopped at the Home Depot in Franklin to pick up some dry “starter wood”.  We were going to have a fire!  We proceeded to the trailhead and meet up with Ed, Anita and Rob.  Along the way Jon called and said they planned to day hike and would wait at the shelters for us.   We arrived a few minutes late to the trailhead and found the remainder of the group waiting.  This was Rob’s first trip with the club.  I again said this was not typical trip with the club.  After brief introductions we agreed to drive to the shelter parking lot, hike in, cut wood, hang tarps and then go for a day hike. 

We arrived at the shelters made introductions and then assessed the wood.  There was a significant pile of logs approx. 10 feet long and 2-3 feet in diameter.  Thank you Jon for saying we needed a chain saw.  Nothing says backpacking like the sound of a chain saw ripping through a large log.  Ed put the chain saw to work and Rob and I took turns splitting the logs with the maul provided by the park service.  Leann and Anita hauled the wood to the shelter and provided updates on how much more we needed.  With all of this help we had a pretty good size pile in about 2 hours.  We then set up the tarps (I hate this part), had lunch and went for a day hike. 

I have to say Saturday was truly a great day to spend in the woods.  A cloudless blue sky, no wind and powdery snow made for a great day in the woods.  I hope the pictures do the day justice because my words sure do not.  The day was thoroughly enjoyed by all.  I turned back a little early from the hike to get the fire going.  Eventually everyone returned from their various day hikes.  Jon and Ray mentioned seeing  “Mr P” of the club maintaining the trail.  Thank you Mr. P!    

We ate and then socialized by the fire.  This is still a great way to spend a winter night.  There was a lot of chaos leading up to this trip but it sure was turning out well.  Eventually Ed and Anita said their goodbyes and left for the evening.  Thanks to both of them for all of their help with wood and shelter duties.

The sky stayed clear all night and that meant two things: awesome stars and cold.  In the middle of the night I checked on both.  It was without a doubt the most stars I have seen in the eastern sky, beautiful.  I also have to say it was COLD.  Temperature  readings were all over the map.  All I know for sure is that the temp was 4 degrees when we got back to our car around 10.

Posted By:	Youngvine
Trip Date:	12/27/2009
State:	SC, NC
Miles:	77.00
Pictures:	34

Kev78 and Youngvine found the Foothills Trails via recommendations from other backpackers on Backpacker.com and decided it was a good fit for the amount of vacation time we had available. After ordering the guide and arranging a rental car, we set out to get a shuttle for this linear trail. Many volunteers with the FTC (Foothills Trail Conference) were busy over the Holiday weekend, however, Adam McKinney from Happy Day Trails shuttle responded quickly to our request. We were looking at a 1-1/2 hour shuttle for $20/hour. Not too shabby.

Early on December 26th, we set forth from NE Ohio to Clemson, SC. The plan was to stay the night in a Holiday Inn Express and then find our southern trailhead of Oconee State Park by 8:30 am – our scheduled shuttle time. All went as planned except the shuttle was just about an hour late. Thankfully, the sun was out, it was a brisk low 30’s morning, and we had 5 trail days ahead of us. Perfect, right? $60 later and now nearing 11 am, we parted ways with Adam at Tablerock State Park, our northern terminus.

After a quick registration with a State Park employee, we headed up the boardwalk and across several streams and waterfalls on the 77-mile, yellow blazed, Foothills Trail. It was 12/27, my (Youngvine) 32nd birthday, and I could think of nothing else I’d rather being doing but backpacking with my beau ? For the first few miles, we enjoyed tons of flat bottom streams, waterfalls, scenic views of Tablerock and easy footing. We crossed a few other day hikers on the various trails but ascended quickly to our first summit, Pinnacle Mountain, a mere 2000’ feet above the State Park entrance. After a few beauty shots, we trotted into a wooded valley and met our first fellow backpacker’s. Gail and Ed, locals from the area, were on the 14th or so trip south-to-north, returning from a 4-day Christmas hike on the Foothills. They were super helpful with camping ideas and handed us their cumulative hiking guide. Yes, the one drawback to the FTC guide is there is a lack of total distance hiked as you go from section to section. Each individual section with accompanying maps starts at mile marker zero, so you need to continually go back and add up the total miles hiked to figure out where you were at, however, Ed had made a quick reference sheet with total miles coming from the south or north. Superb! 20 minutes later, we were back on our way heading up to Sassafras Mountain, 3554’, the tallest in South Carolina. On the ascent and descent of this mountain, we encountered lots of ice and little snow and a mix of topped off pine trees from the recent winter storm that left feet of snow across NC and the entire east coast. With a little bushwhacking, we made it to the summit, signed the register, and headed down with more bushwhacking to our recommended camp near Chimney Gap. Arriving earlier than expected, we decided to hike on to Section #3 and keep an eye out for another smaller campsite near a creek. Around 4:45 pm, we indeed spotted a peninsula ridge with a small fire ring and creek about 50 yards from the trail (enough camping for 3-4 small tents/tarps). Perfect! Dinner, Raspberry Crumble and candles for my birthday, and a fire. Challenging day but easy footing.
Day 1: 12.45 miles 3400’ of elevation gain. 45F day and high 20’s for the low.

12/28 – 8:25 am, we pulled out of camp with lots of sun and immediate stream crossings. Now…almost EVERY stream crossing has a man-made bridge. Not your usual PA/OH hiking. Courtesy of Duke Energy, there are lots and lots of funky wooden stairs (annoying) and beautiful bridges to keep your feet dry. Today started with crossing Laurel Fork creek 10+ times on various bridges, boat access roads to Lake Jocassee, views of the Oconee Nuclear Station and smaller ups & downs with no other foot traffic. Near lunch, we took a tiny spur trail to Virginia Hawkins Falls (25’) and then made a full lunch stop on a rocky outcropping overlooking Laurel Fork Falls (lots of camping here). We sent a quick ‘ok’ message home from SPOT and continued on to Section #5. A few good climbs later, we crossed a Foothills regular going north to meet up with buddies near Laurel Fork. He gave us few good campsite recommendations for the night as well. Back on an easier section of trail, we encountered a few ATV’s utilizing the old logging roads and the remainder of the day was quiet. Around mile 4 in this section, we started up and down the ridgeline of Rock Creek; better know as, “heartbreak ridge.” Hundreds of Duke Energy block stairs and several 500’ +/- ascends and descents. Wow! The trail final levels out; we crossed several lakeside camp sites with tables and fire rings, but continued on across the Toxaway River 225’ bridge to North Carolina. With a few hours of sunlight level and a little burst of energy, we pressed on to Section #6. One more big ascent and then a few miles of leveling terrain toward Bear Creek. There were several designated campsites on the map, and we picked a small site around mile 5 and pulled in at 5:40 pm. Little stream, flat ground camping, fire ring and plenty of firewood for Kev to utilize his new saw. Another clear night!
Day 2: 20 miles (32.49 total) 7152’ total ascent on trail. 40F day 25F night.

12/29 – 8:15 am, we walked out of camp with a BIG day ahead of us (most scenic sections). The sun was bright and it was looking like another cloudless day. We immediately crossed a huge campsite area and a larger Bear Creek. As we get into Section 7, we crossed on a 50’ suspension bridge, a 115’ wooden bridge and several medium sized timbered bridges! Then you cross through Bearcamp Creek (yes, different area) that could hold 10+ tents! In late morning, we dropped our packs and hiked .3 miles to Hilliard Falls. The height isn’t noted, but it’s easily 50’ tall! We picked up our packs, crossed a ton of streams and creeks, and entered the Thompson River area. There is one big campsite in Map #8 and then you aren’t allowed to camp inside the Whitewater River area. As we closed in on 1 pm, we dropped our packs again, grabbed our lunches, and descended the .7 mile spur trail to the lower Whitewater falls viewing area. Crossing paths with several day hikers, little did we know what kind of treat we were in for on this jaunt. I’m not sure of the exact height, but the guide claims the lower and upper falls are ‘2 of the highest in the eastern US’ Let’s say several HUNDRED feet! Again, we sent an ‘ok’ SPOT message home and enjoyed a sunny, relaxing lunch listening to the falling water. Back on the trail and heading up Whitewater River to the upper falls, we encountered tons of ‘Oconee Bells’ and a one other ‘fragrant’ backpacker. Nearing the upper falls area, the river gorge was very, very loud. Tons and tons of bus sized boulders and a high river made this virgin forest section a treat. Then we came across 2 large tents, obviously illegal, noted a sign ending the Duke Energy 44 mile stretch and out entrance into NC’s Nantahala National Forest and up to the craziest river crossing. The steel bridge, secured to neighboring boulders, but the latter half ended on a gigantic boulder leaving the hiker to trudge across a deep water boulder laden mess before finding the other side. This is where Ed and Gail had trouble. The water was so high and running so fast, they couldn’t reach the bridge. Thankfully, the water had reseeded, but it was still a scary crossing! Up a fierce, 600’ washed out tra

Posted By:	hclayton
Trip Date:	01/01/2010
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	1

Several NO SHOWS for the trip! But, we had 2 new to winter club members and one new to winter with a member of the club that contacted me when they saw the type of trip and asked about bringing a beginner also. 3 new to winter people made the trip worth while as that was what the trip was for.
Three new to winter backpackers showed up and braved out the elements of 0-10 degree temps on sat morning, wind and snow. The beginners have done something that most backpackers will never do. They may never do it again and may have hated the trip, BUT they did it.
Temps: 0-25 degrees
Snow: 8-12" day one, 2-4" new overnight and on day 2. Took creek route out from triple forks camp area on day 2.
Everyone worked together as a team to get things done and made sure everyone had food and warm drink.
Had one close call with disaster when one of the beginners fell into the stream on a crossing. Pants and top soaked. Everyone went into action to help get them out of danger in the 15-20 deg. temps. Hypothermia in such conditions sets in quick. Out of danger and finished up hike.
Thank you to all of the experienced members that were willing to give their time and knowledge to the beginners.

Link to more trip pictures taken by several members on trip: Thanks for sending so I could post.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hclayton326/WinterBeginner#

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	11/27/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	5

I realized that I did not post any photos from this trip. This is always a good trip, apart from the huge pain it is trying to organize shuttles, get payments and wonder where folks are. I still have not heard back from people that signed up and did not show up. If it was a loop trail it would all be a lot simpler. So next year I will consider a loop trip somewheres (maybe Oil Creek) and xnay the shuttle. That could rock.

We did have a good group of people and there were no injuries this year, apart from one runner getting a taste of backpacking. A woman talked him into it (imagine that). Same thing happened to me.

Happy New Year!

Posted By:	Youngvine
Trip Date:	11/26/2009
State:	NY
Miles:	25.00
Pictures:	11

4 members of the NEOH group set off on Thursday post-Thanksgiving dinner for the eastern edge of NY. Rob & Heather in one car and Kevin and I in another, we headed east to complete this point-to-point hike. The rendezvous point was a lovely Holiday Inn Holidome in Kingston, NY. We all arrived at a reasonable time and set in for the night with a dense, cool fog outdoors.

At 5:45 am, the alarm was off, and we slowly got our act together and checked out at 6:30 am. Breakfast was a local Dunkin' Donuts in downtown Kingston (cute place) with cool air but no fog or precip! The Subaru trains then left for Spruceton Road at the western terminus of the Devils Path. Traffic was light, so we made good time...enough for a second round of coffee in Hunter. My car was then dropped at the end of the trail, and we all packed in Rob's car to head east to Prediger/Platte Clove Road to begin the hike.

By 9:30 am, we set off on the trail....oh yeah...with about 13 other day hikers. Very unexpecting. At least the trail was fairly dry, and we weren't in pouring rain like we experienced in 2006. After the first grueling climb, we reached the summit of Indian Head only to see a lovely picture of a neighboring cloud deck. Beautiful as it was, we continued our trek down IH and up Twin Mtn. Low and behold, we saw the same thing here! Nevertheless, the air was dry and the trail just kept banging away at us. We broke for lunch at the top of Sugarloaf and then made our way down this nasty, craggy mountain in a bit of spitting snow and wind. We safely crossed onto flat ground in Mink Hollow to an empty lean-to for the night. And let me remind you the forecast was calling for snow at elevation 60 mph gusts and 45 mph sustaining winds. GREAT weather. We all pitched in and gathered wood, collected water, Kevin got the fire going, and dinners were prepared. By 7 pm, we had 2 others that had trucked in from the road to join us for the evening - meet Phil and Chris from NJ. They were going to base camp from this lean-to and climb Sugarloaf the next day. With a careful fire built, we stuck it out until 8:30 (for some) and 9 pm for the rest. 4062' of elevation gain/8 miles.

Saturday or maybe still Friday night, 2 hikers were awake from nature's calling and the howling winds, only to spot 3 headlamps making a very, very slow trek up the side trail. Of course, we had 6 jammed into this tiny lean-to, and we were already taking on snow flakes and whipping winds. Dummies... By 6:30 am, the 4 from Ohio were up and attempting to make breakfast while the winds raged on. At least we only got a dusting of snow and the skies were clearing quickly. By 8:30 am, we were on the trail in search of water and protection from the wind. Let me make this quick note - if you want a beautiful, crazy, maddening climb, please tackle Plateau Mountain with a sheen of ice and 2-3" of snow. CRAZY tough climb to crest over 3800' from mire 2580' in Mink Hollow. We all survived this one and gathered back to a 4-some at the top for wonderful photo ops. Then it was a lovely winter walk across Plateau and down another monster 1500' descent to Route 214; our 1/2 way point. We all enjoyed the break and a lovely lunch. Then it was back to the grind. Up Hunter Mountain at 4040', the highest in the county and 2nd in the Catskills. Once again, we all made it in remarkable time and re-grouped at the summit lean-to. It was 1:30 pm and it was decided we weren't going for the fire tower yet another 1.65 miles away. So...across Hunter's rim (lots of nice photos) and down again to Diamond Notch. The winds were finally presiding, but we still felt it was best to go for the lean-to vs. setting up tarps. We gathered again after this rocky and icy descent at the picturesque waterfall located at the spur of Diamond Notch and the Devils Path trails. 8050 elevation gain total/16 miles complete. It was a .5 mile walk up to the lean-to and this time we met 2 other CT boys out with monster packs - Max and Bill. What fun they were to hang out with that night! Healthy fire, lots of good dinner, and plenty of trail talk.

Around 6:30 am on Sunday, we were all clamoring out of bed to get breakfast and break camp for the final day. We had about 7 miles to go and the biggest climb on the trail – West Kill Mountain. It was a brisk 32F with sunny, sunny skies. We were on trail by 8:30 am, took a quick group shot at the waterfall and started climbing. At Buckridge Lookout, we regrouped, tried to dry off the wet snow drops from our clothes and grab a snack/lunch, while enjoying the 270 degree views. Then down we went, only to quickly come across fresh bear tracks! And lots of squirrel, dear and other small animal tracks in the fast melting snow. Kevin and I reached the car by 1 pm and Heather and Rob strolled in 15 minutes later.

What a fantastic trip with great friends, old and new, and a safe ending to a seriously tough hike. No blood, broken bones or blisters, but Heather did a damn fine job breaking some gear. She melted her boots, bent a Leki, destroyed some socks and gloves, and was covered in mud. Kevin also gave in to Rob’s fire gods with a melted Teva sandal and air conditioned gloves. Rob and I may have walked away unscathed ?

Until next the next adventure -

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	11/13/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	54.00
Pictures:	5

Friday, November 13, 2009

The three of us met at canteenboy's (CB) palatial estate and hit the road by around 7:00. The drive out was uneventful. The stars were abundant and it was a beautiful evening. We arrived at the trailhead at Fish Dam Run Overlook around 10:45 and hit the trail by headlamp. We had a couple minor problems as we hiked in. The hike along the cross connector to the intersection of the east and west loops is a little longer than I remembered. That coupled with doing it at night resulted in a fairly late arrival to camp. It was around 12:45 when we got in. We each set up tents and a tarp and hit the hay for a short night.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

We set alarms and got up between 6-6:30. It had misted some over night and this would continue through the morning. Nothing to cause any issues. We quickly breakfasted and packed daypacks. I was first out at 6:55 followed by Rob and then CB. Shortly out of camp, I saw a bobcat. Throughout the day, I saw many birds including blue jays, ravens, juncoes, chickadees. Sprinkle in a few deer and many many grouse. We hike the loop counterclockwise. I would rethink this as this loop gets progressively more difficult. It was an easy, fast hike through around mile 15. I got through the first 15 miles by around 11:30. I hiked in trail runners and actually ran a few miles of the trail. As you enter the Yost Run drainage, the sidecuts begin. The hiking got really tough for about a 10 mile stretch and I slowed significantly. After getting through Yost Run, I made my longest stop of the day (10 minutes) and soaked my feet in the creek. After taking them down a couple sizes, I marched on, eating and drinking as I hiked. I had a better bobcat sighting along Jews Run Road. I also spotted some turkeys. I stumbled back into camp about 5:20 just as the headlamp became necessary. I bathed, got a fire going, drank cocoa and tea and ate dinner. Still no sign of CB and Rob. At about 7:30, a headlamp came in. It was CB. He began his dinner and bathed. About 8:30, in came Rob. We all had good hikes but had some SORE feet. It is around 33 miles around the loop. I was in bed about 8:30. The other guys were in bed by 9:00.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

So we were understandably a bit slower moving this morning. We got up between 6:15 and 7:00 and ate and packed up camp. We left camp (a great site by the way) about 8:00. We finally got to see the site in the day light. We hiked with full packs the 3 miles or so out to the car and again loaded our daypacks. We hike this loop counterclockwise as well. This is the steeper way to go. We thought it may be easier to climb the dead leaf slicked slopes rather than descend them. Those climbs are STEEP. I feel that this loop, though shorter, is more difficult. Add to that already sore feet. I personally do not believe the east loop scenery is as nice either. Didn't see as much wildlife as well. Today was sunny and warmer than yesterday. I sweated lots. Since we had to hike the cross connector twice today, we actually hiked around 24 miles. So this was actually a 60 mile weekend. I once again made it out to the car about 5:20 and changed and bathed in the creek near the trailhead. Rob was dropped off in a van about 5:35. His hip was bothering him so he left the trail for a road a little more than halfway through the day. He still probably got in a 20 mile day. Ian arrived by headlamp about 5:45. He had a good day.

So my feet are still a little swollen and I have bruises outside of my heels. Because my feet hurt so bad Sunday, I wore hiking boots for that day. I'm not sure that helped or not. I was definitely more protected from rocks and blow down. There is a lot of blow down out in that area from the snowstorm of the middle of October. I continue to be a fan of the west loop of the CKT. I look forward to backpacking it soon and enjoying the drainages a bit more. We also saw a lot of bear sign. Rob's ride was actually a van full of bear hunters out scouting for signs.

Posted By:	canteen boy
Trip Date:	10/23/2009
State:	WV
Miles:	24.00
Pictures:	10

This was a very enjoyable and relaxing hike.  We had great fall weather.  Sunday was truly a beautiful day and very pleasant hiking.

We drove down to Seneca Shadows campground after work on Friday.  There was some rain during the night, but it ended by the time we got up.  We set out early to drop a car at the northern trailhead after picking up some coffee and doughnuts at a little convience store by Seneca Rocks.  After we dropped off the car, we drove down to the fire road.  There was a map at the northern trailhead that showed us the roads.  The small country roads that run parallel to the trail on the eastern side are paved.  It was fairly easy driving.  Even the fire road was paved until near the top, where it was pretty bumpy.  My Corrola probably would not have faired well, but Youngvine's Suburu handled it fine.

We dropped off water and other stuff.  I dropped off my whole pack and just hiked with a small daypack most of the first day.  The fire road actually hits the trail at about 12 miles.

We drove down to the southern trailhead and began the hike.  The sky was a littel overcast most of the first day, but there was no rain.  The views were excellent, and they started no more than a mile or half mile into the hike.  It was generally pretty easy ridge walking the whole time.  The trail was very easy to follow.  There is a hang glider ramp a few miles in that was pretty neat.  We enjoyed the hike with light packs until we got to the 12 mile point where we picked up the rest of our stuff.  My pack was quite heavy becuase I had about 5 liters of water, which was probably way more than I needed for the camping that night and hiking out in the morning.  As soon as a hoisted the heavy pack, a shoulder broke, which was bummer.  Fortunately, my pack had load lifter straps.  It was a litter uncomfortable, but I was able to keep the pack on my back and make it the four miles to the camp site.

We camped at about 16 miles in, near the intersection with a side trail.  As Aaron had indicated, there were some beautiful campsites here.  Unfortunately, it was very windy so we had to camp a bit away from the ridge.  We had a fire, and it was a nice night of camping.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  It was bright and sunny.  The leaves were golden, and it was just extremely pleasent and relaxed hiking.  We got back to the car around noon or so, and then drove back down to the southern trailead before beginning the drive back up to Cleveland.

I really enjoyed the trail and will probably hike it again some day.  The shuttle took a while, but it wasn't that bad becuase the roads were paved for the most part.  The trail was very scenic.  There were many excellent camp sites.  It is kind of a long drive for the weekend, but it is worth it.  We had a great group, and I had a great time on the hike.

Posted By:	canteen boy
Trip Date:	10/15/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	20.00
Pictures:	8

This trip did not turn out to be the classic Fall hike I was hoping for, but it was still fun, and it was an adventure.  We were planning on hiking a lot of miles and enjoying the fall colors, which I figured would be at there peak at this time of year in the Pine Creek area.  Instead, we ran into the earliest measurable snowfall in recorded history in the area.  There was a good six inches or more of accumulation of heavy wet snow.  It was weird.

The week of the trip, the weather reports consistenty looked pretty bad.  Predicted temps were around freezing at night, and there was a high chance of rain.  By Friday, there was a winter storm advisory, calling for 6 to 12 indches of heavy, wet snow causing downed trees and limbs becuase of the leaves being on the trees still.  I figured, "yeah right," there was no way it would snow that much in the middle of October.  It did.  The conditions were pretty much exactly as predicted.

Superhiker, Big Dave, and I drove out after work on Friday.  There was snow on the way out, and we could see the accumulation already on the side of the highway.  I can't remember what road we chose to take up to Ansonia, but I think it was Superhiker or Big Dave's idea.  It was tough going.  There was several inches of snow on the road and several large tree limbs down in the road.  We were going to meet Handlebar at Colton Point State Park campground, but there was a tree down blocking the road about a mile or two from the campground.  We ended up staying at another state park on the other side of Pine Creek.  When I walked out of the car to set up my tent, I couldn't believe it.  There was at least six inches of snow on the ground.

The next day, we went to Pine Creek Outfitters to see who made it.  To our surprise, everyone did.  We saw Salamander first.  He had slept in his car in the Outfitters parking lot.  Handlebar made it out of Colton Point after someone aparently removed the downed tree.  I figured there was no way Rob would be insane enough to drive out a 3 a.m., as he was planning, after receiving cryptic voicemails from Superhiker warning him that the situation had deteriorated, and it was not worth it.  I was wrong.  Rob pulled in not long after we arrived.

We decided we would just hike the West Rim trail becuase we were obviously not going to hike 50 miles this weekend.  We got a shuttle from Pine Creek Outfitters down to the southern terminus of the West Rim trail.  The shuttle driver took a group photo of the lunatics about to head out into the rain and snow.

We ended up walking about 11 miles on Friday.  There was continuous light rain and wet snow.  It was really strange to see the forest with leaves on the trees and snow on the ground.  It was slow going becuase we were constantly encountering trees or limbs that had either fallen into or were just hanging low into the trail.  Handlebar courteously led the way and knocked a good bit of snow off the limbs with his trecking poles.  Still, by the end of the day, I was soaked from the rain and snow and from crawling through snow covered limbs.  I'm pretty sure everyone else was soaked, too.  The conditions were challenging.  I started to get pretty cold by the end of the day becuase of my soaked gloves, feet, and pants. 

We finally found a place to camp around mile 11.  There are not a lot of campsites with water in the middle portion of the trail.  Wet snow was still falling as it had been all day.  Everyone pretty much set up camp, cooked in his shelter, and went to bed.  I think I slept for about 11 hours, which was nice.

On Saturday morning, it was no longer snowing, which was definitely a relief.  I proposed walking the remaining 19 miles of the trail that day because everyone's stuff was wet and the camping conditions were not enjoyable.  The consensus was that we would stay out another night.  As it turns out, it would have taken us a very long time to go 19 miles on the trail in the conditions.  We started out hiking, and it was more of the same with the downed trees and limbs.  It seemed even more so than Friday.  After walking a few miles, we approached a point were the trail crossed West Rim road, and we made a group decision to walk the road back to the outfitters.  There did not seem to be much of a point in staying out another night in the wet and cold conditions, and we were approaching the part of the trail that gets pretty close to Pine Creek Gorge with some steep drop offs close to the slippery trail.  We walked the road out, which was probably not much shorter in terms of mileage, but probably twice as fast becuase of the easy footing and the fact that we were no longer climbing through snow covered tree limbs constantly.

After we got back to the outfitters, we ate dinner at a nice place in the nearby town.  Then, we drove home Saturday night.

The weather was definitely unexpected and pretty unfriendly for hiking.  It was still raining on the drive home.  It pretty much snowed/rained for 2 days straight.  I still had a good time, though, and we definitely had a good group.

I plan on trying this hike again next year, and hopefully we can get some more typical and pleasent Fall hiking conditions.




 

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	10/09/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	13.00
Pictures:	1

Started with a dayhike and then transitioned into a backpack utilizing a shuttle. Previously I have done this as a loop backpack but there was a rocky stream that I wanted to enjoy more without a pack on, so this was it. It also set us up for a super easy finale walk back down the ridge on Sunday. I could do this again. One note is that Sones Pond (Saturday night camp) is right next to a road - so there was a group of 11 that backpacked about 1.5 miles in from the bottom of the ridge and there were others that drove out to the site. Needless to say it was crowded, but we were fortunate enough to get a good site. If there was no room we would have continued 1.5 miles to the end of the loop to camp.

I would say that out moving average was 1.5 miles per hour in this terrain.

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	08/07/2009
State:	MT
Miles:	80.00
Pictures:	75

Beartooth

Beartooth Plateau Trail Log

August 7 through August 22, 2009

Who:  JonW, superhiker

The goal was to explore to the Beartooth Plateau, a portion of the Beartooth Wilderness area, and to do this mostly off trail.  We planned on spending ten days backpacking in this area, most of the time we would be above 10,000 feet.

We eventually spent ‘only’ nine days backpacking, all without resupply.  A little over one day on NFS trails, about one day on off-trail routes.  The balance of the time was totally off trail.  We ended up being above 10,000 over 80% of the time.  We were only briefly below tree line – about 5% of the time.

Overall this was a very successful trip.  It was exciting, challenging, rewarding, and satisfying to be totally off trail for an extended period of time.  (It will be hard to return to hiking only on trails.)  The ruggedness, the beauty, the remoteness all made for an unforgettable trip.

We did not pile up mileage as the hiking was very demanding, but we did pile up memories.

Trip Day 1 – Friday, August 7, 2009

JonW picks up superhiker to retrieve car.  Superhiker gets to JonW’s house around 6:00 PM and the car is loaded and we take off.

Drive.

Drive.

Drive. 

Lots of rain.

Trip Day 2 – Saturday, August 8, 2009

Lots of rain.

Drive.

Drive.

Drive.

Arrive in Red Lodge, Montana do a little shopping (Moose Drool and Summer Honey) and eat dinner.  We drive up over the Beartooth Highway.  The temperature drops to the low 30’s as we go over the pass.  We get to our campsite on the Chief Joseph Highway near dusk.

Trip Day 3 – Sunday, August 9, 2009

We drive into Cooke City for breakfast.  Then we spend time visiting several stops near the highway, taking very short day hikes.  We check out the trailhead for the following day.

Posted By:	hclayton
Trip Date:	09/05/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	11

Minister Creek, 2 nights 3 days, what to do? Take your time and enjoy what mother nature has given us. See what you have missed the last time you hiked the trail, and guess what next time you will see something else. Enjoy the company of the group members. Everyone is different and everyone is unique BUT, we are all on a backpacking trip to have fun stressing our bodies by walking miles, carrying a ? Pound pack, sleeping on the ground in a tent or under a tarp, wondering if a bear, porcupine , raccoon, mouse or whatever will visit during the night. Some call us crazy, nuts or other things. But We Are BACKPACKERS call us what you want!

Baking on a backpacking trip? Boiling water and pour is not the only option. Baked potatoes, honey biscuits, rhubarb pie(thanks to Babu) and apple cobbler with supper, blueberry muffins with breakfast. Have you ever done that? Well we did. In fact morning 2 breakfast, rjohnson97127 had shown some interest in the baking and made the blueberry muffins for the group, I had decided that Monday morning I wasn't baking so guess what, he did the baking! Thank You rjohnson97127. I think and hope that everyone on my trip had a great time and learned some other items that can be made on a backpacking trip. I think they did, I hope so anyway. I think they did because some have asked if this is going to be an annual trip? Well ?????

Camped night 2 on the overlook, had to trek to make sure we had enough water for the night and morning, thank you to rjohnson97127 and Morgone for helping in the water transport for the group, the others gathered wood and had a nice fire going to fend off the bugs when we returned. We had hoped to see the beautiful moon and stars from the overlook, but mother nature said no not this trip. Clouds block our view of the night sky. Maybe next time.

Some of group not pictured. Most where blurry. Sorry

Pa RT 666 has been repaved so road is much better now.

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	07/20/2009
State:	Wyoming
Miles:	52.00
Pictures:	21

Wind River Range – Big Sandy Loop

On Friday, 7/17, Trail Breaker, SandyL, and I (Trailhead) began our 1727 mile drive to Pinedale, WY to participate in the 52 mile Cirque of the Towers loop hike. We arrived in Pinedale on 7/18 and camped at the local Best Western. On 7/19 we drove to the CCC Ponds just outside Pinedale for a day hike and then did a full exploration of the Mountain Man Museum. At 1:30P we arrived at the Wind River Brewing Company in Pinedale, the meet up place for the remaining members of this trip. By 2:15P, both Ryan and Dave (trip leader) had shown up. Over food and beverages, we proceeded to get better acquainted. Next we did some shopping to buy supplies for tonight’s meal and tomorrow’s breakfast. Then back to Wind River Brewing Company for more beverages. Around 5:30, we began the 90 minute drive to the Big Sandy Campground/Trailhead at 9100 feet elevation.. After tent setup, we lit a fire and consumed our evening meal and chased it with some wine. Mosquitoes were abundantly present.

Monday, 7/20 – Dave prepared breakfast consisting of blueberry pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, and coffee. What a great way to start a hike. At 10:50A, we were on the trail, generally following the Big Sandy River upstream to Big Sandy Lake at 9690 feet elevation. The trail was good, the weather was sunny and hot, and we arrived at Big Sandy Lake at 2:30P and pitched camp in a meadow. Then we did a day hike up to Black Joe Lake at 10250 feet elevation. Great vistas here and along the way. Returning to camp, we gathered fire wood, filtered water, and prepared dinner. Mosquitoes were abundantly present. The mosquitoes generally disappear around last light, about 9:20P, then one could remove the bug head net. We let the fire die down at 9:45P and retired for the night.

Tuesday, 7/21 – It was cool last night as we had frost on pack covers and parts of tents. Those of us who were up during the night saw a profusion of stars as well as the faint glow of the Milky Way galaxy. As the sun broke the mountain top horizon, out came the mosquitoes and on went the bug head nets. After breakfast was prepared, we’d remove the bug net, lather our faces with DEET, and proceed to eat. Once on the trail, as long as you were moving, the mosquitoes were not a problem, but whenever you stopped, then they swarmed all over you. We left Big Sandy Lake and headed up Big Sandy Pass Trail toward Jackass Pass. The trail goes upstream, paralleling North Creek and crossing it once, to North Lake. From here the trail descends 160 feet and then begins the longer climb to the summit of Jackass Pass at 10800 feet. The view from the pass is pretty impressive as you look down into and around at the Cirque of the Towers. The descent takes us to Lonesome Lake at 10166 feet. We cross the Lonesome Lake outlet, turn right, and cross the outlet from Secluded Lake. We proceed downstream following the North Popo Agie River using the North Fork Trail until we reach camp at Lizard Head Meadows. The trail condition today was good. There’s an abundance of water in the meadows. As usual, mosquitoes were abundantly present. We found a fire ring in a copse of trees and pitched our tents on meadow grass at the edge of the copse. We filtered water, gathered wood and lit a fire. Ryan and Dave went fishing, and, while gone, a mule deer came out of the trees and proceeded to graze on meadow grass in front of our tents. It was a doe and she stayed around for 15 minutes and only departed due Ryan and Dave returning from fishing. Ryan caught one trout which was artfully seasoned, wrapped in foil, cooked, and sampled by all. Very Good.

Wednesday 7/22 – Frost again this morning. We had another cool clear night with a multitude of stars and a view of the Milky Way again. As the sun broke the horizon, out came the mosquitoes. Shortly after leaving camp, we turn left and head up the Lizard Head Trail. Camp was at 10,000 feet and the trail takes us to 11,845 before gently dropping to 11,540 over 2.5 miles at the Bears Ears trail intersection. While on top the Lizard Head Plateau, we met Jordan, 28 years old, from Cincinnati who seemed to be suffering from altitude sickness. He was throwing up periodically and couldn’t keep even water down. We talked for awhile and requested that he hike with us so we could monitor his situation. There is no dependable water on the plateau and the surface of the plateau can best be described as ground moraine.. What water we did encounter was melt from small lingering snow packs. About ¼ mile before reaching the Bears Ears trail, we encounter a snow field which had to be crossed going downward for about 250 linear feet and off to our right. No mishaps. At the Bears Ears trail, we turned left and found t

Posted By:	GreenBoonie
Trip Date:	07/10/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	11.70
Pictures:	15

First off I would like to ask, who in their right mind would schedule a trip in the heat, high humidity, and threat of thunderstorms that was with us all weekend? I guess that would be me. Now, on to the trip details.

I arrived at the park office just before 5:00. Phil and hikin fool were already there. After introductions I deposited my backpacking reservation form and the fee in the key return box. You would think that since the box was also for the backpacking forms that the slot would be the right size for the envelope. Nope, it is just a tad too small so you think it will fit but you end up having to cram it through the opening. At least the box is deep enough. That being done I finished getting my gear ready for the hike. I had made copies of the trail map with our trails highlighted for everyone and passed them out to Phil and hikin fool as we waited for the last member to show. Bellalyra pulled into the parking lot at 5:20 so everyone was here. We all finished getting our gear together and hit the trail at 5:50.

We left the park office and crossed SR18 to continue hiking along the park road up to the Lake trail.  The temperature was still in the mid 80’s and it was humid. Hiking across a service road bridge we turned left onto the Lake trail. I went to check on my map and realized I forgot it. I was the one that made all of the maps and passed them out and forgot to pass one out to myself. I was sure I could hike the trails without a map so I was not too worried. We hiked along the forest service road / Lake Trail looking for the spot where the trail leaves the road and heads off into the woods. When we reach the end of the service road at SR18 I knew we missed it. So much for not needing a map. We started hiking back and came up to a woman out for a day hike. She had a map in her hand so I took a quick glance at it and saw where the Lake trail turns off. We hiked back almost to the bridge before we spotted a blue blaze on a telephone pole. There is no sign, just a blue blaze on the pole to indicate the trail. We started up the side of the hill and in a quarter mile came up to the Forest Trail. Heading in the right direction this time we soon crossed SR18 again and almost missed the trail on the other side. I started going down the road, stopped and borrowed Bellalyra’s copy of the map, and realized the trail was up the hill.  What a leader I was starting out to be. We continued hiking the Forest trail and finally reached the turnoff for the campsites at 6:45. At least I did not miss this one.

Phil decided to use a tent but the rest of us picked out our shelters for the night. I stayed by myself in a shelter and hikin fool shared one with Bellalyra. We were the only campers at this location for the night. The campsite is really nice with 5 Adirondack shelters mixed in with the pine trees giving each shelter some privacy from the others. In the center is a fire ring with a picnic table and a bear pole to hang our food from. Water and restrooms were 200 yards down the connector trail. The restrooms were closed but the park service did put up three porta potties in front of it. They were large and clean and did not stink so that was a pleasant surprise. We filled up with water and had our dinners at the picnic table. After dinner we hung our food bags and started a small fire in the fire ring for the night just to help keep the bugs away. As we sat around the fire we shared ghost stories and then everyone retired to a shelter or tent at 10:00. Thankfully mice were not a problem in the shelters this night. The only drawback to this park is its proximity to the Pittsburg Airport. You would hear the occasional airplane fly overhead during the night.

In the morning we all gathered at the picnic table for breakfast. I found Phil and hikin fool already there eating by the time I had gotten my food bag down. Bellalyra showed up soon after I had gotten there. Hikin fool and Bellalyra had a nest in the rafters of the shelter and talked about finding baby birds on the ground at the edge of the platform this morning. I guess they got closer to nature then planned on this trip. After breakfast we cleaned up, packed our gear and hit the trail by 8:30.We knew this would be a muggy day as the humidity was already very high. I borrowed the map and trail descriptions from hikin fool so I would not make myself into a fool today. We stopped by the water spigot to fill our various containers for the hike. We hiked back to the Forest trail by way of the Palomino trail. After a mile of hiking we came upon a pine plantation that had large ferns just covering the forest floor. It was a very pretty site and we stopped to admire it for a few minutes. One and three quarter miles into the hike we came to the end of the Forest trail and stopped at a wooden vehicle bridge to adjust boots and take care of forming blisters. Just past the bridge we picked up the Appaloosa trail and began a gentle climb. The Appaloosa trail is a mixed use trail so there were horse hoof prints along with the occasional pile to avoid as well as tire tracks from mountain bikes. We did not see any horses or bike riders along the trail this day. We had one steep climb and then we came up to the junction for the Pioneer camp. We opted to hike up the junction to take advantage of the restrooms by the campsites. As we reached the restroom a Park Ranger drove up in his suv and stopped by me. He said you must be Steve and handed me my camp permit which was also my receipt from the backpacking fee. He handed everyone else their permit except for Phil, who had arrived at the park office before it closed and already had his. I guess we were the only hikers this weekend as he did not ask us who we were before handing out the permits. He warned us about the threat of thunderstorms and we also talked about the restroom being closed at the Sioux campsite. He said they were going to demolish that and put in a new composting one. They also want to do that with the one at the Pioneer campsite. After taking advantage of the facilities we hiked thro

Posted By:	Shark
Trip Date:	07/03/2009
State:	WV
Miles:	15.00
Pictures:	2

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	06/06/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	11

Minister Creek Family trip ‘09

WE all made it to the trailhead on time, did our meet and greet and we were off for the traditional photo ant the Minister Creek sign. Afterword, a quick stop at the last civilized toilet and we were off on the trail.

The hike back to Triple Forks area was uneventful, and we only passed a couple of people. We wanted to get back to the big rack area to camp, but that spot was taken. We hiked back to the traditional Minister Creek camp area and everyone set up there, at the last fork.

Once setup, everyone joined in to gather fire wood, and before long we had ourselves a nice stack of wood, now it was time for dinner.

Most had the typical type of trail meals, ramen, Mountain House, Idahoan Mashed potatoes; But Joey surprised us all with hobo pies! Yes, she was making trail Stromboli!  Yes, Stromboli! She carried the hobo pie tool, a jar of sause, cheese, bread, which she did not smash! Her food for her and her daughter smelled so good, and she had pleant to share as well, many took part.

KevBro’s nephew Johnny was in a hurry to get the fire underway and soon we had a nice blaze. Kevbro needed the fire for his meal, and soon we smelled the ground beef and veggies he was cooking.

WE all retired to a seat around the fire, told tails, talked of trips yet to come, and those that never may. The kids started with the smores and popcorn, everyone had a great time! By 10:30 we were all in the sack.

Morning came early and I was up and packed before anyone else rose from their sleep. Enjoying my coffee, everyone started to get up shortly after 7, may daughter and her friend took some tent shaking to do the trick. Soon breakfast had, gear packed, we were off on our way to the overlook. We made good time, even with all the kids we made it in about an hour. WE enjoyed the view and headed for the parking lot. We were soon on our separate ways home and another fine family trip completed without any problems.

Remember, if you see Joey signed up on your trip; remind her about the hobo pies and the trail Stromboli!

Posted By:	GreenBoonie
Trip Date:	06/06/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	10.60
Pictures:	9

Quebec Run JUNE 6-7, 2009

Three of us were carpooling together for this trip. I arrived at the meeting place at 6:55 Saturday. Mainstreet was already there and a few minutes later Andrea showed up. This was Mainstreet’s first backpacking trip in a long while so I loaned him some of my gear. We loaded the gear into my car and headed down I76 towards Youngstown. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then continued on.

The drive was pretty much uneventful and we arrived at the West trailhead parking lot around 11:30. I helped Mainstreet get his gear into the loaner pack and we put it on him to test the fit. The pack fit him ok so I did not need to make any adjustments to it. Andrea donned her pack as I put on my pack and made sure everything was stowed correctly out of sight in the car and locked it up. We then headed to the trail at 12:07.

We followed a short connector trail that took us downhill to the junction of the Tebolt and Hess trails. We turned down the Hess trail to begin the loop. There were a lot of birds singing and the weather was almost perfect for hiking in. The small stream crossings we came upon were easy to negotiate across but I could tell they were running higher then usual for this area. We would not have to worry about water on this trip. The Mountain Laurel was just starting to bloom and made for some nice color along the trail. As we hiked the Hess trail I came upon a track in the trail that looked like it was made from a horse. Andrea looked at it and also thought it was a horse. We knew horses were not allowed on this trail so we thought this was odd. We also found what appeared to be horse droppings in the middle of the trail. We would find out what they really were the next day.

We stopped for lunch when we reached Quebec Run itself. As we sat there eating our lunches a dog came down the trail, barked a couple of times, and headed back up the trail. A couple of minutes later the dog came back down this time on a leash with its owner and a friend. We said hi as they passed us and crossed the bridge over Quebec Run. A short while later a mountain biker came rolling down the trail and did a quick turn heading to the bridge across Quebec Run. I do not think he noticed us until he was almost past us as he seemed to be surprised to find us sitting there next to the trail. He carried his bike across the bridge and disappeared up the trail. We did not see him or the other two hikers the rest of the trip. We finished our lunch break and crossed the bridge to continue our hike. After crossing the bridge the trail starts going up and keeps going up with only one decent into a small valley before climbing out again finally ending at the North parking lot.

We stopped at the North parking lot and end of the Hess trail at 3:30 and took another break letting our tired and hot feet air out before continuing down the Miller trail. There is also the junction for the Whitetail trail which heads north from here. We started down the Miller trail and came up to the junction with the Long Run trail. The Long Run trail also heads north and connects with the Whitetail trail offering another short loop hike to this area. We were too tired to try adding more trails to our hike so we continued down the Miller trail, shortly reaching the Mill Run trail. At one point on the Miller trail I came upon a small snake on the trail. I almost stepped on it as it rushed to get into the underbrush next to the trail. Hiking along the Mill run trail was pleasant as it does not have the long or steep ups and downs the Hess trail and Miller trail have. We checked out a couple of camping locations along the Mill Run trail but decided to go to the one closest to the Tebolt trail junction to shorten the hike out in the morning. We did pass a group of Boy Scouts that were setup along Mill Run itself. Near the end of the Mill Run trail we reached our campsite at 5:00 tired but happy to finally be stopping for the day.

Tent sites were picked out and we setup our tents and stowed our gear. Since I loaned Mainstreet one of my tents I helped him get it setup. I took my water bag down to Mill Run and filled it with water. Hanging the bag from a tree I setup my filter in it so we could pump our water from it.  I had brought along an alcohol stove and a pot for Mainstreet to use. I showed him how to start it and he used it to boil his water for his Mountain House meal. I used my canister stove to boil my water. I tried out a new recipe from Backpacker magazine called Summer Mountain Pesto. It turned out to be very easy to make as well as being very good. We all finished dinner and cleaned up. I took all of the food and smellables and hung them for the night from a tree north of our campsite.  Other campe

Posted By:	Arizona Arz
Trip Date:	06/01/2009
State:	NZ
Miles:	20.00
Pictures:	6

The Routeburn track is a one way trail 32kilometers(20 miles)long.  It is located on the Southwest region of the south island of New Zealand. The trail starts in a temperate forest near the town of Glenorchy. Which was used for alot of the shots in Lord of the Rings but I digress....... I would be traveling east to west,the trail climbs steadily to the alpine region of the Southern Alps. It continues through the alpine region for awhile before dropping down into the valley containing Lake Mackenzie, before climbing back out and descending again to the end of the trail at an area named the Divide. My plan was orginally to tent camp, however due to limited spacing of legal tent camping(only two of the four sites permitted)and the distance between those sites, undesireable, I opted to stay in the huts.
I had to book a bus to pick up at the far end, somehow this was not communicated correctly and I would have to return to the start of the trail to be picked up. This was according to busdriver/Nascar wannabe. (People pay to skydive for an adrenaline rush when all they have to do is ride a bus with this driver)It is 350km or217 miles via road from one end of the trail to the other, so I did not want to miss the bus. The first day was a steady climb to the Routeburn Flats Hut. I would not be staying here but did stop to enjoy the view. The valley was amber grass surrounded by mountains and beautiful waterfalls. My destination was the next hut at Routeburn Falls. It was a steep climb from the Flats. There were some great vistas, water falls and some suspension bridges to bring out the Indiana Jones in you.
The hut contained two rooms of 24 bunks each. Each bunk had a mattress. The communal kitchen/common area had about six to eight burners, so carrying a stove was not necessary, which was nice because along the way my stove broke. It was a good move to stay at the hut as a cold front with rain had settled over the valley.
The next day was a trip over the saddle and the alpine area. It was a steady mist and very chilly. I was very glad to see the day hut providing a nice respite from the drizzle. Upon dropping down into the valley the weather broke and the skies cleared. Since I had to return to the starting point, I decided to do a day hike, to Erland Falls, the falls were about 4km, 8km(5miles) round trip back to the Mackenzie hut. 
The Mackenzie hut had 24 bunks. I met some good people there. The resident Bushmaster(ranger) was very entertaining and missed his calling as a standup comedian. It was a clear night and I was able to see the Southern Cross for the first time(The Crosby,Still and Nash song will now commence in your head all day). 
Since my transportation was messed up. I had to leave at dawn to back track the 20km(12miles)back to the start of the trail. It was a beautiful day. I hiked up a side trail to conical peak(1mile up, 1mile down)It had great views and was high enough that you could see the tasman sea. I was traveling on the trail very fast but still managed to miss my bus, as I was 10 minutes late or so I thought. Although the laid back attitude of the Kiwis caused the mistake with my bus, it paid off here. For the bus was 20 minutes late and I timed it perfectly. However there was a problem, they did not have me down as a pickup. I was permitted on the bus anyway. As I exited the bus in Queenstown, this new driver had talked with his HQ and stated I was supposed to picked up at the far end(The Divide). I told of my experience with the first driver. The new driver apologized. Just a warning to confirm thrice when booking Dun unda! The total trip with my backtracking was about 26miles, but it was worth it.

Dan "Arizona & Aussie" Arz

Posted By:	hclayton
Trip Date:	06/06/2009
State:	Oh
Miles:	9.20
Pictures:	17

After inheriting the trip from original organizer due to their work schedule problems 5 days before trip date I was a little nervous about the trip as I had not done trail before.
I had topo's of the trail area and a general turn layout as well, but with intersecting trails and side trails to various features I was somewhat worried. As it turns out with reason. The trail head for a counterclockwise route around the trail was not marked as the sign had been knocked down. We arrived at the sign for the great cave and saw trail marker to the left so proceeded along that trail. Notes I had for the trail didn't match up and trail markers limited we did searching at each intersection. At about 1-1.3 miles into the trail we, with notes and topo's figured out we where doing the trail backwards from my notes!. Now I felt a little better because things started somewhat matching notes in reverse.
We traveled the trail and found a site to camp on night one. Day 2 we found the trail markers much the same as day 1. Markers are white diamonds with blue circle in center. Many of the blue disks have fallen off the white diamond, if the diamonds are even on the trees, many are knocked down, some were on the ground. Trail in woods was good except on east facing hill sides where growth is sometimes covering trail. A sections of about 1/2 mile goes through a power line right of way and no markers are on this sections and grass/weeds are over knee deep. Trail is hard in this section.
A Note To Others Wanting To Do This Trail. It is a nice trail, many ups and downs. BUT, NOTE THIS TRAIL IS CLOSED IN WINTER. I should have written the down the dates as I don't remember when, Wayne National Forest Headquarters could give you the dates.
At the end of day two we found where we missed the start of the trail in a counterclockwise directions. It was 50 to 75 yards up the hill from the Great Cave Sign to the right.

5 people attended the trip 3 new backpackers. We all made the trail and the new people asked "Is this a number 2 in difficulty trail?" As to the original organizers trip description. In the opinion of myself and the other experienced packer on the trip we would rate the trail moderate, a 5 in difficulty. The new people were happy to hear that.

I hope the confusion and difficulty of the trip doesn't discourage any of the new packers. We did a little extra hiking with the confusion maybe about 3/4 miles. I think that everyone had a great time. I know I did!

A note to hikers of this trail. Take the time to explore the features along the trail, they are worth the extra hiking!!!

And thank you to Ange for the pictures!

Posted By:	stepbreathe
Trip Date:	05/22/2009
State:	OH
Miles:	22.00
Pictures:	14

We deviated quite a bit from our original plan. If I were challenged to give this trail a one word description, I’d have to say “flexible”. The TVT is a system of trails in two separate Metroparks, linked by a “connector” trail that skirts the south side of the village of Germantown. The trail system is sort of a daisy-chain configuration, mostly a series of loops connected to one another. The mileage for individual loops is indicated on the trail maps, but if one’s objective is to follow one side of the series of loops (as we were trying to do), it is nearly impossible to estimate the mileage. As it turned out, we shortened the trip by one night as we had walked most of the length of the trail by mid-day Sunday, but we had logged 29.3 miles via GPS in ~ 48 hours with all of the “sightseeing” we did. This was a strange (but fun) “backpacking” experience as we ate in restaurants almost as much as we did on the trail! The two parking lots that allow overnight backpacker camping (Boomershine and Eby Rd) are 10 minutes drive apart, so allow 20 minutes if shuttling cars. Permits are required for the campsites, which are obtained by calling the Five Rivers Metroparks office.

Friday we left the Eby Rd trailhead heading south toward the Pine Ridge campground. We were on the west side of the south-bound trail system, reaching Dogwood Pond in about an hour. The trail turns to the left just as you reach the Pond, which we discovered AFTER we circumnavigated the Pond. There is a short connector that allows you to view the Hopewell Earthwork – don’t miss this trail feature! We reached the camp in 5.1 miles (including the pond circuit, which was short). Just prior to camp there is a parking lot/latrine/water source marked on the map where we intended to water up. THERE IS NO WATER HERE. The map says “water coming in 2009”, but there is none there yet. When obtaining the permits the ranger also told me there was water here – so don’t believe them either. If you are counting on water here, check yourself before beginning the hike. (We would recommend planning to stash water here, as it would be an easy drive from the trailhead. If there turned out to be water here later in the year that would be a bonus.) Finding no water and noting a number of creeks/streams on the maps, we continued ahead planning to pump/treat from the streams…which were all dry. We continued to camp, dropped packs and hiked down to Lake George. Lake George is a very small fishing pond, from which we were able to pump water, although it was already somewhat warm this time of year. I would guess in late summer it might be undesirable.

Pine Ridge Camp is organized with three separate campsites, arranged on a loop. None are visible from the others. At the entrance to the loop is the “common cooking area” which had a food pole, but was very exposed and in long grass. Since there were seven of us and no other campers, we used Camp A as a common site. Each of the sites were shaded, well-graded and comfortable. There is room at each site for 2 tents, at Camp B we were able to pitch 3; two singles and one double. No fires are permitted, although we believe one could easily be supported in the common area using a metal fire ring to control the size of the fire. Even as warm as it was, it was disappointing not to have a fire. There was a small amount of litter in the camp from previous hikers, which we cleaned up best we could.

Saturday morning we headed out, up the east side of the loops, not taking the eastern portion of the Lake George to camp section as was planned) and instead found ourselves in Germantown by 10:30! As the trail approaches Germantown, it directs hikers south of the village through a city park called Kercher Park. We chose instead to head into town on the main drag (Rt. 725) to check out “The Florentine” a 19th-century inn still serving as a restaurant. Turns out The Florentine doesn’t open until 4 pm, but we discovered a real gem – “Kathy’s Kitchen”. Kathy’s is the old-timey, small-town diner where the waitress automatically calls everyone honey or sweetie (except for trailbreaker, who had to earn his endearments), the food is great and the prices are low. They were happy to let us stash our packs and poles in the small coat rack and we had a great brunch there. If you are going to trek the TVT, definitely make time for Kathy’s somewhere along the way. It is one block off Rt. 725 and you won’t have any trouble finding it – anyone in town will be happy to point you in the right direction. We headed out of town on Rt. 725, picking up the trail again as the end of town vs. circling back through the park. We arrived in camp about an hour later. So how did we manage to log so many miles? We set up camp, hung out a while, then hiked the long route through Kercher Park back into town where we had a nice early dinner at The Florentine. The walk through the park was definitely longer than the straight shot through town, and while it was pleasant to be away from the street traffic, most of the “trail” was out in the open on asphalt walkways, so wasn’t a great deal cooler in the intense heat. The food at The Florentine was good, but no experience like Kathy’s. If you don’t like whatever dehydrated meal you have planned for the night, The Florentine might be nice, but you don’t need to make sure to include it in your itinerary. Continuing the fine tradition of roughing it on this hike, we stopped at the Amerithon gas station/convenience store just outside town on our return trip to camp, filling up our water containers from their outside spigot (after obtaining permission), then filling a few Sea-to-Summit pack liners with ice and libations before the mile hike back to camp. A good time was had by all. Pine Ridge Camp is totally dry (well, unless you have provisions from the Amerithon?), but had a very nice common area, again with a food pole, a few logs for seats, and a nice kitchen cooking “counter” on the pole. The logs seemed to be harboring lots of ticks, so caution is recommended if using them early in the season. The common area again was begging for a fire ring. The 3 individual sites again could accommodate only 2 tents each, and at least two of them were rather sloping, although certainly usable. There was some visibility from one site to the next. The latrine was very new and nice. The camp was spotless.

On Sunday morning we hiked north out of camp and into the Germantown Metro Park section of the TVT. Along the north side of Twin Creek here is the most challenging section of the hike, with a few ups/downs, although the consensus was that the lowest end of the “moderate” scale I assigned to this hike was accurate. It is not completely flat, but this “hilly” section is only about a mile long so wouldn’t slow down even beginning hikers very much. This section ends at the Bob Siebenthaler Natural Area, which does have car access, nice picnic tables, trash receptacles and a latrine. Had we known there was a trash can coming up so soon, we would have picked up the soft drink bottles we saw down below us in the stream. Imagine day-hikers not being able to carry a bottle 500 yards back to their car! There is group camping here, but not for backpackers. It is also not permitted to park overnight here, but would again make for a convenient stash if you wanted to lighten your load for this trip. We conti

Posted By:	trail breaker
Trip Date:	04/25/2009
State:	TN
Miles:	40.00
Pictures:	11

The weather looked perfect everyone was ready to go and on time what could go wrong? Sandy and I car pooled with Christy and Footloose. We left home at 6:15 AM and arrived at Bandy Creek in Oneida, Tennessee at 3:00PM.. We met up with Glacier girl and Cliked and Bacpacr. Tom Walsh/bacpacr is a new member and his first trip with the club. He is very experienced and great to hike with. We took two cars to Pickett State Park to leave there for our return when we finished the John Muir Trail. The ranger on duty told us we could not do the trail and return at Pickett. There was a forest fire burning all around the trail. My mind would not accept what she was saying and I said we could just skirt around the fire and be on our way. She informed me the fire covered about two to three hundred acres. Plan B was to do part of the JMT and loop back to Bandy Creek on the Laurel Fork Trail. This plan would give us about 40 miles and end the hike a day early.
We started hiking Saturday at about 5:00PM. and did 4.63 miles. Sunday we hiked the Grand Gap loop. This a spectacular ridge which loops around a deep gorge with rock face cliffs. We hiked a total of 12.21 miles with out our packs and camped at the same spot as we did on Saturday. We were serenaded every night by whippoorwills. That was nice but it went on all night. We all agreed it would be a dead whippoorwill if we had a shotgun. We did the Grand Gap loop and a side trip to the John Litton Farm. Monday was our longest day with 14.6 miles hiked. This was very tiring as the temperature was 80 to 85 degrees with very little shade. The bugs were also very bad which made it hard to rest when we stopped. We finished the hike on Tuesday with 8.77 miles. After showers and a great meal at a steak house in Oneida, we got a camp sight at Bandy Creek and stayed the night.
After thoughts: The weather was very hot with little shade and the bugs were very bad during the daylight hours. There were also a lot of ticks and almost every one had to remove at least one. This a great trail with lots of rock houses and spectacular overlooks. I feel it would be better to do in the fall, even late fall as it is so far south.

Posted By:	hclayton
Trip Date:	04/25/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	14

Hclayton & Mclayton and Dogs arrived at parking lot at 10:45 followed shortly by TomW. As the parking lot was very full we parked near the sign. Greeting were had and shortly after CMR (also a club member) that had signed up for the trip but had to drop off because he could not find a sitter arrived. He had emailed me to ask if I minded he join us as a day hiker. I said that he was very welcome to do that. He gave us all a lesson in heavy pack training. You must check the trip pictures to see his day pack. It may qualify for the heaviest day pack in history. Two children plus day hike needs. yojiness had emailed me that driving in from Columbus,OH they was not sure how long it would take to drive to the trail head and if they where not there don't wait, they has done the trail may times and I felt sure that they would catch up or meet us at camp.
11:30 took group picture + our day hikers and hit the trail. We all hiked together 3/4 of the way on day one. Finding that it was a little much for mclayton and the two k9 members I decided that with the fullness of the parking lot and the number of people on the trail that it may not be a bad idea for our day hiker and TomW to go on ahead to our camp location for the night to make sure we got the spot we wanted and our day hiker could complete his loop before dark. Shortly after they hiked ahead yojiness caught up with the slower members of the party. Greeting had, we continuned on to camp location.
Small evening fire, meals had, we shared stories and were entertained by the dogs, rested up from hike and feed they wanted to do some play time. We where all talking about with the very clear sky that the stars would be beautiful, but none could stay awake to view them due to the 80-85deg day. All in bed by 9-9:30.
Sunday up, breakfast had, packed up gear and hit the trail about 9:30 wanting to beat as much of the heat as we could and not wanting to push our 1st timers. Arrived back to nearly empty parking lot only to find that yojiness had not locked their car, all was ok except the battery was dead. Car jumped and started we all headed home.
Thank you all for an enjoyable trip.
hclayton

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	04/17/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	38.40
Pictures:	6

Artsyfartsy and I gathered canteenboy at his house and drove out to Vinnie's in Clarion to meet Youngvine, Kev78 and Handlebar Friday night at about 8:00. We ate (far too much) and had a few cold ones prior to heading out to Beaver Run water impoundment on the Quehanna plateau. We made it to this trailhead by about 11:00. As we packed and changed, headlamps approached and we were treated to a Patsquach sighting. He had brought a group from SW PA out to do a different hike in the area. We chatted a while prior to hitting the trail. We hiked about 3.7 level miles in to camp at Meeker Run. It was a perfect night to hike. The stars were incredible and the hike is through largely open blueberry meadows and bogs affording views of the night sky as we walked. It was lovely. We covered ground fast and made camp by about 12:30. No shelters were set up and we enjoyed the cold, clear night.

We were all up by 7:00. It got down to around 30 degrees over night. We all ate and packed up and were on the trail by about 8:10. This hike was a little complicated so we agreed that we would meet at every trail intersection. These were frequent so we hiked more or less together the entire way. We started south on the east cross connector before quickly reaching the Crawford Vista extension. We climbed up on the trail to the vista. The weather was perfect; about 55 degrees with a breeze this time of morning. The vista is beautiful and worth a side hike as it takes in the Mosquito Creek Valley. We made a left turn on the Crawford Trail and then a right on the Mosquito Creek Trail. This area is pretty unique. It is rolling and mostly open with sparse tree cover. The area is highlighted by huge boulders and blueberry meadows. The crossing of Mosquito Creek occurs over a burly bridge in a beautiful wide U shaped valley. After the crossing, the trail meanders along smaller unnamed creeks through similar terrain. Eventually, a forest road is reached. After hiking a mile or so along this, we reached a brand new water impoundment surrounded by huge clearings created by DCNR mainly for elk browse. This was an impressive area that does not yet appear on trail maps of the area. We watched all the wildlife in this area for some time and identified a waterfowl none of us had previously encountered; three buffleheads cavorting in the water. As the water was low, we were able to cross the dam without putting our sandals on. Shortly after this, a Great Horned Owl flew out of a tree along the trail ahead of us. He appeared to roost again 100 yards ahead of us so we went searching for him. As we searched, artsyfartsy spotted a porcupine in the crook of a tree checking us out. He just yawned at us. Never spotted the owl again. We continued on stopping briefly at Pebble Run so I could dismantle a fire ring Rob and I had used in February. We crossed Quehanna Hwy as the temperatures began to rise and the breeze abated. It got up to around 70 degrees which I felt was a little too warm. But we had no precipitation so I'll not complain too loudly. We continued on the Mosquito Creek Trail until we reached the fire road which we used to hike out to the main Quehanna Trail at around the 50 mile mark on the trail map. We ate lunch in this area and continued on. We descended Porcupine Draft and then up Red Run. Red Run is one of the most beautiful drainages on the Quehanna in my opinion so Artsyfartsy and I took our time climbing the 1000' through this area taking it in. The cascades, pools and rhododendrons are worth the extra time. Near the top of Saunders Draft, we had another Patsquach sighting. He was hiking to the top with one of his group to their eventual campsite at Arch Spring. We spent time hiking and chatting with him. At Arch Spring, we gathered water and I hung out to chat more with Patsquach while everyone else hiked the 2 miles on to our camp at the top of Laurel Draft. I arrived there about 7:00. We all set up and some of us bathed. There was a chance of showers in the forecast so some of us set up our tarps while others slept in the open taking the chance that they would set up tarps during the night. Some of us bathed to take the day's sweat and trail dust off. There was plenty of dust. We knocked off 20.2 miles today. The vast majority was flat. We actually had 10 miles in by noon. So we ate, socialized, did some singing and drifted off to bed between 9:30 and 10:30.

Well, it never rained during the night. We were awakened around day break by all the bird songs. During the night, I heard great horned owls, barred owls and, early in the morning, a screech owl pretty much right above us. We ate our breakfast and got out of camp by around 8:30. We hiked down the very scenic Laurel Draft. It was breezy and a little cloudy but never threatened rain. At Wykoff Road, we made a right (west) turn and hiked less than a mile before making a right on the yellow blazed Sevinsky Trail. This trail follows a pretty stream up the mountain side. However, the trail is not heavily used or well marked. You have to keep your head up to stay on it. We made a left on Gore Trail and topped out at the next trail intersection. It was around 1000' of climbing total. We hiked on Bailey Log Trail south hiking on mostly ski trails and forest roads. It was pleasant hiking in nice weather. We crossed Wykoff Road and the trail became much more trail-like. This area would be great for winter snowshoe trips as it rolls gently through attractive woods and blueberry meadows and crosses excellent water sources. We made a right on Wykoff Rd, crossed Quehanna Hwy again and continued on the David Lewis Trail. While all of this is flat, it is interesting hiking and very enjoyable. After crossing Reactor Rd, we soon reached Meeker Trail and hiked this on to the cross connector again. 3.7 miles north and we made the vehicles by about 3:00 after 15.3 miles. It was a great day of hiking. We had dinner and adult beverages at Medix Run Inn prior to going our separate ways. We actually hiked 39.1 total miles.

I found lots of good future hiking opportunities on these trails; especially for winter trips. There are plenty of paved road trail heads to use, multiple loop or end to end options and good scenery.

GPS file courtesy of Youngvine.

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	04/16/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	28.75
Pictures:	25

Old Logger Path Trail Log
April 16-19, 2009

Who:  MJ, Ernie, DB, JohnK, Big Dave, mgm, and JonW (yours truly)

Day 0 - Thursday, April 16, 2009
JohnK, Big Dave, JonW and met and carpooled to the trailhead.  On the way, we ate dinner at Luigi’s Ristorante in ‘downtown’ DuBois.  I highly recommend this restaurant.  We finally arrived at the trailhead at 10:15.  I had reserved Masten Site E for our use and it served perfectly.  MJ, Ernie, DB, and mgm had arrived before dark and had already gone to bed.  We quickly set up our tents and were in our bags before 11.

I recommend reserving a site at the trailhead as this eliminated a drive in the morning and saved money.  Another approach would have been to stay in downtown Williamsport and spend the evening sampling beer at the ‘Bullfrog’.  I can see some merit to this approach also!

Day 1 - Friday, April 17, 2009

We were up by 6:30 and we introduced ourselves as most had not previously met.  We ate breakfast, dressed, broke camp, and drove the tenth of a mile to the parking area at the trailhead. 

Packs on and off we went by 8:30.

Because our plan was to explore the Rock Run drainage between Sharp Shinned Trail and where Rock Run intersects the OLP I decided that we had to stay together for this entire section of the trail.  We reached the high point of the trail just before Ellenton Ridge Road at 2240 feet.  Once we crossed the road we kept a sharp eye out for the blue blazed Sharp Shinned Trail that would take us to Rock Run.  Several of us (including me) passed the turn before DB, JohnK, and Big Dave pointed out the turn.

Shortly we were at Rock Run and totally off trail.  We followed the drainage downstream, always staying on the flatter side.  We crossed the stream 6 to 8 times as we went down.  Rock Run was low enough to be able to ‘rock hop’ across.  It went from pretty to simply stunning.  This part of the hike will be remembered by all who participated.  On the way we saw riffles, waterfalls, deep blue pools, pot holes cut by the water, flumes, snow/ice from winter, old logging/railroad artifacts, canyons, a huge stick bird nest, and unfortunately the recent sign of man.  We noticed at least eight polyethylene tarps just folded and left behind in addition to other refuse.  This was a very sad sight in such beautiful surroundings.  It is hard to understand why people would intentionally sully such a pristine setting.  Sad, sad, sad.

One of our goals was to find the ‘rock house’ that is reported to be in one of the gorges along Rock Run.  In this effort we failed.  I will get better directions/location before I go there again so that I can see this relic.

After leisurely hours of exploring Rock Run, including time to sit in the sun and have lunch, we got back on the OLP.  There were several very nice vistas after we climbed Yellow Dog Run.  We got to Doe Run around 4:00, where we set up camp.

We gathered around the fire pit for our evening meals and good conversation.  The fire danger was “HIGH” and no campfires are permitted without specific permission (which we did not get) so we went fireless.  We were all in bed by 9:00.

Day’s distance: 11.0 miles
Elevation gain: 1700 feet
Elevation loss: 1400 feet

Day 2 - Saturday, April 18, 2009

We got up around 6:30 and began the business of starting the day: making breakfast, breaking camp, etc.  We were on the trail around 8:15.

Shortly after starting we came to a vista looking west over Rock Run from Sullivan Mountain.  We took a short break here to enjoy the view.  A little further along the trail we came to yet another vista from Sullivan Mountain that was south over Pleasant Stream.

We dropped into Long Run drainage and when we came to the stream, there was a small campsite located there.  We took a short break to enjoy the scenery and sound of the cascading water.

After the break we followed Long Run to Pleasant Stream Road, crossed the road and hiked onto the stream crossing.  When we reached the road we were at our low point for the trip at 1240 feet.  We could not ‘rock hop’ Pleasant Stream, so we all removed our boots and put on our ‘stream crossing’ shoes and forded the stream.  The water was very cold and felt good on our hot feet.  The campsite just after the ford was trashy.  It was lunch time, so we all ate.

Getting going again was difficult, but had to be done.  The next climb is the longest of the hike – we gained over 800 feet in about 2 miles.  But the reward was the view from Sharp Top - breathtaking and expansive!  I do not know if there is a better view in Pennsylvania.  From here you can see the water gap that leads to Loyalsock Creek.  You can almost see the Loyalsock Trail.

There is a dirt Forest Service Road to Sharp Top and a Pennsylvania Forest Ranger came there while we soaked in the view.  He was looking for forest fires.  He gave us some maps of Loyalsock State Forest.  We let him know about the tarps left in along Rock Run and gave him the location of them.  He planned to send in some younger workers to retrieve them.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the vista and trundled on.  My memory is not good, as in the lead, I blew by the campsite that I had used in my previous time on this trail.  It looked to small to me and we had reached it too quickly after leaving Sharp Top.  (Sorry fellow hikers)

We eventually came across another small brook and I decided that I had better check my GSP.  The location it gave was clearly past our destination.  We all located relatively flat spots and set up for the night.

We chose a central spot for our gathering area and had another pleasant evening.  A hiker from the NEOH that DB and mgm knew (tartakd) came by and chatted with them for a short while before going on.  It’s a small world.

During our evening conversations we put together a plan for the following morning.  Get up at first light (6:00), be on the trail by 7:30, get to the cars by 10:30, drive to the Bullfrog Brewery and eat lunch.  With this in mind we all were tucked in by 8:30.

Day’s distance: 12 miles
Elevation gain: 2100 feet
Elevation loss: 2400 feet
 

Day 3 - Sunday, April 19, 2009

Everyone was up by the planned 6:00 AM.  Breakfast was wolfed down, camp broken, and packs packed.  We were all on the trail by 7:30.

Near the top of the climb along this section of the trail is a side trail to Sprout Point Vista.  This vista’s view is very similar to that from Sharp Top.  We spent 10 minutes or so enjoying this view and then started out again.

We got to the cars around 9:30, beating our desired arrival time by an hour.  We changed and packed the cars and got on the road by 10:00.  Ernie and MJ could not join us for lunch so we said our goodbyes to them.  We got to the ‘Bullfrog’ shortly before 11.  We had to wait 10 minutes before we could have a beer, but we managed to tough it out.  All were very pleased with both the food and the

Posted By:	Beartooth
Trip Date:	04/03/2009
State:	WV
Miles:	29.00
Pictures:	22

Posted By:	fairweather
Trip Date:	04/10/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	22.00
Pictures:	11

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Posted By:	sonoma15
Trip Date:	04/03/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	7.00
Pictures:	12

I met Liz, Angie, Tiffiny and Casey in Strretsboro and headed out for Minister Creek friday night. Rjohnson 97127 ended up meeting us while on the highway to. We got to the trail head at about 8:30 pm and met Shark and Rentedmule. It was cold and raining. Kelmarkboxer and the trail diva followed right after. As a group, we decided to just camp behind the parking lot for the night. I had brought an awning and had some dry firewood that I picked up along the way. We all set up in the dark and settled in. Shark and rentedmule had the fire started an no time. Liz and Angie had borrowed a tent from me and they actually set it up for the first time without instruction and in the dark with no flashlight with no issues. That's talent.

We got up saturday morning and had breakfast. HClayton and Sharook had arrived at 9:00 am and meeted and greeted all. We hit the trail at 10:00 am. We passed Joecan along the way. It was a very nice hike. We got to triple fork at about noon. We stayed at the campsight indicated on Aaron's GPS log. Kelmarkboxer pointed out the porcupine marks along the way.

There must have been a huge storm a few weeks ago. There is soo many downed trees. Roots and all. All the wood was still green but keep this in mind on other trips here. Wood is plentiful and should be dried in a few months.

Most of us took a nap. It was great. Had no rain all day but had a snow flake here and there. Rented mule had done his homework for this trip. This guy can do it all. He built a figure 4 dead fall. He built a bow and arrow, a frog spike, a snair and a shelter. He used some of the hemlock branches at a roof and had moss as a insulated ground pad. Shark taught me how to start a fire without any matches, justusing magnesium and available birch bark. This guy was also could do it all with nothing. This was a good day.

Kelmarkboker and the trail diva had "flat Stanley". This is a project that Diva's daughter had to do for school. They had to take him along and take pictures of him. That's why you see a paper doll in some pic's

Hclayron built the tri pod and had the sunday morning fire going before we all got up. I think Sharook was the first one packed, but only because he wanted to enjoy breakfast an a good fire. We hiked out after breakfast.

We all made peace and left only to find that we all were hungry and stopped at the same place to eat. This was particulary special. As we were all sitting there eating I made note to everyone. We all had nothing in common. We were all cut from differents cloth's yet we were all enjoying a meal together as if we had all done this before.

Thank's to all for making this the best trip ever. I look forward to doing this again. This trip was soo relaxing and I had learnedd so much!
Peace!

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	03/28/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	9

First off, I was really looking forwards to the Minister Creek Recovery Trip I had scheduled. The knee surgery I had in January was healing quite nicely, and I was up to walking five miles a day and getting ready to get back on the trails. Two days before the Minister trip I had a very serious car accident. Thirteen face and head fratures and a collapsed right lung; I had to skip the Minister Creek Recovery trip, needing further recovery. I thank Jjdog1 for taking over for me.

I gave a lot of consideration into skipping this trip as well, but I wasnt going to let the accident get the best of me. Taylor T and I picked up Wendy2856 and we were on our way to meet Grog, Boom and Caribou Kt. We pulled into the lot to see the other 3 already there and gearing up. We all got ready and hit the trail. We were hiking the trail in a counter clockwise direction, and once we got to the old logging road that runs straight down to the campground, Taylor T and I decided to take that route, the other 4 opted to stay and the main trail and meet us there. The logging road chocked out about ¾ of a mile and we had to bushwhack our way down the hill to the main trail, and then backtrack to the campground. We must have made a wrong turn, as my GPS track did not match up with what was found on the DeLorne topo maps as I found out once I returned home.

The other 4 made it to the campground and we decided to hike up Morrison Run and find a good spot as the winds had kicked up and the temps, being at 71, began to drop. We made it to the first established site and set up, 5 in tents and me under my tarp. Dinner had, wood found and we settled in for a nice evening around the fire. Wendy2856  was happy to share her stories of the Old Timers Reunion that is held near Seneca Rocks, ask her about it next time you’re out! Quite interesting to say the least. We managed to make it to 9pm and hit the sack. Temps dipped down to 48 overnight, warmer than any of us expected. At 6:15 mother nature let us know there was rain in the forecast and let out a few bolts of lightning, nothing close, but from the looks of it, it sure seemed close. We managed to get up and get ourselves breakfast, all except Wendy2856, she slept in, and by the time Wendy got up, the rain began falling. Nothing hard, but enough to make you pack in a hurry. Wendy 2856 missing her breakfast. The rain fell out entire way out, stopping in time for us to change into dry clothes at the cars. This was a nice trip and it felt great to be back out on the trails! It was also great meeting Grog and his two daughters Boom and Caribou Kt hope to see you all on the trail again.

Posted By:	GreenBoonie
Trip Date:	03/27/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	2.00
Pictures:	8

Raccoon Creek State Park March 27-29, 2009

This trip was originally scheduled by Patsquach but his plans changed so I volunteered to take over lead of this one. I was going to be doing a lot of volunteering this weekend and figured one more task wouldn’t matter. I arrived at the park at 6:00 Friday and found Follow and his son Jack at the group campsite already. After introductions I unloaded my gear and setup my tent. We gathered firewood for the night and Follow and Jack started the fire going. Follow had brought a tarp which we strung between the trees just in case of rain. Rain was predicted almost all weekend so we wanted to be prepared. We got a small fire going and just about then a pickup truck showed up. It was one of the Boy Scout leaders. The Boy Scouts were backpacking into their campsite for the night. The Boy Scouts arrived and quickly setup their tents and had a fire going. Another pickup truck showed up and it was Hydrosonic from the club. Mr.P had emailed me to say he would meet us in the morning so everyone for this trip was here. We helped Hydrosonic get setup and then I went with Follow and his son to talk to the Scouts across the way. They were a nice group and were not too noisy so it was not a problem having them there. They were going to stay the one night and move onto the Pioneer camp site Saturday. When we got back to our site there was a nice fire going. Hydrosonic seems to be a wiz at getting a good fire up and running. We sat around the fire talking until about 10:00 when I decided to call it a night.

I awoke at 6:00 Saturday morning after a somewhat cold but restful night of sleeping. The rain they were predicting never came and the sun was starting to shine so it looked like it might be a good day. After we had our breakfast we all grabbed our backpacks and piled into my car and headed to the cabins to meet up with the KTA people. After introductions and signing in we left the cabins and headed to the park maintenance buildings to pickup the supplies for the day. We helped with hauling the lumber to the sites for two bridges along the Heritage Trail. Hydrosonic and Mr.P stayed at this location to help with the building of the bridges. Follow and his son along with me traveled back, in Mark Christy’s truck, to the maintenance buildings for more lumber. We took this lumber to the end of the lake for a boardwalk to be built on the Forest Trail. We dropped off this lumber and removed the rotted wood from the old boardwalk.

We made another trip back to the maintenance buildings to pick up the tools for some trail clearing. We dropped my car off at the end of Camp trail and headed in Mark’s truck to the starting location along the Heritage trail just off of a park access road. We worked our way back clearing a lot of blown down trees from the trail with a chain saw. Follow, his son, and I used loppers to clear some of the smaller branches as well as cut down the Multiflora Rose bushes that were encroaching along the trail. There were a couple of KTA members along with us on this section. We stopped for lunch and then continued our work. We did notice a lot of hikers on the trails this day. Some were the Boy Scouts that had camped across from us last night but there were also a lot of other day hikers and backpackers on the trail. We came up to the C9 connector tail which would take us back to my car. The bridge on this trail was upside down across a small stream with two of its supports missing. Mark used the chain saw to remove the other two supports and we turned the bridge right side up and made it level across the stream.

We arrived back at the cars at 2:00. Since it was still early Mark suggested we head back to camp and he would meet us there with his truck to clear some of the trails by our camp. He took a ride with the other KTA members to get his truck and we went in my car back to camp. While we were waiting we gathered more firewood for tonight’s fire. Mark soon arrived and we headed down connector trail C6 towards the Forest Trail. We came upon a tree across the connector trail not far from our camp. It was pretty dry so Mark used the chain saw and cut it up into fire logs for us to use that night. We continued to clear blow downs from the trail as well as encroaching shrubs and branches. We finished at 4:00 just after clearing a massive tangle of branches from a blow down. There was talk of going with the rest of the KTA crew to a local restaurant for dinner but we figured we already brought our food and we were somewhat roughing it even if it was not an actual backpacking trip to this location so we stayed at camp.  We thanked Mark for the firewood and went back to camp. Hydrosonic and Mr. P were there by this time.

Jack started the fire for us and with the help of Hydrosonic there was soon a large blaze going. We all ate our dinners and a little later I saw there were quite a few hot coals in the bed of the fire ring so I brought out my Dutch oven. I borrowed an egg from Follow to add to the mix and proceeded to make an apple cobbler. Using the hot coals under and on top of the Dutch oven it only took 20 minutes to finish the cobbler. We sat around the fire and enjoyed our dessert. It was one of my better cobblers and I kept getting comments from the others about how good it was. If only the cast iron Dutch oven did not weigh so much I might be tempted to bring it on more trips. Everyone sat around the fire talking most of the evening and I retired to my tent at 9:30. I think the others followed soon after. I awoke during the night to hear thunder and rain hitting my tent. It seemed to stay that way most of the night and into the morning.

Sunday I got up at 6:00, packed up my gear and a very wet tent. I drove to the cabins with Hydrosonic for Sundays trail work. Mr.P drove himself in his pickup. Follow and Jack had to leave early, since this was Jack’s birthd

Posted By:	Greg
Trip Date:	03/21/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	24

jjdog1 did a great trip log, so I thought I would just add some photos to complement his report. Minister Creek is a great place to photograph as well hike and maybe my photos will help show this, so please enjoy. See you on the trail - Greg

Posted By:	jjdog1
Trip Date:	03/21/2009
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	1

Minster Creek, the Recovery Trip

 Friday noon -as you all know the trip started out pretty bad for our leader GT.  He called me noon on Friday to ask if I could lead the trip for him. He explained he had gotten into a bad car accident; thank the Lord that he is ok.

Saturday

I arrived at the trail head about 10:50AM and was glad to see that most of the guys where already there. As we waited for the rest of the group to show up we introduced ourselves and talk about Gt and his car accident. We then started to talk about other trips each of us had planned for this year.  After a full discussion of Gt’s accident and our planned upcoming trips I thought it was time to introduce my dog Tasha; I found out she really does not like men.

 About 11:45am the rest of the group arrived; we then put our packs on and took a group photo; and down the trail we went.

                There was no snow on the ground and the temp was in the mid 40’s -it was really just nice cool weather and as always, it could have been a bit warmer.  The view from the trail was nice and we never really saw too many animals along the way.  The group stop twice for a break and as we stopped for the second time, I had ask what the time was; it was almost 1:00pm and we were at the north country trail cut off and I knew that camp was close; it was no more than 30 minutes to Triple Fork camp site which is where we would stay the night.   As everyone arrived to camp which was about 1:30, we started to set up camp and collecting firewood.  Due to trees and limbs being down firewood was everywhere. We got the fire going early about 3:00 and every one sat down. As we started to talk and have a good time, we had visitor from the boy scouts. We then had three hikers show up from the trail. We asked the hikers to join our group for the night.  Dinner was made and it got dark. Everyone then started to bring out the adult beverages that they had brought with them, one guy even brought Ever Clear.  As the night kept going on so did the temp, it fell at least to the low 20s, then to the teens by 11:00pm.  I got up about 3:30am and to me, it seemed to be warmer then when I went to bed,

Sunday

Most everyone was up by 7:30am, started to eat breakfast and get there coffee going by 8:30am. The three hikers that joined us the night before left to hike out and our group was not far behind them.  Everyone was on the trail about 10:00a and we were on our way to the lookout to see the view.  Everyone stopped to look at the view. We also took a breather after the climb to the top.  

We got to our cars at 12:30pm, we said our good- byes and off to home everyone went

Thanks for a great trip guys, hope to see you on the trail again soon!

JJdog1

Posted By:	Shark
Trip Date:	02/14/2009
State:	WV
Miles:	23.30
Pictures:	10

Rohring Plains - Dolly Sods (Presidents Day Weekend)

What a great hike...

Day 1.  Qi Wiz, martyC, tarheel, kayakwoman, hydrosonic, shamrock and myself all set off (early) on the Red Creek Trail.  One week earlier, there was over 14 inches at the 4000’ mark but now there was nothing except some small drifts in isolated spots.  Temperatures were reasonable at about 36 degrees and it was partly cloudy.  As we turned onto Fisher Spring Run Trail, we went about 0.1 to 0.2 tenths of a mile and descended off to the left to a rather large campsite to find the Red Creek Falls.  This is a 20’ high waterfall and is pretty impressive.  It is about 100 yards just upstream from the confluence of Fisher Spring Run which makes it really easy to find on a map.  It is also a good spot for a lazy lunch.

After the falls, we began the switchback climb out of the Red Creek Canyon which was not as difficult as I expected.  Once the top was reached, we followed old RR Grades (some short sections of ankle buster rocks) before turning onto Rohrbough Plains Trail to follow into camp.  Along the way, we passed several old cleared areas for wildlife food plots.  As we approached camp, it was just starting to spit sleet but we were treated with a wonderful view overlooking the stream valley that we had just hiked up that morning.  Once we had set up (rather early due to the lack of snow), Qi Wiz, martyC and kayakwoman, all needed some more hiking time.  They set off on the Wildlife Trail and hiked to the Forest Road and back, during which time we got about a half inch of sleet.  We enjoyed dinner around a good fire that evening in the wintry mix.

Day 2.  We broke camp around 9 am and proceeded South on the Rohrbough Plains trail encountering more and more patches of old snow, some up to 2 feet thick in places.  We topped out at about 4200 feet before heading down to the Forest Road and the Pit Toilets, a luxury in the winter (but they still stank).  We forest roaded down to the South Prong Trailhead (upper lot) and followed it to the turnoff for the Hidden Passage.  It was along this trail that I started to notice the rime ice or hoar frost (http://natureguy.deviantart.com/art/Rhime-Ice-Crystals-78295077) on the spruce.  With the blue sky and clouds, it was so beautiful.  We stopped for lunch and water gathering with mostly sunny skies at the awesome campsite right at the turnoff for the Hidden Passage.

The Hidden Passage was spectacular with all of the rime ice, even prettier than the fall colors or the mountain laurel blossom trips of the past.  As we topped out, we were treated with some spectacular views over to North Fork Mountain and beyond.  We were also able to spot Seneca Rocks from the meadow campsite.  Since there wasn’t as much snow as we hoped, the group wanted to go out on the Canyon Rim.  We pushed on through the meadow seeing some ripe teaberries among all of the frosted heath.  At the pipeline, we found some of the largest drifts yet but they were sporadic and fun to walk on instead of the pipeline road for a change.

We turned onto the Roaring Rim unmarked trail (new name) and followed it, rather easily for a change.  We stopped at Roaring Creek and picked up the last water for the day before continuing on towards camp.  As we rounded the point, I, and maybe some others, were starting to just want to get to camp.  I really didn’t enjoy this stretch as much as I typically do but that also may be because the wind was cutting through like a knife with as little as we were wearing while moving around.  We skipped the “traditional” Canyon Rim campsite due to its openness to the wind and continued to another, much less used site near the junction of the much less traveled (or never traveled) Tee Pee Trail.  We enjoyed an evening around the fire, eating and melting snow for water.  I tried using an unworn liner sock to filter out all of the dirt and pine needles from the melted snow with great success.  Others learned about hot water Nalgenes and other tricks to push sleeping bags below their limits.

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Posted By:	walkngawk
Trip Date:	01/17/2009
State:	PA
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	5

One internet site showed 30 inches of snow on the Quehanna Plateau as of Friday. Based on that information, I rented snowshoes from Appalachian Outfitter’s. That turned out to be one of the smarter things I've done.

The trip got off to a good start when JonW picked me up at 6:30 with a dozen donuts. We picked up Trailhead and headed for breakfast (note the emphasis on food this trip.)

We met up with Hydrosonic at the Perkin’s and headed for the trailhead, where we met the nonmember part of our group (aka the Adam’s group.). We arrived at 11:30 and the temperature was 8’F.

After some discussion we decided that snowshoes where needed and headed out.

Because of the snow depth, we followed Plan B and spent the first night at a campsite on the Gore trail just south of where the Gore and Sander’s trails met. By the time we set up camp the temp had risen to about 14’F.

We cut wood, lots of wood, and settled in for the evening.

Sunday morning was warmer, almost 20’F.

After enjoying breakfast around the fire, we set out for a very pleasant hike. There were a couple of inches of new snow and the going was slow. It took about four hours to cover the six miles to Sunday night’s camp.  When we reached the Meeker camp site, there was foot of snow on the fire ring with less under the Hemlock’s.

Monday morning was cold, 0’F. We had breakfast around the fire.  The hike back to the cars was the most scenic part of the trip. With the snow on the evergreens, it felt like we were walking through photos from Christmas Cards.

While the trip was shorter then planned, it was still a great hike.

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	12/12/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	2

Shelli did such a great job writing up the trip that I wanted to share it with you. There is also a link to her photos.

http://litolpea.livejournal.com/501011.html

This year was another great trip and no one was shot. I'd call that a success even though it was colder than sh!t Friday night and GT experienced some significant pain. I'd like to thank everyone for attending and helping to make it happen.

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	11/28/2008
State:	Pa
Miles:	14.00
Pictures:	10

Three Hours Later

Its Thanksgiving and I am checking the net for snow amounts on the ground. The ranger stations were closed. The best info I found was snow cover of 3.8 to 8 inches in the National Forest.

All the car poolers met and were off on time. KBella coming off a double shift and she was tired. We notice no snow, even in the Northeast corner of the state.  We stopped at a McDonalds in Corry, Pa. for a snack and potty break. The parking lot was like an ice rink and we wondered what we were in store for. We received our bad omen in the Heart’s Content parking lot when Hydrosonic pulled in and became stuck, bumper deep in the snow. Geezer said it was a bad sign. We tossed about the idea of just doing the Hickory Creek trail, at this point I said I should have canceled the trip, but everyone agreed to move ahead with the original plan. We left two vehicles at Heart’s Content and made our way to Henrys Mill. Packs on and at 12:40 we hit the trail.

With the first 2 of 6 miles down, Plinnym started having problems. She was way over packed with gear. 3 of us split up some of her gear and lightened her load. We told her not to worry, it was a beginner’s trip and we hoped she would be learning something.

We never did see the 3.8 to 8 inches of snow unless we were standing under a stand of hemlocks. The average snow depth on the trail ranged from 12 to 24 inches, with a couple of areas waste deep. With the ground not frozen, there were many spots of deep snow covered water. It was slow going, though Hydrosonic with his heavy retro gear led the way and made good time of the deep snow. The problem came when we began running out of daylight. We had maybe .75 miles to go and I told the group that we were almost there and we should be at the shelter in 15 to 25 minutes, and then we missed a turn due to poor blazing and bad lighting. The well drillers have expanded their area and things look very different. It was twilight and we all put on our headlamps, though probably a bit too late. TomW had the trail on his GPS, but we all became confused with which way to go. The readings changed from a standing spot to a moving one. It took a while, maybe and extra mile or two, but we did find the trail again. 3 hours later and with more snow falling we made it to the shelter. Everyone was exhausted and tents went up fast. 4 of us opted for the shelter, 4 in tents. Geezer started a fire, but finding wood, dry wood, in the dark, in the deep snow, was nearly impossible. Meals had and we all hit the sack. It was 9:15.

The overnight temps hovered around 32. Many of us woke during the night due to the early sack time, others due to cramps or the call of nature. It was a long night. Morning came and everyone started to rustle. We all started cooking breakfast and coffee, Geezer and TomW started the fire again and we all decided that it was in everyone’s best interest to backtrack to the cars and call it one for the books. The hike out took 4 hours, compared to 7.25 going in. We all want to thank Hydrosonic for wishing for a lot of snow, he got his wish. Those that could not make the trip missed a good one for the memory banks. Many lessons were learned on this trip, not just for the newbie’s either. Everything considered, we all had a good time, snow and all. Knowing the winter warm up trip is in a couple of weeks, a couple of us have had our full blown winter trip.

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	11/20/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	7

Quehanna Trail Log
November 20-22, 2008

Trailhead and I met at 3:30 near the intersection of I80 and I77.  We loaded into Trailhead’s vehicle and got underway.  The snow started almost immediately.  We drove out of it shortly after crossing into Pennsylvania.  For dinner we went to Luigi’s Ristorante in DuBois, PA.  This establishment is not far off of I80 and the food is really quite good.  I highly recommend it.

Following dinner we drove to the trailhead on the Red Run Trail.  We hiked several hundred feet back into the woods and set up camp.  We had to clear about 4 inches of snow before pitching the tent.  After we finished getting our gear laid out, we started a nice fire.  We sat around it drinking COLD beer while the temperature was below freezing.  After several hours of light talk and fire watching we both went to bed.

Snow had commenced and it must have snowed off and on all night.  Several times during the night we knocked snow off of the tent’s fly.  We finally rolled out of our sleeping bags at 0700.  We cooked (boiled water) our breakfast and packed up.  We left camp at 0900.  Just before we left camp we met a turkey hunter.  He was concerned that there was something wrong with the passengers in the car parked just down the trail.  (I am not sure he was wrong!)  We told him that it was Ray’s vehicle and that we were fine.

There was now between six and eight inches of snow on the ground.  Thirty minutes after leaving our camp we came across a second turkey hunter from the same party.  We chatted for a bit.  He informed us that he was following some turkeys that were running on the ground in front of him.  He had given up the chase and was on the way back to meet his comrades.  About fifteen minutes later we spooked a flock of turkey that must have been the ones being followed.

Soon Red Run Trail (which we were following north) ran into Sanders Trail which led to Foley Trail and then down Sevinsky.  Once we reached the bottom of Sevinsky where it met Gore we took a break and had lunch.  By now my right knee had started to hurt.  We followed Gore back towards Bailey Log.  We got a little off trail after almost reaching Bailey Log.  After consulting a map, Trailhead made the suggestion that we take a shortcut to reach our next trail.  We did and this time the shortcut was actually shorter!  We followed Bailey Log south to Big Spring Draft and took that east to our campsite for the evening.  While on Big Spring Draft we saw four deer or elk run across the trail.  They were dark like elk, but not as big as I would have expected.

The snow had continued to fall off and on all day.  By the time we rolled into camp (at 1600) we had a good eight inches on the ground.  The hemlocks and rhododendron were covered in snow and Trailhead ‘cleared’ the way through the many thickets we encountered.  My knee was in serious distress by this time.  We spent a little over an hour gathering what wood we could for the evening fire before dark.  We finished setting the tent up just as it got full dark.  Many quarts of water were boiled for dinner and ‘hot water bottles’ that felt great in the sleeping bag.  The wood was burned up by 2100 and off to bed we went.  We discussed our options for Saturday and decided to hike back to where the car was by the shortest route and camp there Saturday evening.

We had hiked about 11.5 miles on Friday.

More snow during the night.  Temperatures were at 22* at 0800 – the time we finally got up.  Once again it took us two hours to get onto the trail.  Now there were between ten and twelve inches of snow on the ground.  There were more hemlocks and rhododendron to contend with. 

I left camp shortly before Trailhead.  When he caught up with me he informed me that a doe had run straight through camp and was only four feet from him.  Both were quite startled.  Before he caught up with me I say a doe and a big buck – at least a six point – cross the trail in front of me.  I hobbled in front because I could follow our path in the snow from the previous day’s hike.  When we reached the Bailey Log Trail we started over new ground and Trailhead took the lead.  I had to keep my eyes on the trail because all little missteps really hurt by now and I would have to stop and search for the next set of blazes. 

Once again Trailhead performed snow clearing duties from overhanging growth.  When we reached the parking lot on the Quehanna Highway where the Wykoff, David Lewis, and Ole Hoover Trails converge we took a shortcut along an old road bed cutting off some distance and having to go through more snow covered trees. 

By the time we reached the car, we both agreed that it would be prudent to pack up and go home.  We did just that.  We scrapped snow off of the parking area and road so we could get out.  We stopped at the Medix Run Inn for elk burgers, fries, and Yuengling.

I really appreciated Trailheads efforts to make my hike easier than it otherwise would have been.

- JonW

Posted By:	fairweather
Trip Date:	11/15/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	11.00
Pictures:	7

Sonoma15 and I pulled into the campsite around 3:30PM. Immediately after that tomW, and LouVe pulled in beside us. The sky was blue, and the temp was warm. We all started setting up our tents for the night, and sonoma15 started working on the feast for the evening. After a little wile shaggy showed up dressed in the fanciest backpacking clothes anyone had ever seen. He tried to tell us that they were his work clothes but we knew better. At some point TomW, LouVe told us that they were going to head out for a short hike, and scout out the beginning the trail. They returned just before dark reporting that the trail was over grown and hard to walk. A little after dark we sat down and eat some mildly spicy kielbasa that sonoma15 had prepared. I say it was mildly spicy because I only cried a little while I eat it. At some point the goat arrived and storm6 even popped in for a visit. Eventually we all headed to our tents for some sleep. About 3am it started steadily raining and didn’t let up.
A little after dawn I put on my rain gear and left the soaking wet interior of my tent. Some time after that sonoma15 left his tent and set up this really nice canopy for us to eat breakfast under. It was around this time that TomW informed us that him and LouVe would not be joining us for the trip. I asked why, and I think he said something about it raining to hard. However I’m not sure because I had trouble hearing him over the sound of the rain pounding on the canopy. Then sonoma15 informed us that he to would be leaving us. But not before he prepared the best pretrial breakfast I’ve ever had.
Around 10am with food in our bellies and packs on our backs the three of us headed down the trail. We met with little resistence as we followed the old railroad south to salmon Creek. I not sure what TomW, and LouVe were talking about when they said that the trail was over grown. I only remember the brush getting higher than my waist once or twice. Once we reached salmon we headed upstream searching for a place to cross. The water level was pretty high so we ended up hiking to the cables. We waded/rock hoped across to the island. Then we crossed over the island to the second set of cables. Shaggy took the cautious route and made his way across the shallows. The Goat and I looking for more adventure chose to use the cables (although he did wait for me to go first).
After placing both feet back on the ground we headed uphill in a generally southern direction looking for the old gas road. After about .4 miles, and some wandering around we found the gas road. It was open, clear and easy to fellow. The road does run a little on the steep side. But nothing huge. At the top of the hill it ends at heavily used forest road (FSRD) called Newtown Rd..We turned right and fallowed the FSRD two stony point where we stopped for a break.
After our break we headed down hill following an unofficial, and unmarked trail. This brought us down hill parallel top carpenter run. Near the bottom of the hill where carpenter run turns north we crossed over and continued heading East towards Newtown.
Shortly after crossing over carpenter run we came out into the open fields of newtown flats. We followed a very well warn trail down stream along Tionesta creek. The trail we were following eventually rejoined the RR and we followed it south. After about a mile the trail became very choked off by small and large trees. This made travel slow but not impossible. Eventually we made our way through to where Lamentation run joins the Tionesta. We stopped here for lunch at a very nice camp site. But with more day light we decided to push on, and up stream.
At this point there is no longer a trial to fellow. However the valley along Lamentation run is mostly tall pines so it is clear and easy to fellow.
Around 4:30pm we decided to look for a place to make camp. With a little searching we found a place suitable for our three tents. After building a small fire, and cooking our dinner. Shaggy told usa ghost story about the heinous Mr. Prickers. I’ll spare you the details but I will say I had trouble sleeping that night. Shortly after dinner a hard wind started traveling down the valley. So we were forced to retire to our tents. I had trouble getting into my sleeping bag, and as a result made a lot of noise. Shaggy and the goat became very concerned and thought maybe I was being attacked by Mr. Prickers. After reassuring them that I was fine we decided to relax with a game of Marco Polo.
In the morning we eat breakfast, and then broke camp. Of course like always I was the last one packed. But none the less we still got on the trail in a timely manner. After explaining to shaggy witch part of the compass points north we decide to let him lead the way. We followed Lamentation run to white run. then we turned left and followed white run up to an old FSRD. This FSRD leads north east back to Newtown Rd. We turned left at the oil tanks, and headed north. After about One half mile we reached the old gas road that we came up yesterday. We followed the road down the hill to its end. At this point we headed south west to see if we could find an easier place to cross Salmon creek. At the bottom of the hill we got to see a bald eagle fly over our heads. Once we reached salmon creek we started looking for a place to cross. After searching for a long time, and even attempting to build a bridge. We were forced to accept the inevitable. We took of our boots and waded across the ice cold water. Once on the other side we quickly put our boots back on, and headed down the road. We were able to follow salmon creek Rd. All the way back to the cars.

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	10/22/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	49.20
Pictures:	14

Loyalsock Trail Log
October 22 – 25, 2008

Who:  Rob, Patsquach, Follow, martyC, JonW

Day 0 – Wednesday, October 22

Follow, martyC, and JonW met at Rob’s house.  martyC cycled from Cleveland with his gear.  We met at 4:15 and were on our way by 4:30.  We picked Patsquach up in Barkeyville, PA.

From there we drove to Dubois were we proceeded to have an excellent dinner at Luigi's Ristorante on Route 219.  The restaurant was first-rate and we all enjoyed our meal considerably.

We all piled back into Follow’s van and made our way to Laporte where we camped along Rock Run Road near the Loyalsock.  The night was clear and we all slept under the stars.

Day 1 – Thursday, October 23

We got up at 5:30 when JonW’s alarm off.  We stuffed our equipment into our packs and drove to the Sullivan County Roadhouse for our breakfast.  It had gotten down to 22* during the night.

martyC was telling us stories during breakfast of a friend who was always forgetting things in restaurants.  He would always pick them up and give them back later.  When we got into the car, Rob had forgotten his coat and martyC had picked it up.  He had a little fun with Rob and then gave him his coat.  Underway he realized that he had left his coat at the restaurant and we had to turn around a retrieve it. 

We got to the parking lot at 7:30 and just had time to do our last minute packing before Connie (our shuttle driver) came at 7:45.  We wedged ourselves into her van and off we went to the other end of the trail.

Our first climb was over 1300 feet and it is steep.  Steep is probably not a strong enough word, it was insanely precipitous.  The trail afforded a few nice views of Loyalsock Creek and the surrounding farms.

By the time we were taking the W3 side to our campsite my knees were starting to hurt internally.  In camp I found out that Follow’s knees also hurt.  We gathered wood for a nice campfire.  Patsquach had carried both a splitting ax and a huge four foot cross-cut saw.  Follow and I both put hobo meals on the fire.

That evening we all slept under tarps.

Day’s distance: 15.4 miles
Elevation gain: 4400 feet
Elevation loss: 3500 feet

Day 2 – Friday, October 24

We got on the trail about 8:45.  The hike back up the other side of W3 was very easy.  Here we passed a young hunter who had ‘bagged’ his first buck.  This reminded everyone that they needed to be wearing orange. 

Today we passed a few nice vistas and the high point on the trail.  There was a lot of road walking.  We knew that rain had been forecast to arrive some time during the evening.  We tried to make good time, but we were not.  We had to choose to camp either at mile 29 where there is a know site with water or go on.  We decided to fill our water containers at mile 29 and continue.  We got only one more mile before the trail went up to the top of a ridge and stayed there for a while.  We made a dry camp near the foot of the climb.

Because of the expected rain Follow and JonW set up their tents.  martyC joined JonW in his tent.  Patsquach and Rob set up their tarp.  By the time we had set up camp and gathered a little firewood it had gotten full dark.  We cleaned out a depression for the fire and soon had a small one going.  The trouble was that leaves kept catching on fire and blowing around.  Sadly we had to let the fire burn out.  We sat around with our headlamps on, cooking our dinners. 

Post dinner we sat around briefly talking, but without the warmth of the fire soon people drifted off to bed.

Day’s distance: 16.8 miles
Elevation gain: 4200 feet
Elevation loss: 4000 feet

Day 3 – Saturday, October 25

The rain started in the wee hours of the morning.

The rain stayed.

We got up and had a quick breakfast and were on the trail by 8:30. 

At the top of the ridge it was very windy and there were no suitable camping spots.  We had made a good choice staying down lower.

Follow was leading.  Then Patsquach, JonW, martyC, and finally Rob.  Follow as about 15 seconds in front of Patsquach.  CRACK!  A tree fell between Follow and Patsquach.  It would have killed anyone that it squarely struck.  It was a large dead tree.

Around 11 we all met where one of the side trails went to southeast and the LT went northwest.  We were making very poor time, approximately 3 miles every 2 hours.  There was no way that we would make it to Worlds End (our intended destination) at the current rate.

The rain continued to come down.  The temperature was dropping.

Situation:
Bad knees – JonW and Follow
Bad Achilles tendon – Rob
Way overloaded – Patsquach

We made the decision to take a shortcut.  Eventually, this decision lead us to get out one day early.

We went southeast.  We climbed out to Shanerburg Road where we started road walking.  When we reached SR3009 there was a large ‘classroom’ with and open front.  We went inside to get out of the rain and took this opportunity to eat lunch.  There was no drying off.

After considerably more road walking we came to the red-X side trail.  We took it.  Eventually we reached Route 154 and took it for a short while.  There was no hiking on the red-X trail along the Loyalsock as the river was raging by now.

The rain continued.

We came across the red-X trail again and took it pretty much all the way back to the car.  There were incredible torrents crossing the trail in spots.  On one, some stopped to unbuckle their packs for fear of having their feet swept out.

Eventually we made it back to the car and folks changed prior to driving back.  We stopped in Williamsport for dinner.

I got home between 1 and 2 in the morning.

Day’s distance: 17.0 miles
Elevation gain: 2400 feet
Elevation loss: 2400 feet

Total Trip:
Distance:  49.2
Elevation gain: 11000 feet
Elevation loss: 9900 feet

This is a seriously tough trail.

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	10/09/2008
State:	NY
Miles:	25.50
Pictures:	25

Bristol Hills Trail Part2

The Fall Foliage Tour!

It was the week before the trip and my eyes were on the weather. Upstate NY can get downright nasty this time of year and I couldn’t be happier at what I was seeing.  The forecast got better each day as the trip neared.  The day we were to meet, the forecast was for sunshine and highs in the mid to upper 60’s, with lows in the lower 40’s to upper 30’s.

We all met at the rest area on time and after the greetings were off and on our way to exit 37 off I86 in NY. T2summit had met me at work and we carpooled, Jjdog1 and KBella both drove as each would need to leave the second day for obligations back home, Jaybird and Stella came in one car, Condor and Lototy carpooled together in another.

The trip into NY went without a hitch, until KBella passed me going 80+mph. We gave her a call and asked where the fire was. She slowed to the point I had to pass, and then it happened.  2 raccoons came up out of a ditch and ran out onto the highway. Had they crossed it would have been no big deal, but they turned right towards us and at 75 mph I could only move over so far so fast. It’s unfortunate, but one of them didn’t make it, and riding in my little pumpkin mobile, we felt it.  A short time later we pulled over in a rest area and I told Kbella she owed me a thank you, she said “I know, I would still be crying”.

We all ended up meeting at the Subway at exit 37 and proceeded to our spot for the night. 20 minutes later we were pulling into our host’s yard to be surprised that she was home. Not only home, but out back tending a fire she had started for us. We all said our hellos, set up our gear and settled around the fire to stories and a cold beverage. The house would be open all night to allow us to use the bathroom.

Morning came and there was a chill in the air. Some wore their down coats, others, like myself, were running around in shorts and sleeveless tee.  It was nice to find our host had left us coffee and bagels for breakfast. We all enjoyed and it was time to drop 3 cars at 3 locations. Once back we loaded up our packs and hit the trail.

The plan was to hike 10.5 miles and spend the night at the Wagon Wheel Campground. When we passed last year we noticed there was a pizza joint at the campground, and we figured, hey, why not, a hot shower and a hot pizza, what a way to end day one! By the time we reached the Wagon Wheel, we were all tired. There were a couple of good climbs this day and we all worked up a hunger. We asked where we should set up and got to it. The owners were not home at the time, but would be shortly to collect the fee. It worked out to a little over 6 bucks per person, not bad. When we paid we asked about pizza? The owner informed me that the pizza joint had a gas leak and blew up 9 days before Christmas last year, BUT, they would let us use their phone and call into town and order a pizza, not only that, but we could use their car to pick it up! Yes, their car! Great host’s at the Wagon Wheel. I then enquired about finding some firewood, don’t worry I was told, we will bring you some. Bring us some they did, half the group ordered pizza; the other half enjoyed a trail meal. We had a nice fire and made a night of it.

Day 2 and the owls started their singing around 5am.  I could make out 3 different types of owl. Everyone was up by 7 and breakfast had, we were soon packed and back on the trail. We took the Fiona Nature trail and avoided some road walking. Before long we had covered the 4.5 miles to the Evangeline Shelter and settled in to enjoy our lunch. The shelter sits just past an old cemetery, about a third of the way up a good climb, T2summit decided he would be better off eating at the top, rather than filling up and doing the climb, and he would meet us up there. The area was not a nicely kept as last year. We were told the owner had sold and moved on with his wife in poor health. Everyone had been thankful of the work he had put into this area in the past. This is still the nicest shelter I have ever seen.

After lunch we were off and climbing, soon taking the Cranberry Bog side trail. This area is newer growth and an easy hike. We were back on the main trail in no time.  We stopped at a road crossing and took a short snack break. There was a Dodge pickup along the road that had numerous trail decals on it, and Jaybird thought he knew whose truck it was. Once back on the trail we came around a corner to find a women touching up blazes with her two dogs, and then Jaybird comes around the corner and says “Irene, how are you”? WOW what a small world. To run into someone you know, two states away from home on a trail? What are the odds? Irene Szabo, part of the NCT and FLT boards was doing maintenance on her part of the trail. She told us of the increasing number of bears. How bad the trail was after the remains of hurricane Ike came through, and apologized that she had not gotten to the southern end of the trail to clean any debris yet. After a short while we left Irene to her work and headed for Kbella’s car. At this point the trail exits out onto a dirt road, turns left and about 700 feet re-enters the forest. Kbella’s car was parked near the re-entry spot and we were saying our good-byes to her and Jjdog1 when a truck came flying up to us and told us a bear and her 2 cubs had just kept a man out day hiking from getting back to his van. He had to leave the van and walk away. This was a bit chilling to hear as we would be camping about a half a mile from that location. With goodbyes said, we re-entered the forest, made our way to Granma’s campsite and set up camp. A couple went for water, located a short hike from camp, Lototy and I gathered firewood and we all settled in for the evening. We were paying special attention to any sound we heard. Stella was also listening, and a couple of times something spooked her! Her barking either scared off whatever was there, or just made her feel better, us too. The owls came out to serenade us, seemed to be mating calls as the sounds they were making were strange. At first it sounded like coyotes were very close, but it was the owl

Posted By:	Dwight
Trip Date:	10/17/2008
State:	WV
Miles:	24.00
Pictures:	13

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	10/10/2008
State:	WV
Miles:	29.00
Pictures:	1

My photos are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/568052285sJGywl

On Friday the 10^th an extremely wiry PCT thru-hiker showed up at my place of employment (sans kilt) and we headed south toward the WV. I had an opportunity on the way down to show Handlebar some local points of interest including the Purple Fiddle in Thomas and Siriannis Pizza in Davis. After all that we drove up into the Sods to flop at a roadside site just east of Rohrbaugh Plains. The night temperatures were cool and the skies were clear and moonlit.

After a great nights’ sleep we loaded our packs, kilted up and headed to the Dolly Sods picnic area off of FR 19 at the Rohrbaugh plains trial head. Note here that I changed the original itinerary after considering the known and un-hiked (by me) sections of trail that we would be on. I figured that we would move slowest along the Canyon Rim (and we did) while wanting to walk down the Boars Nest trail instead of up it (and who wouldn’t?).  Besides, I was loaded out heavy with a cross cut saw and log splitter for an extra 9 lbs of tool weight. I use a heavier expedition pack to carry those things comfortably which adds 4 lbs over my Osprey pack. So no speed records here.

We hiked around 29 miles. The end.

Just kidding. From the parking area at the Rohrbaugh Plains trail head we actually walked down FR 19 to the South Prong trail head and headed south (go figure) from there. We left the South Prong trail and stayed close to the rim, following the (now) worn path toward the hidden passage/jeep trail and the pipeline. From the pipeline we picked up the Canyon Rim trail and cleared some blow downs on the way to The Point. We were feeling pretty good about our work and enjoyed a perilous perch on some of the rocks at The Point’s outstanding view.

Once we left The Point to continue along the Canyon Rim toward the Tee Pee trail things changed. It was still a fantastic day, but the blow downs occurred more frequently and I was hesitant to start working on them based on the distance we needed to cover for that day. On top of that I have never been on the Tee Pee trail and was more focused on finding it. But I never found it. There were Russians afoot in the woods with a GPS track and they couldn’t find it either. I think I might need someone to point that one out to me. So we ended up following the Rim trail across the boulder field and along the hillside (with a small spring) and then connecting to the Roaring Plains trail where the two met. So we hiked a couple of miles more than planned but only covered around 10 to 12 for the day. [If you have never been in this area you should know that the trail is new and unofficial. There was a worn path to follow and the terrain helps (rim edge) but you still need to travel cautiously. Fortunately I have been lead by Shark along this stretch twice, so I had a slight clue about where we were.] The views from the canyon rim are outstanding. The mileage didn’t matter as much as finding a good campsite, and that worked out just fine. We ended up camping at the intersection of the Roaring Plains trail and the pipeline with car campers and bear dog trainers as relatively quiet neighbors.

There were plenty of bear dog runners at the pipeline that day. We had come across one dog on the Canyon Rim that kept on going and had one scramble into camp that night while we were cooking dinner. The one in camp was literally skin and bones and he decided that he had had enough for the day. We tried to run him off but his need for food and rest was overriding his fear of barked orders. His main defense was to hunker down, so he might have had some bad experiences. The only thing that came to mind was that our neighbors might keep a dog. There were a number of vehicles and voices about 200 yards away. How do I know this? Because there were a number of horn beeps and yee-haws enough for me to assume who we were neighbored to, that’s why. The next move was to pick up the now totally limp dog and carry him out to the pipeline close enough to the scent of our neighbors. Once he caught their scent he ambled in that direction – and when I heard a young child exclaim “look there’s a dog!” I knew our dog-sitting was over. I hope he got some food too because he sure needed it. My guesstimate was that the car campers would have something for him.

By the way, I should note that the dog was appropriately tagged and Larry (the owner) did come by for him (radio collar). Hopefully Larry was able to retrieve the ones that hadn’t made it in that night. Go Larry.

Back in backpacker land we were going through the evening routine with a nice fire, clear skies and a lot of moonlight. It’s weird when you roll over and think someone is shining a light in your face – but it’s just the moon. I could get used to it.

Big Day 2 started well with the coffee and breakfast that hallmarks my adventures. Rick had his routine down to the minute detail from his time on the PCT that just ended a couple of weeks ago (this was a withdrawal management trip for him). So we were up and moving after an appropriate time with ease. We were a short hop away from the Boars Nest trail and eventually descended down the ridge (with some nice open views) toward the South Fork of Red Creek. The descent was nice and we even cleared a log on the way back up the other side toward FR 19. Once we hit FR 19 we walked down toward Laneville and signed the register at the parking area, noting 20-some other hikers and an undetermined number of Alpacas in the area. Due to the great weather forecast we were not surprised.

We ambled northeast along Red Creek and crossed at Big Stonecoal (rock hop) to head north to Rocky Point trail. From Laneville the trails are well defined and there is little confusion to be had. Or at least there wasn’t so far. The grade was steep, but not too steep. What would you expect when climbing the side of a mountain anyway? It seemed appropriate. We headed south on the Rocky Point trail and took the first side trail up to the pine grove behind the Lions Head (after dropping packs). After climbing down to the “head” area for the first time I was pleasantly surprised to see at least 2 different formations that appeared to be the head of a lion. I kid you not.  We were well met by about 15 of our closest friends and dogs out on the “head” and got word of another side trail that was a shorter route back to the Rocky Point

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	10/01/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	42.10
Pictures:	13

Wednesday, 10/1/2008

We arrived at the canoe access parking at 8:35PM and found PAHiker (Russ) waiting for us. We’re all about 50 minutes ahead of schedule. After a shift of clothing and donning of boots and packs, we set off across the bridge toward the Manor Hotel. Arriving at the front door, we decided to partake of a pre-hike beer. Upon entering this delightful establishment, we learned that the bar had just closed; however, the lady barkeep, recognizing our pre-hike thirst, compassionately reopened the register and set us up with 3 Yingling Premiums. Sandy, being the designated driver, abstained and made sure her 3 male companions didn’t exit a barstool in an undignified manner.

Thirst quenched, we went outside to the far left rear of the parking area, down the bank, and crossed Slate Run without getting our feet wet. There had been so little rainfall these past few months that the Run was rock hop-able. Turning left, we stayed near the Run’s edge and negotiated the brush for about 100 yards and came to a nice campsite. We tucked ourselves in shortly after 10PM and then it rained during the night.

Thursday, 10/2/2008

By morning, the rained had stopped but the sky held black thoughts of things to come. We left camp around 9AM and immediately shifted into climbing mode, ascending from 760 feet to 2060 feet over a distance of approximately 2.5 miles. The next 3.75 miles were relatively easy walking, meaning very minor elevation changes. At mile 6.25, we bounced, flounced, and otherwise cavorted our way down to Red Run, losing about 740 feet of elevation in the process and passing 3 camps along the way. Another 4/10 mile brought us to a camp along Morris Run, a few hundred feet upstream from its confluence with Slate Run. We crossed Morris Run, headed downstream and then up Slate Run for a short distance, crossing it, and ascending 780 feet to the top of Chestnut Ridge and a camp at mile 9.96. From here to our night’s camp at mile 13.66 there was easy walking. This was a nice camp setting and there was good water. What downed wet wood we did find gave us a fire for about 2 hours. It did rain in the afternoon, I think (no notes and poor memory), such that we had to wear our rain gear for a while.

Friday, 10/3/2008

More rain during the night, not hard, but light and intermittent. Breakfast done, we broke camp and were on the trail at 9:20 accompanied by an overcast sky. For the next 2.5 miles we lost 520 feet of elevation as we crossed and re-crossed County Line Branch umpteen times and passed 7 campsites. After the last crossing we immediately climbed 520 feet to a plateau area. After just over 1 mile, we made a short descent to a campsite at a stream crossing, then made a short ascent to another plateau area. We stayed on the plateau for about 2.7 miles and then made a long but small descent along Baldwin Branch, passing a campsite near the beginning of the descent. At then end of another mile, we arrived at a crossing of Rt 44, having passed a camp along the way and gained 350 feet. Immediately upon crossing Rt 44, the trail follows Trout Run Road for several hundred feet and then turns right into the woods. For the next 1.6 miles it’s an easy walk, but at about mile 25.5 we began the 1100 foot drop down an unnamed hollow to Callahan Run and our day’s end camp. There was adequate water here but little fire wood. The camp setting is pretty but small and the ground is all gravel, no grass. There were only three of us at camp this night as PAHiker decided to forego Saturday’s ups and downs by leaving us shortly after the Pump House and making his way to Saturday’s camp over more gentile terrain. It proved to be a very cool night as the day’s cloud cover gradually dissipated over the course of the afternoon. We had stars tonight.

Saturday, 10/4/2008

It is very cool this morning, probably around 39 or 40 degrees at the bottom of this valley. We set out around 8:40 this morning. We have a long steady 2.6 mile climb from 1000 feet to 2000 feet at the top of Hemlock Mountain. Here, by far, is the best and only worth while vista The Black Forest Trail has to offer. It’s a gorgeous look southeastward down the Pine Creek gorge. Before you stretches the curving ribboned Pine Creek, each bank flanked by the downward fold of the ends of many mountains. Had the fall colors been at their peak, we’d still be standing there. After a break and some photos, we began the precipitous 1000+ foot descent to Naval Run 1.25 miles away. Richard and Sandy, mindful of their knees, descend at a much slower pace than I. Within a few minutes, I was out of their sight, freewheeling down Hemlock Mtn. In no time, I came out on a dirt road. I looked right and left to find an orange blaze, but discovered there were none in sight. However, I did see plenty of yellow blazes in both directions

Posted By:	JohnnyO
Trip Date:	10/03/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	13.10
Pictures:	12

The trip originally started out as a one night event. Due to the possibility of limited parking and trail traffic, the general consensus of the group was to go in the evening before and turn the trip into a multi-night trip. There were only a couple members that have ever done a night hike before so this was a new experience for a lot of us. Apparently night hiking this trail is more popular than we thought. We witnessed many groups wondering off into the night; headlamps fading to black. What made this trip interesting is it was short mileage and we had a lot of time on our hands. The theme for this trip in a nutshell was, “Our plan was to have no plan”.  At crossings we would all interject our ideas on what we should do. As a group we chose whatever idea sounded the best. This trip was to be very nomadic!

Night 1: Estimated Distance = 3 miles

Mastascusa and I arrived at the trailhead at 8:50 PM and was quickly greeted by sonoma15 and shaggy. At about 9:10 PM, CMR and Storm6 arrived at the trailhead. With the air brisk, we geared up, posed for a quick picture, and then started moving. We hit the trailhead at about 9:20 pm. 10 minutes sooner than I had anticipated. We began our trek in a clockwise direction. At the first crossing we decided to go to the overlook. Upon arrival to the overlook we had a view of a breath taking skyline. The sky was scattered with an array of stars too beautiful to put in words. A few of us city boys rarely get to see these many stars due to light pollution from where we live. Although not stated, I knew we all saw the beauty in the sky. It was apparent due to the quietness of the group with our heads cocked back lost in our hypnotic state while being mesmerized by the site before us. With the overlook occupied we decided we needed to set up camp deeper into the woods. After we took it all in, we shared some trail nuts, munched on frozen power bars, and sipped some water. With temps in the mid 30s and the camp sites occupied, we were quickly inspired to move on and continue with our journey.

We hiked until we found an established camp with a fire ring and a decent water source. We arrived to our camp location at about 10:30 PM. Being cold and tired proved to be a factor in set up. Storm6 ended up breaking a brand new tent pole which needed a quick and creative repair. With cold and numbing fingers Storm6 and I rigged up the pole with duct tape and a tent stake which allowed him to have shelter for the weekend. At about 11 PM, after hanging bear bags and setting up camp, we gathered around a fire to enjoy a few hot cups of cocoa and a couple laughs before calling it a night at about 1:50 AM.

Day 1: Estimated distance = 6.9 miles

After rising at about 8 AM we consumed breakfast and continued on the Minister Creek Trail in a clockwise direction picking up the North Country Trail crossing. We all agreed that taking the North Country Trail and staying there for the evening would give us a more “off the beaten path” experience. This also would allow us to collect valuable GPS data. About a mile or so along the NCT we stopped for a break and to check out a campsite. While relaxing a group member decided to do some field work on a trekking pole with a leatherman-like multitool. Without a locking blade, the multitool folded causing a serious cut to the right index finger of the group member. The cut was deep and had a heavy bleed to it. The member decided he wanted to get closer to civilization. Insisting he could get himself out of the woods by we all agreed the best thing was to walk with him out to the trailhead. After the decision was made, we back tracked the NCT picking up the Minister Creek Trail loop. We proceeded in a clockwise direction completing the Minister Creek Loop. 

Day 2: Estimated Distance =3.2 miles

After rising, we gathered around a camp fire to gather energy and warmth before packing up and proceeding to the trail. We worked our way back to the overlook to view the many rock outcroppings and take in a view during daylight hours. We made it back to the trailhead in good time even after loosing direction for a few minutes.

In closing, the trip was a success. We communicated and worked well as a team. The group seemed to mesh and enjoy each others company. During the trip many jokes were told as well as breaking each others stones (some more than others). A lot of laughs and good times were had. Not following any sort of plan or course allowed for a lot of discovery and exploration with the group. We all shared our knowledge of the area which made this trip invaluable for any of our returns. All in all …looks good from here!

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	09/13/2008
State:	Pa
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	9

All week long, I was paying attention to the weather forecast. Started out to be a nice weekend, then as each day passed, the chance for rain was growing. By Friday morning the forecast was for 80% chance of rain, at noon, 100%. I began receiving calls from some of the signed up members asking if I would cancel. I gave it some thought, checked the site page to see if there was a cancel button in case it came down to it. I couldn’t find one, so I emailed Aaron and he said he could cancel for me, but that I was a wuss! I told him to hold off until I talked with everyone signed up for the trip. By 8pm, I had everyone covered and it was 100% a go. Now I could pack…………

The drive to the trailhead was a wet one. I received a call from 2 of those signed up; they didn’t want to do a trip in the rain, now we were down to 9. I had stopped to pick up CMR on the way. Everyone was on time and got ready in the then, light rain. We were soon on our way down the access trail to the loop. Rain falling, the trail was in great shape. I expected there to be more mud, but all was well. We made our way down to Coons Run and stopped for a snack. I checked the water level and was surprised at how low the Run was. After a good 30 minute break we were on our way to Jacks run, and our spot for the night. We made it in no time, and again, Jacks Run was very low. With all the rain I expected more water in both runs. We chose the first area after the second crossing to make camp. With 9 tents we were spread out over a couple acres of area. CMR and Sonoma15 each had tarps which we joined together and gave us a dry area to meet and eat. Setting up in the rain is not the funnest thing to do. We gathered under the tarps for conversation, which let to dinner. Everyone was having a great time and new dinner ideas were talked about. At 7 the skies lightened and the rain stopped. CMR began gathering wood for a fire, and before we knew it he had a nice blaze going. The talk under the tarp started to turn political, and most of us migrated to the fire. We had an awesome evening, and Mother Nature did allow us to have a great time. So many great conversations and a nice visit from the Gray Goose too! Though a few people retired early, 8:30 most stayed up till 11:30 before calling it a night.

At 3:30 I woke to answer the call. The sky was clear, the moon was bright and the owls were doing their thing. It was beautiful out, but I was too tired to stay up and enjoy it. The night was very warm and humid.  5:30 and the owls were still at it, that and CMR’s “noise” prevented any further sleep, not that I didn’t try! By 7:30 everyone was up and getting their breakfast ready. Fresh coffee smelled so good! The skies were clear and the air warm. CMR was checking out all the different ways one can prepare coffee on the trail. I see an order to REI! Once we were done, everyone went their way and began packing for the return hike. As with most trips, the fire ring becomes the central gathering spot. Most were packed and meeting there, a few hadn’t finished yet. Sonoma15 asked where the trail was and I pointed out where we came in at and where the trail goes, went to retrieve my pack and poles and returned to the others at the fire ring. We were all talking about this and that when Nik27 asked “where’s Ted”? We all looked around and he (Sonoma15) was nowhere to be seen. Had he left the group? Answered the call of nature?  We didn’t know. Shaggy said he had seen him head down the trail. I know that once you cross Jacks Run for the last time you need to make sure you make a sharp right turn to follow the loop trail. Otherwise you’re headed for a long hike down an unmarked trail. We reached the turn, and no footprints in the dirt heading uphill. No sign he had gone down the wrong trail either. We continued on the loop and came to the boggy area that is always wet. I hoped we would see fresh prints in the mud, but nothing. We were all looking for a sign he had come through. We continued along the trail about a quarter of a mile. I had spider webs hitting me in the face and felt at that point it was a bad sign. We stopped and began shouting Ted’s name, blowing whistles. No reply. I decided to head back to Jacks Run and dropped my pack heading down the unmarked trail looking for him. Again, blowing my whistle and yelling his name, nothing! Thoughts of the SNR trip of March 07 came back and I didn’t like it. I turned around and headed back. Looking down I couldn’t even tell I had come in that way. Had Ted gotten that far ahead he didn’t hear anything?  Did he fall and hit his head, out cold under the ferns? I joined the group and was told Nik27 went ahead a few hundred yards looking for any sign of Ted. Also nothing. So we all went on hiking the loop. All I did was keep my eyes to the ground with the hopes I would see some sign that he had been there. Trekking pole marks, boot prints, anything, all the while dealing with the spider webs in my face and thinking SNR. We stopped a couple of times and waited in hopes that if Ted had gone down the wrong trail he would have realized it and tried to catch-up. The last stop was at the rock outcropping. After a good 30 minute break/wait we were once again off on our return. We made it back to the parking area to find Ted, waiting. I walked by and he said, bet you thought I missed the turn.  I told him we had spent our time looking for him, and held my tongue at that point.  I was mad, I was very mad.. No, I was pissed off!


Most of us headed to Subway for lunch before heading home and dealing with Ike

Lesson learned = I am not trying to make Sonoma15 look bad, he feels bad enough, but people need to be responsible to those with them on a trip. Communication is very important. In the past, I have hiked out alone because I wanted to feel the solitude, but I let the organized know so there were no worries. If Sonoma15 had ever been on this trail before and knew it well I would not have worried, still pissed off, but not worried. Leaving a group and not saying a word to anyone is totally irresponsible, and could be life threatening to you or others in the group who end up looking for you.

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	08/20/2008
State:	MT
Miles:	76.00
Pictures:	56

8/20/08 – Departed Cleveland Hopkins at 9am, briefly stopped in Minneapolis, and arrived in Great Falls at 10:15am MST.  After picking up our rental car, we headed to Big Horn Outfitters in Great Falls to buy our stove fuel. Our immediate destination was Johnson’s Campground at St. Mary which is the eastern portal to Glacier National Park. The rain began about 63 miles before St. Mary but had stopped by the time we reached Johnson’s CG. As we were checking in, the owner said he had two of the large fuel canisters, both full, that were left by a previous camper. He said we could have them – free. So we took them, thinking maybe we could return all or some of the ones we purchased for a refund. We set up tents and then began a drive on the Going-to-the-Sun road. Along the way we stopped to view an Elk herd, about 200 yards off to our right and 25 in number, and then stopped at Sunrift Gorge. After a 15 minute walk-around, we drove to Logan Pass. Cool and windy at this elevation where we spent most of our time browsing the gift shop. We then headed back down to St. Mary Lodge for evening supper. The drive to and from Logan Pass through the St. Mary valley is quite spectacular. After supper, it was back to Johnson’s CG to rest our travel weary bones.

8/21/08 – It rained lightly starting at 5:30am and quit after 45 minutes. Upon awakening, I also discovered that my Therm-a-rest had gone flat – GREAT, I’ve got a leak. We went to breakfast at St. Mary lodge and watched the clouds give way to large patches of blue sky. This fueled our hope for a nice day. Our plan is to do a day hike at Avalanche Creek, so we proceeded back into Glacier via the GTTS road (Going-to-the-Sun). As we gained elevation going toward Logan Pass, the rain started again. We crossed Logan Pass and headed down the west side to Avalanche Creek. The western side of Logan is definitely more picturesque than the eastern side. Even on a rainy day, it’s stunning. At Avalanche Creek, the first ½ miles parallels the Creek as it presents you with beautiful cascades, some are of a small slot canyon type. We then hiked the remaining 2 miles to Avalanche Lake. This is a spectacular setting. The lake backs up to a huge towering cirque, down which five waterfalls plummet. One of the falls is 2300 feet, the second highest in the US. Glacier Park had a record snowfall last year and even at this late August date, there are still large snow packs at the high elevations that are feeding these and other waterfalls throughout the park. We met an adventurous party of three from Wyoming that were as interested as we to see how far the trail continued around the lake – hopefully to the base of one or more of these high waterfalls. However, after a mile, the trail dead-ended and bushwhacking was out of the question. The rain started again on the return hike and continued for the whole 2.5+ miles. We had rain jackets on but not rain pants. The temperature was 49 degrees. Once in the car, we turned the heat up and drove toward McDonald Lodge. Upon arriving here, we went for lunch at Jammer Joe’s, a restaurant across from the McDonald Lodge. After lunch, we crossed the street and toured the Lodge and read up on its history. The history of the Lake McDonald area as well as all of Glacier is every bit as spectacular to read as the park is to see. Prominent in the history of the park is the Great Northern Railroad, and prominent to the Lake McDonald area are John Lewis, Will Rogers, and Charles M. Russell. We crossed over Logan Pass again at 4:40pm and the temp was 38 degrees, the wind was very strong, and sleet and hail were falling. By the time we reached St. Mary again at 5:30pm, then temp was 46 degrees and the rain had stopped, it was still very windy, and I got a picture of a rainbow. We took our evening meal at St. Mary Lodge again and then headed back to Johnson’s CG for our earned slumber.

8/22/08 – We awoke early after several short, light on and off rains last night. We arrived at the St. Mary Visitor Center promptly at 7am to pick up our backcountry camping permits. As we breakfasted at the St. Mary Lodge, the clouds cleared, giving way to a blue, sunny but cool sky. This looks promising. We head west on the GTTS for a planned day hike to St. Mary falls and Virginia falls. Both falls prove to be very beautiful and the day is gorgeous, sunny with the temp at 62 degrees. After visiting the falls, we drove to East Glacier (where the trail head for our backcountry adventure is located) and stopped for lunch at the Whistle Stop restaurant where the Huckleberry pie was outstanding.. We checked in at the Y Lazy R RV Campground and then asked around for directions to the trail head as it is not immediately apparent. We then drove the 1.1 miles to the trail head (on a back road) just so we could see it and know how to get there by walking. We returned to the Y Lazy R RV Campground and sorted out our food and packed up for a 5 day hike with a re-supply from our car on day five for the remaining 5 days of hiking. While Richard and Sandy waited in East Glacier, I drove the car to Many Glacier Lodge and left it in their parking lot. I took the shuttle back to East Glacier.

Posted By:	Aaron
Trip Date:	07/26/2008
State:	WY
Miles:	34.00
Pictures:	37

Day -1 >> Cleveland - Jackson Hole:  We woke up at 3am to get ready and make it to the Akron airport to catch a flight to Jackson Hole via Denver. We made it to Jackson by 11am which gave us almost all day to explore.  We reserved a large 4 wheal drive SUV to enable us driving on some of the flooded unmaintained roads.  To our surprise Alamo gave us a very nice Suburban for the same price (Alamo and Costco rock).  We were able to fit our entire luggage without much engineering.    After picking up the tank, we drove to Jackson and checked in the hotel, we then drove to Teton village where we road on the gondola up and down a few times. We felt that the price was too steep to ride it only once.  The view from the top was ok, but save your $20.

Day 0 >> Yellowstone:  after a quick breakfast at McD, we drove to Yellowstone via Tetons.  The Tetons are just awesome, each time I see that mountain range I'm amazed all over again.  We entered Yellowstone and tried to schedule our hikes so we can see Old Faithful erupt.  We then went to a few more geysers, OMG the entire place is boiling under your feet.  Next we drove into the Lamar Valley to spot wildlife. We saw large herds of buffalo, elk and even a grizzly.  By the time we left the park we could not find any restaurant open until we got back to Jackson, we stopped at Wendy's at about 11pm.  Yellowstone is a very very large park.

This is my unedited album of the Yellowstone Day Trip


Day 1 >> East Fork of the Wind River trail:  We hit the trail. This section  which we did the first and last day was very, very hot, this side of the range gets little wind, we looked at it as the price we had to pay for the awesome trails to come. (Yo Bear)

Day 2 >> East Fork of the Wind River trail:  we continued climbing to our 2ed and 3ed night base camp.  This section of trail had no signs of any people being there this year.  We were alone in the wilderness, it felt good to know that we were the only visitors there. (Yo Bear)

Day 3 >> Base camped,  Day hikes to 2 different passes, awesome views.  Again, no sight of people being there, we had to cross some snow fields that had no foot prints. On our way back to camp we saw a large horse caravan, most visitors to this area are on horseback.

Day 4 >> Ninemile trail to Bear Creek trail:  Continued climbing, this area was never meant for backpackers.  The trails are very steep with little to none switchbacks.  The only person we ran into this entire trip was a ranger with his 2 horses clearing the trails.  After the small talk he asked which way we are going, so we told him Bear creak to Tepee trail to east fork, his reply was this is the steepest trail in the territory, even the horses have a hard time on it, he also said "we don't see many of you here, backpackers that is".  (Yo Bear, Yo Bear)

Day 5 >> Tepee Trail – Dubois:  We again climbed on tepee trail (2000 ft in 2 miles, with no switchbacks). almost at the top we saw 2 herds of elk numbering about 80 heads with many babies,  and just a few more steps up we were on top of the world.  i posted some pictures, but there is no picture that can do it justice.  We ate lunch on the top and just sit there amazed at the view.  We then descended making our own switchbacks from one cairn to the next.  We hit the East Fork of the Wind River trail and decided to hike back to the car since we had only 2 miles to go.  We drove to a cell reception area and found a hotel in Dubois.  Dubois is a very nice small town in Wyoming, we noticed that people here look different, they are easy going and happy.  I wander sometimes why I’m here ?

Day 6 >> Dubois – Jackson:  Spent the morning in Dubois and then drove to Jackson to do some shopping and playing tourist.  After checking into the hotel we went to the Gun Barrel for dinner, if you are within 300 miles of this restaurant go there and have the Buffalo Prime Rib, you will not be disappointed.  http://www.gunbarrel.com/

Day 7 >> Fly Home

Summary >> This was an awesome trip and an awesome group.  Brian's timing was perfect, 2 weeks earlier and we could have not passed the snow fields or the creeks, 2 weeks later and we would have not had the snow fields, or the wild flowers in full bloom, and did I mention the smells of the flowers, you just had to be there.  This area is as remote as I have ever been, expect to be alone , and expect to have to make your own trails, and take your time and smell the lupine.

This is my unedited album of the trail

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	08/09/2008
State:	Pa
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	11

We all met at the trail head pretty much on time. Some on the trip had to do a bit of road whacking, the driving equivalent of bush whacking. Seems RT 666 is closed between RT 62 and Minister Creek. That didn’t stop some as they 4 wheeled it to the trailhead. We were joined by two newbie’s, Richard216’s wife Jean, and my wife Lisa.

We were loaded up and on the trail in no time. The park service has done quite a bit of trail maintenance at Minister Creek. In some places it’s almost hard to tell where you’re at because it looks so different. The hike back to the not so secret, secret camping spot was easy and uneventful. Camp set up, it was time to relax. A newspaper made its way among the campers. Some napped. Soon it was time to find fire wood and get the evening meals underway. While we were enjoying our dinner we could hear the distant clap of thunder. There was only a 30% chance of showers, but it was beginning to sound like it would be 100% for us. The skies darkened, just a tease, but it got Trail Breaker setting up his tarp pretty quick. Skies cleared and a fire started, we began to enjoy ourselves round the fire. Ahhh, but wait, the skies darkened again and a light rain began to fall, then stop, then start, then stop. Everyone under the tarp, everyone out, back and forth we went for some time. Around 9:30, Mother Nature wasn’t playing any longer as a good steady rain began to fall. That ended our night.

Morning came and greeted us with warm sunshine. We woke and enjoyed our breakfast, while TrailHead celebrated his 29^th birthday with us on the trail. HE even enjoyed a nice energy bar complete with birthday candle! After a round of Happy Birthday it was time to pack up and head back to the cars and home. The newbie’s enjoyed themselves, though I think mine will take some prodding to get her back out again due to the rain, but I can guarantee no rain!

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	07/25/2008
State:	Pa
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	10

I met up with MoabGirl and her husband Thor at their home in Akron, swapped some gear and we were off on the road. Weather was looking great and the traffic was low. 20 minutes into the ride, Moabgirl realized she had forgotten her boots. Time for a U-turn.

Once again we were on the road. Traffic was a bit lighter the second time around. It was a Friday, and most were at work by this time. The trip was uneventful, and even with the forgotten boots, we made it to the trailhead 15 minutes behind schedule. Wait, we had no schedule, the 3 of us were the only ones on the trip!

A quick change in to our boots and we were off on the tail. No one else in sight we made our way to Coons Run and grabbed a bite to eat. This section has a few locations where Stinging Nettles has made itself known. I don’t recall seeing it here before, but it’s there now and lots of it. The trail was soupy in many areas as it is evident the area has received much rain.

Lunch had we were off to Jacks Run and our nights stay. WE chose the last camping area prior to crossing Jacks run for the last time. Tents set up, water collected, it was time to gather wood for the evening. We were amazed at the amount of wood that was readily available. It didn’t take long till we had plenty, and we didn’t have to look or wander far from camp to get it. Dinner had, wine and margaritas were the flavor’s and we hit the sack around 10.

I rose early, got the fire going again. A short time later MoabGirl and Thor joined me. Breakfast had, we packed and headed for the trailhead.

The trail was deserted, and there is a lot of new blow down, along with a good quantity of Stinging Nettles on the first half of the trail. The weather held out nicely and we a great time. Looking forwards to returning.

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	07/10/2008
State:	NY
Miles:	22.80
Pictures:	28

We all met at the first rest area along RT90 E in Pa by 7. Greetings made and names checked off the sign up list, it was time to head out. The drive through the southern portion on NY is a pretty one. You enter and exit Indian Territory quite often. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get there, and we all managed to meet at the right exit without any real problems, though one car was looking like gas would become an issue, if an open gas station was not found.

We reached our nights spot, set up our tents, had a fire going and a couple of cold beverages in no time. Conversation soon led to lights out. Morning came and all seemed real eager to hit the trail. Others were up at 6:30 packing their gear. We were all on the road to Naples for a quick breakfast at Bob and Ruth’s, then on to the trail. The day started overcast, and there was, at last check, a 30% chance of showers in the forecast. After the obligatory group pic, we were off on the trail with JayBirds dog Stella leading the way. After 2 miles on the trail we came to a bivy area with a vista. We checked it out, as this is something we had not done on prior trips. A light drizzle began to fall at this point. Off in the distance we could see something strange, something not there before, something from War of the Worlds? We got back on trail and soon it was downhill to Widmeres winery. The workers are getting to know us at this point. We all went in and most made a choice for a dinner wine. At this time, JayBird had told us his new Granite Gear pack had split a seam. The split was getting worse, and this was only day 1. The guys gathered round the pack and figured the best way to secure it and its contents, while trying to keep the seam from splitting anymore.  It began to rain hard as we sat under the roof at Widmeres. I went inside and asked the forecast. They told me rain all day, sigh. With this in mind, it was a good dry place to have our lunch.

The rain let up and we were once again on our way back to Bob and Ruth’s for Ice-cream before the big climb up High-Tor Mountain. This year we took a short cut side trail half ways up the hill rather than go straight up. It cut out about .75 miles, and a lot of climbing. We made camp at the overlook, which does have a shelter, but this time of year, the bugs would carry you away, you need a tent. A couple of people brought their bug nets, most brought spray. Either way, you needed one or the other.  Everyone got set up with food and packs in the shelter. The sky darkened again, and soon it was raining. A good hard rain. We all just sat in the shelter and watched. The plan was to go see the waterfalls in Conklin Gully. The rain put a stop to that. After a while the rain gave way to sunny skies, we cleaned up, watered up and had dinner, fire, wine and conversation.

Day two started out foggy. Again, everyone was up at 6:30. I woke to a flat Thermarest, thought I may not have tightened the valve well and waited for that night to see if it was a user error that caused it.The sound of zippers and cook pots filled the air. The view out from the vista was a thick one. Once everyone had their breakfast and coffee, the air began to clear. Everyone began packing up and got ready to hit the trail again. Last pics of the view were taken and we were off, with Stella darting between front and back. JayBird and managed to keep the pack together and we kept our fingers crossed.

The first 2 miles of this day follow Conklin Gully out to its start. Most of the forest is dense, and the air was thick and humid. WE knew once we left the forest, we were in for a hot day. Forecast for the day was sunny and 92.

WE broke free of the forest and started our 1.5 miles of road walking, that includes a stop at a backpacker friendly home for fresh water and a break. We didn’t take a long break, as the jumpoff were we would have lunch was only 45 minutes away. We had left the road and back onto trail where we could see once again, those menacing white towers in the distance, only this time we could make out what they were, a wind farm. Unique at first, then you realize they just don’t belong there and take away so much of the scenery.  A bit further and we were at the jump off. This location is used for hang gliders and this is their launching area, the vista is a nice one and a cool breeze comes up from the valley. Lunch had, we all settled in for a good rest.  After an hour or so we stood for another group pic and headed off on the trail again, realizing that the road we had seen bellow us was our destination. There is a good steep downhill in this section, and everyone was grateful we were not hiking in the opposite direction, this is steep. Liz-z had just broken a toe 6 weeks earlier and this downhill was very painful for her. The look on her face told it all. The trail weaves in and out of other trails not on the map, but we were at the bottom after a couple of hours. We sat under a shade tree, watered up at Flint Creek, some cooled off in it as well. Now it was hot and humid out, thunder could be heard, and rain clouds were on the horizon. Time to head up Italy hill to our next night’s camp.

The trail uphill is not a steep one, but the heat and humidity took its toll on many, including Stella our trail mascot. Sweat was just pouring off everyone. WE reached the top and the Outback Inn. We took a break and read the trail logs that were there.  We decided not to stay, as mice were evedent, and the Outback smelled like a mouse cage. We made camp a short distance away at a good backpackers spot that we used the year before. Everyone was beat, but mustered up the energy to go down to a stream and clean up and gather water for that night. The rain never came and we were grateful. Andrea brought along a backpackers shower, and soon all the women were at the stream showering and cleaning up, the men were given strict instructions to stay away! Soon everyone had cleaned up, Dwight borrowed the shower as well. Dinner, fire and conversation followed.

We woke Sunday morning to clear skies. Everyone was up and getting breakfast ready.  The clouds slowly rolled in. Jjdog and I had finished and packed. WE waited for quite some time for the others, as it seemed no one was in a hurry this day, which was fine as we only had about 4.5 miles to go, and most of it was road walking. We broke from the forest and hit the road, a light rain began to fall. We opted to stay on the road rather then turn back on the trail. We had read in the trail logs at the Outback that this section of trail was soupy, and the rain would only add to that. The rain be

Posted By:	Dawn
Trip Date:	07/12/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	16.00
Pictures:	4

We met at the parking area on Route 66 and headed west.  This trailhead was easier to find than the Millcreek/TL one of last year’s trip as it sits right on the highway.  No searching for unmarked dirt roads this time. However, it is evident that this trail continues to be a completely unmaintained trail... so the briar patches have not only become thicker, but have claimed more territory, which made for some uncomfortable traveling through it.  Fortunately, this was not the case for the entire length of the trail.  The open areas were just as nice as before... the campsites still clear and comfortable -- very peaceful, as is the entire trail, due to it being completely deserted. 

Unfortunately, as we attempted to travel to our designated campsite, we found that the grassy area we’d need to cross had become a serious bog--at least ankle-deep muddy water that we anticipated might become knee-deep with the expected rain that night.  So, we decided to turn around and camp at the first option we’d passed about a half-mile back.  I was disappointed that we couldn’t continue, but our campsite area was dry and roomy and very pleasant.

The trail is well-marked only in a couple of brief lengths... With some stretches void of any metal markers or painted blazes.  It looked as though the person who’d attached the metal markers started with a stack of them and went marker-happy, attaching them to trees only 15-20 feet apart, then ran out of them and didn’t return to finish the job where we really needed the trail to be marked.  Also, trees with markers were down and hidden by overgrowth… and if there were no trees, there were no markers. 

The trail is fairly level much of the way with only minor to moderate elevation changes which makes for easy travel. However, there are many parts of the trail where overgrowth obscures a clear view of the trail that includes loose dirt and wood, very narrow and slanted footholds, and large holes that could inflict some serious injury.  We were fortunate to spot these on the way in and remember them for the way out.  This was useful as we hiked out in thundershowers which made the trail very slippery.  But since it was cooler on our way out than on our way in we hiked at a slightly faster pace… and even though completely soaked in the first few minutes of our return, we arrived back at the lot in good spirits with no injuries. 

I do have to say though… after hiking here three times, and noting the hazards that exist at various points, and having to bushwhack a bit too much while still on the trail, there is only a short section that I would enjoy hiking through again… and, for me, it isn’t long enough to make the drive worth it.  So, as interesting as each of my trips through different parts of this trail have been, I don’t expect to return unless I am conveniently close and looking for a short hike.

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	06/20/2008
State:	Pa
Miles:	18.00
Pictures:	21

Multi Night Beginners Trip

The time to meet at Heart’s Content was 11:30. Seems that everyone was excited and had shown up by 11:10. Greetings completed, head counts done, we loaded into 4 vehicles and left for Henry Mills. Once at Henry Mills, the talk of gear and packing got underway as we all loaded up and got ready for the trail. With the obligatory group photo taken, we were off on the North Country Trail and started the only real climb of the trip. Seems Katka had started suffering from a migraine while en route to the trip, and her head began pounding something terrible. While going up that him, she could not take the pain and had to bail, husband Imre had no choice but to bail with her. Imre sent word up the hill that he would either meet us at Minister Creek the next night, or at Heart’s Content at trips end, he car pooled with Almuth, and felt he had to make sure she had a ride back to his house where her car was parked.

While going up that first climb, things like, this is no walk in the Metro Parks, and glad we practiced with our packs were heard coming from some of the beginners! The day was warm, but not too hot, but most were starting to put on a good sweat. Once the trail leveled off, we walked past some old oil pumps and tanks, the mountain laurel was in full bloom, and cameras were getting a great work out. About a mile and a half into the hike someone announced we were missing someone! At that point we should have had 13, but the count came up to 12. Jjdog and I looked at each other and said, there were 15 at the start. We both had counted. Yup, 15. Cameras came out and a head count of the group pic was done, and sure enough, 14 backpackers! Who was missing? How could two of us count 15 at Hearts Content?  Had we lost someone during the car pool? It was finally figured out that BIG JIM was not there? Now mind you, there were 4 Jims on this trip, but we still counted 15 at the start. OK, now I started kicking myself in the butt thinking I had left a man behind. It was noted that during the head count, a straggler in the parking lot had come over towards our group, and………… OK, two of us counted someone not with the group, we were all early, but Big Jim. I left someone at the trail head and would never live that one down. It was too late to go back, and guilt settled into my stomach. Time to march on to the shelter.

We stopped for lunch along the trail, took a nice break and we were off again. 3 more miles to go! The group began to stretch out along the trail. We went past the oil pumps, and the only real confusing spot along the trail. Soon it was down hill to the shelter. Once in camp, tents set up, beginners began checking out others gear, water filters were of big interest, and Jjdog did a great sales pitch and training speech! Some rested, others napped. The log book at the shelter was read and laughed at. We gathered a good pile of fire wood, and soon it was time for dinner. The beginners were learning quite a bit, and many questions were asked and answered. Meal choices are always a great subject as there are so many possibilities. Of course, Beartooth treated us all too some great wild game and many began to turn him down as they were too full to eat anymore. By 10:30, we had all hit the sack.

Morning came and by 6:30 most were up and getting ready for breakfast. Food was once again the subject round the fire.  We were soon finished eating and packing up to hit the trail again. The day was nice, a bit warmer, and a bit more humid. We hiked half way to Minister Creek and stopped for lunch at a bridge over Sheriffs Run. A nice shady place where we all enjoyed a nice break. Thor broke out the new MSR water filter and amazed us all at the speed at which it filtered. Back of on the trail and we were closing in on Minister. At Minister Rd. we noticed the shy was beginning to darken up. We hoped we would make camp before Mother Nature would let loose with her 30% chance of showers. Once the NCT merged with Minister Trail we headed down hill to Triple Fork camp area. Low and behold, Imre was there! A man of honor! He had waited for us at the first camp area at the bottom of the hill. The stream was low and room a plenty, so we all spread out, set up camp and settled in for the evening. Mother Nature continued to show us a good light and sound show, but by 8, she no longer avoided us. Everyone headed for their tents, and the plan was to return once this shower passed. 45 minutes later the rain let up, and Jimbo braved the weather and began to restart the fire, but the lull lasted 5 minutes, and the rain came back with a vengeance. A down pour of near biblical proportions. That was it for the night. Lightning strikes were close, some beginners laughed at it, others were in there tents wishing to be someplace else!

We woke to a damp cloudy morning. Minister Creek was up and flowing well. We had camped on a peninsula, woke on an island! A couple of the beginners learned quickly that gear does get wet when not properly stored. We ate a quick breakfast and a couple of beginners opted to hike out Minister Trail with Imre due to the blistered condition of their feet. This worked out to be a good plan. 3 would hike out with Imre, they would go back to Henry Mills and drive the shuttle cars back to Heart’s Content, the rest would continue on the NCT to the Tanbark Trail and back to Heart’s Content. 6.2 miles to go, and even though the NCT leaving Minister is not a hard uphill, the amount of rain the night before made for sloppy hiking. It seems that each day on the trail, the group covered more ground in a shorter amount of time. We were moving well along the trail. Parts of the NCT here still have old growth forest. There were some very dark areas of trail that were like hiking in BC or Washington State. Too dark for good pictures. We covered the 6.2 miles in about 3 hours, and as we left the forest at Heart’s Content and entered the parking area, so too did the shuttle cars, I couldn’t have planned that one any better. It was time to change clothes, take a last pic at the Heart’s Content sign and say our farewells. This was a great group. I asked if we would see any of the new gear on E-bay, and all answered NO! I think the beginners on this trip will be back, and I wanted to thank them, as well as the “seasoned” members who helped out on this trail. I also wanted to thank Imre for being a stand up guy and returning to make sure Almuth had her ride back home, thanks Imre.

Yeah, the guilt about leaving for the trail 2 days before and not making sure were had all of our members was still going through my mind. Something I would have to live

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	06/20/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	20.00
Pictures:	7

Friday, June 20. We, Richard, Sandy, and I, arrived at the trail head around 7:05 PM. Many cars at the trail head – turned out to be overflow parking from the campground. But no sign of DB. So we drove back to Park HQ to look around and up drives DB. So, back to trail head, shoes on, packs on, and we begin to hike at 7:20PM. The first couple of miles are gently uphill and considerably cluttered with Pennsylvania’s famous (infamous) rocks and roots. But these difficult trail characteristics were overshadowed but the voluminous display of flowering Mountain Laurel. Literally acres and acres. For the first 15 miles of this hike, we were wonderfully intoxicated by one of Nature’s stellar displays. And the fragrance – you can’t begin to bottle that. By mile 4.3, dark had settled in and we became night hikers. This pleased Sandy as she had a new, brighter headlamp and was excited to try it out. The remaining 3 miles were easy. There was ¾ miles on a gravel road, and then the remainder on a wide grassy road bed. We made it to camp at Trout Run at 10:20.  Trout Run is a very slow moving narrow stream, doesn’t make a sound, but it’s enough to satisfy drinking/cooking needs. The camp site itself, with fire ring, is quite nice, with room for up to 5 tents, a couple more if you pitch on the other side of the stream. We set up tents, gathered some wood and made a small fire. By 11:50 all were in bed except me. We knew that Kayaker7775 was going to arrive late at the trail head around 9PM, and then hike to camp, arriving around midnight, so I decided to keep the fire going and stay up for his arrival. By 1PM, no Jeremy and my eyelids were drooping down to my heels. To help Jeremy find the camp, I had told him earlier that I would “leave the light on”, so I strapped an extra head lamp to a tree, turned it on, and retired.

Saturday, June 21.  It’s about 7AM, Dave Barndollar is up and about, so I attempt the same. I expect to see Jeremy’s tent, but it’s not to be. After washing the dew off of some under story, I headed toward the hanging food bags just in time to encounter Jeremy coming down the trail. Turns out he was delayed leaving Columbus and didn’t arrive at the trail head until midnight. So he slept in his vehicle and started hiking to us at 4AM. As we only have 8+ miles for today, we rekindle the fire, have a leisurely breakfast and head out on the day’s march around 9:30 or later – I can’t remember exactly.  It’s a pretty day, warmish with intermittent cloud cover. It’s an easy walks across the plateau with abundant acreage of flowing Mountain Laurel to delight our senses.  In 2 miles we come to a clear cut area that accommodates a gas line.  We take a break for water, snacks, and some conversation, and to take in the view afforded by the clear cut to the hills across the valley below. After a 20 minute break, we continue on and within 10 minutes we are treated to scream, the shout of “snake”, and a 3 second long rattle – all within ½ second of one another.  We were on a wide grassy section of trail. Jeremy and I had already walked  right past the rattlesnake and were 3 or 4 paces beyond when the excitement started. Jeremy and I headed back and Jeremy discovered that the snake was moving in his direction, so he took two huge steps backward and discovered he was almost in New York City – Hey, I write, I take liberties, so sue me. It was Sandy who walked close enough to startle the snake – actually they were both startled. The snake was about 24 - 28 inches long. I took a picture with my camera and then with Jeremy’s and then we moved on in hopes that our heart rates would settle down. After a mile or so, we came to a long steep downhill. There’s a camp with fire ring, sans water, just before the descent starts. The descent, 650 feet vertical, is made somewhat easier by the use of switchbacks. The trail exits onto Medix Run Road which we follow for approximately ½ mile to where the stream, Medix Run, cross under the road. Shade and water are abundant, so we drop packs for a lunch and water break. Replenished, we follow the road for another 200 feet, then exit right for the 600+ foot vertical ascent to the plateau. About 200 feet into the climb, the trail passes right through a camp, 2 tents (3 in a pinch) with fire ring and an abundantly flowing stream along side.  A half mile across the plateau and we begin the long gradual descent to Saunders Road and Laurel Run.  The trail follows the road for about ½ mile then veers right down a grassy road bed. About 50 yards before exiting Saunders Road, there is gushing spring water via a pipe coming from the hillside on the left. Cold, crystal clear, very drinkable. The camp site is about ½ mile down the grassy road bed on the right along side Saunders Run, very plentiful water. There is room for 6 or 7 tents at this site. About 30 minutes after arriving at camp, we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from Staph79 and Resa. They had left Parker Dam trail head and were hiking the loop clockwise, opposite to our direction. It was now completely overcast and there were noticeable boomers in the distant. We talked for a bit, but because of the boomers, they were anxious to get moving. We gave them the location of a nearer camp in case they couldn’t make their longer distant one and wished them good hiking. Richard and I set up my rain tarp, then we all settled down for a rest and wait for the dinner hour. Around 4:35, Quarter Mile and Walkngawk showed up. They had left the Parker Dam trail head on Wednesday, hiking counterclockwise using the longer East Cross Connector Loop, such that we all shared the same camp for Saturday night. They pitched their tents, Kelty tarp for Walkngawk

Posted By:	stepbreathe
Trip Date:	06/07/2008
State:	Virginia
Miles:	49.20
Pictures:	23

If I am successful, you will find photos from the trip included in this post. If you would like me to individually email any of the photos to you, please send me a separate email with your request.
Peace,
~Lori

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	06/07/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	8.00
Pictures:	15

We all met at the Minister Creek parking lot by 11:30, and soon thereafter hit the hot and sweaty trail. We had 4 kids 11 and younger and all of them were excited to hit the trail. Two hours later we were at our designated camp site and we getting set up. We had one slip and fall along the the way, but it wasn’t one of the kids! Amazing!!

Once set up, it was a mad dash for firewood, and we had a big pile in no time at all.  Kevbro handled the saw and make quick work of cutting up the wood. We sat, relaxed and soon it was time for dinner. WE started a fire early so Kevbro and his nephew could cook, and a small snake with what looked like Timber Rattler markings came out of the stones around the fire ring. The kids had to come over and check that out, but soon after, BuddyG made sure the snake was safe in the woods, more like we were safe. Of course, the kids wanted to get dinner out of the way because that would lead to Smorse time. Again, Kevbro showed his skills and became the Smores Mystro! With dinner, Smores and popcorn having been eaten, soon it was dark, the fire blazed, kids watched an Ipod movie, went to bed or played with the fire. By 10:30 we were all in the sack.

The night was calm and warm, and morning was no different. Breakfast had, and gear packed we were on the trail by 9:15 and headed for the lookout.

This was a good trip. Met new members, socialized with others. The kids were great, and mother nature held out! Though we did wait for Aaron and his group to come back and visit, wishing the visit would include a case of ice cold beer! Ahhh, maybe next time!

Posted By:	Dawn
Trip Date:	06/06/2008
State:	VA
Miles:	24.00
Pictures:	21

Well, the plan this time was only a little different from the last time I hiked this area…

Since I was hoping to share with my two teenagers all that is this wonderful hike -- in particular the beautiful views from the ridge -- I thought we could travel at a slower pace in order to savor the experience rather than fly through it all in order to cover ground each day.  To that end, I thought we’d skip the first 3.5 miles straight up from the 603 AT trailhead, through the forest & rocky trail, and just drive up to Scales.  We’d miss some nice parts of the trail, but we could hike a little more slowly and, perhaps, farther on the AT beyond the Thomas Knob shelter before returning along the ridge as before.

However, upon our arrival, we were informed by a few of the locals that our car wouldn’t clear the ground of that access road, and we might just lose a valuable part or two… like the gas tank.  OK… so that idea was scrapped.  We hiked up from the 603 AT trailhead.  But since we hadn’t started hiking until almost 4 pm on Friday, we had to hustle to get to our intended start for the next day.  So we hiked up the 3.5-mile hill, across to Scales where we stopped for water, continued over Stone Mountain, and set up camp just short of the Wise shelter where we were able to filter water at the stream Saturday morning…

We then continued our climb up the mountain, stopping to enjoy the many open views, to that final big rock, and beyond to a wide-open campsite close to the Thomas Knob shelter where we filtered more water to last us through our return across the ridge Sunday morning.

The weather was sunny and very hot Friday through Saturday night, until early Sunday morning when the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up and blew our equipment around as we packed up (and sent a mountainside neighbor’s tent end-over-end after they removed their stakes :-)  The wind also carried a cool mist that refreshed us nicely after the previous days of baking in the sun.

We then headed back along the AT to the intersection of trails and opted for the Crest trail & its open air views & breezes, rather than the wooded Pine Mountain trail, to return to the AT’s 3.5 mi. back down to the trailhead lot and our car.  The trails were all clear, without detours, and just as easy to navigate as before…  and the weather permitted some beautiful picture-taking results which I am posting here to share with you. 

Along the way, I was pleased to run into previous NEOHBC trail mates at the Orchard Shelter as they were enjoying their trip from Massey Gap.  ( A bit rude of me, though, hurrying off rather than stopping to chat a bit longer as I was running out of steam and preoccupied with thoughts of the long drive ahead in my oven-like car without air-conditioning  :-P  )

After making it to the car, we ate a snack, cooled off, changed our clothes, and headed on down the highway through West Virginia to a state park where we finished off our week’s vacation at a very quiet campground and beach.  What a wonderful trip!

Posted By:	Kayaker7775
Trip Date:	05/16/2008
State:	WV
Miles:	13.50
Pictures:	19

I arrived late Friday night at the Wolf Gap campground.  Mslody, Shaylily and Follow had carpooled and arrived at camp about an hour before me.  The weather forecast was for scattered showers most of the weekend.  Soon after I arrived at camp it began to rain.  Fortunately the rain only lasted a short time.  The clouds scattered and we enjoyed a large bright moon around the campfire that night.

On Saturday we left Wolf Gap at 8:00 AM and headed to Wardensville.  We stopped at a local restaurant and had a great breakfast.  It took us about 20 minutes to reach the parking lot on Forest Road 92 which is located on the Virginia side of the mountain.  We then climbed the YELLOW double blazed “Little Stony Creek Trail”.   This was a great 1500ft climb that got out hearts beating. We were shocked by the amount of water present on the hike.  All the springs and streams were full of water.  We even had water running down the trail.

We stopped at the Sugar Knob Cabin for a brief lunch. Next we turned left onto the BLUE double blazed “Tuscarora Trail”.   We followed this trail until we reached the ORANGE double blazed “Mill Mountain Trail”.  On this short leg of the trip we passed several enormous ant hills.

 Next we turned left on the “Mill Mountain Trail” and follow it to the sandstone spring.  We filled up our water containers as this was the last water source we had for the trip.  We continued to follow this trail all the way to the Big Schloss.  We climbed Big Schloss and spent a few hours at the top taking in the view.  The weather to this point was beautiful and had been the opposite of the forecast.  While on top of Big Schloss we noticed some weather moving into the area and decided to make camp.

We climbed down and backtracked on the “Mill Mountain Trail” about a mile to the “Big Schloss Cut-Off Trail”.  We found a nice area near the intersection of the two trails and made camp.  The bad weather never arrived as we enjoyed the evening around the campfire.  Around 11:00 PM a huge wind storm did blow into the area.  This made sleeping difficult as the trees creaked and swayed above our heads. 

On Sunday morning we awoke to light rain.  The rain stopped before 9:00 AM and we broke camp.  We descended 1500 feet and had a brief two mile hike back to the cars.

I modified this trip from the 20 mile trip I did last August.  I had planned on the trip being about 15 miles.  The trip ended up being 13.5 miles.  We ascended 2525 feet and descended 2569 feet.  Overall it was a great trip and beautiful weekend.

This is a must do trip.  I can’t stress how beautiful the views are from top of the Big Schloss.  In my opinion this was the best view out of all of the trails the club regularly hikes.

If you would like exact details on the hike, read my 8/3/07 Big Schloss trip log.

Posted By:	Big Dave
Trip Date:	04/18/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	30.00
Pictures:	14

Canteen boy, DB and I met at Greenwood Furnace State Park on Friday night. Having arrived early and under the effects of a Little Italy grinder from the Home Delivery restaurant in State College, I was almost asleep when Dave Barndollar showed up around 9:30pm. We chatted a bit and then turned in with Ian showing up around midnight to silently pitch his sleeping shelter. The night temps. dropped to 48-50, perfect for the beautiful starlit night. No rainfly necessary. The next morning we spotted cars at the northern terminus of the SST and drove over the mountain to SR 655 on our way to the 1000 steps at Jack's Mountain. There was only one breakfast site just south of the town of Belleville which just by chance was serving their all-you-can eat breakfast. We stopped, we ate, we moaned and groaned all the way the 1000 steps. The pull-off of SR22 at the 1000 steps was easy enough to find, finally we were off...8:07am. The place is very unique, the climb will warm you up quickly but once you hit the Dinky House your home free. The trail across Jacks Mountain was easy to follow with many fiine views. We saw 2 dayhikers at the Dinky House and they were the last we would see on the hike. The 1600' downhill off Jacks Mountain seemed subtle except for one very steep part. There is  an opportunity at the SR655 crossing to water up in the river. The trail going north for the next 7-8 miles stays low with not a lot of elevation. The trail goes through a soon-to-be-logged area which provides a challenge finding the true orange blazes at times. Here we ran into a nice black snake sunning himself on the trail. We also had several encounters with the wild turkey population in the area. We camped just before coming to the Rocky Ridge natural area around 4:15pm after chugging out 18 miles. The sun set bringing the temps down to very comfortable sleeping levels. We were all tired and fell silent at around 9:00pm. The morning brought promising skies but those promises would soon be broken. DB and I left camp in front of Ian and got to the Rocky Ridge Natural Area to do a little scrambling, don't take the by-pass, the scrambling required on the regular route is easy. We were just beginning the climb up Stone Mountain when the drops began to fall. By the time we got to the Stonecrest Hawk lookout we were in the rainy mist. The rain made the rock hopping very treacherous. Be carefull on Stone Mountain, wet or dry, with your footing. The next 4 hours we slogged through a drenching rain with one well timed bolt of lightning thrown in for special effects. This stretch of trail is very cool with, ridgetop hiking and hemlock forests. The trail from the northern terminus to the RRNA is about 11 miles and dry so take enough water. We all survived the 12 miles of slippery rocks and finished about 2:00pm. The hike is well worth the trip. I will post some pictures tonight.

Big Dave
  






 















  

Posted By:	Beartooth
Trip Date:	03/15/2008
State:	Ohio
Miles:	13.30
Pictures:	20

   The Stone Church Trailhead is easily located on County Road 38 in Perry county, just west of Rt. 93.
This is where myself, Sonoma15, and Trailhead met Recon1 and Mark for the start of our trek. Parking is limited during the off-season due to a steel gate at the trailhead parking area. Additional, ample parking is located just east of the trailhead at the horse campground area, a very nice facility.     
   Sunny skies were present when we began our trek in a counter-clockwise direction on the trail. The trail was quite easy walking despite being a horse trail for most of the year, actually we wondered, throughout, if it was used much at all for this purpose. Crushed limestone was present in many areas adding to the stability of the trail. Following reflective blazes with white dots, I was quite impressed with the woodlands we experienced during the eastern loop of this trail. A nice fire ring/camping area, next to small ponds, was found about 1.5 miles in on the trail. We trekked along a rolling trail, with a few ravines thrown in, and passed many small ponds throughout the eastern section of the loop. A few deer were spotted, along with a single woodcock and assorted waterfowl.
   After crossing Cty. Rd. 39 be sure to stay to the right as you proceed on the trail. Smaller blazes appear on the left side of the trail, and we were to believe these didn't relate to the cross-connector trail. Not sure where this trail went. After climbing a decent ascent, we approached the connector trail / road, which was blazed with white relective diamonds with a brown dot. Stay again to the right here, following a logging road of sorts into the woods to a bridge which leads back to the trail. The trail blazes for the western section all have the brown dot present. Following the trail became a sort of guessing game for the next mile or so, as brown dot blazes and logging roads became more prevelant. With Mark's GPS and frequent map referals, we ending up staying to the right for the most part, following acouple roads and making our way. Water run-off was everywhere, a wet trail due to the heavy snow melt-off.
   We found a nice campsite in a network of ravines west of Salt-Run. Camp was set, wood was gathered and dinner proceeded along with a light drizzle of rain. After nibbling on alittle wapiti and mule deer meat we each slogged off for some sleep. Mileage for the day was @ 8 miles.
   We awoke to sunny skies and continued our trek. Again pay close attention to the trail maps as the S.C.T. small loop appears after crossing Township Rd. 190. A little road walking is now relevant as one stays to the left on the roads until after crossing Salt Run and picking up the trail again on the right, after the roads bisect. After crossing Tnshp. Rd. 190 for the last time, the trail again proceeds through some of the nicest woodlands of the trail. Blazes revert to the white dots after passing the connector trail and continue for duration of trail. Trailhead spotted more deer during this section. These woods seem to be a favorite for the deer hunters, and I must admit, I saw more deer sign on this trail than any other trail I've trekked with the club.  
   All in all a good trek, just acouple hours south of Canton. Be sure to have a good copy of the trailmap as the western section can be confusing, as the trail and roads overlap. Be sure to visit the ruins of the Stone Church / graveyard, just north of Cty.Rd. 38 on Cty. Rd. 39., once a bustling area many years ago. Our group also enjoyed a late breakfast in historic "Shawnee", at the only restaurant in town. A small, quaint place with good service and low prices.  
Good Hiking -

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	04/12/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	11.50
Pictures:	1

Quebec Run is a nice place. The End.

Just kidding. My photos are here:

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/563104548HxuBTf

On Saturday morning I met up with Hiker Boy (Allegheny Group) and Mark from a local adventure gang out of Butler, PA and we headed southeast toward the northeastern trailhead. Hiker Boy had made an excellent suggestion in that we followed US 40 a little further east than Skyline Drive and took Wharton Furnace road south to Quebec Road to get to the trailhead. I almost lost some exhaust pipes on Quebec Road but it is supposedly better heading east to west to get to the trailhead (which is what we did).

We met Moabgirl, Thor, Jason and Banky at the trailhead. We were soon joined at the trailhead by a dozen or so scouts who were headed out in a different direction. Popular joint. We left the parking area at about 11:30 and headed southeast along the Hess Trail, enjoying a very leisurely pace and very gradual elevation gains. The vegetation varied from thick rhododendron and laurel to hardwood, following a series of old logging paths. The hike generally gained elevation until we dropped down at the point closest to Skyline Drive. From the area near Skyline Drive we followed the Tebolt Trail through an area that was thick with rhododendron and hemlock, providing a “covered” avenue even this early in the spring. The trail eventually gained elevation to drop over into the Mill Run watershed. Abundant camping was found along Mill Run. Some of our group got out ahead and chose a spot “just around the next bend” which ended up being close to the Grist Mill Trail. But it is not necessary to head that far north to find suitable quarters for the night. There are ample spots for a number of groups along the stream.

In camp we went about the usual chores, anticipating rain based on the majority of the forecasts. But it never did rain and we enjoyed a nice evening by the fire before retiring early.  The day had seen its share of cloud cover, but a constant breeze swept the weather right on past and I earned my first sunburn on the dome for 2008. Now I won’t skip the sunscreen.  

Early Sunday morning it started to rain, be we still had a break in the weather and even a bit of sunshine as we broke down camp and headed further up the Mill Run Trail to the Grist Mill Trail. At the Grist Mill Trail we headed across a great bridge over Mill Run and dropped packs to go investigate the grist mill foundation. The mill foundation was located about 200 yards downstream. I didn’t take many pictures of the old foundation, but I got a good shot of a trout in Mill Run. It was a nice spot to visit on a very relaxing trip. Following Mill Run trail further north we picked up the Miller Trail for the last mile or so back to the parking lot for a whopping 2 mile day.

After Saturday’s stroll in the woods we covered a total of 11.50 miles through rolling terrain by the time we reached the cars again. We saw 2 other backpackers, a Scout Troop, 4 mountain bikers and a few fishermen. That’s a lot of wildlife.  

After navigating back eastward on Quebec Road we ventured north toward Connellsville where we stopped for the post-hike at a place called Bud Murphy’s just east of Route 40/119 past the McDonald’s. It was a very large pub and restaurant and everyone enjoyed a reasonably priced and tasty meal.

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	03/28/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	21.00
Pictures:	1

My photos are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562955413dPRQAI

A great deal has been said about this trail so I’ll just stick to some highlights.

Sghettis Italian Bistro http://directory.vindy.com/dining/index.php?biz=2567 We met here off of I-80 and Route 18 on the western Pennsylvania hinterlands. The food was great but they were a little short on staff so it took a while to get out of there. Combine Brothers is just up the street so there is still a reason to meet in this area.

We arrived at Jo Hays Vista around 11:30 which was 3 hours from the restaurant. From there it is a really quick shuttle down Route 26 to Greenwood Furnace SP along Route 305. We were in a lot of wind on the ridge but it died to zero once we hiked down the MST toward the Ironstone Loop. We just flopped near the trail that night. Clear and cold.

Saturday was clear and cool. Excellent views and a great trail. I got to see everything that was fogged in last year at this time. What beautiful day. We had plenty of vistas, Bear Meadows Natural Area, Indian Wells Vista and Eric finally came home to Detweiler Run Natural Area where we stopped for the night after covering 14 miles. And yes, it was better idea to head there than to stop at Bear Meadows. Thanks Jeff.

Met TT people. I finally got to meet some more TTers. They were great people. I met Crazypace, ENS, Pennsy, Spindle and jmitch. We were also joined by PAHikes who brought extra provisions. We had a great night around the fire. The only problem was that I can’t follow that many conversations (13 of us total). But it was still a good time. Another cold clear night. No tent for me.

Note to self - “Three cups of tea” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143038257/bookstorenow600-20 We talked about this book while standing around the fire. Sounds like it would be a great read.

Pennsy uses soft t-paper. Nice choice of Sh!t tickets, thanx man. I owe you.

On Sunday we hiked along Detweiler Run and entered into the Alan Seeger Natural Area. You’ve got to be there to understand the impact of a place like this on the senses. It was surreal, mostly because it hasn’t been eff’d with like most everywhere else. Man, it was old school. Thick jungles of rhododendron and towering hemlocks. After that we scaled the mountainside on a great rock trail with nice switchbacks before descending again to our cars at Greenwood Furnace. We had covered 6.75 miles in just under 3 hours. And count one less blow down. I got tired of walking around them and felt guilty for not helping out at least a little.  Another gorgeous day.

Home Delivery Pizza and Pub http://www.homedeliverypizza.net/ PAHikes recommended it and I wish I had known about this place sooner. We drove right through the parking lot thinking that this was not the right place too. It was the perfect place. They are open until 2 AM which suits our carpool average quite well. This whole area kicks butt for logistics, scenery and variety of trails!!!

Cleos BBQ Exit 123 off I-80 is another place I plan to try but have not stopped yet. I couldn’t find any other information but Rob might still have the flyer. Might even hit this place while leaving the Quehanna Wild Area.

In closing – The Mid State Trail Rocks (and is rocky). Expect some climbs, but you will be rewarded. But that is common in PA. Flat trails are not. Scott has copies of the current edition of the MST guide at http://www.thehikingspot.com/ order yours and you will see what I mean when say that the possibilities are endless for a variety of trips in this region. The MST is connected to so many trails you could stay out a long long time.

Posted By:	bak2hall
Trip Date:	03/01/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	16.00
Pictures:	7

This ended up being a winter trip with 12 - 16" of snow. We used snow shoes on the hike in from the museum parking lot taking the east side of the creek trail into Wolf Kiel camp area. It was pretty long trip but the sights seen along the way made it all worth while!

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	03/01/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	9.50
Pictures:	1

My photos are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562666985qmnfDS

Finally some snow deep enough to stick some snowshoes into!! They were lifesavers on this trip, as compared to just something else to carry on the Dolly Sods trip. I guess the trick was to drive north up into the deepest darkest reaches of Pennsylvania to find the real snow. Good times, good times.

Day 1 started with the rendezvous at the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) trail head for the Morrison-Rimrock Trail. I met up with Trailhead, Trail Breaker, Mr P, Fish and Jon W. We were scheduled to meet at 9:30, and we did for the most part with one short delay. I’d say once we were all there we were geared up and on the trail sometime around 10:30 AM. Finding the trail head was easy but staying on the trail was a different challenge. I suppose that this trail is easy to follow during most seasons, but it was difficult in 18-24” of snow. The trail-blazes on the Morrison Trail were few and far between. The white diamonds were tricky to spot and the blue “i” blazes looked like they hadn’t been painted in a long long time. So we had a bit of an adventure consulting the maps that Mr. P and Jon W were kind enough to bring along (yes, I forgot it). The nice thing about deep snow is that your snowshoes are like “zero emission ATVs” and if you head in the general direction of the trail you just might cross it again once you’ve lost it. JonW and MrP caught on to that one sure enough and we headed sown the Campbells Run drainage until we picked up the trail again. So that was the story of the first half of the day. After lunch we were side hilling above the reservoir on our way to Morrison Campground and it was easier to follow the trail. Saw some more snow on the reservoir and then headed up Morrison Run to our campsite out of the light breeze coming off of the lake. All together it took us 6 hours to get to the campsite from the parking lot. It would have been about a third of that on a trail with no snow. The snow makes such a big difference. Day 1 ended with the arrival of YoungVine and Rob to complete the “Eight is Enough” tour and we all sat around the fire and enjoyed good food, fellowship and hot water. We decided to take the shorter route back to the cars on Day 2 instead of the original 5.5 mile route that was planned. There were no arguments.

Day 2 started with MrP on early fire duty and the rest of us straggling out of the sack sometime around 7AM. I cut and split some wood to warm up and we went back to the hot water and fire show. Trailhead and Trail Breaker left camp first and those that remained eventually followed. The second day was a beautiful sunny day and I was in awe walking along the stream. Everything looks different blanketed under deep snow. And by the time we were 2 days in the cold, it just doesn’t seem that harsh anymore. Yeah, I know it was sunny and winter “warm”. If it was raining ice daggers I wouldn’t be so nice about it. The only problem for me was that as the snow started to clump it stuck to my snowshoes and then they weighed about 5 extra pounds each. That ain’t cool. But after a short 3.5 mile hike back to the parking lot we were ready to hit the road.

This was my first time backpacking in the ANF and I am sure to return. If the snow is anything like this next year then a repeat performance somewhere in the ANF is definitely in order.

Posted By:	Steve .none.
Trip Date:	02/13/2008
State:	TX
Miles:	25.70
Pictures:	23

Half past three in the morning is an early start for a backpacking trip even for a habitual early riser like me.  The reward for the early start would be at days end when we reach our destination at Big Bend National Park in Texas. 

Posted By:	Youngvine
Trip Date:	02/15/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	26.10
Pictures:	11

Blackwell to Little Pine State Park is was....

Handlebar, Rob, Cliff Ranger and I met at the famous Guinness World Record holding restaurant, Denny's Beer Barrel in Clearfield, PA around 9:30 pm. We put down some great chow and a brew then headed for Little Pine State Park. We dropped my (Youngvine) car off and completed our 30 minute drive north to Blackwell.

We arrived around 1:30 am and departed south on the Pine Creek Rails Trail to Hoffman Campground. I did obtain a free camping permit from the PA DNR 5 days prior to this trip. Thankfully, it was not needed this time of year, but it was an official registration. By 2:30 am, we all settled in under the stars (around 15F) without shelter (minus Handlebar's tiny 1 man tent) for a brief nap.

At around 7:30 am, everyone was up and coffee was percolating. There is wonderful access to water at Pine Creek, garbage facilities, and clean pit toilets. At 9 am, we made it back to Handlebar's car at the Blackwell lot and stormed out to a 1000' climb on the MST Section 9. It was a crisp 20F, but blue, blue skies. Rob and I somehow scaled this PA monster in 30 minutes! Handlebar and Cliff Ranger were close behind. We took in the sites, pictures, water and headed onward. From this point south, you are up and down hills and across several springs for the next 12 miles. Around mile 10.5, we scaled another 800' Oregon Hill just 1.5 miles shy of camp. The snow varied from 2" - 6" with a slight crust on top. My yak tracks worked well, but I don't think snow shoes would have made it easier. Rob and I reached Jacobs Run (spring and established fire ring) around 5:30. Around 6:15, the other members made it into camp, just in time to enjoy a fire. There are only 2 spots here for tarps/tiny tents. There was more room 1/4 mile back, but it was on top of a hill and no water. The next camp is at Sebring Branch, but that was another 1 mile or so ahead.

We ate like kings, dried gear by the fire, and hit the hay by 10 pm. At 7-7:15 am, everyone was up for breakfast. We started off in clouds around 9 am, but soon got a tiny bit of freezing rain/snow that lasted most of the day. It was so light in the woods, it didn't impede our stride. Today was much easier with less climbing until the extremely steep Pesto Trail junction. This mammoth 900' climb around mile 22 rides along a dry stream bed and through several enormous virgin hemlocks. Rob and I stopped to admire one of the behemoths and take pictures. Other than that, you need all your energy to scale this one before heading downhill to Little Pine. Vistas from here on forward are awesome! Lots of rock formations and old quarry dugouts. The last 1 mile or so heads steeply into Little Pine and back out to the parking lot. Rob and I rolled in around 4:30 with Handlebar and Cliff Ranger only 30 minutes behind. Warm clothes and a quick ride through pouring rain back to Blackwell and we were off for a long, late drive home.

Hope to be back again soon - maybe even for some day hiking on the side trails and a rafting trip. Love this area!

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	01/04/2008
State:	PA
Miles:	28.00
Pictures:	1

My photos are here: http://community.webshots.com/user/Patsquach

My shoulders are sore. It’s been on my mind a bit this morning. Thinking of this past weekend I’d tell anyone that it was a great trip. Even if my shoulders are sore from relying on my hiking poles so much. It’s the kind of discomfort that reminds you that you really did accomplish something and now have something to talk about.

So our trip began with Handlebar hiking in to the campsite at Meeker Run off of the QTCC. PhilS was sick so he wouldn’t make it, but we would still number 6. After dark Mario and I arrived and followed the trail of his footprints in the snow (and my memory) into camp. Along the way we installed over 100 markers to blaze a reflective night trail for the 3 hikers behind us. I know the trail and have hiked it many times, but Kayaker was not familiar with it and I assumed that Rob and Canteen Boy would be there later so it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Around 7 PM Mario and I made camp and enjoyed Handlebar’s fire and some good food. 9, 10, 11 PM came and went while we waited for the others to show. Then we went to bed.

I awoke in the night to muffled sounds and looked at my watch. 2:48 AM. Turns out that is when Canteen Boy and Rob made it in to camp. Classic. Next day no Kayaker. Problem here. Having hiked with Kayaker before and knowing he was on his way at 3:30 PM and that Rob did not see his car at Midnight, I figured he did not even make it to the trailhead. Had his car been there then this trip report would be a lot different. It turned out that he never found the trailhead and headed home after his exhaustive search. So we departed camp after modifying our planned route to exclude a dip down into Upper Jerry Run. That is a wet section of trail with a number of potential wet crossings that we wished to avoid (at least for this trip). So we planned to hike the Old Sinnemahoning Trail from Three Runs Road to the QT split. And off we went.

We followed the Meeker Trail to the Robber David Lewis Trail to the Wykoff Trail to Big Spring Draft Trail to Three Runs Road. Get all that? Great hiking on level ground with a slow descent into and climb out of Big Spring Draft. Nice Trail. Once we were on Three Runs Road we turned onto the Old Sinnemahoning Trail and followed it to where the QT came up from Upper Jerry Run and follows the OST to the turnoff for Upper Pine Hollow. We made the turn – which can be difficult – noting that the OST is blazed the same way and color that the QT is blazed. But there is a sign for the turn. But if you miss it you can walk on a flat old road for miles (Ian) before you realize what happened.

Anyway, we ventured down Upper Pine Hollow and began an affair with ice. I traveled faster sliding on my butt (in a kilt) on some sections. Luckily I came through unscathed. We did find a bear that looked like it had been dissected with the skin cut away from the underside (cleanly) with the organs pulled out – before or after it was decapitated we could not tell. Or maybe it was a dinosaur attack. Poor guy. The Game Commission took the location information today and will give it to the local Enforcement Officer.

The ice became more of an issue once we crossed Wykoff Run Road and headed up Laurel Draft. Even a trail runner ahead of us had to leave the trail due to the ice that had formed over the side-hill portions of the trail and made it impossible to walk on without crampons and ice axes (we had neither). So a 45 minute ascent took about 90 minutes. At least no one fell/slid down the slope by accident.  Lots of fun there. Reaching the top we had about 2.5 more miles of flat trail to Arch Spring and our home for the night. More good food and fellowship.

The next morning we headed along the QT and down Sanders Draft along a trail of rhododendron, water and boulders. I had stashed my camera anticipating slippery slopes and rain so you will just have to take my word for it. It was great. Reaching the bridge over Red Run we headed down the road a bit before climbing up Porcupine Draft. This time we were anxious to see how much the night’s rain had affected the ice on the trail because the slope gets steep toward the top of this draft and to slide down it would be very bad for one’s health. Rob took the lead and those behind him kicked his steps into the ice to make an easy climb for me (thanks guys). Sometimes being slow has its benefits.

Topping out of Porcupine Draft we picked up the QTCC again and headed back to our cars on flat trail. The necessary stop was made for food at the Medix Run Hotel. It was nice although you cannot be in a hurry (I was) and you might need to wear a down jacket inside (no heat?). But I’m sure we will be back. The Yodelburger was great.

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	12/29/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	16

We all met at the trailhead by 11:30. Minus one. Getting into this new parking area was a bit tricky with a small light car such as mine, but with a push, JonW and I were in. Lizard was already there and the rest followed shortly behind Soon the gear was on, introductions made and we were underway. There was a bit of old snow cover on the ground, nothing serious , but enough to cause some slick footing in a few places going in, and coming back out. All in all though, the trail was easy to follow as the snow was melted off of it leaving only trail to follow. There may have been 2 times that blazes were needed. JonW and Trailhead were off in front and made it to Jacks run about 45 minutes before the rest of us. Once in camp, everyone began setting up, JonW and Trailhead were busy cutting and gathering the evening’s firewood, and had a great head start before the rest of us pitched in. A hunter and his girlfriend blazed through camp and told us they had a deer hanging from a tree somewhere nearby. We were under the impression there was no hunting in the wilderness! We had passed evidence of bear, coyote, turkey, deer and rodents along the trail. Heck, seems a mouse tride to build a nest in my gloves.

Soon enough wood was gathered and it was time to get a fire going and the night’s meals underway. JonW did an excellent job starting the fire, as well as selecting the best wood for the night. Dinner had, beverages out and cigars smoked, it had been a long time since I laughed that much, we all had a great time and all turned in before 10. Trailhead had an engagement the following day early afternoon and needed to leave early along with Walkandgawk. They bugged out of camp around 8:30 while the rest of us ate breakfast and slowly packed. We made it out by 9:45. The hike out was uneventful. We did run into the hunter and his girl. Said they were eating off the deer and spending a few days in the area. More power to them. WE all made it back to the trailhead and headed for Kings for a warm lunch before the ride home. This was a fun way to spend the end of the year! Couldn’t have asked for a better group, though, I know of at least 1 who has given up on the notion of winter backpacking. Happy New Years!

Posted By:	Dwight
Trip Date:	12/08/2007
State:	OH
Miles:	10.20
Pictures:	18

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	11/03/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	4

Jimbo, Jjddog1 and I headed off to the Hickory Creek Trail. Jimbo and I had both been on the waiting list for Minister Creek, but thought we would never get off, so we jumped and talked Jjdog1 into hitting up this trail. Most of you know the access trail and trail head for Hickory Creek has moved. Now, the have re-routed the first half mile of the southern loop, or, the clockwise route. I believe they did this to avoid the intersection with the old access tail, and private property that abuts the Hickory Creek Wilderness area. Both new routs have been blazed with white paint. Once you reach the junction with the loop and you turn left, you see one yellow blaze, then they go white. If you don’t know what’s going on, it can be confusing.

The trail was dry and the hike easy. There was a group of 16 set up at Coons Run, and we passed another couple with their dog, but that’s about it. Temps dipped down to 23 in the clearing and 33 under the trees. The trail had many new blow downs and some were hard to cross or get around. Looks like they suffered a wind storm in the area recently.

Posted By:	Shark
Trip Date:	09/28/2007
State:	WV
Miles:	25.03
Pictures:	9

Trip Report

Roaring Plains – Haystack Knob Backpack

September 28-30, 2007

Monongahela National Forest

Potomac Ranger District

West Virginia

Picture Album Location:
http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.shereda/2007092830RoaringPlainsBackpackMonongahelaNationalForest

The weather was great as we arrived at the Upper South Prong Trailhead Friday Morning.  Parking is always plentiful during the week but sometimes is a bear on the weekends.  We set out on the South Prong Trail under partly cloudy skies with a slight chill.  The first mile of this trail has been improved using pea gravel and boardwalks through the fragile boggy areas.  Immediately we spotted a white orchid blooming within 50 feet of the trailhead but for the most part, there were few flowers except late blooming New England Asters and some Goldenrods.  The cranberry bogs were mostly dry through this stretch with very few berries.  The lack of water concerned me as there had been little rain this season.

We stopped at one of the traditional view points and gazed north to Dolly Sods spotting the Bell Fire Tower in the distance.  We ran into some day hikers from the Canton area and advertised NEOH to them.  Hopefully they joined.  We continued on to the Hidden Passage and I noted that the small stream there was running, making it a Reliable Source in my book, even when dry.

Pressing on we continued to the Seneca Meadows Camp (unofficial name).  This is a popular campsite/rest area but due to the openness, windy, wet weather can make this site miserable.  Many of the trees are “flagged” in one direction indicating the persistence and severity of the wind.  However, just prior to reaching this site, I explored a side trail on the Hidden Passage in some spruce and discovered a great alternative.  Nestled under thick spruce was a beautiful bad weather camp that could fit several tents comfortably or 15 in a pinch. It is slightly open to the west so there still would be some breeze but it would be nothing in comparison to the “Meadows.”  I marked this for a great spot to winter camp if I ever would be so bold.

Upon reaching the pipeline, we turned south east (downhill) and walked to the drop off at the Forest Service Boundary.  Here we turned right and whacked our way over to an awesome viewpoint that I traditionally take lunch at.  From this point, there is a180 degree view of Roaring Creek Canyon.  Seneca Rocks can been seen to the extreme left along with Smith Mountain, a balded grazing mountain that is a great reference point as we follow the trail around the Rim.  Several of the maples in this cold area of the plains were even turning a brilliant red this early in the year.

After a well deserved lunch and view, we backtracked up the pipeline to the start of the Canyon Rim Trail or what I would call the Hidden Passage #2 Trail.  We took a different route than usual this trip and followed more closely to the rim gaining another 2-3 view points.  One with a 40 foot sheer drop is impressive but most are rather mediocre after the lunch view.  As usual, even with a GPS, I got off trail for a few minutes due the large amount of game trails.  Not a problem with a GPS or experience but this part can be confusing to say the least.  We stopped at Roaring Creek and gathered 4 liters of water apiece.  This is one of the most reliable sources of water on the plains.  Here, the majority of the Roaring Plains from the Tee Pee Trail (unofficial trail) south drains to this one location.

As we continued towards camp, we dropped packs and whacked over a little ways to “The Point” (unofficial name).  This spot is a must for all Rim visitors.  The combination of the clouds, sun and blue sky made for some outstanding group photos.  The view from the point is a spectacular 340 degrees.  Fr

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	09/15/2007
State:	MI
Miles:	60.00
Pictures:	36

Day 10 – Sept. 15

Richard, Sandy, and I have completed the first jewel, Isle Royale, of our Triple Crown hike. But because of inclement weather, we had to spend an extra day on the island so now we’re a day late in meeting up with Eric (Beartooth) and his son Nick at the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park – The Porkies -  the second jewel in our triple crown hike. While on the island, we had no way to notify Eric of our delay so our big hope was that he had surmised what had happened and that he would stick to the hiking plan. Our first stop was a restaurant in Sliver City, just 6 miles from the Porkies. It was a small restaurant with an attached bar. Over the course of two days, we ate two dinners and two breakfasts there and never saw more that one table besides ours that was occupied. We commented to the waitress how unbusy the place was and she told us that by next month when the snow arrives, they would have wall-to-wall skiers and snowmobilers – winter is there busiest time of year. The food was decent. As we arrived at the Porkies, our plan was to drive to the end of Rt. M107 and take the short 100 yard walk from parking lot to the lookout atop the escarpment. What an amazing view, we were not disappointed. Next we drove back along M107 to locate the two trail heads that we would be using over the next two days and to hopefully find Eric’s car at the first trail head. His car was at the trail head, so we new: 1. that he had arrived safely, and 2. he was hiking according to plan. The hike of the Porkies was composed of three separate hiking loops. The first loop was a two night hike, then drive to next trail head. The second loop was a one night hike, then drive to next trail head. The third loop was a three night hike. Eric was on the first loop, one night ahead of us, and moving in a clockwise direction, so our plan for tomorrow was to hike counterclockwise from the trail head and meet Eric and Nick at their second night’s camp. We would then retrace our steps and hike out with them. With that settled in our minds, we proceeded to our night’s lodging at the Union Bay camp ground. We set up tents, did laundry, took showers, and finally turned in at 11:15PM.

Day 11 – Sept. 16

We are up at 7:30. Actually, it was 6:30 because as we’d learned last evening that this whole area around the Porkies is in the Central time zone. That was a surprise to us. Drove to Silver City for breakfast, and then drove to the Visitor Center to purchase our backcountry permit. Then we continued back to the campground to load up our packs for this short one night hike. We were on the trail at 12:48PM, the beginning of the second jewel – the Porkies - in our Triple Crown hike. We only have 4 miles to cover. The trail is the Lake Superior trail and the first mile was a pleasant walk on a barely noticeable downgrade through a nicely forested area. Then the trail left the forest of tall tress and entered an area populated with relatively short height deciduous trees. Here the descent became more earnest and the trail was composed of loose flat shale type rock. This continued for 1-1/2 miles, and then the trail became more level as it again entered an older growth forest area. Presently we were now along the lake shore but the trail stays back about 50 yards. At 2:50, we arrived at camp but Eric and Nick were not there yet. This is a very nice campsite and there’s room for perhaps 6 tents. We set up our tents, ate lunch, and hung our packs from the bear pole. It was now 3:30 and we decided to hike up the trail in the hope of meeting up with Eric. Before we departed, Richard told me to look at my tent, which I did, and then he told me to look up above my tent, which I did. OH! There was a very large toppled tree trunk hanging precariously above my tent. I guess I was so busy looking down and clearing a nice spot (level) for my tent that I neglected to look up. How could I possibly have missed seeing that large a trunk just a few feet above my head? A question that shall go forever unanswered. I’m beginning to feel that my light’s not as bright as I’d thought it was. So we head off down the trail and after 28 minutes of walking, here comes Eric and Nick. So, back to camp. It has been a mostly sunny afternoon and the temp at 4:45PM was 60°.  We had supper, gathered wood, and lit a fire as the evening waned. This is the first camp fire for Richard, Sandy, and I as there was a fire ban on Isle Royale. We talked and watched a beautiful sunset and finally turned in at 10:20. Lots of stars out tonight and there’s a light breeze blowing.

DAY 12 – Sept. 17

7:30AM and our bodies slowly emerge from their night’s cocoon. The temp is 60°.  We have 10.7 miles to cover today. Breakfast done, we leave camp at 9:17 and arrive at our cars at 11:00. We drive to the Visitors Center to use the restrooms, water up, discard trash, and observe the stuffed animal display (wolf, bear, and owl). Most importantly, we use the Center’s computer to access the weather forecast. After driving to the next trail head, we start out on the Government Peak trail at noon. Shortly thereafter, we stop for lunch at very nice campsite along side a stream. After lunch, we hike until 2:10, passing a beaver dam and po

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	09/21/2007
State:	MI
Miles:	42.40
Pictures:	80

DAY 16 – Sept. 21

Posted By:	Dwight
Trip Date:	07/21/2007
State:	KY
Miles:	16.00
Pictures:	19

Posted By:	Dwight
Trip Date:	10/19/2007
State:	WV
Miles:	24.00
Pictures:	17

Posted By:	Patsquach
Trip Date:	10/19/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	19.00
Pictures:	4

I’ll post some photos here, and the remainder can be found on my Patsquach photopage on Webshots.   http://community.webshots.com/user/Patsquach

The short loop around Worlds End State Park on the Loyalsock Trail and the RX6 Connector Trail is my favorite short loop trip in PA. It is well worth the drive. The vivid foliage was “fruity pebbles” to the nth degree. Even without the leaves, the variety of wow-factor is enough to keep me coming back on an annual basis. Our loop consisted of a 19 mile trek with the availability of 23 and 27 mile variations. 

This trip got off to a less than normal start. I had spoken to the trip participants about postponing it in order to volunteer for a search party in West Virginia. Fortunately the search was called off (boy found safely) but not before EriePete packed up and headed down to volunteer himself. So Pete had a lengthy weekend in West Virginia (not a bad place to be) while the remaining trio headed northeast to Worlds End.

Our trip began with a rendezvous at Combine Brothers in Hermitage, PA early Friday evening. One note here is that another restaurant (Sghettis) is now located immediately north of this same exit (Exit 4) on Route 18. Sghettis is a relocation of a restaurant from New Castle and the single time I was there in New Castle was a good experience, so we will use it as a meeting place some time in the future. After a great dinner at Combine Brothers we headed east and dropped two vehicles at Barkeyville (Exit 29) behind the BP. From there we drove across I-80 to Route 220 and then past Lock Haven to Williamsport. Williamsport has a nice Wegmans grocery store immediately off of Route 220 that makes it a great place to stop for food and restrooms. Seeing how we were camping near the car Friday night, it made sense to buy food there for breakfast (fresh baked goods). I can get good food in Pittsburgh (of course), but the Wegmans is just more convenient when it is on the way. From Williamsport we continued up Route 220 to the village of Laporte where we turned north/northwest onto Route 154 to get to Rock Run Road. We then followed Rock Run Road to the bridge crossing Loyalsock Creek. Southwest of the bridge there is a small gravel parking area for trail and creek access. We were the only customers that evening, so a streamside site was easy to come by. There was a notice posted on the trail gate for the RX6 connector trail that demanded DCNR permits prior to camping in this area. I have never camped here and must have forgotten about the requirement as I had only ever walked through this area before. I’ll feel pretty dumb if I wrote about it in last year’s trip log and forgot to review it (hmm). We had arrived late, and there was no interest in starting any kind of fire (it had also rained heavily prior to our arrival) so we set up our tarp and tent then headed off to sleep. I do know that campfires in some areas along the Loyalsock are verboten, so if you go I would call the Ranger about fires and permits.

Saturday morning came around and we enjoyed some breakfast before locking up the car and heading west on the RX6 connector trail around 8:30 AM. The trail follows the Loyalsock and climbs up to Route 154 (wash outs?) before climbing up past Shanerburg Run and heading away from the creek. From here we were in rolling to level terrain until reaching the Canyon Vista at 11:30 AM. We had heard cheering and applause on our approach to the vista and I assumed at first that they were celebrating our arrival, but soon learned that a wedding ceremony had just concluded at the vista. I didn’t want to be too touristy, so I only snapped a couple of photos – but it was pretty cool to see. One of the wedding party was even a trail runner planning another attempt on the Loyalsock (whole trail) after other complications had fouled his previous efforts. He was excited to see us. We stopped to snack at the vista and gaggle. A troop of 7 Mennonite backpacking women were nearby, and they cruised on over to check out Axel and to chat a bit. I guess a man with an axe must be a valuable commodity, as I haven’t had that many women plying me for some time (or ever). I enjoyed the attention and gave them some fire starters (in the presence of my girlfriend). They were a very friendly and happy bunch. Departing the vista, we were joking about one visitor’s conversation about having convicted killers fight each other to the death on TV and how the same crazy idea might have come from some other friends of ours. I guess you had to be there to get the humor of it. That vista is a cool place to visit.

From the vista we stayed on the RX6 connector instead of following the Loyalsock Trail. The connector took us down Mineral Spring and led us along the Loyalsock Creek itself, rather than climbing partially up the ridge again. I really do enjoy the variety of trail from vista, to rocky stream, to the banks of the Loyalsock. The RX6 ended and we began to follow the LT across Loyalsock Creek on a vehicular bridge before heading up the opposite ridge toward the High Rock Vista. The climb to the High Rock Vista affords an increase in heart rate, but is only about half of the elevation to the Canyon Vista. It does provide a nice view straight back toward the Canyon Vista, which is really neat to see since we just came from there.

A

Posted By:	JonW
Trip Date:	08/30/2007
State:	CO
Miles:	51.70
Pictures:	99

Weminuche Trail Log
August 30 through September 10, 2007

Who:  JonW, superhiker, Kayaker7775, Patsquach, Big Dave, JohnK, jkorhel

Trip Day 1 – Thursday, August 30, 2007

Flights converged on Denver from our four departure cities: Cleveland, Columbus, Akron/Canton, and Pittsburgh.  All were direct flights and there were no baggage or timing issues.

I stopped and picked up our chariot and we went to dinner together.

Trip Day 2 – Friday, August 31, 2007

We met all met downstairs and each had varying quantities of food from the ‘free’ breakfast buffet.  We loaded our gear into the van and hit the road around 7:00 am.  We were to meet jkorhel (who now lives in the Denver area) in Colorado Springs at a Cracker Barrel at 8:00.   Due to traffic, we were 15 minutes late, but we all had a hearty breakfast.

We caravanned from here to Durango where we were ‘camping’ at the local KOA.

On our drive Patsquach was on his cell phone doing research concerning various eateries with limeygal.  I think the name of our lunch eatery was the “Hungry Logger”.

After setting up our tents at the KOA we went into Durango.  What a great town!  The only downside was that it was a motorcycle rally going on and there were literally thousands of motorcycles there – a mini-Sturgis.  We toured downtown Durango for a while.  Superhiker made the only major purchase and that was a felt “Marlboro Man” cowboy hat.  We choose to eat at a local brew-pub called “Steamworks Brewing”.  There was universal satisfaction with both their alcoholic (beer) and non-alcoholic (cream soda) beverages.

We retired to the ‘KOA’ for a fitful nights sleep with the sound of various ‘hogs’ arriving into the morning hours.

Trip Day 3 – Saturday, September 1, 2007

The previous day we had scouted for potential breakfast spots and picked a small diner called “Durango Diner” on Main Avenue.  It was the only diner we saw opening at 6:00 AM which is when we needed to eat on Sunday in anticipation of catching the train.  Jkorhel ordered a special that consisted of a 16 oz hammered steak with a HUGE serving of home fries.  I believe that this meal ‘sat’ in his stomach for several days. 

Jkorhel had to be ‘out’ on Wednesday and the planning had to allow for this.  We chose to have him come out at the Vallecito trailhead.  Therefore we had to drop his car there.  It was reputed to be a beautiful valley and the reputation was well earned.  We parked at the trailhead and took a day hike from there up the valley.  It was a good acclimatization hike.  We were at about 8,000 feet here.  We went several miles in, had lunch and then hiked back out, leaving jkorhel’s car there.

On the hike back, we were hot and 3 of us went for a brief dip in Vallecito Creek.

We went back to the KOA, everyone cleaned up and we went back into Durango for dinner.  This time we chose Carver Brewing Company.  Once again both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages were outstanding.

Once again we had an evening serenade of motorcycle pipes.

Day’s distance: 8.6 miles
Elevation gain: 1800 feet
Elevation loss: 1800 feet

Backpack Day 1 - Trip Day 4 – Sunday, September 2, 2007

We got up before 5, packed up all the gear, and were at the diner by 6:00 AM.  Everyone had a hearty breakfast. 

Our train departed at 8:15 as scheduled.  We need not have arrived at 7:00 as they instructed, but 7:45 would have done just fine.

The train ride was very interesting.  We sat in an open air gondola facing east – the more scenic direction.  Eventually we arrived at Elk Park where the train stopped to disgorge us and six other backpackers.

We were now nearly at 9,000 feet.  The trail went up.  We hike less than three hours and came to a nice camping spot near the ‘beaver ponds’.  I thought that I had read that there were not more good spots until you had gone over the Continental Divide.  Additionally we talked to several day hikers who were coming back from the direction of the pass and they indicated that he boulder field that we saw extended on for some distance and there could be no camping there.

We were now at 10,000 feet and we felt that we could not get to the pass and that staying where we were would allow us to better acclimatize.

We set up camp.

Luckily Patsquach had brought a large 12’x12’ tarp for all to share.  It was needed as the rain came and went.  Mostly came. 

Three different bear bag ropes were hung.  Someone stole the rope that superhiker put up – hard to believe.

Big Dave noticed that the hand drawn view on the front of the Weminuche Wilderness Area map from NG was there in front of us.  How cool was that?

Patsquach, the inveterate fire maker, made one that evening between the rain drops and it felt outstanding.

One observation that all of us made were that the trails that we were currently hiking on were as steep as those in Pennsylvania with the added difficulties of elevation and total gain.  These trails were unlike those in Glacier NP, Rocky Mountain NP, or other areas in the Rockies that members were familiar with.  Steep, long, and high.

Distance:  3.5
Elevation gain: 1600 feet
Elevation loss: 500 feet

Backpack Day 2 - Trip Day 5 – Monday, September 3, 2007

Everyone was tired and we slept in a bit too late.  We were on the trail before 9:00.  The scenery kept getting better.   The Continental Divide was six miles by trail and nearly 3,000 feet up.

As we hiked we passed several great camping spots which would have served us better.

Switchback after switchback.  An old abandoned cabin.  An old mine entrance.  Higher and still higher.  You crest one false summit only to see another series of switchbacks facing you.  You look down to see 3, no 4 mine entrances.  And still further up you go. 

Finally we reach the Continental Divide at about 12,700 feet.  We pause to catch our breath and grab a bite to eat.  Oh no!  A storm is approaching and the trail continues up a ridge.  We hump along the ridge and just as we start up a set of switchbacks over a rock face it hits.  Hail and lightning.  Luckily, none of the lightning is close, but the hail pelts down.

Superhiker’s new hat fills with hail.  Some start to get cold.  People dig in their packs for fleece, gloves, and hats.  After a time there is a let up and we scamper (as much as we can scamper at nearly 13,000 feet) up the switchbacks and come out on top.

Here the trail splits and we have to make a choice.  It looks like the storm is coming back.  It is either continue straight or turn left.  I make the decision to go straight as I do not remember a left turn on the trail.

We look ahead and there is a pass coming up – I declare that it must be Hunchback Pass – it is not.  We go through the pass and start a steep descent, at times in lose scree.  We say to each other, I am glad we are going in this direction as going up

Posted By:	GT
Trip Date:	10/11/2007
State:	NY
Miles:	25.50
Pictures:	12

The 3 of us, Jjdog1, Seabee and I met at the first rest area in Pa and left for NY right on time. The drive, uneventful and dry, until 10 miles from our required exit. We went to drop off the shuttle cars, and it took a while to find the correct location, one that would match up with the trail guide. We came as close as we could, even stopped a passerby and asked. I think we scarred the heck out of the poor kid. We left two vehicles at a place that looked right and headed off to our starting point at our host’s home. Our host was not there but we set up in the rain and once done, had a couple of cold ones as the rain decided it was time to stop, figures. Midnight and it was time to get some shuteye.

Morning came and so did the wind. The rain was pretty much gone, but what was left in the trees was being blown down to the point it seemed like rain. I headed to the house and made us all coffee. I returned to call Jjdog1 and Seabee to get up and help them selves to the fresh brew. Soon we were packed and headed down the trail. It threatened to rain a few times, but didn’t.

This section of trail is much flatter then the first half and we were off on a good pace for the day. The colors were awesome. It seems the right weekend was picked for the foliage. Now this trip was planned for 3 days. After a few hours on the trail, we all studied the map and decided that we could do over half the trail on day one, leaving 11.5 miles for day 2. We passed our intended first nights stay at 10 miles, and then started looking for some place to call home for the night. The only place there was, was, the Evangeline Shelter at mile 14. Camping was at designated areas only, so at this point we were committed to the mileage. The last couple of miles were tough, but once we reached the shelter, we were glad we made the choice we did.

The Evangeline shelter is the nicest shelter any of us had ever seen. It was laid out. Only problem was 2 hunters had gotten there before we did, but there was tent space. We didn’t run into any strangers like SP from the first half of this year’s trip. Water was available from the land owner who let you come in his house and fill up what ever you had. Dinner was cooked and we relaxed around the cooking fire that the hunters kept burning. A screech owl let us know she was there as well and we had all turned in by 10, and we slept like babies.

 The temps dipped down to 33 and it was tough getting out of the bags in the am. Once up and breakfast had we took our time packing and headed off on the trail around 10 am. The Evangeline Shelter is about a quarter ways up a nice climb, so leaving puts you right back into it. Tough start to the day. By noon we were at our scheduled second night’s stay where we stopped and had lunch, Grandmas campsite. A nice clearing in the woods that would have worked out nice had we needed it, with running water not far away. A short break and we were back off on the trail to the cars. We had one more good climb left for the day, and at this point Seabee and I saw the last of Jjdog1. If his legs were as long as ours we could have kept up with him!

The sun was out and again the foliage looked great. Seabee and I met Jjdog1 at the cars, seems he had about a mile and a half on us and had been waiting for sometime. Youth and long legs pay off I guess. While the other two headed for Naples and Grape Pie after dropping me off at my car, I headed to Rochester and partied with some old friends before coming back on Sunday Morning. The trip was good, and I plan to do the entire trip once again next year. Thanks Jjdog1 and Seabee for joining me.

Posted By:	Trailhead
Trip Date:	09/07/2007
State:	MI
Miles:	60.30
Pictures:	25

DAY 1 – Sept. 7

Posted By:	Greg
Trip Date:	10/06/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	13.13
Pictures:	14

Tracy Ridge – Autumn Jaunt 10/06/2007

Beartooth, Mslody, Christy, Greg, Rob, Smiley and Luvinature


We all started out from the Tracy Ridge campground parking lot around 12:00PM with Rob bringing along his Pack raft. It looked very interesting going down the trail with two large paddles sticking out of his pack. We worked our way down the Tracy Ridge Trail to #11 marker where it connects into the North Country Trail along the reservoir and planned to camp at Whiskey Run. We found Whiskey Run to be dry, so we moved on to #10 and Johnnycake Run to check for camping area and water. This area we found not to meet our needs for pack raft training, so we all voted to hike another mile to the Handsome Lake camp grounds with a water pump, outhouses and well drained camp sites.
Two campsites were secured, water pumped, and firewood was gathered for the evening fire. Before supper, Rob pumped up his pack raft and gave paddling lessons. Rob informed us that this was the only Pack raft east of the Mississippi River, so I guess that made Rob the only Pack raft instructor east of the Mississippi River. I think that we were very lucky to have them both on the trip with us. A lot of fun was had by all paddling and taking pictures. I must admit that it worked out pretty well and the one minute training class by Rob was well done and to the point “get in and paddle”.
The evening sky was clear for stargazing with the evening campfire well managed by Smiley and her supply of fire starters from the Army Navy store. I was glad the we were on well drained campsites, because a large storm came in during the night from 2:00AM until about 5:00AM and put a lot of much needed water into the area. Morning found us taking pictures of the fall foliage sunrise and then we headed back to the parking lot alone Johnnycake Run and were off the trail and heading home by 12:00 noon. All had a good time. Thank you Beartooth.

See you on the trail - Greg

Posted By:	Dawn
Trip Date:	09/29/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	12.00
Pictures:	11

Just photos this time…

Nice weekend -- perfect weather -- had a great time.  Thanks for the apple pies Rob… and, of course, thank you to all of the apple-peelers, corers, and tree-shakers :-)

Posted By:	Beartooth
Trip Date:	09/15/2007
State:	MI
Miles:	60.00
Pictures:	16

Posted By:	Steve .none.
Trip Date:	09/21/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	33.50
Pictures:	6

JonW posted a very detailed trip log for his visit to Keiper West so I decided to just list a few observations.

We hiked over 30 miles in 2 days and the best view was 50 feet from where we parked the  cars.

We all agreed that the trail section from mile 2 to mile 13 was some of the hardest hiking we have done.  The trail was constantly up and down.  The trail also was cut at an angle and covered with loose rock.

The section along Yost Run was particularly annoying.  Yost Run is one of the more scenic streams on the trail.  We did not get much chance to enjoy the views since the trail would climb 100 feet then drop 100 feet, climb 200, drop 200.  This process would repeat the entire way out of the valley.  Just when we thought the trail was going to stay high and lead out of the valley you would drop back down and start all over.  It was a very humid day so we quickly tired of this game.

There are several nice campsites along Eddy Lick Run. 

Our camp for Saturday night (mile20.2) was on West branch.  This was a very nice spot along a rocky stream section nestled in Hemlocks, a welcome site after a long day.

This is the first trip that I can remember where we did not see another hiker the entire weekend. 

Trail Stats

Day 1: 20.2 miles, total ascent 3729 feet

Day 2: 9.97 miles, total ascent 960 feet

Posted By:	superhiker
Trip Date:	09/21/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	26.80
Pictures:	10

Youngvine and I finally completed all of the existing Mid State Trail this past weekend.  It has been an epic, fun filled adventure and I'm going to miss chasing this thing down.

I met Patsquach, Limeygal, KiOeh, and jmitch at the Blackwell Hotel at 11:00.  We got kicked out of there around midnight and about 12:15, Youngvine finally pulled in with Rob and canteenboy.  We piled into KiOeh's truck with jmitch, Youngvine, and I in the back, and headed up to our northern trailhead on the Mid State trail's newest section.  I apologize for not recalling the name of the forest road we parked on.  It was a beautiful evening and we saw numerous meteorites from the back of the truck on the ride in.  We hiked in about a quarter mile by headlamp and made a really nice bivouac about 1:45 AM.  It was pleasantly cool as we drifted off.  Our camp consisted of 3 tents, 1 tarp, 2 hammocks, and Rob sleeping in the open on the ground.

We were up and out by 9:00 the next morning.  Within 3 miles, we passed a beautiful waterfall with a nice pool beneath it surrounded by cliffs.  I believe this was Nickel Falls?  I do not have a map to refer to.  With high water, this would have been spectacular.  KiOeh advised us that this was the lowest he had seen the water in this region in some time.  This section of trail featured some pretty easy hiking.  We hiked through an old mining town and plenty of ruins and spoil piles from mining days.  We hiked along abandoned rail grades, beautiful drainages, and pleasant waterfalls.  It was rather hot for our tastes but we reached PA 287 by around 2:30.  At this point, jmitch and KiOeh said goodbye.  We climbed up to the "Haunted Vista" and spent some time there taking in the views.  We continued through the old coal mining areas and descended to a stealth site along Basswood? Run by around 5:30.  This was not an established campsite and we utilized our best Leave No Trace ethic to keep it pristine.  We had nice water access and a fairly comfortable layout to enjoy the cooling evening.  Everyone drifted off to their sleeping quarters by around 10:00.

The next morning, we were again on the trail by around 9:00.  It was slightly cooler day for hiking.  We hiked in a long line with some of us separated by a half hour or so from the rest of the group.  I spotted plenty of turkeys, grouse, and squirrels while hiking.  I put in a quick 6 miles and reached Stony Fork by 10:45 followed about 45 minutes later by Youngvine.  Youngvine had seen a large black bear and she hiked solo through the morning.  The rest of the group filtered in over the next half hour.  Stony Fork is a fabulous place with waterfalls, cascades and pools.  The pool we spent some time in was at least 15 feet deep with a waterfall at the head and cliffs surrounding.  We jumped off the cliffs, swam, and ate lunch at this awesome place and whiled away about an hour and a half of our day before continuing on.  We again split up and knocked out the next 6 miles fairly quickly.  There is one really nice vista.  Unfortunately, the additional waterfalls were dry.  The last mile or so follows the Pine Creek rail trail.  We met up back in Blackwell, had a nice dinner at Blackwell Hotel, and then headed home. 

Posted By:	canteen boy
Trip Date:	08/31/2007
State:	PA
Miles:	59.21
Pictures:	8

The Loyalsock Trail is a very scenic trail in central PA.  It's a bit of a hike to get there.  Rob and I left after work on Friday 8/31.  We drove seperately becuase the trail is not a loop.  It was almost a 5 hour drive to get to the Pioneer Campground, which is about 5 minutes away from the eastern trailhead.  The campground was very convenient, and it was nice to not have to search for a camp spot in the dark after the long drive.

Saturday morning, we dropped a car at the eastern trailhead, which is just south of Ringdale, PA on Mead Rd.  We stopped to get gas, and the station had a little resteraunt so we ate breakfast there.  It is about a one hour drive from the eastern trailhead to the western trailhead.  While the east trailhead has ample parking and a bathroom, the west trailhead is basically a pull-off from the highway with limited parking space. 

The hike starts out with a long steep climb, right away.  About half the way up the ascent, there is a nice "look back" vista that is a good preview of things to come.  After a mile or two the trail reaches part of the Allegheny Front.  For a little while the trail proceeds next to a cliff-like drop-off.  You pass a couple of nice vistas at Helen's Window and Smith's Knob.  At around 10 or 11 miles, the trail crosses a stream with some nice campsites.  After that, there are not many campsites until mile 22.  The trail goes through a strange old resort area that is apparently now frequented by people with ATVs.  It was getting late, and it was almost dark when we were trying to finish the day's hike and make camp at mile 22.  I saw two bears in the woods off the trail.  There was a cub up in a tree, and the mother on the ground nearby.  It was the first bear I have seen in PA, after many miles of hiking.  It was awesome.

We camped around mile 22.  There is a road crossing, and there are "no camping" signs.  After you cross a smaller stream, there are no more signs, and, I believe, camping is allowed.  To begin day 2, we ascended to the Angel Falls trail.  We took the side trail.  Its only about .3 miles to the Falls, and it is worth the trip.  After Angel Falls, the trail keeps getting better.  There are many excellent vistas, including Kettle Creek Vista, Mary's View, and Lower Alpine View.  There are several excellent waterfalls, including Rode Falls, along Ketchum Run, where there is a ladder that takes you down near the falls.  It is pretty sweet.  There is also Split Rock, where the trails goes through a cleft in a large rock.  There is also some very scenic ravine hiking sections on day 2.  We camped at 41.5 miles.  There was a real nice streamside campsite here on a piece of old railroad grade.

On day 3, we got an early start, crossed the road and entered World's End State Park.  The hiking in this park was another highlight.  Loylasock Canyon Vista is particularly awesome.  We got there early in the morning, and there was nobody else there.  I recommend doing the same becuase it is accessable by car, and I could imagine it could get crowded.  The trail then descends into the park and past the park headquarters.  It then ascends steeply up the "rock stairs," an exhilerating climb, to High Rocks Vista, which is also great.  After that, the hiking mellows out and becomes slightly less memorable.  Sones Pond is very nice.  Towards the end the trail passes "the Haystacks," apparently a locals' swimming hole.  It would be a great place to hang out if you had the time and if it wasn't crowded.  It features little waterfalls and pools.  The last few miles are mercifully flat.

I really enjoyed this hike.  I highly recommend it.  The section from about mile 22 to mile to about mile 47 is really excellent.  I would also recommend picking up the map set and guidebook, which is very detailed.  I learned of a person who reportedly shuttles hikers for a $20 fee.  Feel free to e-mail me for information.  I wish I would have known about the shuttle before hand. 

Posted By:	Shark
Trip Date:	09/01/2007
State:	WV
Miles:	26.50
Pictures:	8

Middle Fork of Williams – North Fork of Cranberry – Little Fork of Williams Backpack

Aug 30 – Sep 3, 2007 Cranberry Wilderness, Monongahela National Forest, WV

Trip Leader: Shark

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.shereda/20070901CranberryWildernessMonongahelaNationalForest