Hike #882; Poe Paddy/Penn's Creek to State College Backpack

Hike #882; Poe Paddy/Penn’s Creek to State College PA

9/18-9/23/15 Penn's Creek/Poe Paddy to State College with Jillane Becker

Mid State Trail in Bald Eagle State Forest

The next hike would be a point to point backpacking trip Jillane and I took from where we’d last left off at Penn’s Creek near Poe Paddy on the Mid State Trail to State College PA.
I had really loved the Mid State Trail on the previous trip. We had walked through bigger towns, then on formal rail trails and back roads to this wilderness foot path where we quite literally didn’t see anyone for long periods of time. This trip would be similar, only we’d begin in that wilderness we’d left off in and finish in the town.

Penn's Creek

Day 1

We headed out from home on Friday, a long drive out Rt 78 to 81 to 322 into the state forest lands. We stopped at a Sheetz to get some dinner along the way. The plan was to have something so we wouldn’t need to prepare dinner out on the trail. I had an enormous burrito and a hot dog, as well as chocolate milk, so I was good.
I was driving, and I made a wrong turn while on Rt 322. I remained on the highway for too long, and so it was a longer way around to where we were to start off. We eventually found our parking area, a fishermen’s lot along the Penn’s Creek, on the old Pennsylvania Railroad right of way.
I was happy that we’d come to a spot that was right along where we left off from the Mid State Trail in the past to get started. The two of us wandered along the old railroad grade toward where it used to cross the Penn’s Creek. The bridge at that point is missing, and before we had to wade across to continue. We considered wading across, but then opted not to. When we came to a small path leading down to the creek side from the railroad grade, we turned. Along the creek, we headed back to the south following the water.
Jillane found a good area to set up, near enough to her car so that we could just get our stuff out and bring it over, have a night of comfort and then do the grueling stuff the next day.
We set up, and then wandered around together in and along the creek. We looked for shards of pottery in the water with flash lights after dark, and I tried to catch cray fish. I did catch one pretty big one.
I slept pretty well in that nice little spot, where the evergreen needles were so soft on the ground that it wasn’t at all necessary to set up my air mattress.

Day 2

I woke early as I usually do, and got most of my stuff all packed up. I wandered around the area for a bit, did some exploring. I walked the old railroad bed to the north, where we’d gone the previous trip, and then back along the river. There were some fishermen around that I chatted with, and then some lady walking her dog along the river. That was busy for this area.

Our first camp site

When Jillane got up, we packed our stuff and got ready to move out.
I’m always nervous and on edge until we actually get a trip going.
We finally started walking, and followed the old Pennsylvania Railroad right of way, now a road, heading to the south.
We soon reached where the railroad bed turned away from the road, where we once again picked up the Mid State Trail from where we had last left it. The railroad goes on across Penn’s Creek and through the Paddy Mountain Tunnel that we’d passed through the previous time. This time, we turned right.

The Mid State Trail (MST) followed this pleasant dirt road for a good while.
The route passed by some cottages and other buildings at this first part. One of them was “Poe Haven”, which is apparently for rent. the trail following the road into Poe Paddy State Park, which is a small park area with primitive camping facilities, no showers or anything. The park exists on what was once a settlement known as “Poe’s Mills”, another old logging community.

The trail continued on the road across a nice little bridge with vertical triangular bracing made of wood, then turned right on Big Poe Road, another little used gravel road. We followed along this for a little while, then the trail turned left onto Dry Hollow Trail. My map showed that the Mid State Trail ascended to the ridge earlier than this, and I saw an unused old trail making it's way up the mountain earlier, but that must have been closed at some point. The map showed there were views up there, but we'd miss out on those.

Ninja spider?

Dry Hollow Trail was a gradual ascent. As I walked, I was constantly knocking down spider webs that were over the trail. There were the large yellow and black spiders in the middle, and one really neat looking one that looked like a ninja. I'd heard of these before being poisonous, so I avoided it, and waited for Jillane so she didn't touch it as well.

We continued up and over Long Mountain to where another trail came in on the left. There was a trail register at this point that had been busted off as I recall. A newer one had been placed further down where we came off of the road. We made a turn and continued along, then descended from Long Mountain to the Little Poe Creek. We took a little break there.

Foot Bridge

The creek was crossed by a nice foot bridge, then the trail crossed Little Poe Road. Just beyond, the trail went up some nice stone steps and began to climb steeply up Little Poe Mountain on the Thorpe Trail.

Little Poe Mountain view

Once we leveled off, it was a pretty nice scrubby ridge. It had less dense vegetation because there was a forest fire there in 1999. The trail was sometimes rather closed in with blueberry, but a lot of it had just been recently cut. It was really a nice, gently rolling ridge top with some nice views across the Little Poe Valley to the south.

Poe Valley

On this section, we saw the first two of only four total we'd see on the trail for the entire trip. It was a couple backpacking through from south to north. I chatted with them a bit before we continued on.

We soon reached the intersection with Hunters Path, a trail which leads to the north into Poe Valley State Park. We had the option of stopping and getting a shower or continuing on. We opted to head on down and have a look at the place at least. I had enough water because I refilled at Little Poe Creek.

Hunters Path went down hill steeply and emerged in an upper parking lot of the state park. We headed directly across and down toward the waterfront of Poe Lake.

Once we were along the waterfront, we put our packs down and had a look at the place. There were good restrooms and a well kept beach complex. The concession stand was unfortunately closed off for the season. Two rangers were on sight answering questions. They asked if we were looking to get a camp site and if we'd seen the camp grounds. We answered we hadn't yet, but that we would.

Before going to have a look, we both went down to the water and took a dip in the lake along the beach. It felt great. It was nice to relax a little bit here.

We headed from the beach complex along the shore of the lake heading to the northeast. This took us past the main dam and into the camp grounds. There weren't many people in the upper end where we first went, but the lower section along the creek appeared to be packed. We walked the entire loop, and Jillane decided she wanted to stay somewhere else, so we went to the end of the grounds and headed back to the woods.

We wandered around for a while until there was a nice clearing with an old fire pit in it where we could potentially camp. I felt like it was too close to the road and visible to have a fire, but we could most certainly stay there.

Since it was still early, we decided to go out and hike the other trail in Poe Valley State Park, the Poe Valley Nature Trail. We walked back through the park and down along the waterfront, then along the service road past the ranger station near the entrance. From the end, there was the path heading into the woods along Big Poe Creek. The trail weaved around along the creek through the hay ferms and past some large fallen trees, then eventually turned left away from the creek up hill a bit.

Nature Trail, Poe Valley

The trail weaved around some more through woods in an indirect route, above the maintenance area, and then out to the main access road at the upper end near where we had first entered the park on the Hunters Path. Jillane wanted to look around the ranger station a bit more, so we headed down. I didn't have the right change to get a camp site anyway, so it was a good thing we opted to stay else where I suppose. From here, we decided to continue around the perimeter of Poe Lake, crossing Big Poe Creek on a foot bridge, then a right turn on a grassy path to the shore.

The trail was pretty nice along the shore, which took us all the way to the boat launch area. Much of this park had been constructed by Civilian Conservation Corps in the thirties. We took a little break at the boat launch and admired the view of the lake before continuing on.

There was a bit of a trail on the far side of the parking lot, but it didn't continue along the lake shore. It pretty much just disappeared and we had to bushwhack up hill to Poe Valley Road. We turned right on the road, which took us past the large main dam, then turned to the right into the woods. We descended steeply to the dam area, then found our way to a small man made waterfall area associated with the reservoir spillway. We crossed the creek on rocks there, then walked through the camp grounds where we took showers in the family shower area in the middle between the two restroom sections. It was a really nice facility overall.

Once out, we headed back along Big Poe Creek and found our way to our camp site. We realized it was rather close to the road, and rather than have a problem camping possibly where we shouldn't have been, we opted not to have a fire again on this night. Jillane stilled cooked us up some good Raman Noodles. It was another nice soft area, so it was rather easy to sleep.

DAY 3

I woke up first as always and sat around reading. I didn't want to wander off this time like I typically do. I got all of my stuff together so when Jillane was up I could just start putting all the tent stuff away.

Camp site

When I removed the rain fly from the tent, I was surprised to see that the entire tent was covered in Daddy Long Legs bugs. They apparently got under the tent to keep warm over night. I had to try to get rid of them before Jillane woke up so she wouldn't get too nervous. I managed to remove all of them.

Daddy Long Legs

When Jillane got up, we packed our stuff up and headed for the creek. We followed Big Poe Creek up stream to the restrooms, which we stopped and used before continuing out. I hung out by the creek while Jillane was in. Maintenance people were all over the place. I didn't want to deal with them asking where we camped or anything. I had not enough cash to pay for the after hours camp site thing anyway, so we couldn't really stay unless I overpayed.

When we were done, we headed to the dam spillway, which looked like a little waterfall to the right. We then passed by the ampitheater and along the dam of the lake.

Poe Valley

We made our way along the east side of the upper parking lot and back to Hunters Path where we began the steep climb backup to Mid State Trail. When we reached the top on Little Poe Mountain, Mid State Trail continued ahead on the Hunters Path Road descending slightly. When we reached the bottom, we turned right at an intersection with Little Poe Trail.

There were again tons of spider webs all over the trail. It surprised me because the night was so cold. It was predicted to be the coldest night of the entire week, possibly into the forties I believe.

The trail was a narrow foot path for a while, with some wetland openings on the left side. It was a pretty easy route, mostly flat as we continued. A trail known as Loggers Path went to the right and ascending Little Poe Mountain within view insanely steeply.

From that point on, the trail began to look more and more like a road. There were openings in the rocks that showed that it at least once was used by narrow wagons. It soon began a more normal woods road width, and we found some ruins. Just junk cluttered around in the woods where it looked like buildings may once have been. We continued a bit past this and passed an actual house, known as Camp Keystone.

Camp Keystone

To me, the house looked very very old. I would say probably stone construction with stucco on the outside of it. A date in the slap of the porch read "4-30-59", but the house looked to be much older in shape. Unless it was built in old style, I would assume this house might have been some foreman logger's home or something. The history of these places seems to have gone missing.

I followed a trail out behind the house, which led out to the wetlands. Curiously, there was a foot bridge over the wetlands on the other side, all constructed of former railroad materials. There were railroad spikes and plates, and the decking seemed to be the grates found on rail bridges. We walked across the thing and back before moving on.

I actually left first; Jillane took a longer break at Camp Keystone while I followed the trail, a forest road from this point looking for Boiling Spring, where we would fill our water.

I never know what to expect of these places; descriptions in the Mid State Trail guide are better than in the Appalachian Trail guide or others, but they never quite do it justice, which still leaves the element of surprise.

Boiling Spring

Mid State Trail continued on the woods road and then turned abruptly left, passing Boiling Spring. To my surprise, the spring literally does look like it is boiling! I stood in awe watching it, with the dark soil in a sort of pot hole, water flowing out of it to the direction I'd come from, parallel with the road, but the source was directly in the center of the hole, perkilating

I was really relying on this water to be running good to refill my drinking water. There was plenty of water, but it was shallow. I looked to the outlet of the boiling spring and gently dug into the soft soil below so there'd be enough room to get a bottle under. I tried using the water filter pump on this, but it was really working crummy. I decided that it was far enough in the middle of nowhere to be safe. It tasted great, actually! I filled my bottles up, and when Jillane arrived I filled up some of hers.

From Boiling Spring, we continued over the rest of the pretty much dry creek area, then headed steeply up Long Mountain.

Mid State Trail, Long Mountain

It wasn't too long a climb, but it was really rocky and slow going until we reached the top. We then descended rather quickly and got to a good level area. The trail headed through pleasant woods and then crossed a long swampy area on a puncheon.

Puncheon on Mid State Trail

The trail made it's way very slightly up, and then turned right on the long abandoned right of way of one of the Reichley Brothers Logging Railroads.

We've become quite interested in the old logging operations in these secluded mountains. Jillane did a good deal of research on them (she's great when she gets interested in something, because she often takes it a step further than I do, and find out things I wanted to know about before I even get the chance. In this case, she ordered a book on line about the rail lines even before we got home!).

Historic view, Reichley Bros. Railroad

It turns out that a lot of these lands between what is now Bald Eagle State Forest and Rothrock State Forest were deeded to Revolutionary War Veterans for their service. Considered rather useless at the time, they were sold for logging interests by their heirs a hundred or so years later.

The particular railroad grade was that of the Reichley Bros logging company, and was opened right about at the turn of the twentieth century. The railroads were only intended to be used apparently until the logging had been exhausted, but the grading was still rather substantial.

We had walked some old logging railroad bed on the previous trip we did on the Mid State Trail, outside of RB Winter State Park for a while. This one would be probably an even longer section on former railroad. The footing was rocky, but one could see how the ties would have been placed with the rocks sorrounding them. At times, it was very evident where the ties once sat. The trail deviated from the rail bed only slightly from time to time, but mostly kept with it heading further into Green's Valley.

During the summer, Reichley Brothers, a logging company, ran a 39-mile Sunday excursion train carrying up to 210 passengers, mostly from Lewistown. The trip began at Milroy, traveled to Poe Mills, to Thickhead Mountain, through the Stone Creek Kettle, and back to Milroy by way of Laurel Creek.

These logging company properties were later sold to the Commonwealth in large tracts, forming the bulk of the Rothrock State Forest. Many of the railroad grades were later used as a base for the state forest roads.

Mid State Trail on Reichley Railroad grade

After a long section, we reached Millheim-Silersville Pike, where the trail turned briefly left, then cut right into the woods on a woods road known as Green's Valley Trail. The rail bed would have paralleled this for a bit here. We continued along the woods road for a while, and then came to where Buck Spring Trail continued, and Mid State Trail turned left once again on the old Reichley Bros. Railroad Grade. At this point, it was a drivable road.

Mid State Trail on Reichley Railroad grade

We continued on the railroad bed until the road section ended, at a hunting camp, another building. We were running low on water again, but there was a water pump there. I figured it'd be great, but the water was coming out too rusty. I ran the pump for a long time with hopes that it'd clear up, but after a long time and no clearer, I gave up on it. Jillane went looking around for old bottles at a little bottle dump into the woods while I messed with the thing. It was frustrating because I'd just dumped out a bottle of water thinking that it'd be fine. Fortunately, as we headed further into Green's Valley, water was pretty much guarunteed from a good stream.

Mid State Trail continued on the Reichley Railroad bed ahead, which was now a foot path because the road section didn't continue past the hunting camp building. The trail passed intersections with Summit Trail to the right, then "Horse Path". The busted sign for the trail literally pointed at nothing. No one has hiked or tried to clear this trail in forever and a half. There was literally no sign of the trail at all!

Mid State Trail on Reichley Railroad grade

We continued a long time mostly on the railroad bed, and reached a few lovely camp sites. We crossed over Greens Valley Run at the first one, and came to a second where there was a nice chair. This would have been a good place to spend the night, but it was still somewhat early. We talked about setting up early, but then chose to continue on for something possibly better, or at least further along because we hadn't made it very far.

We crossed Greens Valley Run for a third time and then reached abandoned Stillhouse Hollow Road.

Stillhouse Hollow

The road was in alright shape, but there was a bridge missing it's decking immediately to the left. We walked across it and back to check it out. Ahead, I couldn't quite see where the old railroad right of way would have continued, but the road itself was graded as such that it too could have had a past life as part of the Reichley logging rail system.

Mid State Trail turned right to follow the old road for a bit. It was a pleasant walk heading gradually down hill to cross what the guide book called "Lingle Stream", but that Google maps called "Laurel Creek". We took a little break here and I filled yet another water bottle up. We had to make a judgement call yet again, to camp here where it'd be rather easy, or to continue on up to the top of Long Mountain again on Mid State Trail. Jillane chose to head up the mountain, so up we started, from the intersection with Stillhouse Hollow Road at another abandoned, but decked bridge, and another old road. If we had time, I was thinking we would continue over Long Mountain to Rt 322 and road walk to the next developed camp site, but we didn't make it far enough to get there before dark, so we'd have to find a better camp site close by the trail.

Long Mountain

The climb up Long Mountain was hard and steep. It was very rocky with little grading. Most of these climbs it seems were without switch backs, just straight up with no bullshit. They did seem to get done fast. The guide said the trail passed "Prudential Rock" fifty meters before the top. There was hardly a view at the top, and what they referred to as this rock I think was one just below the top that resembled a miniature Rock of Gibralter, which is the symbol of the Prudential company. Clever.

Once at the top, the terrain remained very very rocky. There was a fire pit at the top, which gave me hope that there was some sort of camp site nearby, but there was nothing at all. As we continued ahead on the ridge, we passed a great many more fire pits, but with no camp sites associated with them at all. These must be pits for people just coming up and goofing off, or for people that sleep in hammocks!

There were a couple of views along the way, Stillhouse Hollow View of Faust and Green Valleys, and to the south over Coxes Valley.

There was another great view to the south of Front Mountain and gaps beyond which must be headed toward Millroy. I don't know the topography well enough to judge exactly what mountains and gaps are which out there.

Chickadee Rocks

We continued along the ridge, with one trail breaking off to the right to a scout camp area. From here, there was no sign of any possible camp sites at all for a while. We found one that would work on the right, but decided to continue on. I usually want to settle for the first good thing we come across, but Jillane wants to find better. We eventually came to a really nice one with a bit of a view, flat ground, and a fire pit. I put my pack down because I figured that'd be the best place. Jillane did too, but still wanted to look, so the two of us scouted ahead on the trail for a while just to see. At some point, she said we should just go back, but she checked down off the trail lower while I went back.

Fire

We set up rather quickly and had a pretty good site. For this one, Jillane made probably the best tasting dinner of the nights we were out, a sort of maceroni mix thing. We got the fire going in part by using old magazines we had picked up in Poe Valley State Park.

I thought this was a great site and a I recall sleeping pretty well here.

DAY 4

I woke up early as I usually do and did some wandering around. I headed back the way we had come in to get a better view from the Chickadee Rocks, and then came back and got the fire started again to warm up more, using the embers from the night before.

Long Mountain camp site

It was a beautiful day, and a pretty relaxing start off. We soon headed out along the trail southbound, which is probably more west at this point. The trail remained rocky, but it was much easier now not in a hurry to find a camp site.

Big Valley Vista

We soon came to a spot that would have been a far better camp site, Big Valley Vista. The area was well manicured, with soft ground on the trail approaches to the overlook, piled stones, and two observation spots. One had a bench overlooking the southeast, and the other was lower with a wall overlooking the Laurel Creek Reservoir.

Big Valley Vista

We had a nice little break here, because it was so gorgeous. Jillane was mad that we didn't continue on to camp at this perfect spot, but the spot we had was still really nice. There was no way we could have known that this spot would have been better.

We continued from here down hill gradually, with two blue blazed trails breaking off to the right to a roadside rest of PA Rt 322. Near the second junction with side trail, I spotted a cute Porcupine walking alone. It moved along very slowly, like a cat thinking I might not see him. When he knew I saw him he moved along faster and climbed up a tree.

Porcupine

The trail continued to descend via switchbacks rather steeply. We could now see the cars along Rt 322 rushing by. There would be no access to 322 from Mid State Trail, which we happened to see on the drive out there. The sign denoting Mid State Trail is visible from 322 heading up the hill from the area around the reservoir.

The trail descended to reach the former route of the Lewistown to Bellefonte Turnpike built in 1821. The predecessor to the current highway through this gap was obvious where the trail reached 322.

This was also the boundary of Bald Eagle State Forest. We left Bald Eagle here and entered Rothrock State Forest.

We reached the Mid State Trail sign, and one of the few that actually had mileage marked

Mid State Trail at 322

on it rather than kilometers. From here, the trail descended to pass through a long culvert underneath 322 which it shares with a permanent stream. There was a walkway along the right side of the culvert, and I had to duck a bit to get through the thing. On the other side, the trail climbed across the stream and picked up another piece of the old Lewistown to Bellefonte Turnpike.

Mid State Trail under 322

I was curious where the old road went from this point, but it seemed to disappear. We continued on the trail, which then passed by Twin Springs. This was a reasonably good looking spring far enough away from 322 that I figured it was safe to drink. I refilled out water containers and we continued on. The trail ascended a little bit, crossed another spring, and then reached the Ben Jacobs Jeep Road. the trail blazing was missing in this area at first, so I had to wander a bit until I found the next orange blaze.

Soon, we began the climb of Bald Mountain, another steep ascent. It was pretty rocky going up, and when we reached what seemed to be the very top, I could not find the trail.

Mid State Trail on Bald Mountain

The area had been hit with a forest fire at some time, and since then the blueberries and scrubby lower vegetation had grown in so much that the trail could barely be found. We couldn't see the next orange blaze, so the two of us looked in opposite sides until Jillane spotted one.

We got on the trail, but it was not a very pleasant section to be walking.

Bald Mountain view

We fought through some of the stuff and reached an overlook to the south toward Front Mountain and one of the gaps again. We continued further ahead and there were a couple of views to the north toward Nittinny Mountain and Boal Gap. Another was a view of Penns Valley and Centre Hall Mountain.

The vegetation was growing in terribly on much of this section. We had to just bully through the saplings and blueberries that had completely covered the trail. The only thing that was recognizable was the treadway below. This was the Muttersbaugh Trail section.

Car wash

The coolest part of this entire stetch for us was a mature American Chestnut I spotted. It was among the largest I've seen still standing, right on top of the mountain. There were many other saplings we'd passed along the trip, but this was particulrly nice and even had some chestnuts growing on it. Jillane grabbed a couple of the spiny things to put in her pack.

We continued ahead along the ridge for what seemed like forever, and it started to rain lightly. There were a couple of giant ant hills on the trail as we made our way along, passed Carey Spring and a camp site, then followed Indian Trail section off to the left. With the rain, walking through some of the overgrown trail sections became like walking through a car wash.

We passed "Trico", the tri county corner between Huntingdon, Centre, and Mifflin Counties where the Mid State Trail turned left on Tarpit Trail. We continued from this point along the ridge top until it began to gradually dip down toward Penn Roosevelt State Park on a nicer switch back. The trail became obviously more used as we neared this park with an access point.

Penn Roosevelt

We crossed a road at the bottom of the hill, and continued heading down hill into Penn Roosevelt State Park.

This state park began development in 1933, during the Great Depression, when Civilian Conservation Corps arrived and set up camp to begin work. At the time, there was still segretation, and this was one of 12 African American camps in the America. They constructed buildings, the dam, and many forest roads and trails.

Penn Roosevelt

It started raining harder as we got to the park. There was a water pump next to a chimney so we could refill a bit, and take a break. They had a restroom and picnic benches, but not a single one was a covered pavilion or anything. That was kind of hard to believe.

Reichley Railroad grade, where ties were

The Mid State Trail crossed at the bottom of the dam, then turned right through the picnic area and followed along Crowfield Road. We decided to take a side road up hill to another camp area with some buildings. Jillane spotted a shelter up the hill, so we wandered over to that to take a break from the rain, and happened to find some Pepsi at an outside refrigerator.

Reichley Railroad grade

We hung out for a while, and passed a DCNR guy driving through with a truck. The trail headed up Shingle Path to the left from the road, up Thickhead Mountain. It continued to rain a bit while we walked up, but the ascent wasn't nearly as tough as the other ones we had done. It didn't seem like long till we reached the top, crossed Thickhead Mountain Road, and then descended into Thickhead Wild Area somewhat steeply.

Reichley Railroad grade near Deteweiler Run

Once at the bottom, we reached the right of way of another Reichley Brothers Logging Railroad and turned left. This one was very similar to all of the others we had followed, with stone bases where the ties had formerly sat could be found.

lizard...

The right of way continued to descend. Detweiler Run, the stream it followed, became more noticable as we continued. We went through some thick Rhododendrons that were growing across the trail, and at a couple instances the trail went up hill to the left where the old logging railroad bed had been washed out, or it had crossed a bridge that is no longer there over Detweiler Run. We crossed The Texas Eastern pipeline and continued on and off the old Reichley Railroad grade, which ended up on the opposite side of the Detweiler Run, and then all of a sudden ended. The trail then climbed the right side of the valley for a bit.

We descended once more, and all of a sudden we were on another old logging railroad bed, but this one was noted as the Monroe Kulp logging railroad. I found it weird that the Reichley line just ended, then there was a space in the natural area, followed by another line. It seemed obvious that they were different owners. Jillane found out later that both owners had different lines, and that it was questionable exactly where the property lines were, so they simply stopped cutting when they knew they were getting close as not to trespass. The Monroe Kulp operation did the same, and because of this respect the two companies gave each other, we now have some virgin forest between the two.

We continued walking as it was getting dark. It was raining pretty bad by this point, and I should have been a rain poncho on much earlier. I was getting pretty cold. We found an excellent camp site along the trail, actually what appeared to be directly on top of the Monroe Kulp logging line, or one of them at least, just below Mid State Trail at Detweiler Junction. The spot was perfect, right on the creek.

I was just getting too cold and had to get in the sleeping bag to warm up. With the pouring rain, I thought that trying to get a fire going would never happen. Jillane didn't want to give up though. She slaved over this fire for the longest time, trying to get it going. Every time it would start, it'd just fizzle out again, but eventually she got it going strong, and then coaxed me to come out of the tent and enjoy it with her. I was glad I did, it warmed me up a lot, and I helped her continue to find sticks to put all over it.

Lots of little lizards starting appearing all over tree stumps and such as the rain stopped. It was amazing, with them crawling everywhere. We found out later that Detweiler Run is considered an important habitat for many endangered lizards.

Miracle fire

Jillane made a pot of some very filling food, I forget what she called it. Healthy stuff which is good, but not as good as the maceroni stuff we had the night before. We stayed up late sitting by the fire, and kept it going pretty strong for a while.

DAY 5

I woke up early as usual, this time with a lot of stuff of interest to check out. I walked around, first back the way we had come so that I could get some better photos of the former Monroe Kulp logging railroad, then noted that it looked as though a siding went off and directly into our camp site. I then headed the short bit on Mid State Trail to Detweiler Junction.

Detweiler Camp

Detweiler Junction is where the Standing Stone Trail meets the Mid State Trail.

Standing Stone Trail has been something on my radar for a very long time. I had first hiked portions of it with Rich Pace back in 2003. He was scouting for a backpacking trip he planned to do on it, and I went with him to look around. It was a beautiful and strange route, just the kind of thing that I like in a long trail. All I had to do would be two hikes to the east to connect this backpack, and I'll have finally connected with the northern terminus of this trail.

I walked the Standing Stone Trail ahead, which continued to follow more of Monroe Kulp's logging railroad.

Standing Stone Trail continued south to connect with the Tuscarora Trail in Cowan's Gap State Park.

Standing Stone Trail/Greenwood Spur on the old Monroe Kulp logging rail line

We had to make a decision at this point, either to head south on Standing Stone Trail, or to turn slightly north to continue on the southwest bound Mid State Trail. We went back and forth a couple of times trying to decide on what's best, but we opted to go for Mid State Trail for now, and head to State College. I think that was the best decision in the long run.

We got up and headed along the the trail up hill to reach the intersection of gated Detweiler Road and Bear Meadows Road, at a switch back. The Mid State Trail used to go left up the gravel road, but there was a sign that it had been rerouted recently. We crossed Detweiler Road directly and continued to climb up hill. As we headed up, we could see another truck on the road below going around the bend. It was weird when we'd actually see another person somewhere, usually from afar.

Ascending Thickhead Mountain on MST

The trail eventually reached it's earlier route, Seeger Trail, and climbed up to cross Bear Meadow Road. We passed some camp sites and ascended a bit more of Thickhead Mountain. We passed Gettis Trail and Sand Spring Trail, and climbed a bit over some rocks, then skirted the edge of Thickhead Mountain for a while in a section I thought was pretty nice. When we reached North Meadows Trail intersection, Mid State Trail turned left going up hill along it.

Keith Spring

At the top, we reached North Meadows Road, where we took a break. The road was gravel, but closed to through traffic. We then went directly across on "Big Flat", a section of ridge in Big Flat Laurel Natural Area. A sign at the start denoted this the "Tom Thwaites Footpath" section. Some of this section was the first part of the Mid State Trail cleared by it's founder, Tom Thwaites, in I think 1963.

Tussey Mountain view

A yellow blazed trail to the left led to the Keith Spring, at Bear Gap Road, where there was a view of Tussey Ridge just beyond. Jillane continued on the Mid State Trail while I checked out the overlooks.

The side trail had some nice camp sites, and I followed it back to Mid State Trail, which passed through a few more. It turns out these were old charcoal hearths from back when charcoal was used to power the furnaces. The trail continued along the ridge, and then came to Indian Wells Overlook, among the finest views we had on the trip (Though my favorite was Big Valley Vista).

Jillane was waiting for me there, and we took a break to enjoy the view. We could see the Bear Meadows Natural Area as well as several other ridges, and down the end of Tussey Ridge where Big Flat joins it, at Big Flat Fire Tower.

Indian Wells Vista

We continued on from here along the ridge top trail, which had some interesting spots, all dug out as to make for better footing. We eventually reached the intersection with Kettle Trail where there was a nice monument to Tom Thwaites, again the father of the Mid State Trail, who only passed away a few years ago. I was glad this site was a part of our trip.

Thwaites Memorial

We continued along the top of Big Flat, with a few more views to the right of the Bear Meadows and ridges beyond, and at one point a view to the west over Tussey Mountain beyond. There was a spot of a somewhat recent forest fire which changed the character of the hiking for a bit of time.

State College view from fire tower at Big Flat

Soon, we reached the Big Flat Fire Tower, now closed, at a grove atop Big Flat with a small log building nearby for a caretaker probably. The trail went out across the open area, but I really wanted to see the tower.

Big Flat Fire Tower

The stairs had been removed from the lower level of the tower to keep people from climbing up, but that wasn't going to stop me. I've come across stuff like that before and went up worse. I pulled my way up on the hand railings and soon was on more sure footing. Just as I began heading up, a guy went hiking by and started talking to Jillane. She said he had some sort of a volunteer thing on, but fortunately he didn't seem to care that I was climbing the tower.

Big Flat Fire Tower

The footway was sketchy on the old tower, but solid enough to use it. Built in 1921, this is probably the oldest fire tower I have ever climbed.

I had a pretty good view of State College from the top, and mountains around. The windows were busted out and it was in sad condition. I made my way back down to the trail while Jillane was exploring around the site.

We continued on Mid State Trail heading from here along Tussey Ridge. The trail crossed over an access road, then continued through woods heading west.

Linden Hall Railroad grade

Soon, we reached the Linden Hall railroad grade, another logging railroad similarly constructed to the other two companies we had passed over. The trail followed this grade past a former junction site along the edge of Tussey Ridge, and eventually came out to cross Laurel Run Road. On the other side, we turned right and followed the Little Shingletown Fire Road. This might have been more of the old rail grade at one time judging by how gradual it was. Near the top, Mid State Trail turned right off the road.

After a short bit, we passed a view to the left over the valley. The trail got a bit tougher as we continued, with unsure rocky footway. We passed one tent along this stretch of trail where another person was camping, but we didn't actually see him or her. This would be the fourth and last "person" we'd actually encounter while on the Mid State Trail.

State College from Mid State Trail

I was getting a little nervous about getting down off of the ridge before dark at this point. We passed a good view of State College to the right, and it seemed so far away for it to be our destination. The book didn't seem accurate because I wasn't seeing side trails that were supposed to be there, leading down toward the town.

Roman Tower

I felt a lot better when I got to the sign that read "Roman Tower", denoting an overlook made of stones on a side trail out of Shingletown Gap, our destination to get out of the forest, it was a relief.

We had a last look at the Mason Dixon Trail, which we talked about coming right back to at this spot in the future, and then headed down the spur trail.

Roman Tower view

The trail split to the right, to the "Roman Tower", which is a large stone pile in which they seem to put lots of wood and have giant fires. Probably the Penn State kids. I climbed into it, and had a really nice view of the State College area.

Roman Tower

Once we'd taken in the view and had a nice little break, we descended down along the Shingletown Gap trail, very very steeply, toward the bottom. It was tough to get footing as we headed down, and it was starting to get a bit dark. It was obvious that this trail did see a good amount of use though, which made it's sometimes obscure blazing unimportant.

Descending Shingletown Gap Trail

We passed over some stairs and descended to some woods roads, and continued on the one that seemed to be heading most down. We we were coming into Shingletown Gap, there were nice camp sites visible down along the creek. We continued down and found a good spot to cross where the woods road the trail now followed had crossed.

From here, it was an easy old woods road. There were probably old logging railroads into this area as well. We followed the main route out along an old stone wall and reached a reservoir fenced in. That took us out to a parking area on Mountain Road. We passed the spillway to the reservoir and began following the now paved road south. It felt weird to actually be walking pavement.

Mountain Road did become a dirt road again, then paved once more. We passed a lovely old estate house on the right as we gradually descended toward State College. I figure it was probably some founder of the college or something that owned it.

It was now pretty dark, but we were out with just enough daylight. We turned right on the much larger Shingletown Road a short distance, then turned left on Woodside Road. We went a bit down this, and took a break under the dim light of some sort of compressor building or something to the left.

Bumming around

It was relaxing being in this area. I felt like I could probably just walk all night because it would be bright and safe, and there would be nothing to worry about. I called a few different hotels to figure out where we could stay, and we found a good one, The Ramada nearby. We sat by the building for a bit before continuing on along Woodside Drive to West Branch Road. We turned right here, and passed some lovely old farmsteads.

SHEETZ!

At the intersection, at Atherton Street/Business Rt 322, we came upon a Sheetz. I was craving Sheetz since having the burrito on the way out, and I wanted another one badly. We took a nice break here and I pigged out.

It was really strange being in such a bright and busy area. We had spent all of this time out away from people or any lights like this, and it felt like a sort of sensory overload. We sat outside the store and ate at their benches for a break before moving on.

Last 'camp site'

We walked along a strip mall, then along sidewalk and stopped at CVS. We then headed out the back lot there, crossed University Drive and followed Marylyn Ave up hill to the back of the Ramada.

I went and checked in to the place, and we got a pretty nice room on the outside of the building.

I was pretty tired and was able to fall asleep after a while, but Jillane stayed up pretty late.

DAY 6

I woke up and wandered around a bit. This wasn't a "walking day", but rather making plans to get home and relaxing a bit. I called taxi companies, and decided to use the same people we used the previous year. I requested Keith, the driver who took us last time, but he was off for the day.

Yogi Berra ball

I really don't like having TV in the room so much, I'd rather have the internet and phone, but with all the time free of media (I barely even tried to use my phone the entire trip, which was really nice and relaxing), I had found out that baseball legend Yogi Berra had died. My grandfather had always loved Yogi Berra's crazy quotes, and I once bought him a book of all of them. Ironically, a Yogi Berra signed baseball was in a case in the foire right outside our room.

I went and pigged out on continental breakfast of waffles, pastries, and more. This particular one had sausage out too, as well as scrambled eggs, so using english muffins I made myself several breakfast sandwiches as well.

Luxurious camp site?

After squaring away responsibilities, I went and sat by the indoor swimming pool at the Ramada, and took a dip in the hot tub right next to it. Jillane couldn't use it because she hadn't brought a swimsuit, and she'd rather sleep in.

When the taxi arrived to take us back to Poe Paddy and Penn's Creek, I wasn't ready for the trip to be over. It was a pretty easy ride, and we had another really cool cab driver, but there's a sad feeling that comes over me when I'm heading back to "real life".

We got dropped off and I drove Jillane's car for a while. We decided to take some of the day and do some more exploring by car in the Bald Eagle State Forest area.

Responsibility

While driving, and at exactly where the Reed's Gap Spur of the Mid State Trail crossed a road, Jillane got a flat tire. The raw tire had exposed metal, and I had to change the flat on an uneven surface with a less than accomodating jack.

Then, further down the same road a bit later on, her exhuast pipe broke in a second spot from where I had wired it up a few weeks before, and we had to wait for it to cool off, then wire that back up. These responsibilities of real life made the end of the trip even more painfully apparent.

It was really a lovely trip in a beautiful place, and I can't wait to get back out and explore it further. I was glad to have had a more "natural" backpack far from society for a change, even though it was shorter and less distance than we usually do. Another trip out there, from State College to Altoona looks like it could be absolutely outstanding, and public transportation leads between the two cities. There is so much more to look forward to.