Hike #1372; Standing Stone Trail; Allensville Rd to Fousetown

 

Hike #1372: 11/15/20 Standing Stone Trail; Allensville Rd to Fousetown with Jim Kohan, Professor John DiFiore, Jennifer Berndt, Jennifer Tull, Brittany Audrey, Kirk Rohn, Jim "Uncle Soup" Campbell, Dr. Michael Krejsa, and Diane Reider.

This would be our second hike in the Standing Stone Trail series.
Way back when I started the 911 National Memorial Trail series, my old friend John Trontis, who first hired me into parks in 2007, told the board of the 911 Trail that I wasn't just going to do the 911 Trail, I was "killing it" by doing all of the connections involved in it. For the start of that series, we did not only the Liberty-Water Gap Trail, but the parallel Morris Canal as well as an alternate.

I hadn't been doing that so much with the other ones, but we did cover the remainder of the Horse-Shoe Trail I wanted to finish, and the Stony Valley Rail Trail and such.

When we got to McVeytown recently tracing the Juniata Division Pennsylvania Canal, which is basically on the route of the 911 Trail, it was only one hike away from where the Standing Stone Trail crosses.
I had really liked this trail a lot going back to my first time on it with Rich Pace, long before I thought I'd ever reach it through my connective hikes.

To do this entire trail, it was going to be some long drives, but knowing what I already knew about it, it would be worth it. The first hike on it kind of proved it, because it was great.

For this one, we met in Fousetown. I found a spot along Big Valley Pike near the southern end of this section, because it didn't look like there was parking for the trail nearby otherwise. We'd then shuttle to the start point, Allensville Road on top of the Stone Mountain.

We started out by walking back the way we had come previously to a hawk watch overlook. By the time we had gotten there on the previous one it was getting too late and we didn't really see anything, so it was a great way to start the day, and we didn't even have to bring out packs since we'd be coming right back. Also, the distance was not quite fiften to Fousetown, and I wanted to keep with that, so with this and another side trip, it would put us there.

We came back from the overlook, which was still a little hazy in the morning, and then started descending from Stone Mountain on switchbacks, and we crossed Allensville Road a little ways below the summit.
While we were on our way down, a fit man was running his way uphill. It turned out to be none other than the manager of the trail himself, George Conrad III! We chatted with him a bit before he continued up the mountain and we made our way down.
After crossing the road, the descent got a bit easier. It followed an old woods road for a little bit of the time, crossed the valley floor, and then crossed Frew Road and a small stream.

From there, the trail climbed a bit more as a foot path heading to the south, opposite the valley from Stone Mountain.
We were at this point in Rocky Ridge Natural Area.
The topography changed entirely here, as we approached some crazy looking bubbly rock outcroppings. I had explored this area a bit with Rich Pace back around 2001 or so, but had never been back since.
The outcrops were Oriskany Sandstone formations, in some areas known as Ridgely Formations. The were formed in the Middle Devonian age.

This was a slow going stretch just because it was more arduous terrain, but it was also constant photo opportunities and climbing opportunities. The bubbly rock makes for some really pretty easy climbing.

Serious Sean and Kirk were climbing some of the toughest ones, while myself and others went up some of the less technical ones along the route. There were little chasms that could be climbed through, and the trail intimately wound between the best of the outcroppings.

We continued along Rocky Ridge and stopped for a great at a wonderful overlook at a power line crossing. There were some more limited overlooks prior to this one, but here we had a more panoramic view.
We continued on the ridge a little bit from there, and there was eventually a yellow blazed side trail to the right that led out to another great overlook, this one with no power lines.

The side trail had some little cave type formations we could climb through at the end of it.
From here, we continued south a bit more, and there was yet another nice overlook to the right, unobscured by trees.
We continued along Rocky Ridge just a bit more, and another side trail broke off to the right when the Standing Stone Trail turned more hard to the left.

This side trail we were told about a bit earlier, that they led to another area of Oriskany sandstone formations, but these ones had several cave formations and overhangs that we could explore.
Of course, we had to take this option for a little break.
We made our way down the trail, which came to an abrupt end at these formations. The trail to them was a bit steeper than I was counting on, but it was well worth it.
One of the formations was a natural overhang with a fire pit in it. I meandered probably the farthest of everyone out there, through some rock formations, crawled through some openings, and went down the ridge a bit. I could spend a great deal of time exploring this place, but that's not something we had the time for.
We made our way down from Rocky Ridge through woods, and the trail came to the sort of dead end at the far end of Frew Road, but crossed directly over and onto a path known Carbon Trail. Dogwood Trail came in from the left just before that, which is a sort of bypass of the rocks (boring way). There were some erosion deterrent rocks in that uphill a bit, and then the trail turned hard to the right.

I think I kind of expected the trail to climb the ridge to the top of Stone Mountain again, but it actually remained at nearly the same elevation, skirting the edge of the slopes.
We left state forest owned lands and entered State Game Lands #211.
The trail meandered along and then skirted the edge of some old mine holes. I think they mined iron in this area, but I'm not totally sure. There were iron furnaces along the Juniata River to the south, and Juniata Iron was pretty well known through Pennsylvania.
We pushed along the trail through a very pleasant sort of plateau. The ground was easy to walk on, but there were still some of those odd rock formations around us in oddly interspersed formations.

One particular formation we came upon looked like a sort of stockade. It was so tempting that we couldn't just pass it by. We had to go and have a look.

Most of us climbed off trail to the top of the formation where we were treated to a very splendid view of the surrounding area that surpassed expectations.
The view as 360 degrees; to Stone Mountain to the east of us, down the edge of the escarpment to the south and north, over another secondary ridge to the west, and well out into the valleys beyond to the northwest.
We had our last good break for the day at this point before moving on along the trail.

The trail meandered a lot in the areas ahead, on very nice easy treadway, but between huge outcroppings of the sandstone like we had been through before.
We actually made some really good time I think through much of these sections.
The trail cut to the left from the more level area across a spot that was somewhat recently logged, and then re-entered woods.
Some of what we followed in these sections beyond was old woods road and extremely easy walking. 

We continued along to the south, on the west flank of Stone Mountain, and paused next when we got to a power line clearing.

I had never been on any of this section before, but Jim had already walked it all, and told us of a great view on the power line just to the east if we were to use it to climb to the top of the ridge.
I decided that I was going to do the climb, but not every one had to follow. They could use the time to take a break down on the power line crosing along the trail.
Jim and I headed to the top, and we got quite the workout. He's in better condition for the uphills than I am, but I gave it my best getting to the top.
I think it was Serious Sean that also went to the top. John might have as well. It wasn't at all easy, but the view I feel was worth it. We got pretty clear views both to the Mill Creek Hollow to the west, and the area known as Airydale to the east.

I was sweating like mad by the time I got up there, and the powder blue suit I wore was even too heavy despite it being a mid Autumn day.

We headed back down with great care, as it was pretty steep, and then continued on the trail heading south. Some of it was again on woods road, while other parts were simple foot path.
I was impressed constantly that the treadway was so well cared for on this. Jim said something to the effect of their being thousands of stone steps placed all over the Standing Stone Trail.

There are of course the famous Thousand Steps that would be in the next section we'd cover, but there were so many more in other sections we'd pass through, as well as a lot of very nice grading work.

As we got closer to Fousetown and we were descending the flank of Stone Mountain, the grading got to be really extremely nice. I suppose so much closer to the road is where it is easier for volunteers and such to make their way in to do stone step work.
Just as we were coming out to Rt 655/Big Valley Pike, there was an old routed wooden sign that still bore the previous name of the trail "Link Trail" (because it was the link between the Pennsylvania Mid State Trail and the Tuscarora Trail).
The trail turned to the right across Saddler Creek on the road bridge and then turned left onto a private driveway, but we continued on down the road to the west to get back to where we had parked.
Even I was rather impressed that we finished this one before sundown, considering all of the extra time we spent climbing on or through rocks, or up power lines.
It was also really a great hike to do for the time. We crossed no paved roads the entire day, and only touched two vehicle accessible dirt roads. We hardly saw anyone, and with all of the covid craziness rearing its ugly head once again, it was smart for us to try to keep our heads low. There was no hiding we had to do out in this area, and it was a great day.