Hike #1411; Meadow Gap to Cowans Gap

Hike #1411 5/1/21 Meadow Gap to Cowans Gap with James Kohan, Jennifer Tull, Professor John DiFiore, Jim "Mr. Buckett" Mathews, Eric Pace, Serious Sean Dougherty, Kirk Rohn, Diane Reider, Karen New, and Pete Fleszar

This next hike would be the sixth in the series to hike the entire Standing Stone Trail, and the second to last in that series.

It had been going really well and I was very much enjoying the trail. The previous section ended up being far easier than the other sections before it, but this one would be back to more of the kind of stuff we'd come to expect from the trail. Still, it was quite interesting and diverse.
This time, we met at Cowans Gap State Park on Aughwich Road at a little parking area near where the Standing Stone Trail used to join the Tuscarora Trail. It had since been rerouted. This was just a little to the northeast of the end of the Todd Trail. We then shuttled with as few cars as possible to Meadow Gap.

We did have one newcomer on this hike that started out with us, not knowing how long such a hike would take. I recall he got a call from his wife not more than a couple of miles into the hike, and he had to turn back to his car to leave.

Our last hike on the Standing Stone Trail took us out to State Game Lands #81 just off of Locke Valley Road on the way up Blacklog Mountain. I figured I would save the ascent of the ridge for the start of the next trip.

Sometimes, the planning of these hikes requires looking a few months ahead. With this series, I had planned that when we finished Standing Stone Trail, we would jump on the Tuscarora Trail and finish the north half of that, seeing as though it connects with the Standing Stone and both of them are part of the Great Eastern Trail.

I figured on several hikes on that, and used Cowans Gap as a connection point, but there was just a bit too much at the end of Standing Stone Trail to do what I wanted. I kept looking it over, and things just were not working out the way I wanted until I figured on a plan that would utilize a bunch of other area trails that are not part of either of those other ones. With that in place, I was ready to move on with these series.

From the parking area where we left off last time, the Standing Stone Trail followed a pleasant woods road to the south a bit, on a gradual ascent, and crossed the power lines with lovely spring blooms on them.

We continued gradually up the woods road, and eventually came to a set of stone steps to the left. This foot path cut back to the north a bit in the wide, sweeping switchback that gradually brought us to the top of Blacklog Mountain.

The trail continued up on a more faint woods road after a bit, crosed the power line again with more views to the west, and then turned hard right when it came close to Locke Valley Road again, up more stone steps. 
At this point, we were on foot path with nice stone steps in place for the remainder of the ascent up Blacklog Mountain.
There was an absolutely beautiful power line view when we reached the top. We could see clearly to the west from the top, but just a few steps in the other direction provided great views to the east and northeast over another valley.

We had a really nice rest here, and the trail then turned left to descend along the power line to the east just a little bit. It then entered the woods to skirt some of the east edge of Blacklog Mountain. Some of it was woods road, and some of it was otherwise just pretty easy. It was a far more pleasant section of trail that I was anticipating going into it.

The trail had briefly entered state forest land near the top, but then re entered State Game Lands 81.

We continued through game lands for most of the distance along the mountain to the south. We passed a sign that read "Link Trail" and that it was going through private land, but I understand most of this land is now either forest or game lands at this point. Not to mention the trail name is changed (it started off as Link Trail).

The section of woods was pretty nice, with seasonal views pretty often. Eventually, we cut to the right over the height of the land, and then reached a side trail. This led us to the Monument Rock and overlook, which is the signature view and symbol of the Standing Stone Trail.

The overlook from this edge of Blacklog Mountain was beautiful. Just beyond, we reached the standing stone itself, which is similar to the rock formations we had seen on previous hikes on this trail. We did our group shot there, then returned to the main trail again.

Pete Fleszar joined up with us again in this area, partway along. He had hiked up the Ramsey Path to join up with us for a bit and then went back down that way when we headed down.

It wasn't too far beyond here that the Standing Stone Trail descended to the right on Ramsey Path. 

We turned right and descended on this route farther than I thought we would go down the mountain.

Eventually, the trail turned to the left and started to ascend a bit more and skirted the side of Gobbler's Knob. Fortunately we didn't have to climb all the way to the top.

In this area, the pollen was so nuts that it started staining our shoes an odd tint of green.

As we started to descend a bit, the trail picked up an old woods road. We meandered through the woods a bit, and then passed through an area of many springs before skirting some fences on private lands. We then passed into open fields and crossed over a large fence on a stile that keeps animals from escaping but allows people to walk in and out.

We followed one of the little springs a bit, crossed it on rocks, then crossed over another stile over electric fences. We skirted those fences and then passed into a wide open field on a farm road full of beautiful yellow flowers. 

Next, we crossed over the Little Aughwick Creek  on a farm bridge. I got down and stood in the water, because of course I couldn't resist. 

We turned right on Rt 522 near Fort Littleton, then immediately left of Sheepskin Hollow Road, which was a much smaller road. The trail then goes beneath Rt 678. Once under, it cuts into the woods to the left and passes by a gate with lots of no trespassing signs. It does however have the orange paint blazes.

We crossed a little foot bridge over a tributary to Ten Mile Run, and then climbed a bit up a hill and through various meadows heading to the east.

After getting into some deeper woods, we descended to a point where there was some cut out right, but nothing that looked finished. More like a bit of a quarry. Then, just ahead of there, there was what looked to be remnants of a box culvert construction.

This was Vanderbilt's Folly: The Standing Stone Trail follows a section of the never completed South Pennsylvania Railroad east of Fort Littleton PA. William H. Vanderbilt, who controlled the New York Central Railroad, took interest in this project in 1880, using surveys from an initial charter from the 1850s. The plan was in retaliation to the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had recently begun operations into NY Central Hudson Valley territory.
Work began in 1881, but interest waned and expenses grew through 1886. Vanderbilt backed away from the project, and only short sections of it saw service. No work continued on the line for railroad expansion after 1893.

The properties were purchased by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in 1937, and six of the nine tunnels constructed for the railroad were rehabilitated for highway use. Not all of them are in use today, and some are part of the "Pike to Bike" trail that I hope to connect with this hike in the near future.
Because highways could operate at greater grades than railways, much of the original graded rail bed is a scar on the surface of the earth deviating from the highway in places like what we were seeing.

We continued walking the grade over some fills and through some impressive cuts.

At a particularly large fill, the trail turned to the right to descend next to an impressive double box culvert, and then followed the stream to the right from there.

We turned along Scrub Ridge, and soon entered Buchanan State Forest.

We crossed 9 Mile Run on a foot bridge, and then turned to climb very steeply over rocks. 
We skirted Scrub Mountain, crossed another tributary, and started climbing Cove Mountain. 

The Todd Trail broke off to the right to aslo ascend the mountain, and this was the former route of the Link Trail, but we kept with the current route.

We passed a rock in bench shape with "Mel's Bench" written on a sign by it. We then made our way the bit more to the top of Cove Mountain where a short side trail led to the left and to Sideling Hill Vista.

This was a very nice view to Sideling Hill to the west. We waited there at the overlook for the rest of the group to finish climbing the mountain. It would not be too much farther from here to get back down.

Once everyone had made it up and got a good break, we continued along the ridge top just to the west, and then turned left down Todd Trail, with red blazes.

When this was still the Link Trail, this was the trail route, so it kind of seemed appropriate.
We would have one more hike left to finish the Standing Stone Trail from this point.

We continued down hill on the trail, which at first was really nice and had some good switchbacks. Then, as we got to the top of a sort of herbaceous clearing, the trail shot straight down the hill parallel with it. It was just constant down.

The trail eventually reached the old Forbes Road. This was part of a route taken way back, built by John Forbes during the French and Indian War from Carlisle to Pittsburgh as a supply line for British soldiers trying to capture Fort Duquesne.

The Todd Trail had been pretty steep to get to this point, and this wasn't yet the part that the Tuscarora Trail follows. My maps had showed that the Todd Trail continued down to Aughwick Road, but I wasn't sure where to go.
There was a bit of a wash just below the old road route, so I started following that down. Sure enough, there were blazes, although this had not been maintained for a very long time. We could see Aughwick Road below us, so it wasn't like it was all that far.
We emerged on the road at a steep spot where there was no parking, which is probably why they let this bit of trail go. We simply turned left to follow the road, which did have a sketchy spot with a steep slope and blind curve, but it wasn't too long before we reached the spot where we had parked to finish the day.
Here, we had finished the route of the original Link Trail, but I was quite looking forward to doing the last bit of Standing Stone Trail where it connects to the Tuscarora Trail.
I made a plan not to do this last one in the series just yet though, because I knew Cowans Gap State Park at the end had swimming, and I wanted to schedule it at a time when we could take advantage of this more.
Unlike some of the series I had been working on, I was not mourning the end of this one. This is because it really doesn't end at all. This one continues on with the Great Eastern Trail series, and everything that connects with that. Good stuff was coming up.