Hike #1418: 5/29/21 Waggoners Gap to Colonel Denning State Park with Professor John DiFiore, Dr. Mike Krejsa, Serious Sean Dougherty, Jennifer Tull, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Diane Reider, David Adams, and Shane Blische
This next hike would mark my return to the Tuscarora Trail for the first time in several years.
My interest in this trail went back many many years, and I had hiked the section of it from its intersection with the Appalachian Trail all the way to McClure's Gap with Jillane on a backpacking trip, but we never got back to it.Too many other priorities were in my mind to keep on going with this trail, and the fact that it was so hard was honestly a turn off.
We had hiked the first bit of it, and every rock seemed to turn under our ankles, so with a full pack it was so much tougher. We left the trail at McClures Gap because we had completely run out of water and I didn't want to have an emergency.
What got me interested in returning to it was actually the 911 National Memorial Trail. I had been working on that ever since completing the New Jersey Perimeter series, but I announced that we would not only be doing the designated route...we would be doing all of the trails that connected with it as well.
So, we did not only that trail across the northern part of the state, we also did the entire Morris Canal greenway again. In Pennsylvania, we headed west, but I also wanted to do the entire Standing Stone Trail which connects with it.
We were almost finished with the Standing Stone Trail at this point, and had only one hike left to do. The reason I posted this hike ahead of the last Standing Stone hike was because I wanted to take advantage of the swimming beach on the last Standing Stone when it was open and when we would appreciate it more. The first Tuscarora hike would be one that would be mostly in woods, and likely not have any swim spots. So, I wanted to get it out of the way before the end of Spring. If it was super hot, at least we could swing at Colonel Denning at the end.
We met for this one at Colonel Denning State Park, down near the dam for the lake, and then shuttled together to Waggoners Gap.
Jillane and I had already hiked through Waggoners Gap, but there was a loop trail there I wanted to do at the start, which has some overlooks on it, so I figured it would be good to start there and cover that, and plus there was no good way of getting to McClures Gap to pick up where we left off.
I'd just have to go over some of the route a second time, which wasn't that big a deal. There were some really great features of the section there I was totally fine with doing again.
The Tuscarora Trail is a very interesting one in its origin.
The history dates back to some sixty years ago when the Appalachian Trail was in trouble. A lot of encroachments were happening along the trail through the Cumberland Valley, Maryland, and Virginia. It was decided that the trail might need to be moved onto the more secluded ridge tops to the west.
Land acquisitions began taking place on these ridges for a new trail route, but then the National Trails System Act passed in 1968, which protected the AT corridor.
However, all of this land had been purchased for the new AT to the west. It was decided that another trail could be made on that. It was the Big Blue Trail in Pennsylvania, and the Tuscarora Trail in Maryland and Virginia. It was eventually merged and the entire trail was referred to as Tuscarora.
The name is from one of the seven nations of Native Americans that traveled the Trail of Tears to the north when expelled from their native lands. They passed through what is now the Path Valley, but the hiking trail mostly stays on the ridge tops.
I really like the Tuscarora Trail, but I must say that it is more of an acquired taste than the Standing Stone Trail or some of the other ones. The Tuscarora Trail is great for some of those hardcare nature only people that want to be mostly in a long green tunnel and never see anyone else.
It's great for what it is, but it can be extremely tough and it doesn't feature as much diversity as many of the other trails we follow. It's just very wild mostly.
We shuttled to Waggoners Gap and started by walking across the highway and up to the F J Reineman hawk watch area. There was a little pavilion and access road first, then a trail that led parallel with Tuscarora Trail with very well laid stone steps and walkways out to the best overlook point.
The rocks were really slippery from being wet during some of the recent storms, but we were able to get over them alright.
After taking in the first view, we descended slightly on the trail, which was yellow blazed to the blue Tuscarora Trail and the two ran together down to the parking area. The trail then crossed over the highway again and passed by a large concrete tower that has something to do with utilities. I think some kind of a microwave tower. We continued from here off into the woods along Blue Mountain.
The first sections of the trail were outstanding. Most of it was all stone steps and well graded treadway. It was improved somewhat since the last time I was there on my first Tuscarora hike, but even then some of this had been rehabilitated due to the construction of the somewhat new shelter just ahead.
Our first major point of interest after that first overlook was the Charlie Irvin Shelter, which is one of the most amazing trail shelters in the state. It sits on a talus slope overlooking the Cumberland Valley.
Jillane and I were the first actual backpackers to use the shelter, before it was actually completed. This time, it was painted up and all, and I'd not seen it this way yet.
We had a really nice break here taking in all of the scenery.
The trail was still nice and done up with some stone work for a while after the shelter, but slowly it started to look like it was never touched. It's just so far between road crossings or really any access to maintain it.
It remained on the ridge top paralleling the F J Reineman Wildlife Sanctuary boundary. This was not the original route of the trail. East of Waggoners Gap, it used to descend from the ridge and follow several old roads along the north side of the ridge, then skirt F J Reineman Sanctuary on the north side before gaining the ridge ahead, at the Barkley Ridge section.
After an area where there were some weird platform enclosed hunting stands parallel with the trail, we went over a very rocky area and passed through thick vegetation. We couldn't for the life of us tell where the trail was. It was completely grown in. The only thing we had to go by was the blue blazes on the trees, which weren't always visible.
To make matters worse, the sections of ridge are undulating and you never know if you're on the ridge top or accidentally starting to descend to the right or left.
We had to wait at one point because John got off of the trail and couldn't find it again. He just tried to stay on the ridge top, which was the right thing to do in this case.
Things started to get a bit better, and eventually we came out to an old woods road on the ridge in the Reineman Sanctuary. The trail turned left on this, and we started onto the first of the doubling gaps on the trail.
There are a lot of these doubling gaps, or folds or offsets in the ridges. Back home we have the Big Offset and the Little Offset on Blue Mountain near Pen Argyl PA. They are just not as often. This doubling gap was known as McClure's Gap, and the section of ridge in the offset is named Barkley Ridge. We continued on the woods road along that.
We left the F J Reineman Sanctuary and started descending somewhat on a woods road, and then reached where the trail turns off to the right from it into the dip of McClure's Gap. Jillane and I had followed the road down from this gap because we weren't going to have enough water when we did this. Everything for the rest of this hike from here would be new to me.
We passed by an old trailer, then through a bit of an opening dominated by hay ferns before ascending rather steeply to the top of the next bit of Blue Mountain.
We took a break at the top, and then continued on along the ridge. Some sections of this bit were easy, but we also went over more crazy rocky stuff as well.
We continued on to Berry Gap where there was a nice little campsite. The trail then turned to the right to descend from the ridge on an old woods road in Tuscarora State Forest.
This section was probably too easy and was getting us spoiled compared to what a lot of the rest of the trail is like. We continued to descend, and then passed some herbaceous openings to the right of the trail. We entered some thicker woods on the descent into Wildcat Hollow. Pretty soon, there was a good stream to our right.
I have the guide book, but it is 1997 edition. Most of it is the same, except the first part of this hike. Still, I didn't quite pick up that we would be in this lovely hollow for so long, adding some rather unexpected diversity into the hike.
Eventually, we ascended from the creek gradually back up Blue Mountain. We crested the ridge, and then made our way out to Flat Rock.
The Flat Rock Vista is quite beautiful, but when we arrived there, it was super foggy. We couldn't see much of anything at all. I arrived and it was okay, but then it got even worse.
I was there first, and the others soon caught up and we took a break. We waited out the fog, and it was so worth it. The view opened up amazingly, and it was great.
I had seen the Flat Rock itself from the valley below when I backpacked through years ago, so it was a special treat to finally get up there to it.
We had not really seen anyone all day until this point. At the hawk watch at the start, there were some people walking around, but then we passed no hikers at all on the entire stretch west to this point.
So, we saw the first other people when we got to this spot. The trail down from this point is also super well worn, because of course everyone climbs the ridge for the overlook.
We descended back into the valley, and then passed through a long section with lots of puncheons. This went over the springs that are the head waters of the Wildcat Run.Once up the other side, we ascended a bit of a hill with some water bars and improvement steps and such in place, then descended a little bit more to reach the Wagon Wheel Shelter.
This very nice shelter was more the old stone, log building with a fire pit in front. It was just like the Appalachian Trail shelters I grew up visiting, and the kind I'm used to seeing.
I think there was a time when this was the only shelter on the entire Pennsylvania section of the Tuscarora Trail.
We descended further from here, much more than I thought we had left to go down at this point.
The trail continued down into Doubling Gap, the second of the doubling gaps on the trail route.
The trail was mostly an old woods road on the descent, but it was by no means gradual. I was glad we were going down this and not up it.
Soon, we reached Route 233, Doubling Gap Road.
The trail turns right here briefly, and then turns left heading uphill to the north. That would be our route on my third hike on the Tuscarora. This time, we would continue on Doubling Gap Road to the east for a bit.
We walked on for a bit, and passed by the beautiful Lake Henrietta, which is private property of Camp Yolijwa.
We followed along the dirt road along the north side of the pond, which went by a couple buildings, and ran parallel with Doubling Gap Road. This led us into some woods, and when that road started to turn right and crossed Doubling Gap Creek, we remained on the same side and followed another trail into the woods straight.
The trail had old puncheons and such, and was rather overgrown but still passable. We also passed an old stone walled in spring to the left. I have a notion that this trail may follow the original Doubling Gap Road before the current alignment.
Some of this trail was rather wet, but most of it was pretty good. We simply emerged in one of the parking areas for Colonel Denning State Park here, and we were able to walk slightly to the right through the campgrounds, and then straight along Doubling Gap Creek to the main dam.
We were parked right there in the parking lot before we got to the dam, and finished in relatively good time considering the difficulty of some of the hike. I was feeling pretty good about it.The park is named for a William Denning, who interestingly was never a colonel. He served as a sergeant during the American Revolution from 1778 to 1780, and forged cannons.
Denning lived in the Cumberland Valley just south of Doubling Gap.
The park was created by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and opened in 1937. It has a lot of the type of stone work and feel of many of the other CCC parks we've visited before.
By this time, I had pretty fully devoted to finishing so many of the things that I'd let go for so many years. We were almost done with Standing Stone, we finished Juniata Division Pennsylvania Canal, we had pretty much finished the main Lehigh and New England Railroad, and we had gotten on the Tuscarora Trail, which I'd had a several year hiatus since I'd set foot on it.
This was going to be a year of major changes, but I wanted to make sure I would still see through these things I really wanted to do. Hopefully, I'd be done with a lot of these rough trails before the baby came, and then I could do the easier stuff with a stroller for a while until he could walk.
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