Hike #1430; 7/24/21 Cowans Gap/Todd Trail to Tuscarora Summit with Kirk Rohn, Red Sean Reardon, Jenny Tull, Professor John DiFiore, Diane Reider, Jim Kohan, and Bill ?
This next hike would be the final one in the Standing Stone Trail series, but also feature a lot of other things in the vicinity I felt would be good to see.
I almost postponed this hike. It was the first one I would do since becoming a father. I didn't know what to think, or what my responsibilities would be. I already established that I was going to continue doing one hike per week, but that I would give up the night hikes for a while.
When the baby was born on the 19th, we were told we would not be able to bring him home for at least a month or two because he was premature. I had held him and fed him, but it was short and in a nursery area. My responsibilities thus far were small, and since I couldn't do much in the hospital, I was able to do this hike.
I had gone back to work right away, but I would have a lot of time off once the approval went through. We planned that out for as soon as we could take the baby home for child bonding time. So while her and Jill were still in the hospital, I spent some time working because it made little difference otherwise, and then I did the hike.
In some ways, I felt like getting to work and making money, and keeping with the hikes was an exercise in dedication, in reminding myself who I am and that there are responsibilities we take on with life. Some of them take priority over others, as my son would, but that doesn't mean to ignore the other ones. The hikes have brought far too much good to my life to ever give them up, and they will offer the same insight on people and life that the lifestyle offered me growing up. Instead of being clients of my grandfather, they would be my friends, so maybe it'll be even better.
We met at the end point, which was at Tuscarora Summit in a lot adjacent to the Tuscarora Summit Inn, and then shuttled to the starting point, which would be near the lower end of Todd Trail on Aughwick Road.
I made the meeting point Tuscarora Summit Inn, but they wouldn't allow parking at that site, so we moved down the road and headed to Augwick Road.
From the start, we had to walk Augwick Just a little bit to the west, then reached the base of the Todd Trail. It is only vaguely blazed out to the road because it comes out where there isn't parking and hasn't been maintained in forever it seem.
I powered ahead of everyone else on the climb. It wasn't bad at first, and it skirted an area where there was obviously some sort of logging in very recent years. I got past that and it actually did some switchbacks, so it wasn't terrible.
Pretty soon, we reached the Standing Stone Trail where we had left off earlier in the Spring, atop Cove Mountain.
We turned left at the top, and I figured it might be like some of the last couple hikes we had been on along the Tuscarora Trail, with rather wide ridge tops, but this was really narrow.
We soon came across some rather remarkable rock outcroppings sticking up in every which way. Some of them were layered more horizontally, while others jutted out like the fins of sea mammals.
Some sections of the ridge top were very open and exposed while others were surprisingly well covered. In these areas, we came across some nice examples of Indian Pipe coming up.
The Indian Pipe is an odd plant in that it grows in dark forests and does not contain chlorophyll, and does not rely on photosynthesis.
Indian Pipe contains glycoside that can be poisonous if consumed in abundance, and it is said that they own hallucinogenic qualities.
We didn't test any of this of course, and we continued along the ridge, which remained narrow and rocky.
There were quite a few nice views along the way, some open more than others. At one point, there was a pretty little talus slope on the left side of the trail, and we headed over to have a look.
I made my way out over the rocks and I started hearing a buzzing noise that at first I didn't recognize due to its high pitch. But then I realized. I was walking over rattlesnakes.
I made my way back over higher rocks as best as I could, looked back, and saw the firt one slithering between the rocks, beginning to assume the coiled position. I then spotted a second one under another nearby rock. It may actually have been two of them together.
I warned the others further back not to go out onto this for the view, and we stood and waited for everyone to catch up so they didn't try to go out there.
We continued ahead, up and down along the crest of the mountain, and we came across some weird bubbly eroded rocks unlike what I'd seen on this trail before.
The terrain ahead was more up and down than the previous section, and some of it required a little bit of hand hold climbing to get over. It was definitely a nice little bit of trail.
We got to the Fox Trail intersection, and a sign read that it was only 25 yards to another overlook, so we went up and checked out another south facing one. It wasn't as nice as the previous one, but it was good.
We passed the Wagner Trail and dipped down below the ridge just a bit.
Maybe the reason for this dip down was the existence of Mile a Minute Vine on the ridge top. This was the first time I remember seeing the plant on the ridge tops, and they will be the scourge of trail maintainers because they just grow all over everything. I have found that it even grows over the Autumn Olive invasives where I work and kills them.
Mile a Minute Vine, or Persicaria perfoliata, is an invasive species native to India and eastern Asia that has a barbed vine, making it very unpleasant to pass through. The barbs are not as horrible as multi flora rose or Japanese Barberry, but are still an annoyance, and actually pose a worse trip hazard.
The plant is in the Buckwheat Family, and was accidentally introduced in the United States in York County PA in 1930. It has since spread only to twenty percent of its potential range in America, and that worries many naturalists.
Ahead, we came to another side trail to the north, which led to Slanted Rock Vista. We wandered out that way and took a break with a terrific north facing view.
We passed through more rocky ridge top that was quite nice. It was a bit technical trying to walk it, but very pretty. We continued on along and then came to a yellow blazed side trail that led out to the north facing Knobsville Vista. We went out to there and took another break for everyone to all catch up.
We checked out leaves and plants all along the way, and looked at the Witch Hazel trees with the capsules getting ready to bloom.
We continued over a little more rocky terrain, and then descended to a woods road, the old Knobsville Road which was once a more prominent cross-mountain road. To the right of the intersection, I noted an old log skid, almost unrecognizable, down from the top toward Knobsville.
From here, we headed down the ridge a bit, and on the left as we descended was a viewing platform to Cowan's Lake, built by the YCC in 1977.
There were bits of more views to the left of us through the trees, and the descend was very pleasant. We got to a switchback hair pin turn on the old road, and near this spot was an old incinerator building left from the Civilian Conservation Corps from when they were active in the area. As I understand, it is one of the only such incinerator remnants around.
We continued on down the mountain, and Jim noticed on the left some Jack O Lantern Mushroom, or Omphalotus illudens. These mushrooms are poisonous, but many people mistake these for similar looking edible chanterelles mushrooms.
All of the harder stuff on the Standing Stone Trail was done by this point. We were descending fast, and soon passed by camp grounds, through gates, and onto park roads as we entered Cowans Gap State Park.
Cowan's Gap is named for John and Mary Cowan, who settled the area just after the American Revolution.
Their story is one of forbidden love, as John was a Major in the British army during the Revolution, from a Loyalist family, and Mary was from a Patriot Mueller family. When John returned from war and asked for her hand in marriage, the family forbade it. The two went off and eloped, and settled for a time in Chambersburg PA. They planned to head to Kentucky, but on the way, crossing the Conococheague Creek, their wagon was disabled.
John Cowan traded the broken wagon and his horses to a Tuscarora chief for the land at Cowans Gap. They lived near the intersection of Aughwick Road and Stumpy Lane.
In the 1930s, the CCC established Richmond Furnace Camp at the site, first staying in tents, but then built cabins that are still in use in the park today. They also built miles of roads, planted thousands of trees, cleared trails, and built Cowan's Gap Lake by damming the Little Augwick Creek. The park opened to public in 1937.
We continued through the park, and when we got to the Little Aughwick Creek where a road crossed over it, we turned left on the coaligned Standing Stone Trail and Lakeside Trail.
The trail was a crushed stone surface and very pleasant to walk. There were really nice views of the lake, and when we reached a spot where there was no one around, I took a dip to cool off. I just couldn't wait until we got around to the regular beach.
We continued to the east side of the lake, and then reached the southern terminus of the Standing Stone Trail, where it intersects with the Tuscarora Trail. We had not reached this spot yet on the Tuscarora Trail, but we were getting closer. I wanted to make sure that we did this one during Summer months where we could take advantage of the beautiful beach and swimming opportunities it offered.
We got our obligatory group photo with just those of us who had finished the entire Standing Stone Trail since we started the series. Diane, Jenny, John, and Jim were the only ones who joined me for every one of them, which kind of surprised me because I thought this one might be one that everyone would be into, and it started out with a great following.
We crossed the foot bridge and turned onto Tuscarora Trail around the Lakeside Trail to the east.
It wasn't all that long before we emerged at their beach area. The Tuscarora Trail went literally right by the beach and the concession stand, and so we stopped for another break. John and I went right down to the water and took a dip.
The concession stand was open as well, and I actually don't remember if I got anything or not there. I think some in the group did.
We continued on from here, and The Tuscarora Trail turned off away from the park, while we continued on the Lakeside Trail. I wanted to cover some of these other trails that travel so because they looked like they merited exploration, but weren't part of any long trail system.
We continued on the Lakeside Trail, and then came to the park road that goes over the Little Aughwick Creek. From there, we turned to the let on Plessinger Trail. This trail follows the Little Aughwick Creek upstream.
The proximity to the water on this one appealed very much to me, and so I decided we had to hike this one.
The very pleasant yellow blazed trail was usually pretty close to the creek, which was exactly what I wanted for the opportunity to cool off any time. It continued through the state park land and then entered Buchanan State Forest. Here, we turned on the Cameron Trail to the right. It took us across the creek, then turned left on South Logging Road.
I figured this would be pretty easy, but it ended up having some pretty muddy sections. It was at first kind of mowed and easy enough to follow, but it eventually petered out and there was nothing really left. We continued past the spot where it was cleared, and there was some recognizable remnants of a woods road, but it didn't continue through.
It looked to me like this road once continued through to present day Lockard Trail.
I had originally thought maybe we'd turn right and head out across the South Branch of the Little Aughwick Creek, then take the road south and get on the Lockard Trail, but we just pushed on through to this unmaintained thing.
When I couldn't find the trail any more, but the woods wasn't terrible for bushwhacking, we started pushing through more, and I aimed for a spot where there was a wide opening on the Lockard Trail. I continued to watch my phone GPS, and we came out perfectly at that spot. A right turn on the Lockard Trail led to a left turn to continue pretty much on the same trajectory, and maybe on the same road, that we were on before.
The trail was wide and mowed for a while, and we came upon a delicious fresh water spring to the right. I drank plenty of water from it and it was great.
After a while on this trail, the nice mowed section got muddy, and then entered woods as an abandoned old road. It got to be a little weedy, but not terribly bad. We started to ascend, and tributaries and springs to the Little Aughwick Creek started to cross over. I was kind of surprised by the slope we ended up going up in this section.
Eventually, the trail led us to an intersection with the Lincoln Trail where we turned to the left. It got to be a bit clearer again by then.
We headed rather steeply up hill on the Lincoln Trail, and that took us out on Aughwick Road. I had thought to try to stay in the woods for a bit longer, but that didn't pan out all that well and when there was an option to go for an easier walk back after all of that other stuff, everyone, myself included, was prepared to take it.
We turned right on Aughwick Road, and then headed south across the Tuscarora Trail, where we would be exploring soon enough. I didn't see really where it was going on either side of the road, but I figured we would find all that out when we actually hike that section.
We soon reached the Tuscarora Summit Inn, now known as the Mountain House.
We were quite content to be finished with the day, and the sun was going down very pretty.
I was feeling particularly happy that we'd seen through another series to completion, one that we'd only kind of recently started. These personal investments may just look like something slapped on a schedule to most, but to me they're kind of an exercise in dedication.
I have to commit to a lot of things in life. I've had a lot of practice with those priorities, and I had been feeling ready to hold onto my identity while helping to forge my son's new one.
Sometimes keeping these hikes going was going to be a huge battle, but a worthwhile one.
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