Hike #1466; 1/22/22 White Rocks (Boiling Springs) to State Game Lands 242/Mt Zion with Daniel Trump, James Kohan, Diane Reider, Jennifer Tull, Maria ?, Professor John DiFiore, David Adams, and Randall Woodruff
This next hike would be starting off a series again that I've been both wanting to finish, and wanting to do again as part of my fill in the gaps initiative along with the 911 National Memorial Trail.
I had already done the sections of the Mid State Trail, need to finsish a day of Great Eastern Trail, I did all of Standing Stone Trail, all of Tuscarora Trail's north half, all of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, so the next thing was to do all of the two hundred mile Mason-Dixon Trail.
I had of course already done almost all of this. I did all of it from the eastern terminus on the Brandywine Trail all the way to Elk Neck State Forest in Maryland, and was missing the section from there west to Parryville MD. I had done all of it from there north to the Hellam Hills of York County from there. The only section I had not hiked other than that one Maryland segment was from Hellam Hills to the terminus on the Appalachian Trail.
I was not planning to stop there. This would also be the start of the Highlands Trail Series again.
As per the plan of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which takes the lead on the extension of the Highlands Trail through Pennsylvania, the route is piggybacked on the Mason-Dixon Trail from its western terminus all the way to Wrightsville. I planned four hikes on that with some other stuff added.
Once we got to Wrightsville, my plan was to split the series three different ways. One series to continue Mason-Dixon Trail on what I had already done, only including some other new sections and side paths, one to continue the Highlands Trail, which would eventually bring us back through NJ and NY, and one on the Pennsylvania Freight Main which would include the Enola Low Grade Trail and connections.
Through those connections, I would also re-do my Conestoga Trail series, which also has some reroutes.
The Mason-Dixon Trail story goes back to the 1980s when Robert Yost of York County PA, along with a group of his friends, conceived a trail that would connect with the Brandywine Trail to the east with the Susquehanna River to the west. As such, it was referred to as the Brandywine-Susquehanna Trail.
The name of the trail was found to be too wordy, so it was changed to the Mason-Dixon Trail because of its proximity to that line. The trail does not share the same route as the line laid out in 1767, but it does cross it a few times.
It was eventually decided to extend the trail up along the west shore of the Susquehanna, and then connect with the Appalachian Trail at Whiskey Springs.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy typically doesn't allow other trails to connect with them, so one of the strategies used by trails when making the connections is routing them to places where the Appalachian Trail crosses public roads, and then there's really nothing they can do about it.
I was really looking forward to doing the Mason-Dixon Trail and sharing it with everyone because it is exactly the kind of diverse trail I love to do. In that way, I love it so much more than some of those other ones we had been doing. I never get bored with a section of it.
The one tough part about planning this series out was how we would do the sections, where the start and end points would be, and what side trips would we do to both make it work, and treat it as though we were not missing anything.
I knew I wanted one of the hikes to end in Wrightsville or Columbia because of the aforementioned series split. As such, I would have to come up with plans for each hike along the way.
The next thing was that our friend Jennifer Grove Shaffer lives literally right on the trail, and she offered to have it so we could finish some hikes at her place.
The trail is inconvenient on the western end because of limited parking places, so this made it so I could plan out something better.
The first hike I planned out to include part of the Appalachian Trail to the north, but also some of the White Rocks Trail, which was a side trail with a view I had never done.
The second one would just be the Mason-Dixon Trail from where we left off to her house. The third would be just the trail also to Hellam Hills. The fourth would include some of Rocky Ridge County Park, and then the trail to Wrightsville area. I had it all planned.
The meeting point would be on Old Mountain Road, at a parking lot for State Game Lands 242. We then shuttled to the west, to the parking area for the White Rocks Trail near Boiling Springs PA, on Kuhn Road.
I knew that the White Rocks Trail ascended and then followed a ridge top to connect with the Appalachian Trail near Center Point Knob. We could do that, and then head south on the AT to reach Whiskey Springs, and then continue on Mason-Dixon Trail the rest of the way. There was snow on the ground, but I wasn't all that worried because it wasn't too deep, and the first section of Mason-Dixon Trail was pretty much all road walk at this time. The timing for this was just perfect because we wouldn't have to trudge for very far. We'd just be on pleasant back roads most of the day.
This didn't quite pan out as expected, because the trail section of it was much more difficult than anticipated, and it went on for much longer than planned.
The parking lot was a little icy, but we were able to get into it okay. It was fortunate that there wasn't one more car there or we might not have had room.
We started by following the trail up, and it was a bit slick in the snow. Dan met us at the start point because he was running a bit behind, so it was great to have him back out.
Also, Maria had not been out with us for many years, and she had had a bout with lyme disease and was unable to really move for a long while. She was only just recovering from it and easing her way back into doing long hikes again. She had previously done an AT section wit me up to Duncannon years before.
We got to the top pretty easily; it wasn't really that much of a climb, and the ridge was not very hard at first, but then things started to change.
The White Rocks were beautiful, but they were far more difficult to traverse than I was anticipating from a side trail from the AT. I really loved it, but with the ice and snow, it was a bit slow going.
It was a lot like some of the stuff we had been following on the Tuscarora and Standing Stone Trails most recently, which I found kind of ironic because I had just explained that we wouldn't be doing that kind of terrain again for a bit.
There was a great view point to the southeast from one of the higher rocks, but to climb up onto it involved some hand hold climbing that in the snow was a bit unnerving. I managed to pull myself up, but it was possibly harder than anything we had done on the entire Standing Stone or Tuscarora north. I held back to help John get his bearings on some of these crazy rocks.
There was a valley from the top we could see in to, and then more of the South Mountain formation beyond. The ridge section we were on was really out of character for the area we were in. It looked more consistent with the ridges in the Ridge and Valley geological province than anything out in the Highlands. South Mountain is pretty easy terrain overall compared to those other mountains to the west.
We continued along, and then there was a spot where we had to descend that was as difficult as the spot going up, so I had everyone hold up and make sure everyone had safely gone down it. It was a bit unnerving in the slippery conditions.
The interesting outcroppings continued all along the ridge heading west until eventually we intersected with the Appalachian Trail.
At this point, the AT went up to the right to the top of Center Point Knob, while the route we needed to take was just to the left. Because it was so close, my plan was to do a little out and back to Center Point Knob before we continued on.
This point used to be the approximate center point of the Appalachian Trail. However, reroutes over the years have significantly moved the half way point. Currently, it is at a point in Michaux State Forest on the South Mountain formation, a bit south of Pine Grove Furnace.
We took in the view from the top and checked out the plaque on the knob, then headed back to down and continued to follow the AT southbound.
The trail went over the height of land between the valley and then headed gradually down hill toward Whiskey Springs. We took a side trail to the left, blue blazed, which led to the Alec Kennedy Shelter. I had not stopped at this shelter when I hiked through this section before, and so I wanted to check it out. We did the side trail to the left and then took a break at the shelter. There was also a spring nearby that I drank from. It was really a great little stop for a lunch break, which came a little sooner than I had anticipated.
Somewhere in this area, the Mason-Dixon Trail has a planned reroute that would cut through Camp Tuchahoe to reach the Appalachian Trail, but it hasn't been done yet. It would then pass into State Game Lands 305, which was what we were walking through on the AT.
We headed down another trail from the shelter to the south a bit, and then cut to the right to head back over to the AT. We then followed the AT through some splendid rock outcroppings on the descent to reach Whiskey Springs Road and the western terminus of the Mason-Dixon Trail.
There was the main Whiskey Springs, which I wouldn't drink from, along the edge of the road, but then several other really nice ones just coming off of the edge among the tree roots that looked much better.
The rest of the trip would be pretty relaxing. The trail went gradually uphill a bit on the road, but then after we reached the height of the land, it was more of a descent for a long while. There was a little bit of a view into the valley to the east from this segment.
It became more residential the farther we got from the Appalachian Trail, and then turned to the left on Coffeetown Road. I found it kind of funny that Coffeetown and Whiskey Springs intersected when the beverages tend to have the opposite effect on a person.
I suspect that the little collection of homes at this intersection must be the "Coffeetown" the road refers to. The trail followed the road to the east from here, which wasn't really anything particularly special at first, but there were lots of little charms along the way that made the pleasant walk funny and endearing.
There was a little truck made of logs along the left side in a yard that read "Overnite" on it, and then there was a fenced in area with an adorable little Shetland pony that came over looking for our attention. There were some splendid little views over fields to the southeast.
There was an old bank barn with a sign on it that read "WARNING beavers eat trees, I love trees, so I eat beavers". I took a photo of it and sent it to a friend who didn't get the reference, and it went on and on with how he would possibly eat a beaver if it was seasoned, but that he hadn't tried it yet. He even made a comment about it over a salad, and I brought up a salad tossing joke, which he didn't get either!
At the end of Coffeetown, the trail turned left on South Mountain Road, and passed the Harmony Church of God. There were some more splendid views out over the fields to the south, and we passed by several old stone or brick farm houses with lovely old barns.
We went around a couple of ninety degree bends on the road near the village of Clear Spring, and then turned right on Hickory Road, which was a narrower, more pleasant one. We then turned left on Century Lane.
The trail officially just follows Century Lane, but Century Park was on the left, and there was the opportunity for trash cans and a place to have a seat in the park, then come right back onto Century Lane a bit further down. I don't know why the trail doesn't just do this.
We went straight along some ball fields and then slightly down hill, then to the left to reach a paved trail around some more fields. It took us over a foot bridge across the South Branch of the Bermudian Creek, then when the trail turned left to the north, we turned right into a parking lot and took a little break. I looked around some buildings to see if there was some sort of old concession area.
We headed from here down through the parking lot and back to Century Lane where we turned left to head east.
We crossed the intersection with Range End Road, then came out to Route 15, a much larger road. When safe, we crossed here, and continued on Old Cabin Hollow Road. The road turned hard to the left, and it is kind of disappointing that this is another long road walk bit because State Game Lands 243 is immediately adjacent to this road walk.
After we passed the game land parking lot, Warrington Farm Meat and Butcher Shop was on the right. The place sells sandwiches in season, and I was thinking if we got there early enough we could get some sort of lunch there, but they were closed. It was the one only opportunity on the entire hike for some kind of food or drink.
Ahead, the trail passed through the village of Franklintown, which seemed to have no businesses at all that sold food.
Along the way we passed the old Franklintown Church Cemetery, but I noted no church at this location, and couldn't find anything on a church having ever been there. I suppose there probably was once. Many graves dated to the mid 1800s.
We continued through and out of town on the other side, and passed some lovely old houses. One of them was an old log cabin. Another was wood frame, and yet another was lovely stone.
Old Cabin Hollow Road took us east out of town, through lovely farm land, and down across the Bermudian Creek on a lovely old stone arch bridge built in 1918.
Beyond the bridge, the road was beautifully lined with big trees in close proximity to the road. We crossed by some more pretty old farms, and then through another newer light residential area before crossing over Route 74, Carlisle Road.
The route became quite beautiful in wide open fields at this point, and only few homes. We passed a spot where there looked like there might have once been a trolley bed due to grading, but it was more likely a former extension to nearby Warrington Road to the north that was abandoned down to this point.
We continued on the road out to Mt. Zion Road, where the trail turns right. There were some pretty old homes in this section, and more lovely scenery. The sun was going down and cast beautiful light over the fields to the west at this point.
To the left of us, and out beyond some fields, there was an old brick building with tall windows, which I assume was an old school house building.
We continued ahead, and then the Mt Zion Methodist Church was on the right side, with pretty old cemetery behind it.
The church was built and cemetery established in 1854, and this area south of Dillsburg was known as Warrington.
At this point, the trail turned left on Old Mountain Road and headed uphill a bit more. There was a fantastic view of the sun going down from this spot before we headed back into the woods.
A bit further up, when the trail continued straight on Robson Road, we turned left to continue on Old Mountain Road, only a short distance to the State Game Lands 242 lot where we met.
I got a ride back to my car at the start point, and got to watch a train go by just down the hill from the lot while heading back.
This was really the best hike to do on this occasion because it had a little bit of tough stuff, then a whole lot of easy and relaxing stuff with some memorable charms.
It really didn't embody the amazement that the Mason-Dixon Trail offers on the rest of the route, but we would have a whole lot more hikes to showcase that in the near future.
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