Friday 9-20 Hiking and SIte Seeing

Camping in a National Forest

Sorry it took so long to post this, we were without cell phone service for multiple days.

We woke up to temperatures in the 40s. Larry had the heater going so it would be nice and warm when I got up. Once I crawled out of bed I made mini waffles for breakfast.

Allegheny National Forest has a lot of trails available for public use. We had picked up a brochure on the trails. The brochure has the trails broken down in the difficulty of trails, type of trail, the distance, trail class and what is prohibited on the trail. Some trails are for hikers, some are hiker/bicycle, some are off highway vehicle and others are for horses. Hikers can use any of them.

After breakfast we decided to go on a hike. There is a trailhead for the North Country National Scenic Trail less than a quarter of a mile across the road from the campground. The North Country Trail is 96.3 miles long, the difficulty is moderate and it is only for hikers. We hiked about 2 miles of it and turned around and went back the 2 miles. The trail was very nice. It weaved through a beautiful forest, not a lot of pines, up and down hills and over creeks. The beginning of our hike was the hardest because we had to climb up a hill. In places the trail was very narrow. One place I had to hug a tree so I wouldn’t step in the mud. Now I’m an official tree hunger, just kidding. As we hiked we did see a black critter we weren’t sure what it was because he was too far away, way too big for a squirrel and two small for a bear. We crossed over a bridge called Root Run Bridge that was built to take you over a creek. It was very nice. It’s amazing when you hike a trail one way and then back the other way how different it seems and you see things you miss. When you’re hiking in the forest it is easy to miss something because you’re constantly looking down so you don’t trip. As we were hiking back we came across a sign that said camping, there was a small backpacker campsite with a stone fire pit and a stone seat. We had missed the sign going the other way. Our hike was about 3 hours and around 4 miles. We had an outstanding hike. 

Stairs we took to get on the North Country Trail

Root Run Bridge

Larry resting during our hike

Backpacker campsite

In afternoon we went on a motorcycle ride. We drove the Longhouse National Scenic By-Way to check out a couple of campgrounds, unfortunately they were closed. We continued riding down the road to a short loop to see an overview of the Allegheny Reservoir and dam. We drove the scenic by-way until we got to the Allegheny National Forest Information Center. It was closed but we had a great view of the reservoir. There was a great map on the hike/bike trail system in the area. The map showed when the trails were completed and the plans for future trails. It had the name of the trail and how long it was. It was an outstanding map. There are a lot of trails in the area. Then we drove to Kane to fill up the motorcycle with gas. Afterwards we drove around Kane. Kane is a quaint town and has a very prosperous downtown with shops and places to eat. Kane is only 11 miles from the campground. It was a gorgeous day for a motorcycle ride with the temperature of 81 degrees and sunshine.

Allegheny Reservoir from the overview