Another PA Day-hike
I squeezed in a day-hike on Labor Day weekend in Pennsylvania. This one was near Sinnemahoning State Park and close to the George B. Stevenson dam (which the park highlights). The trails there are not in any guidebook I have read (and I have read just about everyone there is for that part of PA). But I had seen the one trail-head while driving on PA Route 872 to other trail-heads in the Quehanna Wild. Phins Trail (trail sign below) starts from a small parking area on Route 872, almost across the road from the dam. This parking area is also about 100 yards north from the intersection with Brooks Run Road (a dirt road that runs east-west and intersects the Bucktail Path [a trail I thru-hiked awhile ago] near the Brooks Run fire-tower {not open to the public}]). This fact becomes important later on.
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| Trail-head sign |
There was also a kiosk (as with other PA hiking trails in the general area, but all the maps were gone), shown below. The trail starts from the back of the parking area as seen below.
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| Kiosk in parking area |
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| Start of Phins Trail |
Phins Trail almost immediately starts uphill and then steepens. It switchbacks up the hill almost to the top. It became apparent right away that the trail does not get much foot traffic as there were plenty of small blow-downs across the trail. I cleared as many as I could (and slowed my progress up the hill). The trail gains about 1000 feet over less than a mile. And when it gets a little less than 100 feet from the top it stops switch-backing and ascends steeply straight up. Not quite scramble worthy, but close. There was a little bit of a view (seen below), but the trees obscured the majority of it. If not for the trees I think the dam would be visible.
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| View from top of climb on Phins Trail |
At this point the trail starts to level off, but follows a bit of a ridge deeper into the woods. Because Phins Trail is just one trail in the network of trails in the area I knew I would eventually reach a trail junction and then need to decide where to go. I started out, using the map I downloaded from the DCNR (Department of Conservation of Natural Resources) web site I wanted to try to make a sort of loop. And coming uphill on Phins Trail made me realize I did not really want to go back down that trail (it was both narrow and steep). Anyway when I reached the junction with the Lushbaugh Trail I started down it. After maybe 10 minutes it started downhill and I could see it would be steep too and with possibly poorer footing than Phins Trail. So, knowing there were other alternative routes I turned around and headed back to the intersection with Phins Trail. Once I reached that point I stayed with Phins Trail until it reached the junction with the Joe King Trail (see below). I have to say I kept hoping that the Joe King Trail was not really a 'joking' trail.
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| Intersection of Phins Trail and Joe King Trail |
To the right from this junction the Joe King Trail heads in the general direction of the Bucktail Path. As I only had a limited time to hike I chose the trail to the left. This I knew would take me to the Brooks Run Road. This trail too started down hill soon after I started on it, but at lesser grade than either Phins Trail or the Lushbaugh Trail. After awhile I reached the junction with the road where I stopped for lunch (back away from the road). Below is a photo of the trail sign and kiosk (its a bit hard to believe that the DCNR set up a kiosk on a dirt road a couple of miles at least from the main road although that was done for at least one trail in the Quehanna Wild area - see earlier post).
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| Trail sign on Brooks Run Road |
Did you notice the 'No Camping' sign? It took me a minute to realize why it was there. Because there is camping nearby associated with the State Park, camping there would let people avoid the state camp area (and any payment). It does look sort of like a nice place to camp if you don't mind the occasional bit of traffic on the road (I heard/saw several cars while I had lunch). After lunch I walked along the road back in the direction of the main road as I was looking for the trail-head for the 'Game Refuge Trail' about a mile down the road.
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| Trail-head of Game Refuge Trail on Brooks Run Road |
I was concerned there might be no sign and that I might miss the trail blazes, but as you can see above there was a sign. From here the trail heads straight uphill, fairly steeply, but not as much as Phins Trail. It too gained nearly 1000 feet in elevation from the road. Once it reached the plateau it reached a junction with the Ridge Trail.
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| Intersection of Game Refuge Trail and Ridge Trail |
Going right from there would take me towards the Bucktail Path which was not the direction I wanted so I went left. I knew that direction would eventually lead back downhill to the point the Lushbaugh Trail met Brooks Run Road. (Many of the trails intersected Brooks Run Road which made it a common connector 'trail/walkway'. Along the plateau the trail was okay, I did see some bear scat, some quite fresh and I heard some sort of large animal not too far away. I did not linger to see what it might have been. The trail went to an area that might have at one time had a view of the dam, but there was too much growth to see now. Eventually the trail got rougher and harder to follow (footway was not obvious). It did this for about 20 minutes and then finally headed downhill. The trail downhill was almost as unpleasant as the trail uphill on Phins Trail. The footway was narrow, no more space than one boot width wide and often slanted, i.e., no flat spots to walk on. Fortunately the trail was headed downhill at a diagonal, that is not straight down. However, the walking was uncomfortable and it was with relief that I finally reached Brooks Run Road.
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| Trail-head of Ridge Trail on Brooks Run Road |