3rd Day-hike (MidState Trail)

August Day-hike

For the third day-hike of 2016 I decided to pick up where I left off on the MidState Trail (the July backpack trip described in an earlier post). For this hike I started at the town of Blackwell and hiked north on the rail trail (which is coincident with the MidState Trail) for about a mile and a half. My goal for the hike was to reach a point about half-way between Blackwell and Antrim (the 'endpoint' on the trail map I had purchased from Pine Creek Outfitters earlier in the summer. - A side note-the MidState trail goes north from Antrim to the New York State line (to meet up with the Finger Lakes Trail), but appears to be mostly road walking from Antrim north; maybe I will have to check out that section to be sure.

Anyway, I proceeded north on the rail trail until the MidState Trail split off on the right (east) and steeply up the gorge rim. The first 100 yards or so are quite steep that it made me hope the rest of the climb up the rim was not that steep. Fortunately, it was not and the grade soon moderated. Although the trail climb went uphill at a steady grade it was not over powering and I was thinking I could have done that section back in July without a great deal of difficulty. I finally reached the plateau and a (very) small stream which turned out to be the last water I would see until I reached Stoney Fork Creek. Some more level and gentle hiking brought me to a side trail to a vista over the east rim of Pine Creek Gorge. The view from the vista is below.

Panorama of east rim of Pine Creek Gorge

As pleasant as the view was from here I needed to keep hiking so I pushed on. At this point I was thinking about the hike out after I had reached my 'turn around' point. On the map, a side trail back to the rail trail at the location of a potential camp site (the point I had intended to camp on my backpack trip if I had stayed out another night). At the start of the hike that seemed like the path I would take and I was on the look out for the side trail as I was hiking because I couldn't be sure it would be noticeable. But, as I approached that location, the side trail was quite apparent (blazed in yellow back down a hollow to the rail trail). The other aspect that became quite apparent also, was that although the hollow was associated with a stream bed, the stream was dry. So, if I had backpacked into this point on the previous trip I would not have had any water. Given how hot that day had been, would have made for a very uncomfortable camp at best (see post for that trip for a bit more discussion). With the knowledge that the side trail was doable I kept hiking on. After crossing through some rough and tumble terrain with erratic type features I reached Clay Mine road. After crossing the road there was a trail register (which I signed of course). From here the trail started to angle down hill a bit as it slowly approached Stoney Fork Creek. The downhill section steepened, crossing over rocky sections reminiscent of the Adirondacks. As I got closer to the 'bottom', the more I thought that I did not want to return the way I had come. From here the trail paralleled the creek only slowly descending towards it. I reached a spot that was evidently near or in the campground by Stoney Fork Creek, due to the presence of people playing in the creek. The shouts of 'snake in the water' made me pause, but I kept hiking and not worrying about the people in the water who did not seem too fazed by a possible snake. As the trail continued along the creek there was at least two or three more groups of people playing in the creek (it was fairly hot after all). After what seemed like an interminable amount of time and a couple of bumps up in elevation, I reached the point where the trail crosses the creek, described as a wet crossing on the map.

Stoney Fork Creek

I stopped and had my lunch at this point. I decided while I was eating that the prospect of climbing back up over the steep rough section I came down was not a pleasant one and would take more time to return than I was comfortable with. Instead, I decided to cross the creek, follow the trail to the next road (which was just a short distance away) and follow the road back to route 414 and then to my vehicle. The other consideration to this, besides the crossing of Stoney Fork Creek was crossing Babb Creek where it flowed alongside route 414. I was uncertain as to its depth at that point, and the map made a point of noting there was no bridge across the creek there (I confirmed that on the drive to the trail-head as I had wondered about this alternative return before starting the hike). Anyway, I crossed Stoney Fork Creek without any trouble, getting my boots only a bit wet as the drought had brought the water level way down. I found the trail on the other side and followed it the short distance to the road. I turned right  onto the road which was easy to walk and stayed to the left in case of vehicular traffic (I had heard some earlier from across the creek). There were a few cars coming in the opposite direction which made me wonder if they were crossing Babb Creek without benefit of a bridge or just coming from a summer camp along the road (there were a number of them). As there were a few vehicles that came from that direction I thought that might be the case and when I finally reached Babb Creek after about 45 minutes I actually saw someone in a pickup do just that (but going the same direction as me). I simply followed the truck a minute or two later across the creek with only moderately wet boots and reached route 414. From there I turned right and engaged in about 3 miles of road walking, making sure I stayed away from the traffic, most of it giving me a wide berth. Eventually I reached the spot where the MidState trail comes down from Gillespie Point and hits route 414, just shy of Blackwell. It was only about a five minute walk from there to my vehicle at the parking lot. This return trip took much less time than if I had returned the exact way I came, so it turned out to be a good decision.