Labor Day Weekend Day-Hike
This day-hike saw me complete the hike of the MidState Trail north to Antrim. Instead of hiking from the south, I drove to the intersection of route 287 and the road to Antrim (the point where the MidState Trail intersects the road). The trail, going south, follows Anna S. Road (sometimes called the Anna S. Mine road) across from a small pullout for parking.
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| Intersection of MidState Trail and route 287 |
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| See sign |
The dirt road goes gradually uphill from this point, but is otherwise easy walking. Of course I was trying to see where the trail left the road and went into the woods. Because the trail junction was not easily seen (the blaze was hidden by vegetation) I walked past it and to where I thought the trail might go, but as there was no obvious foot-way or blazes, I backtracked and saw where I needed to go. This is an important lesson in not getting lost, backtrack to a known point if the path forward is not obvious. Anyway, the trail made a sharp left turn into the woods, but soon reached a vista, seen below.
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| Vista from trail , looking towards Antrim |
Further along the trail I reached a section that is sort of interesting geologically as there are many split rocks that the trail crosses or goes between. This section was so rough and jumbled I thought it might be good to avoid on the way back. There is even a detour of sorts, but as I chose the main trail I can't say whether the detour is worthwhile (it appeared to sacrifice elevation in exchange for the rough terrain). Soon after this part I reached some sort of ruins, seen below.
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| Ruins Along Trail |
It was not obvious what this used to be, but as the area once contained a mine I assumed it was associated with it. After a short uphill, then some level hiking, the trail started downhill. After the downhill stretch the trail reached a sharp turn where, to the left, a side trail went to the road and the main trail went to the right. There was a trail register here as well. This side trail, blazed in yellow, was going to be my return route as it reached the main road in about a mile as I recall. More about that later.
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| Trail Register at Junction with main trail and yellow blazed side trail |
The main trail to the right starts to climb at a moderate clip through some fairly rough footing, though not quite like the earlier section. From here the trail was terrain similar to what I had seen in previous hikes, woods and streams.There was a section that followed what looked like an old woods road that eventually just went back to trail. At this point the trail started downhill. This was my cue that the trail was heading to the dirt road I had reached on the last hike on the MidState Trail. After what seemed like an interminable time going downhill, I passed a hunting camp on the left and reached the dirt road that is close to Stoney Fork Creek. This point brought back memories from my previous day-hike on the MidState (of course) and I looked for a place to have my lunch, but decided to backtrack to the hunting camp just before the dirt road.
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| Hunting Camp - my spot for lunch |
After lunch I headed back the way I came. I made good time and had resolved to use the earlier yellow blazed side trail to return. When I reached that point I headed downhill on the trail, wondering of course, how well it might be maintained as it probably did not get much use. My concerns were unfounded as the trail seemed to be in decent shape. The trail reached the main road after a short detour around private property at the bottom of the hill. Now came the tricky part, walking along the side of a busy road. Although PA route 287 is no major highway, there was still considerable traffic,and keeping away from cars was more of a concern for me than seeing any wild animals would be on the trail. I even had to walk by a yard sale with a plethora of parked cars. After more than an hour (but seemed much longer) of hot road walking I reached my vehicle. Then, unrealized by me at the time, came the worst part of the hike. Look at the picture below which I took at the beginning of the hike (don't ask why, I don't recall). What do you see? Well, at the end of the hike I set my SPOT Satellite messenger on the same location and promptly forgot about it when I drove away.
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| Guess what happens when you do this? |
I realized afterward I forgot to retrieve the device from the place I left it and so my SPOT device was lost. I kicked myself for awhile afterward for forgetting. Of course, if that was the worst part of the hike, it wasn't a tragedy.