Hiking Cook Forest, PA

Amazing granite

Need I say More

Huge white pines

Forest Floor

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Relaxing on a Bench

Tree Root Art

Walking Up Longfellow Trail

Lunch

Typical hiking trail

Up about 7:30, here at the Hampton Inn, after a late night at the Black Horse Tavern, listening to The Mutts, one of my former student's band from Chicago.  More about this on tomorrow's entry.  We are just enjoying sitting in our room, surfing the net, and I have been downstairs twice, to get coffee and goodies from the breakfast bar.  Even I am not in a hurry this morning, to my wife's delight.  We hope to spend the morning walking around State College, then head home via Mount Jewett to see the Sky Way Walk, the reconstructed railroad bridge I had mentioned a couple of days ago.

Yesterday, we left for Cooksburg a bit late, around 9:30 and it took us just about two hours to get to the forest headquarters.  We spent much of our time on RT 62, just south of Warren, which followed the Allegheny River for about thirty miles, a marvelous ride, with much of the western side of the Allegheny Forest on one side of the road, the river on the other.  We eventually took RT 36, which led us eventually to Cook's Forest, an amazing place.  We got our map, talked to the help behind the counter, and headed off into the Forest of ancient pines, some of the oldest in the US, two to three hundred years old.

We hiked out about a mile and a half, much of it up hill, which took us an hour.  We then had lunch, one of Evie's favorites from grade school, a scrambled egg and bologna sandwich with Lays potato chips.  We ate in a valley in what is called the Ancient Forests, not a sound, not a soul, just the two of us communing with nature, o yea.  For those who may know the trails (and for my information when we return), we started out briefly on Birch, before heading up the hillside on Longfellow, through the Cathedral of Pines to where it connected with the north end of Ancient Forest Trail.  We wound down it, into the valley of ancient pines, then up and out, where we met up with Longfellow, before a brief side step on Red Elf, which met up with Tom's Run Trail, which follows the a creek for three miles, of mostly flat land.  We ended up on Rhododendron, which took us into the cabins and back to the Cook Forest Center.  We hiked in the shade 98% of the time, as the pines were out umbrellas, sheltering us from the sun.  And when we worked up a sweat, from hiking up the hills, we were actually chilly from the cool air.  A few observations, lots of trees down, on both sides, rarely moved, unless they were across the trail, making it look like a graveyard of trees.  Remember, the forest is a couple hundred years old, rarely harvested.  Lots of outcroppings of rocks, ferns on the forest flower, and the occasional rhododendrons on the side of the trail.  The woods were mostly pines, with some deciduous trees, thus the floor of the forest was covered with leaves at times.  It was deathly quiet, no birds, no animals scurrying, just the sound of our footfalls on the earth floor.  We passed by one couple until we arrived almost back, when there were a few other couples out walking their dogs.  The beauty and quiet is breath taking, especially when you are alone.  It would be just a beautiful in the winter, in snow, because the trees would mostly be pines, thus green and enveloping the trails.  The Tom's Run Trail would be an easy trail for snow shoes or cross country skiing because it's so flat.  The others would be more difficult in deep snow.

We left about 2: 30, driving south on Rt. 36 and in contrast to our entrance, the highway was littered with all the tacky shops, tourist traps, cabins, water parks, deer parks, almost anything you could name that destroys the pristine feel of the area.  The cabins in the park itself are rustic, with shared bathrooms, but I am sure there are decent motels around, one called the Gateway looked decent if we were to come back in January. It's just amazing how we can ruin something as beautiful as this area its left to individuals to develop as they wish, with no zoning or regulations, not that I want the government in my life!

It was an easy ride to State College, two hours, with only about 40 minutes on Rt. 80.  We found our Hampton Inn easily, relaxed there for a couple of hours, before going into the town for something to eat.