December 2010 Monthly HIke

The Clarion County Chapter of the North Country Trail Association held it’s December 2010 monthly hike on Sunday, December 5, 2010.  In all 17 hikers and a little dog named Molly showed up for what turned out to be a beautiful hike in a very fast developing snow storm.

The Hikers For The Day

It was decided to hike a section of the trail through Cook Forest State Park.  The chosen route was to walk from the Cook Forest State Park fire tower Northeastward to the North End of Forest Drive trail head.  Standing in the Cook Forest fire tower parking lot, there was a light covering of snow on the ground and the wind was bitter when you were standing still.  The consensus was to take the group picture during or after the hike rather than before so that the group could get moving down the trail and warm up.  We departed Cook Forest fire tower parking lot at about 11:15 AM.

The walk between the fire tower and Route 36 was a prelude to the beauty of winter that we were to be treated to the rest of the trip.  White, snow covered hillsides dotted with massive boulders, pine trees, hemlocks and snow covered rhododendrons galore was the story of this first section.

After crossing Route 36 and Forest Drive at the South End of Forest Drive trail head, the trek along the North Country Trail in Cook Forest State Park started off with crossing 2 bridges over Tom’s Run.  After crossing Tom’s Run we found ourselves ascending into the famous “Forest Cathedral” while the skies unleashed ever increasing amounts of snow.  The snowfall continued to complement the fabulous scenery already found along this beautiful section of the North Country Trail.  In the “Forest Cathedral” the hikers saw monstrous hemlocks and white pines across a white landscape.

After descending from the “Forest Cathedral”, the hikers decided that it was time for lunch.  Some ate their lunch by the memorial at the bottom of the hillside while others sat on the porch of the Environmental Learning Center.  Everyone began to talk about how much it was actually snowing.  Some hikers were not happy about the distance they would have to drive in the snow after being overjoyed at the views it was providing for the hike.

Lunch!!!

After eating, the hikers pushed onward on the last part of the trip.  From the Environmental Learning Center, the trail follows along Tom’s Run.  Hardwoods and Rhododendrons dotted the hillside above the hikers as they headed Northeasterly along the trail.  This section includes a series of small bridges and a very wide trail from all of the traffic that the trails in Cook Forest receive in the warmer months.

Toms Run from bridge

Once reaching the bridge over Brown’s Run, a group picture was taken and the group pushed onward.  Shortly, the group arrived at the awaiting snow covered shuttle cars.  We all loaded up into the vehicles and took the trip back to the parking lot at the fire tower.  That is when, for some of us, the “fun” began.  On the drive out, some of the hike participants had trouble getting cars up a steep section of Fire Tower Road that had basically turned into a sheet of ice.  To make a very long story short, after some planning, patience and a little bit of pushing and pulling, everyone was able to get up the hill, out of the area and on their way home.

It was a very beautiful day on the North Country Trail in Clarion County.

Some very good pictures by Tammy Veloski are available at:  http://butleroutdoorclubphotojournal.shutterfly.com/1448

Hope to see everybody again at the next hike in mid-January.

November 2010 Monthly Hike

The Clarion County Chapter of the North Country Trail Association held it’s November 2010 monthly hike on Sunday, November 21, 2010.

We decided to hike along the Alternate North Country Trail route along the Clarion Highlands Trail from where the trail crosses Fern Road west of Shippenville to where Bryner’s Mill Road meets Deer Creek south of Shippenville.  The Butler Outdoor Club was planning on hiking that stretch as stage 18 of their “Tour de NCT of PA”, so we decided that we would have our chapter hike along with them. 

The “Tour de NCT of PA” is an effort organized by the Butler Outdoor Club to hike the entire North Country Trail in Pennsylvania.  After this hike today, they have 3 more stages to go and they will have completed their goal of hiking the entire North Country Trail in Pennsylvania.   The remaining 3 stages that they will be hiking next year are all in Clarion County’s section of the trail so I am sure that we will be combining hikes with this delightful group of hikers again.

After meeting at the Country Fair store at 9:00 AM, we left for the end of Bryner’s Mill Road where we left most of the vehicles at the parking lots down by Deer Creek.  We then took a minimal amount of vehicles to the trail head on Fern Road.  Once at the trail head, we took time to take a picture of everyone and headed on down the trail.  It was a pleasant day for mid-November with temperatures reaching the upper 40’s, low-50’s.

Most of this hike was along old railroad grades North of Route 322.  It was very pleasant hiking except for one section between Pine City and Knight Town Roads.  Along this section we ran into an area of water that required careful planning to navigate around.  Not very bad though and just about everyone was successful at keeping their feet dry.

After following along the trail for exactly 5 miles, the group took a short lunch break in a game lands parking lot along the railroad grade just off Station Road.

After eating lunch, the hikers took walking sticks in hand again and continued on the remaining 3.7 miles of the hike.  This started out with a half mile road walk on Station Road and Route 322.  After this short road walk, the trail heads into the woods again at a State Game Lands parking lot off of Route 322.  We traveled through the game lands for 1 ¼ miles to where the trail crosses Route 208.

After crossing Route 208, we continued along the trail through State Game Lands 63.  This final 2 miles of the trail for today follows an old railroad grade into the deer creek valley.  After reaching the parking lots and our awaiting vehicles, some hikers went down to Deer Creek.  One hiker, Mike Ciccone, couldn’t resist walking across Deer Creek to the other side.  He even did it without the use of the stepping stones that were put in place by Clarion Chapter this summer to help hikers keep their feet dry.  A good end to a good day on the trail.  In all, the hike was 8.7 miles on a perfect mid-November day.  An image of the GPS track file of the hike is found below.

Keystone Trails Association visits Clarion NCT

Some of Friday's Work

A very large work crew came to the trail in Clarion County this weekend, November 5-7, 2010.  This crew was organized by the Keystone Trails Association and included members of the Keystone Trails Association, North Country Trail Association, Rachel Carson Trails Conservancy and the Butler Outdoor Club.

On Friday, the early-comers began working at improving side hill along the Baker Trail / North Country Trail in Cook Forest State Park.  The trail in Cook Forest gets a lot of traffic each summer and needs almost constant repair and improvement.  A large section of trail was reworked and some rock steps were put in place.

Saturday was the biggest workday of the weekend.  The main project for the weekend was supposed to be an approximately 300 foot section of turnpike to allow the Baker Trail / North Country Trail to travel across a very wet, but beautiful section of Clear Creek State Forest just north of Cook Forest State Park.  So many people showed up that the crew had to be broken up into 3 separate groups to head out to different sections of the trail.  The largest group of about 20 headed up to the trail head at Maple Creek Road to work on building the turnpike.  The other two groups went to work on more side hill at two different locations in Cook Forest State Park.

The groups that went to work on sidehill in Cook Forest State Park freshened up an amazing amount of trail throughout the day.  They reworked large sections of the trail along the hillsides.  The hillsides in Cook Forest are teeming with rocks and the crews removed many of them from the tread. Some of these rocks were used to construct a handful of carefully crafted rock staircases.  Very impressive work.  The vegetation trying to consume the trail, mostly mountain laurel, was also cut back.  The reworked, rock-less tread, along with the new trimming and newly constructed staircases will make the trail very appealing for hikers who visit Cook Forest State Park next Spring and Summer.

It was awesome to have enough people on hand to complete these projects in addition to the turnpike project.  Incredible work they did on the trail in Cook Forest State Park.  The trail through Cook Forest State Park gets a lot of traffic and this work will make the trail much more memorable for those who visit it.


The crew that went to construct the newly dubbed "Baker Trail / North Country Trail Turnpike" also completed an absolutely incredible task.  A project that was estimated to take the entire weekend ended up being completed in less than 7 hours.  It was amazing to see how well the group worked together on the project.  Everyone seemed to know what they were doing the moment the work started.  And they also knew how to do it fast.

The first step in the process was to lay geotextile down on the trail.  Next, heavy 10 foot hemlock logs were brought in and laid down on top of the geotextile on both sides of the trail and staked into place.  After the hemlock logs were put in place, an army of wheelbarrows and a brand new DR Power Wagon were used to bring limestone gravel to fill in the 2 feet left in between the logs.

The gravel and geotextile for this project was supplied by DCNR since this section of the trail travels through Clear Creek State Forest.  DCNR selected the hemlock trees to be cut down to be used as the sides of the turnpike.  Dave Galbreath and Ed Scurry cut these trees down and cut them into 10 foot sections a few weeks before the project to save doing this during the project weekend.  DCNR also moved most of the gravel from the parking lot to the work site.  A DR Power Wagon that was just purchased for the use of all of the Pennsylvania Chapters of the North Country Trail Association was broken in on this project.  The DR Power Wagon was used to move the remaining gravel from the parking lot to the work site.

I know personally (LOL) that many people felt the effects on Sunday of pushing themselves so hard on Saturday to complete this huge project so quickly.  I was just a dump truck on the Turnpike.  I am sure our log trucks weren't moving so fast on Sunday.

On Sunday, there were once again three crews of workers.  These crews went out to do another 4 hours of work before heading home.  One crew went back to the hillsides in Cook Forest.  Another small group went to an area of trail approximately a mile north of the turnpike location to improve a very rocky section.  The third group returned to the turnpike area to use the DR Power Wagon to move the remaining gravel in the parking lot to fill in low spots on the trail leading up to the newly constructed turnpike.

To everyone who participated in this amazing trail work weekend, and especially the Keystone Trails Association for setting it up, THANK YOU from the Clarion Chapter of the North Country Trail Association.  We hope everyone enjoyed the weekend.  THANK YOU.  I wish I had a picture of everyone that participated for the weekend.  However, the picture below shows everyone after the turnpike project. 

October 2010 Monthly Hike

14 of the 16 hikers for the day.

The Clarion County Chapter of the North Country Trail Association held it’s October 2010 monthly hike on Sunday, October 24, 2010.  Our monthly hikes are usually on Saturdays but we decided to move them to Sunday's through deer season.  From the attendance we got this month, perhaps Sundays are a better day for people to be able to attend.

We decided to hike the 4.7 mile section of the North Country Trail from Gravel Lick Road to Highland Drive.  16 hikers left from Gravel Lick Road at about 11:00AM.  It was a very comfortable end of October day with temperatures in the 70's and the sun shining brightly.

In attendance were: (from left to right in the back row of the picture) Devin Callihan, Jan Berg, Dave Galbreath, Bill Wesner, Dan Ochs, Gene Stiglitz, Donna Clements, Layne Giering, Susan Giering & Robbie Porter.  The junior hikers (From left to right in the front row of the picture) were Collin Callihan, Mason Bauer, Harrison Porter & Josh Homan (not in picture, we'll get you guys next time) Tom Tefft & Kay Thompson.

The hike started up Thompson Hill from Gravel Lick Road and the junior hikers made fast work of this pretty steep hillside.  On the way to the bench near the top of Thompson Road, 2 stops were made so the kids and the 5 adult geocachers in the crew could grab geocaches hidden along the trail.  Once reaching the bench, a short break was in order and soon after, the group found themselves completing the climb to the parking lot at the top of Thompson Hill (with the junior hikers leaving us in the dust of course).

After reaching the parking lot, the trail follows a gas company/DCNR service road down the other side of Thompson Hill to the Clarion River.  Once at the Clarion River, the group once again took a break at a picnic table at one of the 3 brand new campsites set up by DCNR.  This property just recently changed hands from the Pennsylvania Game Commission to DCNR.  It looks like this was a good switch.  Camping was illegal along this section before and it is now being encouraged.  The gps coordinates for the campsites are N41* 18.403'  W079* 15.143'.  A few people in the group are already planning a return trip in the spring to do an overnight trip down by the Wild & Scenic Clarion River.

The group left the campsites and continued along the Clarion River.  We didn't catch the junior hikers until just about where the trail leaves the Clarion River.  At this point the hikers stopped and had a snack along the Clarion River.

After eating, the group pushed on to where the trail follows the remnants of Kline Road to the hilltop above the river.  This hillside of the NCT in Clarion County features a very diverse section of Pennsylvania woods.  It goes from a very dense patch of small trees and bushes to mature hardwoods and then to a mixture of mature hardwoods mixed in with lots of mountain laurel before heading back down from the hillside to a valley full of mature conifers along an intermittent stream that dumps into the Clarion River across from Maxwell Run.

The hike continued along an old logging road up this valley.  The trail left this road and follows a switchback up the last hillside to climb before reaching the hilltop where the Highland Drive trail head is located.  The junior hikers showed their first signs of fatigue on the ascent of this hillside.  The group stopped for another geocache, took a break, and the poor little weary souls looked as though they regretted sprinting the first 3 and a half miles of the hike.  They were troopers and pushed onward up over the hillside and were very content to lean on Devin's van when they arrived at the trail head at Highland Drive.

The large group of hikers posed for a picture and all took the car ride back to Gravel Lick Road.  It was another beautiful day on the North Country Trail in Clarion County Pennsylvania.

September 2010 Monthly Hike

The Clarion County Chapter of the North Country Trail Association held it’s September 2010 monthly hike on Saturday, September 25, 2010.

Four hikers showed up for the walk from Kiser-Wagner Road to the game lands parking lot at the end of Pine Terrace Road above Deer Creek.  In attendance (from left to right in the picture) were Gene Stiglitz, Devin Callihan, Dan Ochs and Dave Galbreath.

It was a pleasant late morning/early afternoon to be on the North Country Trail for a hike.  The walk in the woods began about 10:15 in the morning and the group reached the State Game Lands Parking lot at the end of Pine Terrace Road at about 1:30.  The total distance travelled was just under 6 1/2 miles.

After leaving Kiser-Wagner Road, the trail winds through the woods for just under half a mile before crossing Route 322.  Once across 322, the trail follows Doe Run Road for almost exactly a mile until it enters the woods after the road crosses a small stream.  Where the road crosses this small stream and the trail heads back into the woods cannot be missed because the guard rails on both sides of Doe Run Road are painted completely in NCT blue.  While walking Doe Run Road, Dave Galbreath explained a plan to move the trail to the hillside below Doe Run Road.  This project will possibly be tackled next spring.

Once leaving Doe Run Road, the trail heads through hillsides of hardwood trees, stands of conifers and open meadows for just about 2 miles.  There is really quite a bit of variety on this little section of the hike.  Towards the end of the 2 miles, the trail crosses Myers Road and then a small field before crossing Route 66.

After crossing Route 66, the trail goes through an open field for about a hundred yards and then parallels a few feet off of and then follows on East End Road for approximately 2,000 feet.  At this point, the trail enters State Game Lands #63.  The trail through State Game Lands #63 travels along old logging roads and pipelines as it arcs around the Southwestern side of the Clarion County Airport.  The trail then follows the remnants of Bryner Mill Road to the game lands parking lot at the end of Pine Terrace Road.

After reaching the parking lot at the end of Pine Terrace Road, the group posed for a picture then rode in the van down to Deer Creek.  The hikers wanted to see how the stepping stones that were placed in the creek earlier in the summer were holding up.  They seem to be doing fine.  We will see if ice this winter or a high creek next spring will move them though.

All in all, it was yet another enjoyable day on the North Country Trail.  A map of the hike is found below.

August 2010 Monthly HIke

The Clarion Chapter of the NCTA held its monthly hike on August 14, 2010.  The chapter chose to hike approximately 8 miles from where the trail crosses Route 66 near the Clarion/Forest County line to the environmental center in Cook Forest.  7 hikers left the trail head on Route 66 at approximately 10:15 on a relatively cool (compared to the last several hikes) morning.  The hikers in attendance (from left to right in the picture to the right, taken after the hike) were: Devin Callihan, Bill Wesner, Ed Scurry, Elizabeth Kelly, Gene Stiglitz, Dave Galbreath and Dan Ochs.

Leaving the trail head, the NCT follows a pipeline for about a half mile before heading into the woods on its way to it's first crossing of Maple Creek.  Soon after leaving the pipeline, the crew stopped to check out the log box and to hide a geocache nearby.  The group then pushed on approximately another 3/4 mile to the first crossing off Maple Creek.  The group noticed that Maple Creek was very low.  Another geocache was hidden at the bridge across maple creek and the group traveled another 3/4 mile to where the trail intersects with Maple Creek Road.  After crossing Maple Creek Road, the band of hikers headed through the Pennsylvania woods towards the trails' second crossing of Maple Creek and then up out of the Maple Creek valley to Jacks Hollow Road.

The road walk on Jacks Hollow Road and Maple Creek road was short and the group found themselves once again heading into the woods on this beautiful Northern Pennsylvania Summer morning.  This is the last section before the trail enters Cook Forest State Park.  The group mostly pushed through this section except for a short break to admire a very old tree that had fallen across the trail.  The group estimated from an approximate count of the rings that it was at least 150 years old.  The picture to the left shows some of the group resting and conversing around this fallen tree.  Bet that tree was pretty impressive when it was still standing.  After this break, the band of hikers pushed onward and crossed Greenwood Road and Forest Road as the hike continued into Cook Forest.

Trail through Cook Forest State Park is much wider, packed down much harder and relatively flat.  The hike seemed to go faster once the group started hiking on the trail in Cook Forest.   5 of the group reached the bridge over Brown's Run faster than Bill Wesner and Dan Ochs.  We waited for them for a little while and just as Gene Stiglitz volunteered to go back and see if they were ok, we could see them coming down the trail..... very slowly.  As they approached, we realized that they were not wearing any shoes.  We asked them what was going on and they said that they had a $10 bet on who would put their shoes back on first.  They posed for a picture (found at right) and the group pushed on once again.

The 5 in the group with shoes quickly pulled away from Bill and Dan and let them settle their bet in private.  After crossing Brown's Run, the NCT follows just above Brown's Run till it meets with Tom's Run Trail Road.  When the first of the now 2 groups of hikers reached Ton's Run Trail Road, we waited for Bill and Dan.  A few minutes later Bill and Dan arrived with shoes.  Let's just say that Bill was $10 richer and bought a few rounds later, and Dan's feet survived for a possible rematch another day.

The last part of the hike through Cook Forest State Park was a leisurely walk along Tom's Run back to the Environmental Center and our awaiting cars.  The heat of the day held off until about the last hour of the hike and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the late morning/early afternoon walk.  We arrived back at our vehicles at about 2:30.  Everyone is looking forward to the next hike.

Trail Work Weekend November 5-7

The Clarion Chapter will be holding a work weekend November 5-7 in conjunction with the Keystone Trails Association and DCNR.  We will be working on an approximately 100 yard long wet section of trail in the Maple Creek area.

We will be creating turnpike using materials supplied by DCNR.  The wetness in this area can get very bad and this is some much needed work.  All help in this project would be appreciated.

We will have a cabin in Cook Forest for the weekend. We will be at River Cabin #1 Friday night and Saturday night.

We will be working on the project all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday.

For more information on this work weekend or to reserve a bunk for the weekend, contact Ed Scurry at (814) 437-1168, Dave Galbreath at (814) 226-5574,  or Devin Callihan at (814) 319-5058.