Nov. 2-3 Kettle Creek-Angel Falls, PA

“Hi everyone. RichB and I are going to hike Sat. from Dry Run Road near Worlds End State Park to Kettle Creek Vista and Angel Falls by way of the Loyalsock Trail, and then back down to the Forest Headq by way of Old House Trail on Sunday. MSilver and Sparky are going to catch up to us on Sunday morning because he has a committment for Sat.

If anyone is interested in joining us, we'll meet at the Dry Run Forest HQ at 12:15 AM. Please email me at lyndi10@yahoo.com. The campsite is large enough to accommdate several tents.”

“Weather looks to be high of high 30's, low of high teens.”

“Anybody?”

“Would love to, but will be in Hershey to watch Ian in the state cross-country meet. Have fun!”

“i wish i could, but i'm going to some motorcycle thing with Tarpy. i know, i suck...”

“Tell Ian that a Haunted Troll wishes him good luck!”

“draculyra-
You're going to freeze your tookus off!”

“yeah, prolly...”

“I wish we were starting today. It is a perfect fall day!”

“I'd join you guys, LyndyS, but I'm hoping to do that solo trip in the Catskills this weekend that I've been dying to do. It's going to coooooold! Hope you guys have fun!”

“The weather is looking nice and for a change no rain on Sat. I love this weather for hiking. Wish you were coming with us Artex, but maybe next time. What mts. do you plan on hiking up in the Cats?”

“wish i could but going with corp nasty to harriman”

“Richb, I haven't unpacked all of my maps yet, I'll decide for sure tonight, but I'm looking to maybe do Plateau Mountain, and some other nearby peaks. We have to go hiking again sometime soon!”

“I never heard of Plateau Mts., but I'm not familar with much of that area. I only day hiked up there twice. Have a great hike and we do have to go hiking soon.”

“Thanks Rich, same to you. Look forward to y'alls trip report.”

“Everyone is hiking this weekend excpet me. *sob*

Have fun y'all and see yas on the next trip.”

“Pennsy, you would have loved this trip. Stealth camping, bushwacking, creek crossings, lost hikers with a vicious dog, disappearing trail blazes, more bushwacking, butt-sliding down the sides of mountains, and then apologizing to a ranger who was getting ready to come looking for us since it was almost dark. It was a great trip!”

“how was the trip, i love both those places, so awesome. i was in that area this weekend too, i bushwhacked up coal run and swamp run near hoagland branch to some awesome waterfalls. incredible.”

“It was great but my ankles and knees are beat up. Bushwacking over leaf covered rocks was rough. The trees had a lot of great color still. We wished that we had a little guide on what leaf belonged to what kind of tree, because we saw a lot that we didn't recognize. The creeks were running good but not as high as usual, I think. Kettle Creek was the same as last January so at least it recovered from the drought.”

“We had an excellent trip and the weather was nice for hiking even though we only had brief moments of sunshine. We made a mistake Sat. on our hike to Angel Falls and wandered on a new logging road that we thought was McCarty Road, so we had to backtrack for a mile and eventually made our way down to Kettle creek. The creek was a bit too high to cross by rock hopping so we used the homemade waders instead of gambling a crossing on a weak looking log bridge that was there. At Kettle creek vista we enjoyed the views in a brisk wind and decided not to camp there since it would be too cold to sit outside at night in the wind. Just then a couple with a young boy came down the trail hoping to camp at the vista so we started our climb to the top of the mountain and on to Angel Falls. We got there around dusk and did some night hiking to a stealth site by the light of LED headlamps. They don't project a beam far enough to find trail blazes so next time I'll bring a regular headlamp to night hike. With all the leaves on the ground it was difficult to stay on the trail in the dark. I did like the night hiking and it makes the short daylight hours seem longer.
We got to do some stargazing when the cloud cover broke up around nine P.M. and crawled in our tents a half hour later. The only wildlife we heard that night was an owl down in the hollow. Nightime lows were in the mid 20's with occasional snow flurries and breezes.
We met MSilver and Sparky on the Loyalsock trail around 9:30 A.M. and we hiked back to Angel Falls took a few pictures and got back on the Loyalsock and hiked it out to a side trail called the Snake Trail. Well, we didn't see any snakes, but we did stumble about trying to follow this trail and hopefully link up with the Old House Trail. We never did find the Old house trail until we were about a quarter mile from the parking lot, but we realized that we hiking too high on the ridge and were above it. It was a fun bushwhack and at one point LyndyS claimed she found the Old House trail. We gave her the Most Valuable Hiker award for finding the trail, but the blazes ended and we were back to bushwacking and climbing over blowdowns. I knocked a few dead trees over with a big crash and made Sparky jump once. MSilver was our lead hiker mostly since he could slide through the trees better than we could with big packs. Coming down off the ridge was beautiful with many trees displaying fall colors in gold, red and yellow. Our descent to the parking lot was like pushing the express button to China, no trail very steep and like a giant banana peel and softball size rocks thrown in. We hiked into the parking lot with the ranger at my van looking around concerned that we wern't back yet. He gave us some updated maps and after a brief chat I took Lyndy and MSilver back to their cars. A great trip, great company and can't wait to get out there again.”

“I have a silly question, were is this place at?
also did anyone get pics?
Im glad you got home safe and sound. Yes the weather was perfect for hiking!!”

“It's in PA.,Wyoming State Forest, Sullivan county. About a 3 hour drive from New Jersey, I believe. MSilver took a few pictures with his digital camera and I took a few with my film camera so you'll see his pictures way before mine.”

“Cool!!


Ive never heard of that Forest.
I have heard of
Sullivan county. Is that near Pitts? or State College?”

“Mapleleaf, if you take I-80 west and then hang a right at Bloomsburg,PA-Rt.42, then go north for about 35 miles, then you would be in the general area. Look at the map for Worlds End State Park. We were a little west of there.”

“very nice. i see that they rent cabins!

I will call them to see if they have any alav. for Christmas.
thanks for the info.”

“oh well to bad. They only have rustic cabins. thats with a fireplace but no bathrooms or running water. if it was the summer that would be great but not in the winter. im not going out in the middle of the night in 20' weather to pee.
i would rather have a modern cabin. no fireplace but with running water.

ill keep looking. but is sounds like a great place to visit..”

“Yeah, it is even more fun to pee outside when it is -10 degrees out because the pee freezes back at you like a stalagmite. Can cause a major wedgie!”

“Pottying In the Woods, what?? and you bushwacked, Lyndy? sounds hard-core! i didn't realize people actually did that...
;-)”

“Sounds like it was killer trip! Glad you guys had a great time! :-)”

“AND Rich, I WOULD have found the Old House Trail for real, if you guys had followed me down the slope instead of staying on the ridge. We have to head up the trail from the Forest Office one day, to see where it hits the ridgetop. I feel like I learned a lot about hiking with a compass and translating the map to actual visuals this trip, thanks to Rich and MSilver.

We followed the Snake Trail from the McCarty woods road and the sign for the Snake Trail at the Stony Trail connection looked like it was a hundred years old, and was hiding behind a bunch of saplings like an old gravestone.”

“I know Lyndy. I had a feeling that it followed one of the lower contours of the mountain since I remember hiking at an angle years ago when I hiked it. We should have looked at that USGS topo map I had instead of the smaller ones. I checked it out when I got home and you can see a lot of detail that wasn't on the other maps. That Stoney Run trail looks nice along with many other side trails in the area. We have to go back there and do another trip using side trails and some more bushwhacking thrown in the mix.”

“stony run is a nice trail, follows the edge of a glen w/ small stream, lots of cascades at the top, lots of mtn laurel. the juncture of old house and stony run trail is confusing, they don't actually meet. laurel ridge trail is nice, as is dutter's run (waterfalls). scar run is exceptionally beautiful with rugged glen and scenic falls.
also, take shanenburg to rusty falls. the entire area is a hiking paradise.”

“Jmitch, I finally dug my map back out, and still can't find a Swamp Run and Coal Run near each other. Where exactly were you?”

“Oh near Hoagland Branch, I see it. That is beyond the peak after High Knob?”

“sounds like a great trip!”

“yes, hoagland is a very scenic stream with cascades and deep pools. swamp run has about 5 waterfalls, and one cool natural waterslide. coal run drains sones pond and has neat staircase cascades with large boulders.”

“The "lost hikers with a vicious dog" that I mentioned this morning were not us and the lovable Sparky, but a couple of guys with a pitbull who went for a two hour hike without map, compass, water or much of anything else, and got lost. They ended up at the Forest Svc office at dusk and had to be driven 10 miles to their vehicle on the other side of Angel Falls.”

“After looking at the map I think I know what they did. They followed Ryan's trail the wrong way and instead of going back to Kettle creek it takes you to the High landing trail and back out to Dry Run Road. Once there it was probably almost dark so they headed for the park office.”

“Wow, what an adventure! I'm sorry I missed it. Thanks for the great reports. I'm looking forward to the pics.

Lyndy - see, all that Maine training paid off. You're a bonafide hikermaniac now!

Now, what's this about a vicious dog?? Don't tell me Sparky went CUJO on you? ;o)”

“The two guys had a pitbull that looked and acted fierce. At least they had enough sense to keep him leashed. That was on Saturday, Msilver and Sparky joined us on Sunday to hike out to the parking lot.”

“Hey Twigeater, thanks, Maine hiking will definitely strengthen the leg muscles. I spent a lot of time raving about Baxter State Park to Rich and MSilver. Maybe they will join us next time. I just wish it wasn't SOOooooo far away.”

“Here is hopefully the link to MSilver's pictures for this trip:

Loyalsock & Old House Trail Pictures”

“They came out out really nice. Some good stream crossing action. I got a picture of Lyndy crossing with the amazing homemade waders, but it will be awhile before I finish the roll of film.”

“Nice fall colors!”