FLT wandering trip report

“You probably know that the FLT goes from the Cats to Western, NY...and subsequently right by my house so its a great day hike trail or overnighter. Problem is after about 2 miles in, I can't find the friggin' trail. Not once but TWICE!

Supposedly, and by that I mean according to the hand drawn maps of the FLT, there is a shelter about 4 miles in on the section in Allegheny State Park I've been doing. But who knows.

The first time we went we bushwhacked(only hard because of the snow) looking for anything at all that resembled a trail. No markers, nothing. Then wait, footprints, snowshoes. We must have followed them for about 2 miles only to conclude it must have been a hunter, %@*^@%! So after wandering around for about 4 hours we hung our heads and with tail dragging walked out of the woods to the truck.

But I went back to receive another butt kicking the other day. I spent more time on the trail, looking for the next tree marker. After a few miles, they just ended! I mean just flat out ended, thanks for coming now trun around and go home. I couldn't find another marker and with the snow you couldn't tell where to go. Once again I wandered around for a few hours looking for anything up ahead that may be a trail. And as you can guess, nothing. The walk back to the truck was even harder the second time!

I'm trying again tomorrow and I won't be back until I find that blasted shelter. I'll be the forest gump of the woods, just runnin' and runnin'.

I did see A LOT of bear scratching on the trees though and many prints. It was easy to see where they had clawed into them to get to the larvae. I also watched a woodpecker from about 30 feet trying to get at some food, thats gotta hurt.

I am praying to the backpacking spirits for success on trip #3, otherwise I may just not tell anyone I even went!”

“Sounds like the shelter is a heck of a quiet place to stay the night, if you can't even find it. Will be a great secret spot once you do.”