Old Loggers Path

“See what you missed Tara!”

“HOLY SHI! THATS INSANE PICS OF ARTEX!

MY GOD DUDE GETS SOME TEETH!

8p”

“Hey, you are right Artex. That is spooky. It gets even spookier <"a href="http://www.waterfallsplus.net/artex3.jpg" "target="_new">when you look at it again.”

“Crap... try that again. It's even spookier when you look at it again.”

“ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!

8o”

“ROFLMAO! How did you do that so quick!?!?!

Man, I am dying of laughter!!!”

“Ewwwww. Seriously - that is sooooo scary.

LtHiker - The beautiful views... I'm sad to miss. The multiple Artexes sans teeth... not so sad. LOL”

“lol....I nearly pissed myself when Bobo broke out the masks.”

“Hahahahahahahahahahaha!!! BillyBob-tex, cloned en mass ...what a hoot! One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! Thanks for a good laugh guys!

Fritz, great shots! Liked them all, including the foggy environment compositions. Thanks.

Pennsy, I'm going to check out your pix sometime tomorrow while at school, where we have ethernet (I'd be up until well past midnight here using my 56K phone modem).”

“What the FU???? OH MY GOODNESS THAT IS SOOOOO FUNNY!!!!”

“I think I may change my trail name to "broken back" "rock-bagger" "Heavey Hiker" or "skinny fat man"”

“Too funny! You guys are a riot!

Great pics and great trip report. If I'd gone on this trip, my picture going across that log would've been crawling or straddling - but I woulda got across, lol!

That last Artex pic is a hoot!”

“I made that mask picture as the wallpaper on my computer. I vow I won't replace it until I hike with you guys again! :-)”

“LOL”

“OMG!!! Hilarious... yet, truly disturbing... Pennsy, you doctored that Aphex twins picture in no time flat and now I'm afraid to go to sleep!

~8,0”

“Just think what I could do with a Bobo. Pleasant dreams.”

“LMAO!!! Great trip reports. Skeery hikers!!”

“LOL! Pennsy those were great!

Hey... sorry I slighted you on the credit for your heads up thining on checking the parking lot.”

“lol....It was all Pennsy. He said " Go Go Gadget helicopter". His pack opened up and out came the blades. He then shot 50 feet up into the air and saw that the parking lot was just down the road. I asked him why he just didnt fly over it and he said he didnt want to show off.”

“LOL!

Pennsy" you better get that gadget 'copter rigged for night flying before your next three hour tour with Twiggy.”

“That's what he carries the dehydrated night vision goggles for. Geez do you think he wouldn't be prepared for that.”

“No wonder he was so good at finding blue!”

“I hadn't been out in the woods since early January, so I was really looking forward to this trip. The Old Loggers Path trail is a 27-plus mile loop in north-central Pennsylvania. The group's plan was to hike in five miles or so on Friday from Masten, and do the remainder of the trail the following two days.

There were two "wrenches" thrown in the works:

(1) All known (to me) sources of maps came up empty, so I had no map of the trail.

(2) Forecast was for rain pretty much all day Friday, Friday night, and at least half of Saturday, with wind and temps below freezing both nights.

I decided to skip the first night and meet the group on Saturday morning for the remainder of the trip. (I don't mind hiking in the rain, it is camping in a cold rain that really turns me off.)

I saw that one or two others made plans to meet the group Saturday morning at "Yellow Dog Run Road," or something like that, which was just beyond where the hardy boys were going to camp Friday night. I decided to do the same, though I was a little concerned about finding them, not knowing what time they would get out of camp, and not knowing if they'd be ahead of me on the trail or behind me by the time I got there.

I got up at 2:50am, made my sandwich for lunch, and hit the road. As I drove, my lower back was giving me problems, nothing severe but enough to make me uncomfortable. I pushed thoughts of my back problems out of my mind.

Even as I drove, I still maintained some slim hopes that I would find a place near the trail to get a map, but I had no such luck. So, by the time I pulled into the parking area at Masten a little after 7:30, I had formulated a new plan. Without a map I had no way to find Yellow Dog Run, so instead I would start at Masten as the others had the night before, hike fast, and catch up to them eventually.

Now, I knew I was taking a chance by going into the woods alone, in a cold rain, without a map. That really isn't my style. But the trail was well marked, I was well equipped, and there was a whole group of scouts at the trailhead who I assumed would be coming up behind me. I decided it was a reasonable plan.

I started hiking and pulled out my digital camera for the "here's where the trail starts" picture...and I got an error, can't write to the memory. I formatted the memory card as I walked, tried again, same error, removed and reinserted the media, reformatted, error gone. Thank goodness for that.

I lost the trail almost before I was even on it. The trail followed an old unpaved road for awhile, marked with orange blazes, and I soon realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while. I backtracked and eventually found where the trail left the road and headed up the hill. (There were a couple of blazes along the road beyond that point, almost as if someone had deliberately tried to lead me astray. Which is, apparently, not too hard to do.) I had lost at least ten minutes.

Continuing on, after about thirty minutes, it occurred to me that I did't know if I was going in the same direction on the loop that the others had gone. Gee...well, OK, that is an interesting thought, a little late, but interesting.

I considered the possibilities and there were only two. Either I was going the same direction they had gone, and I would catch up with them at the Saturday night campsite at the latest; or, I was going the opposite direction, in which case I would still encounter them on the trail eventually. In the latter case, I would probably just continue on after visiting with them for a few minutes, and make it a solo weekend. Being a man posessing few social skills, I really don't mind hiking alone, so that didn't sound too bad. :)

After two hours, having not seen Yellow Dog anything, I felt pretty sure I was doing the "alternate route" around the loop. No problem. At 11:00, I tried to guess with my pace, the number of miles etc. and I thought I would meet them around 1:30.

The morning hike was pleasant, quiet, peaceful. With gusts of wind, chunks of ice fell from the trees. Lots of mud, lots of water on the ground, dense fog at times. Surreal. I busted up one particularly steep climb (without a map I didn't know I was climbing Sharp Top,) and at the top was a clearing and what I assumed would be a great view if visibility had been greater than about 30 feet.

After that, I had another "out of trail" experience that cost me 15 minutes or so, then regained the trail and headed down the hill. Shortly thereafter I stopped (later than I should have) to put duct tape on a few hot spots on my feet. Along the trail was a nice cascading stream.

At the bottom of the hill, the trail turned right, then left again and directly through a deep, fast-moving stream about 30 feet across. I searched upstream, downstream, for the safest way to cross. Dang. Only two options and I really didn't like either of them. First, I could wade through it, wearing the sandals I had brought for this exact purpose. Not very appealing. The air was cold, the water was cold, and I didn't feel like sitting down on the wet ground to change the footwear. But the second option was a triple-log-crossing a little downstream, traversing two small islands in the process. Each log was 10 to 15 feet across. I couldn't see that the second and third legs of that option were two logs side-by-side. i could only see that the first was a single log, wet and slippery, about three feet above the water which was fast-moving and a foot and a half deep.

Being already pretty tired, having a full pack, and not having seen a single person in the preceding four or five hours, I didn't relish the thought of falling in and breaking a leg and dying in the cold stream. So I went with the first unpleasant but safe option, and waded through what I later learned was Pleasant Stream.

Thirty minutes later, after another tricky stream crossing, I ran into the gang. I knew Pennsy and JMitch, and I met Capn Bobo, Ice Tea, Dare, LtHiker, and JohnMck. It was a little tough for the trail-bagger in me, but I decided to turn around and stay with the group for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the weekend has been well-documented by the others, and I have gone on long enough, so I will end my trip report here. Had a real nice time with a bunch of good guys. It was nice to see MustHike and M Silver again as well.

Thanks everybody for making it a great weekend!

(Link to my pics...)”

“Nice report Fritz, and I see you added some pics. It's still wierd not seeing snow on the ground. :-)”

“Nice pixs Fritz.
I've discovered since I upgraded my membership on webshots I can add more "My Fav Members". I have added you and a couple of others that have posted pixs in the last couple of days.
Being a man posessing few social skills myself, you sound like someone I would enjoy hiking with.
Great trip report and I hope to hike with you someday.”

“great pics, we all had a great time.”

“bizarre”

“Ice Tea..what pack do you have?”

“Kelty Tornado 3800, I managed to pack 50+ lbs in it. LTHiker jokingly (I don't know) 80lbs.”

“StoveStomper - thank you, and I rather suspect you'll have that opportunity someday, hopefully this year sometime. It would be my pleasure as well.”

“Fritz,

Enjoyed the report on your alternative trip. Although you had to backtrack, the weather was superb on Sunday. And I always find trails to be so very different when experienced in various weather conditions and seen from the opposite direction. Hope your experience was similar. On the other hand, you have a good reason to come back and finish the OLP ...the part you missed being just as nice as the section you did x 2 on Sat./Sun.

BTW, next trek you attend like this last one, get your maps lined up beforehand, okay pal?!”

“M Silver, I tried, I really tried.”

“Where to next??”

“Catskills?”

“no, adirondacks. let's bag some peaks.”

“Sounds good to me, no more cheese in the pack though. Well maybe alittle.”

“Before I go on I would like to really thank LThiker for driving me and being a good guy. LT, I thank you, I know you got home at 1 in the morning and if you didn't drop me off you could have gotten home earlier (12:50). I hope my directions where correct for leaving my area. I would be more than pleased to hike with you again(if you carry my pack).

thanks”

“Carry your pack I don't think so!”

“:-)”

“Fritz - Nice hardy boys trip report and I liked the fog pictures!

I too would like to thank LightHiker for giving Tea a ride. If we pay you next time, will you dump him in the East river? ha ha ha! J/K!!!

Did someone say Adirondacks? I've got 10 peaks to go to hit the magic 46 and I'd definitely be up for a trip there. M Silver and I were talking about getting to the ADK and maybe we can talk the Gremlin into meeting us also?

Whose face should we take to the High Peaks?????”

“Wait, let me get this straight, Fritz went on a hike without a MAP? Seriously?

Hmmmmm........”

“Hey LyndyS, wish you could have made it. You missed out on bunch of guys doing....well guy things. Hope you can make the next one. Im up for the ADK anytime. My favorite place.”

“Lyndy,

He sure did! ...must've taken some lessons (or caught something) from Rich B, eh? Rich has done this too ...only worse ....he was the hike leader! ...hike leader with no map ...sweet! ;-)”

“Never saw jmitch with a map either hmmm is this a trend?”

“Bobo, jmitch, et.al.:

Adirondaks High Peaks ...Woohoo! My favorite place!

Some thoughts:
* If possible, try to avoid May & June and even into July ...too many black flies.
* Try to avoid weekends if possible ...too many people.
* Don't go in rainy weather ...views will be socked in.
* Avoid people who don't bring maps.
* Avoid people who bring 10-pound cook kits and rocket engine afterburner stoves.
* And above all, STAY ON THE TRAIL!”

“jmitch has hiked the OLP so many times, the map is in his brain!

M Silver - If I followed those rules, I would have never gotten to the High Peaks! Perhaps late April, early May?”

“maps are for wussies, real men get lost!”

“On their own, or after they were told to?

I missed you guys, and I actually was running around with the kids in the rain so much on Saturday that I was sick on Sunday. I was freezing and had the heat turned up so high that the rest of the family wore shorts on Sunday.

The comment on Fritz without a map, was because of his teasing me about no map when the Maine trip was being planned.”

“And MSilver, stop picking on RichB about his maps, he usually has them locked away in his pack even if he does bring them. I'm usually the one asking ten million questions, like "If the trail is headed east, and it is morning, and the sun is to our left, then we must be going the wrong way." OF course the trail doesn't always match the map, and there lies the real problem.”

“Map? We didnt need one. Pennsy has a GPS with North Finding system. It is sopowerful that it illuminated the trail in fornt of us. No way it could have been wrong...well except the 3 times we missed the trail....but that didnt count.”