Old Loggers Path

“Home safely. Interesting trip. Report later.”

“Ditto”

“Look forward to the reports and pics! :-)

Looks like you guys just beat a big snowstorm, hope you guys had a blast!”

“You would like the report and pic, wouldn't yah! Beeatch!!!, well yah aynt gettin nothing!!!

It was a good time Artex, we missed yah, but you where there in spirt. I'll let some one else (who can spell) hit up the trip report.

I would like to point out that Ice Tea's pack when he got home (just about no food and no water) weighted in at 42lbs. I packed way to much.”

“Thanks for the kind words, but I'm sure you guys breathed easier since I wasn't there... unless Pennsy brought his world famous chili.

Well, at least with the heavier pack you got in a better workout, Ice. Try to think of it as spring training. :-)”

“Hope you guys had great weather and a great time....

Can't wait to hear the trip report!

Once again...I 'm sorry I couldn't make it but between the forecasted weather and my the condition of my feet we decided to head South to Shenandoah and do day hikes instead....”

“We talked about you Adventurist. I'm not telling what was said.”

“Hey! I was halfway thru those pics and got booted out for some silly reason.

Well, they were great as far as I got, but no snow? I did see people lounging around in the sun...sheesh, it was snowing and cold here in the northeast.

Looks like a great trip!”

“I just checked out the pictures M Silver and they look great! What is with all the sun? Man, You guys look like you got great weather! I'm glad.

Looks like you lucked out on the Pleasant Stream crossing also?”

“on friday night pennsy, dare, john and i camped at rock run. the cloudy skies began a gentle on-off rain. rock run is a beautiful place, we camped next to a waterfall and a rock-strewn chasm carved by the run. the rain became more steady as the night progressed and as night fell we began to worry when ice tea and lthiker were going to show. thankfully the showed up and we set up our tents, talked, and began to eat. ice tea valiantly tried to get the fire going, but in the end it was futile. we strung up a tarp and talked as the rain fell. i went to bed and was startled to hear t-storms rumble through, it was cool hearing water raging all around you since the streams were very high. this hike had lots of tricky stream crossings.

we got up the next morning and hiked up to yellow dog road and met up with capt bobo. the weather was foggy, but no rain. unfortunately, the many great vistas along this section offered little in the way of views since the fog was so thick. we ate lunch at buck run near some large boulders and proceeded down to long run. we crossed the run and proceeded downstream along an old grade. here we intercepted fritz who was coming the other way. i missed the blazes so we decided to bushwhack down to the stream since that is where i knew the trail was, we soon found the trail after yet another tricky crossing, but realized we had lost johnmck (more on this later).

we proceeded down to a campsite along pleasant stream, the biggest stream crossing of all. we set up camp and proceeded to look for johnmck.

how we lost johnmck, i do not know. before bushwhacking he was behind us and asked him if he saw any blazes behind him. we began to bushwhack and never saw him again. concerned, we backtracked 3 times, waited for him, and hiked an old logging road he might've taken. pennsy and dare set out for the trailhead to see if his car was there. they came back and said johnmck had bailed, but he never told us. we looked for him for almost 3 hours and this put us in a difficult situation.

anyways, we had a great night camping, with a nice fire and fine company. the next morning we crossed pleasant stream via logs. the weather was crisp and very sunny. we made our way up to sharp top with great vistas. descended through a nice hardwood forest with more stream crossings. climbed to sprout point with another vista where we ate lunch. the last section of the trail offered fine hiking through laurel and the Weird Tree. we descended to an old railroad grade and finished through a spruce forest and made ice tea sign the last register, as we checked his spelling.

great trip thanks to great people. i had the opportunity to meet many new people including must hike, dare, lthiker, ice tea, capt bobo, msilver and johnmck ("where's waldo"). ice tea is a surprisingly intelligent and capable hiker who had a pack larger than him and more food than my fridge, lthiker likes cheese and makes a mean burrito, dare had a really stinky shirt, msilver likes to take lots of pictures, capt bobo is a riot, pennsy has digestion difficulties (picking up where artex left off), must hike is great company, fritz hikes fast, johnmck.....gone.

everyone was generous and gracious. as for me, i'm sure all of you appreciated my lightening your packs by letting me eat your food.

hope to see all of you on the trail soon.”

“artex was there in spirit, and in other ways, as he shall soon see.”

“Good pics and looks like a nice trip, despite the rain and lack of fire. BTW, just how many lunches did you guys eat? j/k”

“yes, ice tea packed enough pots, pans and cutlery for a table of four. i don't think he had one cold meal, always firing up that afterburner of a stove he had to cook something. once we had to pull him up b/c his pack was so heavy.”

“Well I made it home at 1:30 last night or should I say this morning. I got up just about an hour ago an I just made it to my computer. Great Trip had a blast, everyone was lots of fun... more later.”

“Jmitch, I am intrigued.

Great pics MSilver!”

“Whoooo hoooo!

It was an awesome trip. I pulled into the parking area a little after 2 and I ran into Pennsy and JohnM. We started up the trail and made great time to the campsite. We started setting everything up, and just in time. The rain began. It wasn’t too bad, just kind of a light rain. Lucky for us, inspector gadget....ummm I mean Pennsy had a tarp big enough for a small town to fit under. We talked most of the night away and for some reason a mini bar appeared again. Needless to say, I slept well that night.

That night the rain got really hard and the thunder was incredible. It echoed through the canyon, which just amplified it. At first, we thought it was Pennsy, but he did not eat any chili yet.

The next morning we awoke and headed out. There was some light rain at first, but mostly just fog. The night before we had collected jmitch, Ice Tea, and LThiker. The party was up to six of us. As we left, just a little up the path we found the all mighty Bobo, who greeted us with his normal fashion. "Hey Dare, want a beer?...lol" It went down really nice. Thanks man. So off we went again. The party was now at seven. SO the hike continues.

A little while more down the path, we then collected Fritz. He had started the path in the opposite direction. After much convincing, the poor guy agreed to join our group....sucker. The group was now at 8. Anyway, a few minutes later, we started toward our next campsite. We soon noticed we were short one hiker. The fact came about after a quick bushwhack.

We took a quick head count and after we helped Tea count past 5, there were only 7 of us. So we did the honorable thing and started to look for JohnM. After much backtracking and tactical search patterns Pennsy and I decided to walk back to the parking area to see if his car was there. This was an additional three miles one way. About half way back, an angel appeared. It was must hike. My faith was reconfirmed. So Pennsy and I hopped in and he drove us the rest of the way. JohnM's car was gone and we were relieved that he was ok. Must hike drove us back the campsite and we set up for the night.

The night was a little cold, but beautiful the next morning. Pennsy ate his chili that night and I start to keep the number for the nearest HAZMAT team handy. We woke to a great morning. The start of which included a stream crossing. We debated the best way across. Several ideas came up, like using Tea's huge pack as a raft while he was still in it. The idea was nixed because we didn’t know if he could swim far enough before he froze. We ended up crossing some logs and it was pretty easy. The group count was now up to 9 because we also gained MSilver that morning. Pennsy commented that we ended up positive two because of our new arrivals. It was his way just justifying a safe trip....so long as you have more bodies coming out them going in, everything is right with the universe.

Anyways, we started the morning with a good uphill hike to a great vista. The view was incredible. The sun felt great after all of that rain and fog. We stopped for a snack and continued to march on. We made it to the second vista, which was also great and ate some lunch. Bobo had ribs. I noticed him starting to put sauce on my arm and became very afraid. I assured him that we would not stave out he and that if he ate my arm I would not be able to type this trip report.

Anyway, the group headed out and got back to the cars. Everyone said their goodbyes and that’s my trip report.

I had a great time. We ended up doing allot more miles then we intended, but I enjoyed meeting some more TT'ers and had a blast. I can’t wait for everyone’s photos. I saw MSilvers and they turned out great.”

“Alright, This was my first TT trip, and I was a little concerned after reading about some of the exploits of this group. My wife was even more concerned that I was heading off into the woods with people that I had met on the internet.
Anyway I started my trip at 8:30 in the morning on Friday returned to my house to retrieve my hiking boots at 9:00. Good thing I remembered them. Drove down to Paramus NJ to the best toy store that I have ever been in, Campmor, 15 minutes and 160 bucks later I ran out of the store to find Ice Tea's house. Collected Ice Tea, met his mom, received a signed copy of a release form and once again we were off. After wandering around backwoods PA for a couple of hours we managed to find Masten. (Note to self don't let Tea navigate)
After Ice Tea unpacked his pack, and decided what gear to leave in the car we were off. Got to give Ice Tea credit, he probably weighs about 130lbs, and I think his pack weighed about 80lbs.
Hitting the trail (why does every hike start uphill?) at 4:00 we knew that we had to make time to get to camp before dark, got to the trail register and realized that we were 45 minutes behind Pennsy, Dare and Johnmc. Then it started raining. We pulled into camp right at dark, in the rain and quickly set up tents, well maybe mine didn't go up so quick. You know you practice with a new tent but never in the dark and never in pouring down rain. Luckily on of my Campmor purchase was a silnylon tarp wich I put up first and set the tent up under.
Dinner was the next order of business, I really enjoyed my freeze dried Lasagna, until I saw Ice Tea pulling out frozen meatballs and spagetti. I guess there was a reason for that huge pack.
After dinner it was Cocktail time as we enjoyed a mix of Pennsy's Peppermint Shnapps my Jagermeister and John's Margerita. After much stimulating conversation we all turned in.
The next morning we woke up to a misty foggy morning, ate breakfast and hit the trail. About 2 mile up the trail, yes it was an uphill start agian, we meet up with Capn Bobo, and had a cold beer. Heck it was 10:30 why not.
Off we go again, into the fog. After a long we hike we stopped for lunch at big rocks, at this point my heals were hurting alittle but not to bad. Lots of water on the trail, and all of the streams were running high and hard, lots of interesting and challenging stream crossings. Down the trail comes Fritz he had gone the wrong way around and met us. All I can say is that he covered some ground. He decided to turn around and hangout with us.

At this point the trip gets more interesting. We lose John! We are hiking down a logging road when we realize that we haven't seen the marks in awhile. We turn around look back can't see them either. John is coming down the trail and we holler back to him to see if he can see any marks, nope. We decide that we missed a turn and need to bushwack down the hill and cross yet another stream to catch the trail. Down we go and get to the other side of the stream and realize that John is not there. Hmmm, well the last time we saw him was when right before the bushwack. After searching, and blowing whistles we decide to split up. A couple guys go back up to the official stram crossing, Fritz and I hike down to the bottom of the hill. Fritz stays there and I head of to get to the campsite. No sign of John. Capn Bobo comes into camp and reports that no one has seen him. Slowly all of the groups filters into camp, it is now 4:30. After some serious discussion about what to do it is decided that Ice Tea and I will stay in camp, get a fire ready and set up. Dare, Pennsy, Fritz, Capn Bobo, and Jmitch will hike back to the point that we last saw him and trace his steps. We loaded them up with first aid kits and water and of they went. Well let me tell you Tea and I were thinking that worst as we set up camp. Wondering what we would do if they did not find him.
About an hour later Pennsy and Dare come back to camp to report that they had decided to go back to the parking lot to get a car and make sure that his car was still there. Sure enough his car was gone. He had bailed and not told anyone. Anyway, we were now down one hiker but Must Hike had picked up Dare and Pennsy on the road to the parking lot so we were even.
Sparked up the fire and made a good night of it. Woke up in the morning to frozen boots and water bottles, it went down to the 20's.
Then Msilver came strolling into camp now we are plus one. This was great since his car was a couple hundred yards from camp we were able to dump alot of our gear into his car.
The Pleasant Stream crossing that we had been dreading turned out to be not bad. Found some logs to carefully walk across, don't think I would have done that with a full pack.
Sunday's hike was in beatiful blue skies and sunshine, a sharp contrast to the day before. Lots of nice vistas and views.
Had a good laugh at Ice Tea as he set up his stove and pulled his 10 man cookset out of his pack to cook Beef Stew for lunch at Sharp Point.
Blisters were really killing me at this point, uphill was just horribly painful.
Next good vista at Sproul point, I get there just in time to see Capn Bobo sucking the meat off of his last chinese spare rib, and Ice Tea has yet another hot lunch.
Then a long down hill back into Masten. Almost 28 miles and we are back at our cars.

Great Trip, Great People, Great Fun can't wait for my next TT hike. Just hope my blisters heal by then. I will post pictures of them later.”

“Great dayhike for me on Sunday with friends old and new. It was a privilege and honor to spend a beautiful sunny day with you guys. Thanks!

Hey, somebody left a forest green fleece shirt in my car.”

“Not me. Nice meeting you msilver, hope to see you on the trails again some day.”

“I think I caught te kan't spells diasease from Ike Tee!”

“...it's spreading faster than SARS...”

“Excellent trip reports, gentlemen! I'll be posting trip pix in a few days.

Ah yes, this was a Man's-hike Baby! From Dare's stinky shirt to advanced search and rescue techniques to Ice Tea's megagigapack, this was not a hike for the faint-hearted!

MSilver - nice pictures! My favorite (of course) "Weirdos by the Weird tree".

and now for something completely different...

Bobo's lightning round;

jmitch - Quiet guy, carries a big stick.
Dare - Did you change that shirt yet?
Pennsy - The nicest guy, but camp upwind from him.
Ice Tea - You've gotta carry silverware to complement the 10 man cookset.
LtHiker - You call that "Light" hiking?
John Mck - Hellllloooooo?
Fritz - Crumbles to peer pressure.
mussthike - Had your chance to go home with lots of new gear.
MSilver - Who you callin' weirdo!
Capn Bobo - Drink with me!

and of course,
Artex - You can never have enough Artexes...

Thanks for a great time, looking forward to seeing you all again. Adventurist, sorry you didn't come?”

“You should have seen my pack before!

haha great fun Bobo nice to meet you. I am definatley adding your "Tea" recipe to my gear list.

So what is the adventure for May?”

“Yes a great hike, well, a great car camping night and day hike. It was great to see Pennsy, Fritz and msilver again and to meet LtHiker, Capn Bobo, Ice Tea, Dare and Jmitch. I’m not sure there ever was a John I think they made him up. Looking forward to another hike with these guys as soon as I recover from the Artexes. At first I thought this can’t be real it must be lingering effects from the Capn Bobo juice I drank, but it was real alright, much to real.”

“lol....Bobo, that shirt just about burst into flames on the ride back. I put it into the wash....by itself. I didnt want to ruin other clothing. The washing machine spit it out a couple of times, but I think it will survive. I cant wait for more pics.”

“Is that what smelled driving behind you? I thought it was just the dairy farms.”

“I cant believe you actually followed me must hike. Do you know how often I get lost? ....lol”

“Great trip reports y'all. Sounds like you had a great time.

Odd that JM would bail without telling you - maybe he got lost and found the lot first. Y'all did the right thing looking for him. It was a good idea of Dare's to check the parking lot.”

“Wish he would have at least driven back by the camping area to let us know. Then we could have sent him for pizza and beer.”

“Sounds like a nice time. I wish I could have attended, but it wasn't meant to be I guess.”

“Hey Artex, everyone wants to be you!!!

Were you really kayaking this weekend with hot feminine babe-olicious kayakateers?”

“I hiked the trail in the reverse direction, knowing that I would meet up with the group eventually. Well, OK, that wasn't exactly the original plan but there were no maps available so I kinda took the alternate route.

No worries. I had a great time hiking solo, then had a great time with the guys. May post a better report later, but here are
my humble pics.”

“What is this business about "Artexes"? Did somebody clone me and not tell me about it? I wondered why I had that bald patch on the back of my head after the last time I went backpacking with you guys.. somebody was getting a DNA sample!”

“I cant take all of the credit pedxing.....Pennsy started the idea of checking the lot. His automatic parking lot range finder went off and the rest is history....”

“What's up with that tree? Weird indeed!”

“Yes indeed, it was a fun weekend. The gorgeous weather on Sunday was our reward for dealing with all the rain on Friday and the viewless day on Saturday.

Great trip reports guys, as well as the pics Mister M and Fritz. I don't have much to add since they covered just about everything, but Bobo... ME the nicest guy?? Ptooey!!!!

One thing about Ice Tea... I swear that if he ever goes on a hiking trip more than 3 days, he'll need at least a gallon of white gas.

It was great meeting 2 new people, LtHiker and Johnmck, and as always it was a blast hiking with the other nuts. John gave us a hell of a scare on Saturday and I hope he's ok. Where are ya?

Oh, see the next post for pics, especially 2 particular ones.”

“Yes folks, Artex was on this trip! In fact, he was the only one there. Everyone else bailed! See for yourself:

The all Artex Logger's Path Pic

Being the good sports that we are, we hold no grudge that Artex moved to Florida on us.... NOT! See for yourself again:

Burn baby burn!!

disclaminer: Capn Bobo is responsible for this so please don't shoot the messenger.

Oh, there are some actual trip pics if anybody's interested:
The rest of the pics”

“IT'S ALIVE!”

“ROTFLMFAO hahahha!!!!!!!!”

“Too Funny Pennsy... makes me feel like I met him before he left for FL.”

“ROFLMAO!!! You guys are HILARIOUS! You guys are also the best, I can't wait to get up there soon and hike with you guys again! Too funny!!!! :-D”

“LOL...I forgot about that treat!!!

ROTFLMAO!!!”

“That gets funnier every time I look at it!

and just for clarification; Pennsy, I meant "the nicest" in a generally speaking manner, like "the friendliest dog", or "the strangest hiker". Certainly, my good friend, you were not THE nicest guy... what are you kidding me???

also please note, disclaminer: Capn Bobo is responsible for this so please don't shoot the messenger. Uh, excuse me, but who took that picture of BillyBob Artex anyway?

I'll take half-credit if you fess up too!

Responsibility and Bobosity do not mix.”

“Hey! Why is CapnBobo making that strange face when he is sitting next to stinky shirt, I mean Dare?”

“Hey Bobo - thanks for clearing that up for me. Soo, WHO is the nicest?

Hey, I took the photo but you extorted it out of me for this project.

Adv - you think Bobo made a strange face? You should have seen Dare's face when Bobo started spreading spare rib barbecue sauce on his arm.”

“I just got off the phone with Pennsy, so I know who's responsible for printing up those pics! :-)

In most Native American cultures, it's a form of acceptance when one is ridiculed and made fun of, so having said that, I'm nothing but honored. :-)”

“I would of put my picture on my A$$....”

“Now I know why that pic rung a bell with me. It reminds me of a CD cover by the band Aphex Twin! So similiar it's spooky!”

“Sounds and looks like a great trip. Those foggy trail shots are beautiful.

The Artex pic, on the other hand, is downright SCARY! LMAO”