Ricketts Glen - Worlds End Trip Report

“Fall is a spectacular time to visit the Endless Mountains of PA. Last week's advice from you guys was right on the money, colors were slightly past peak and wind gusts from last week denuded the leaves from a good amount of trees. The autumnal reds were scarce, but the oranges, yellows, and light greens were still in full force. Good weather, good colors, and good friends made for a great trip!

I was pleasantly surprised to find more TTers than I had bargained for as the Bro and I pulled into the new park office at Ricketts Glen. We were greeted by Dare, richb, M_Silver, and Pennsy (a.k.a. Pennsy hiker, a.k.a. Bruce Almighty!). We joined up with NJpacker at the Falls Trail trailhead and our little clique was off! We were lucky enough to get down the Glen Ganoga trail and catch about a dozen beautiful waterfalls before we ran into… the crowd! Taking the trail back up the Glen Leigh trail we were inundated with peeps! Lots and lots of waterfall-watching peeps! But we still got great pictures and of course Bruce Almighty! carried his 65 pound tripod. People thought we were a photography club, the nerve of them! At one point, I had the Bro-in-law take a picture of me directing peep traffic, like a waterfall crossing guard - all I needed was a whistle! Dare went MIA going up Glen Leigh and we thought maybe Special Ops came in and choppered him out! At the trail's end, we did catch back up with Dare (mission complete!) and we bid farewell to Njpacker (who had to go two-steppin' to a Sunday wedding), richb (came back Sunday for the dayhike), Dare (went hiking "supposedly" with AmyG), and the mighty_M (Thanks much for letting the Bro borrow your hiking staff).

Saturday evening, Bruce Almighty!, Bro and I retreated to my super-secret campsite for a nice fire and our own mini-TC cookoff. Pennsy won the battle with his Salmon-Tortellini surprise. It became a confusing evening because Bro had Scotch and Pennsy had Sambuca (did I mention we had cold beer!) and I just couldn't decide… so I drank both.

Sunday, we met back with richb and Jeff "mercury toes" Mitchell, and did an 8 mile stretch of the Loyalsock trail from Angel Falls to High Knob. Great hiking and lots of picture-taking! All weekend Bruce Almighty! was trying to pin a trailname on the Bro (Firestarter, Bilbo, Mr. Baggins) but the best trailname came when Bro took a fall into the creek and we came up with the name, Flounder! If you're lurking out there Bro, you'd better pick your TT name.. soon!

It was great to see familiar TTers and to meet some new friends too. Njpacker, looking forward to hiking with you again! richb, a real pleasure to finally meet the master gear-craftsman! I'm looking forward to seeing trip pictures as they trickle in.”

“nice report! Can't wait to see the waterfall pictures with all the color.

The trees are still pretty up here even though the leaves are falling steadily.

yummy tortellini, yum. Lthiker wouldn't eat any when I made it. :(”

“Nice trip report, how was the weather out there on Sunday? It was rainy and overcast at my house all day.

Bunny boiler LtHiker requires pesto, olive oil and fresh garlic for his tortellini on the trail.”

“Nice report. Makes me want to hike PA for the waterfalls. I like water against snow. Just may have to check out Jmitch's book.”

“Sounds like fun, Bobo. I was out on a Camporee with the scouts this weekend. Saturday was a great day for hiking. Hope it was the same out there for you...”

“on sunday, we met a worlds end and drove to scenic high knob vista. from there we shuttled cars down to brunnerdale road. we began our hike along scenic streams and climbed up along falls creek, with several cascades and waterfalls, before reaching 80 foot angel falls. we hiked into kettle creek gorge, reaching a beautiful view, where we stopped and ate lunch.

the group descended and crossed (barely) beautiful kettle creek, passing a cascade and awesome campsite. we climbed out of the gorge and descended along scenic dutter's run, with many cascades and small waterfalls. we finished with a steep climb to high knob. great time. i took a lot of potential cover photos.”

“Capn Bobo,
Thanks for putting this hike together. I had a great time. I still can't realize just how nice the colors and falls complimented each other!! Wish I could've stayed for Sunday. Glad you had a nice day. My pics came out fantastic! It was nice to meet all of you guys and I hope we can hike together again.

Almighty Bruce..sent you an e-mail last night. I hope you don't have a sore shoulder from carrying that heavy equipment around !! LOL..

Jmitch....as always, your advice was on the money. The falls were fantastic.
NJpacker”

“It was a good time Bobo, wish I could have stayed longer, but given the coice of hiking with you or AmyG....well, you understand.

Just for the record, I was not MIA. I just had to take a leak really bad. I went back in the woods for environmental reasons and I didnt want to cause any women to leave their husbands.”

“When she left, all she muttered was "inadequate," and "what a horse!"”

“lol....something like that.”

“CapnBobo: Your trip report is excellent. Thanks for putting together the dayhike on Saturday. I totally enjoyed myself.

jmitch: Enjoyed reading your trip report addendum. Wish I could've made it for Sunday too.

Was nice being with the clique-ers ...errr, I mean click-ers (ie. camera cliqueres ...get it?). Was also nice to meet two more TTers ...NJpacker and Bob/Flounder.

It was great fun, guys!”

“Capn Bobo, Thanks for arranging a superb weekend and writing the great trip report. It was nice to meet you, Bob, NJpacker, also it's always great hiking with the rest of my TT pals. Jmitch's route up Angel Falls was really nice and much better than the going around the Falls on the LT.”

“Super pics Mister M!! The last one with the MIA Dare is a riot.

The good Capn done did good on organizing this last minute trip. Rickett's Glen was awesome, and Bobo's secret campsite was most excellent. Bobo's home grown veggies and sausages were great, but stay away from his hot peppers. Zowy! Thank goodness we had beer, sambucca and scotch to wash it all down. ;o)

Sunday's hike up Angel Falls and along the Loyalsock Trail was a real fun time, especially when Bobo's brother-in-law Bob/Firestarter/Bilbo/Baggins/Flounder entertained us with his flop into the stream.

It's too bad NjPacker, MisterM, and Dare couldn't make the Sunday hike. I hope she was worth it Dare. ;o)

NJP - I got your email and the pic. Thanks a bunch!! By the way, I mentioned you to my brother. He said "hell yeah, I remember him from HS. Ask him about the time he played the rabbit for the Easter egg hunt." Hmmmm, sounds like a good story.

I'm working on pics as we speak. Perhaps very late tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned.”

“One more thing before I get back to the pics. Thanks to RichB for making me a very cool alcohol stove. You the man!”

“Msilver, Thanks for posting the very cool pictures. Bruce, hope you enjoy the new stove. There's a little learning curve with using these stoves as far as fuel consumption, simmering and how much fuel to pour in when you first start so none gets wasted. A windscreen is a must too. Have fun with it.”

“I vote for "flounder" only because it's an Animal House classic, and needs to be bestowed upon a cool TT'rs brother!”

“Thanks BB! Flounder has been working real hard to get his feet and mind toughened up to TT standards and found it quite challenging to keep up with "mercury toes" jmitch's breakneck pace (which is about the same pace of every TTer I've hiked with - except John McK)!

Pennsy wanted real bad to help Bob as he fell into the stream, but the feet and poles were slapping around so fast, we could only look back in horror! Flounder, we said!!! We laughed soo hard, it hurt!

M_Silver, wonderful pictures, MIA Dare is too funny! I just got back the pics from the second half of the trip and will post soon. I've got some doozies!”

“Hey Bobo - I can't wait to see your doozies!

In the meantime, Here are my pics”

“great pictures everyone! too bad i missed out on this one :( looks like you guys had a blast”

“Awesome...some really graet shots Bruce. Thanks for sharing.
NJpacker

graet !! Oh well, it's past my bedtime anyway.”

“amazing photos...the water looks like it was frozen in time...and caught in the motion between here and there. you got it down dude, for sure. thanks.”

“Great Trip Report...

Great Pictures....

Pennsy I really like the shots where you use a lot of foreground and keep the focus of the photo in the background...”

“Great pics Pennsy, that camera really earns it's keep. I would have loved to stayed, its sounds like you had a blast, but again AmyG is alot better looking.”

“Awesome pictures!
=D”

“Ausable Shots, Mr. Almighty! You da Man! That's not a toupee dude, it's a Chullo!


Here are the pics from the second half of the trip. I used slide film for the Ricketts Glen shots and yawn they're still out for processing.

Sunday – World's End S.P.”

“awesome pics, such a great region”

“"Hey Bobo - I can't wait to see your doozies!"
Bruce Almighty
09:26:38 PM

His what?

Pennsy, you missed the best Roaring Plains trip ever :^P
The sky was mostly clear.
Visibility was nearly unlimited.
The winds were mild.”

“what shutter speed did you use to create the cascade effect and what f stop did you use to compensate for the over exposure factor? speed of film???”

“...nice shots dude....they're sooo.....like....I got it....clique-a-licious....you're like a regular modern day Ansel Adams....

But seriously Bruce....thanks for posting them....i'm kinda kicking myself in the arse for not making a surprise special guest appearance....too many real life endeavours to handle and could'nt swing it....but I suppose there's always next time....”

“Sweet pics Bobo! I like ONE of your 2 doozies. LOL! Awesome job of hand-holding that 1 shot at 1/8 sec. But, what happened to "hands of a surgeon" on your "Too Much Motion" shot? heh heh.

I'm looking forward to see your Rickett's pics. Where's the others? NJpacker aka "Right Spot," do you have an online album? Dare, what about yours?

Stik, depending on the light and situation, most of the pics were around F16, shutterspeed 1/15, and iso 200. I bounced around a bit between F13 and F20, and a few pics were shot at 640 iso. I was using a digital SLR so I was able to change the iso. I also had to shoot faster speeds for the fuller falls, up to 1/40th. I find that digital exposure is more finicky with waterfalls than film. It's real easy to completely wash out a digi falls shot at a slow speed where a film shot will come out fine at the same speed. I've got a bunch of "deleters" to prove it. ;o)

Tommy T - I was talking about you this weekend thinking you got great weather for a change. Woohoo for you! Where's your trip report??”

“I appreciate the info...now I gotta go find some water and start shootin...Dana knows lots of waterfall spots, but they are a long ways from me. but to hike with Danababy...whats 500 miles.

Hey, are you gonna go on the mr Rogers hike? I'd like to meet ya.”

“Wished you guys would have went somewhere that had nice waterfalls and fall color... :p”

“Stik - your darn tootin I'm coming to Mt Rogers! I know a lot of Dana's waterfall spots in southwest North Carolina. It's the waterfall capital of the world IMHO. It's worth the trip for a 'couple' of reasons.

Shoot, what's 500 miles anyway? I go 625 miles to hike with Twigeater.

I hear ya Baldy. You only have little falls like Yosemite out there, and I saw the "touch of color" pic you just posted. ;o)”

“I don't know how you got any walkin' done stopping to take all of those waterfall pics.

I enjoyed all of your pics chrome dome, Msilver and Capn!”

“awesome pics.....thank you so much for sharing!!!”

“Almighty Bruce,
I don't currently have an on-line album. I have plenty of pics from the weekend. Shoot me an email to include your landline. I'll give you a call and you can educate me. Thanks
NJpacker”

“Bruce and Bobo, pictures look great, thanks. Nice fireplace at the super secret campsite.”

“Capn'... Really really nice pics there! Nice job hand-holding the camera at 1/8 sec. Great shots of Angel Falls, and "Pure Pennsylvania." And good candids too of the Clique Brotherhood ...including Rich B at his nemesis stream crossing, the birth of Flounder, etc. That one shot (Do you know this man?") might be Bruce's "doozie" ...and don't even go there, because the only clue for me is in the gaiters.

Pennsy... Hey what can I say?! You're pictures are much more than photographs ...They're Works of Art! You're the camera god, dude!

Thanks for posting 'em, guys.”

“Mister M - You are much too kind. :o) But stay away from my doozie!

Hey Chromey - funny you say that because I was telling the guys on Saturday that no one goes to Ricketts Glen to actually hike. It's a beautiful 7 mile hiking trail but there are 29 named waterfalls on the loop. That does not include the several un-named falls and cascades.

NJp - it's as simple as going to Webshots and signing up for a free account. It's been so long since I joined and I forget the process but follow the prompts. It's pretty simple. I don't have a landline anymore, just a cell. It's 610-442-0364 if you want to give me a buzz.”

“Mr. 65 pound tripod and friends,
Most all of the waterfall pictures that have already been posted (except Angel Falls) were taken freehand (too lazy to get the tripod out) and were taken at shutter speeds between 1/8 to 1/15 when light would allow, although I wasn’t happy with the 400 ISO film (kinda dull).

Bruce_A, shame on you... The Motion shots were supposed to be just that! I was running down the trail to get the motion effect with the subject (your butt) in focus... and just when I was going to proclaim you the greatest photographer ever...

More pictures have trickled in. Everyone will like this one, this may be a candidate for an updated User Picture, whaddya think?

EEERRRRRR! The dang picture hasn't posted to the photo album yet!!!

PLEASE HOLD ..........”

“Sheesh! That took so long to update, I had to go eat a doughnut!

AND NOW…

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Introducing that smooth trailtalker,
a hit in the backpacking world,
photographer extraordinaire,
Mr. Ricco Suave hisself...

Bruce Almighty!”

“hahaha, that picture is awesome!!”

“Good FREAKIN Lord!!! That had to be after the sambucca and scotch! LMAO!!!!!

btw - nice try with the purposal motion butt shot. What the hell were you doing chasing my butt anyway???”

“LMAO! What a great shot!
=D”

“Good Grief!

Do I know that guy?”

“Nice shots, guys. I really reeeally wanted to make this hike, but duty calls. :\

Dare and I got out Sunday for a great dayhike up to the Pinnacle. We hit Cabelas while we were down there and were not impresessed. I think maybe the build-up was just too much and the store paled in comparison to the fantasy. sigh...don't ya hate that?! No worries...we went to REI instead!
>:D”

“What, you didn't need anything in camoflage?”

“OK - I wasn't aiming for your butt, just the hiker in front of me. And that happened to be your butt!

AmyG - I have a feeling the "supposed" dayhike was truly secondary to the covert Cabellas-REI gear purchasing fiasco that you had planned without Dare's knowing!”

“I love your hat in the "Sunday Lunch" photo!




You get the prize for funniest hat :^P”