making waves on the Loyalsoaked Trail- T rip Report

“Not going to post a report or pics tonight because it is quite late and I have to clean my stuff yet. Saturday it rained, rained and rained. The trail was a river. The waterfalls and creeks were raging and a tree almost fell on us amongst other things. Was a great trip and we hiked our phannies off. On board for the trip were Jmitch, Phantom SOul and My brother Russ. Stay tuned.”

“Got back a little after 9 after only stopping for gas, and my stuff is in the process of drying out... TR to follow tomorrow...maybe...if you're good...”

“jmitch lives!

Sometimes if it's gonna be humid, I'd just prefer to be drenched in rain. Of course, too muck of a good thing...

Looking forward to the TR!”

“Looking forward to TR. I had to bail. Son had to get physical for fall sports on Sat. Sounds like I stayed drier because of it !”

“man, my pics didn't cme out as well as I had hoped. First time using the new camera on the trail. Some came out really well but others not so well. Hopefully I will adapt to the new camera quickly. I hope your's came out well PS.”

“bobo,

yeah, i lived, barely.”

“I bet it didn't take much to find those waterfalls!”

“Ha ha I stayed home nice and dry for a change. I'm sure I'll get soaked with you sometime later in August. God forbid we'd go hiking in the East this year and not get soaked.”

“Hey JMitch, have you ever hiked when it was not raining?”

“Friday 7/30/04

I left work at around 5pm and was quickly stalled in the infamous DC traffic. Two hours later I was north of Baltimore. Once I was through Harrisburg, PA it was pretty easy going. The drive parallells the Sesquahanna River almost the entire way. Very pretty.

I arrived at Worlds End SP at around 1030 and my brother, Russ was already there. We then set up my tent in the rain and Waited for Phantom Soul. At about 1130 we decided to walk to the Ranger station to see if PS was there. He wasn't so we walked back and when we got back he was there and his tent was set up. We stayed up and talked until 2am and then crashed waking up around 7am.

Saturday 7/31/04

We packed up and met Jmitch at the Ranger Station by 750. Everyone geared up and we shuttled to Brunnerdale Rd and hit the trail below Angel Falls. It wasn't raining at this point but man was it muggy.

The falls leading up to Angel Falls were small but spectacular none the less with the perfect flow. Then we got to Angel Falls and it knocked me out it was so beautiful. I have hiked to this waterfall many a time and have never seen it in such glory. It has always been just a wet mossy cliff, but this day it was perfection. Angel Falls is about 80 feet high.

We sat below the falls for a while and soaked in the splendor and then did the steep climb to the top of the falls and took in the view.

From there we continued on the trail along the ridge and then down into Kettle Creek Gorge and then up onto the next ridge and stopped at Kettle Creek Vista. There were numerous water crossings up to this point but none of them were too bad and we were able to rock hop across. Even Kettle Creek was ok, despite the high flow in the creeks. At Kettle Creek overlook we saw a small snake in a tree. Twas a pretty snake. None of us were able to identify it. It was about 3 feet long. I tried to get a pic of it but it turned out blurry.

So we marched on, down into another gorge. The creek in this gorge was bloody red. Jmitch said it had to do with a swamp where it originated from. Some of needed to pump water but decided to wait for the next creek. No shortages of water sources along this trail. Then there was a big climb up to Mary's view, we stopped there and snacked some more and soaked in the view. Twas a nice view and we heard the rumblings of thunder and off to the west were the menacing clouds of doom. We quickly put on pack covers but decided not to rain gear up. We were all already soaked from sweat.

So we hiked on and it was not long before the rain caught up with us. It rained and rained and rained some more. We hiked along the ridge before the pull up to high knob and it was a torrential down pour. There was not a dry spot to be found. As we were hiking we here the sound of a tree falling above us. We all stopped and looked around for the falling tree. Luckly it was about 50 feet from where we were standing. Still too close. The trails then turned into river, water water everywhere. We were getting hungry and were still hoping to have lunch on the top of High Knob. It's a big climb up to the top of High Knob but it is graded with switchbacks, still it leaves you breathing heavy.

Finally we reached the summit of High Knob. You could tell it was a splendid view and would be a great place to have lunch but it was still raining and it was quite windy at the top. Impossible to have lunch. Russ was depending on lunch though and we let Jmitch and PS go ahead and had some granola bars to get his tank above E.

From High Knob there were about 3-4 miles to go and most of it was down hill. The rain didn't let up until we had almost reached camp. There were alot of stream crossing over raging creeks. Those were pretty fun. The water falls were raging. It was really awesome. Even small drainages looked like Niagra.

We reached Ketchum Creek gorge around 6:00 and dropped our packs. Jmitch took us up stream to see a few waterfalls. They were spectacular and were over flowing and raging. We then went back grabbed our packs and headed to where we were going to camp for the night. One more raging ford and we were there. Jmitch found one of the best camping spots ever. A big wide area with soft ground beneath big hemlocks and right next to Ketchum Creek which provided a sweet background soundtrack. We all set up our tents and then had dinner. We tried to get a fire going but it was just too wet. Camp was great except for a small mishap. We stayed up till about 9 and talked. I think everyone got to sleep pretty quickly. We hiked more than 14 miles on Saturday and were pretty tired.

Sunday 8/1/04

Woke up around 730 and got things together slowly. Everyone had breakfast and packed up. I was the last one to get packed. We were on the trail around 930. The sun was out and it was a lovely day. We hiked down through Ketchum Creek Gorge (beautiful gorge) past a few more waterfalls. Then we climbed out of the gorge up to Lower Alpine View and it was a steep climb. We stopped at Lower Alpine View and soaked in the view, the Loyalsock Creek could be seen winding through the valley. There was a small waterfall running over the cliff at the view and was very pretty. We then climbed the rest of the way to Upper Alpine view. There we stopped and had lunch. We decided to cut a few miles out of day2 and roadwalked on a forest service road and then roadwalked on the main road into Worlds End for around 2 or so miles. When we got to the Double Run trail we went down into the Double Run gorge and took in a few more Waterfalls before reaching Rt. 154 where we roadwalked the last 1/4 mile to the Ranger Station. We then dried off and shuttled back to Brunnerdale Rd. Jmitch knew of a restaurant in Forksville (Forksville Tavern) and we went there for dinner. It was about 5 when we got to the tavern. Luck would have it that they had an awesome special waiting for us. Chicken and Biscuts with two sides and seconds on the house. The perfect cap to a great hike. From there we went on our separate ways.

I got back into DC around 11. I talked to Russ and he was home by 12.

-
was a great hike. We did around 21 miles of hiking overall. The scenery was spectacular and out in force. The waterfalls were some of the best I have ever seen. It was great hiking with Jmitch and Phantom Soul and awesome that my brother was able to make the trek from Boston. Thanks to Jmitch for coming up with the awesome route and showing us where all the falls were. Had a super time.”

“this was one of the most memorable, and challenging, TT trips ever.

as we began, there was a large group from the AMC, they were behind us. angel falls was awesome, and the snake in the tree at kettle creek vista was cool. we met an older couple at that vista.

i never encountered such heavy rain while hiking. it was torrential for hours it seemed and we were all completely soaked. the t-storms seemed to form and re-form above us. the trail quickly became engulfed with pools and torrents. the tree branch falling near us was a little scary.

of course, all this rain resulted in awesome falls and gushing streams. cape run was our first crossing, and we stopped to check out the awesome falls and cascades below the trail. we pushed on to incredible ketchum run, which had swollen to a raging river, which we forded. we bushwhacked upstream to check out several great falls and cascades, including a secret campsite! we went back down to the trail.

the AMC group had already set up camp, they must've taken a short-cut. we hiked downstream, along the trail to our campsite, and set up for the night. it was at this time my left ankle became injured, but i think the story should pass word of mouth, as compared to on TT.

on sunday, the rain was over. we hiked down ketchum run, into a tight gorge with incredible waterfalls and cascades, amazing scenery. the water was gushing!!

we climbed up to alpine views and reached coal mine rd. due to our circumstances, we decided to bail. we hiked coal mine rd out to double run rd and then walked to worlds end. i decided to check out double run, with more great waterfalls. we finally reached worlds end, where stretched out in the sun.

the scenery was awesome, as was the company. it was great to hike with earthnsky again, and to meet phantomsoul, and earthnsky's brother.

we began a loyalsock tradition by eating at the forksville inn, sunday special is chicken n' biscuits. good stuff!”

“I can feel the moisture through your words.


Yeah Baby, Forksville Inn!”

“I took the day off today. Pics are on the way. Stay tuned.”

“EarthnSky...sounds like a nice trip. Rain! Well, ya' gotta' take the bad with the good. I love that area. Jmitch knows the falls to view!

jmitch..like WK asked, "Do you ever hike when it's dry?" Hope your ankle is OK. I'm really sorry I couldn't make the trip.

PhantomSoul...you'll be catchin' Pennsy with # of trips and miles driven soon!

Nice trip.I'll be waitin' for all the pics.”

“looking forward to Phantom's photos”

“awesome pics!! such a great area. the falls were awesome! ketchum creek is so beautiful. great trip.”

“the pic of ketchum falls 2 is excellent.”

“yeah, I think that area is one of the best backpacking spots in the east. It's not overrun with people either. We definitely need to start doing some trips out there. So much hiking. Sorry a bunch of the pics turned out blurry. Getting to know a new camera and didn't expirement prior to the trip as much as I should have.”

“I'm thinking about driving up to Forksville Inn for my second helping.”

“jmitch, I finally bought your book Friday. Now to find some time to put it to use!”

“EarthNsky - wish I could have made it for your 2-nighter, and I sympathize with your water-water-everywhere. See my trip report made earlier today (Green Ridge St. Park, MD). I had enough time for a 1-nigher, so I made my own trip. Lots-o-rain, too.”

“Great pictures and glad to hear the trip was a success despite the heavy rain. I saw all the rain on the radar Sat. and figured you guys were getting hit pretty hard. That night on the local news they showed flash flooding in Sonestown, not far from where Worlds End is.”

“EarthNsky..great pics! Looks like ya' got the new camera down pretty good already. Gotta' love those waterfalls and cascades. I see more trips to the area in the future.”

“yeah, the rain added a whole dimmension to the adventurability of the trip. Wish you could have made it. Sunday stayed dry until an hour into the drive home.”

“got some ways to go with the new camera. Alot of photos had to be sacraficed due to they were to blury to post. Bummer, there are some nice waterfalls missing. Hopefully PS' will have turned out great.”

“nice pics--it's beautiful. i wish i coulda made this trip.”

“what kinda snake this is

http://community.webshots.com/photo/170057820/170072905FzadQZ”

“I checked out the pics. NICCEEE!!!!
you had hills and even water!!!!

I'll read the trip reports later.”

“Nice pics Earth, those seemed to come out a lot better in the low light than your pics used to! Did you get a new camera or figure out a different setting?”

“Oops I shoulda read the whole thread, pics look great with the new camera!”

“yeah, Bison, I think you would like the Loyalsock trail a whole lot. That is a sweet area of PA. Good hiking to be done there. I think there will be some return trips in the near future.”

“I bought a new camera. I got a canon power shot A80 and it has a lot of different settings so I tried a bunch of things. I have much to learn on the camera. Stupid me took the manual with and had it in my pocket the entire time. The manual is now trash.”

“ENS, I think canon has the manuals online too. I found my manual for an older canon camera on their site too.”

“Phantom Soul where you be? Post your pics!”

“Dang, I hate it when I miss a great trip close to home. Nice reports guys, and nice job with the new cam, Comrade.

btw - I believe that slithery critter is a gartersnake.”

“that's what I said. I knew it was a garter snake. Everyone was like "no that is not a garter snake" lol I was right ha!”

“impress your friends and be more specific: "this little baby is a short-headed gartersnake, not be confused with the eastern gartersnake."”

“hmmmm, it looks a bit like the eastern gartersnake too. Better be safe and just call it a friggin garter. Yeah, that's the ticket. "This little baby is your typical Pennsylvania friggin gartersnake. Crikey, she's a beauty!"”

“I tried to get good waterfall pics with the new camera. The water was flowing so much it was hard to avoid the marshmellow affect. I'm still a tad shaky with the new digi. I think I might be going kayaking or rafting on the Lehigh somewhere in the area of Jim Thorpe on the 14th. If not I'd like to go for a dayhike, so if your around and want to go, lemme know.”

“thinks for the info too. lol. Or if you want to be specific friggus gartus snakes of eastern PAus.”

“sounds like u had a wet weekend just like us! but overall sounds like a blast.”

“yeah, I know what you mean about the falls. Sometimes, all that water is too much of a good thing. You got some good ones though.

The 14th, I'll be in Maine. I'll bet the Lehigh in Jim Thorpe was crazy this past weekend.”

“I cometh at last...

Sorry, unlike you, ENS, some of us had to work today, and to make it worse, I got stuck at the office until 7:30. Anywhoo, I'm putting together a TR now, so stay tuned...”

“Camp was great except for a small mishap.

Well???”

“hope your ankle is feeling better.”

“Did someone say garter?

Earth Wind & Fire was wearing a garter belt???

jmitch, please report to TT Injured Reserve.”

“Much of that trail is a ball-buster. In the heat and humidity, it musta been a beyatch. Glad you had a good time. Its by far my favoritist area of PA. I think the sweetest part of that area is a short loop hike up from across from the cabin area. Lovely waterfall with a huge deeeep pool. Alittle crowded in the Summer but great at first light.”

“I'm about to serve up the story of the century. Ok, maybe not, but an epic adventure deserves an epic story, so here goes... (I hope this works)”