Allegheny Front Trail - Trip Report

“Friday July 22nd, 2005

Jackstraw, Crazypace and myself EarthNsky met at the parking lot at Black Moshannon Lake at Black Moshannon State Park just as the sun was setting Friday night. It hadn't been but a few minutes after a large thunderstorm rolled through to reveal a beautiful and brilliant sunset.

We talked for a few minutes and decided to set out on our common goal. We intended to "CHALK UP ANOTHER ONE!"

We did a quick shuttle, leaving my car at the western trail head on PA Rt 504. The Allegheny Front Trail is a 40 mile loop, the northern half containing a bulk of the loop, 23 miles. We arrived at the eastern trailhead on 504 shortly after, geared up and toasted our hike with a nice cold Yuengling care of Jackstraw. It was good.

It was now 9pm and it was getting dark fast. We all donned our headlamps and made our way into the woods. The trail was alterated from a footpath to a woods road through thick fern groves and wooded areas. At one point we came out into an open area to see the night sky red with the setting sun and it was very pretty. Soon after that it was pitch black. The orange blazes on the trees became difficult to follow, but we managed. We hiked vigoriously and we all were looking forward to getting to our campsite. We all had hammocks and it was a great night for hammock camping.

It was very hot and humid, but we trekked on. The woods were dark and erie and it was quite foggy at times. At one point we all smelled a strong animal odor that smelled like wet dog and it was close by. We could hear its footsteps. We started talking and we were all sure it was a bear. We could not see it because the woods were so dark and foggy. We made some noise and we could hear it slowly walking away into the darkness.

Seeing a bear in the daytime is great, but seeing a bear in the night time is just plum scarey.

We continued on our way. The trail was at times very rocky and at other times quite overgrown. Due to the recent rain, the vegitation was quite wet and we were all getting saturated. My trail runners were swamped.

We couldn't find our campsites near the jct with the Rock Run Trail and so we trekked on. The moon was starting to rise in the southern sky. It slowly added light to our scope. We crested the plateau and then all decided we should start looking for a campsite. We had been hiking for more than two hours and were about 5 miles in.

We found an open woody area with some maple trees and decided to break for camp.

We set up our hammocks and then talked for a little and hit the sack.

-
The early morning sun woke us up by 7 and we broke camp by 8. There was no water near our campsite so we had to wait to eat breakfast. Not a problem. Water is plentiful on the AFT.

The further we hiked from camp the more overgrown the trail became. The trail was at several points non-existent. We were hiking thru an extremily thick laurel grove and it was scratching up our legs and demoralizing us. Still it was a very nice day and we continued.

Finally we arrived at the beautiful Brenner Run and decided to break for breakfast and water. Crazypace had his technological work of backpacking water treatment genius, the MSR Mox ??? thingamajig. It worked well and we were all impressed. oooh aaahhh look at the water fiz!

Soon we got to the jct of Brenner Run and Black Moshannon Creek and there was a strange structure, but it was locked. we crossed a couple cool bridges, checked out some cool campsites and continued on our way. The trail became uneventful. up and down little hills and through the woods for several miles. Finally we came to an open area and we could hear I-80 off in the distance and we figured we were near the I-80 vista. We were hungry for lunch. I could tell crazypace was looking forward to trying his spam sandwhich delight! We hiked for a mile but found now vista. We came around a corner and there was a beautiful and quite large red fox staring right at us and he stared at us for a while and us at him. It was very cool. I was so amazed that I forgot to get out my camera. When I remembered, he turned and ran off into the woods. Very cool. We were all astounded and lost the trail, but not for long. We quickly turned back and then found where we missed our turn. We looked around and there were a few large rocks and the area was sunny. We decided this to be our lunch spot.

We were all socked from our bushwack through the very thick and wet laurel. We took off our shoes and socks and allowed them to dry in the sun wow we ate our lunch.

After lunch we came across the I-80 vista. Not much of a vista. Here we lost the trail again and we walked almost all the way to I-80 before turning back to find the trail again, but we found it. As we descended to Red Moshannon we were struck by a strange color that was coming from the bottom of the valley. It looked like there was a red light beaming towards us. It was strange. As we got closer we could see that it was the creek that was beaming this red color towards us. At even a closer glance it looked like the Chocolate River from Willy Wonka.

Finally we arrived upon her shores. The Red Moshannon has a very deep red color, almost the color of rust. Not sure what the color comes from, but it stained the rocks. No way we were going to drink the water from it.

The trail followed the creek for a few miles, sometimes turning and going up a steep hill only to drop back to the creek. This was frustrating. It was hot and we were getting tired. The heat was definitely getting to us and the trail was not exciting us.

Finally the trail turned to follow Six Mile Run. This part of the trail was very buggy, but after a while we arrived at my car and 504. We all decided to call it a day, grab dinner at the Black Moshannon Family Restaurant, which incidently doesn't sell any alchohal and then head home.

We all had fun and we all intend to return to finish the southern half of the trail, perhaps in a few weeks.

No problem, we'll soon chalk this one up. ;)

The southern half is the better half from what I have read.

Here are the pics”

“I did like the AFT, the trail was overgrown quite a bit and it was pretty hot the day we hiked it and it was very buggy. The northern half has some sections that are kind of boring.”

“Blazes? We don't need no stinkin' blazes! ;)

The pics of the Red Moshannon Creek are cool ~ but I didn't see any oompa loompas? Nice report, ENS ~ sounds like you have some unfinished business on the AFT. ;) I've never been there but it's on my ever-growing list...”

“Nice TR and pics ENS! Red Moshannon Creek, looks like it's colored by red clay. It doesn't look like the tannin that I'm used to. BTW I think it's the MSR MIOX or mixed oxidants. I hear they work well, but take a half hour to render the water safe. Sounds like you guys had a great time, good job!
last edited: 7/28/05 8:50:30 PM”

“oh lol we were drinking the water right away. Oh well. I think I am in the clear now that it is a week later.

No oompa loompas LMG, but I did try to eat the plants and they were not made of candy unfortunately.”

“Well sh*t...non-candy plants? That's like non-beer streams. What's the point?”

“or non-beer restaurants near the trailhead when all you want is a cold beer.

IE Black Moshannon Family Restaurant, although, I must say, the food was good.
last edited: 7/28/05 8:50:05 PM”

“I brought high tech water purification and turkey spam (in convienient single serving packets) - I am a master of preperation !!

Oh, wait jackstraw brought beer. He is the master.”

“awesome pics - the creek is really cool. :)”

“Sounds like another good hike. Nice pictures too.”

“ENS,

good report- the southern half is better, there are more views.”

“Nice trip report and pics! What happened to Sunday and the southern section? Oh wait, the infamous yellow spring is in that section. No wonder you avoided it. ;o)”

“We were wondering if the redness of Red Moshannon Creek was the result of your miterating in the pristine spring two years ago.”