Hiking at Night- Quehanna Trail Trip Rep ort

“This weekend I hoped to meet up with ENS for a QT trip. I got a late start Saturday and got to the trail at 11:30. I didn't see ENS's car, but did spy a suspicious looking Subaru.

I decided to take the blue blazed trails north with the hope of intercepting ENS at Arch Spring. I hiked through the beautiful Wykoff Run Natural Area with stately hardwoods, spruce, and laurel. I then decided to take the trails into Foley Draft.

What an incredibly beautiful place- cascading streams running full, 5-10 foot waterfalls, ground pine, hemlock and rhododendron. The forest was bare of leaves, but it was so green on the forest floor. There were large moss-covered boulders, and a passed a great campsite at the forks of the draft near waterfalls. I hiked out of the draft through a jungle of hemlock and laurel. Awesome stretch of trail.

I reached the QT and turned left to Laurel Draft Vista and Arch Spring. I waited for a bit, but no ENS. I wanted to camp out, but since it gets dark at 5:30, I didn't want to sit around in the dark for several hours until bedtime- especially since it would've been tough to start a fire.

I decided to backtrack to Hoover Rd., but didn't run into ENS, so I decided to return to Wykoff Natural Area via the road.

By the time I reached the natural area, it was dark and trail barely perceptible. The forest shadows grew deeper, but it was a cool experience hiking through the spruce. I got back to the car and headed home.

What a great trail and awesome scenery. I wish I met up with ENS, but I didn't know where he was or even if he was on the trail. I hiked about 12-13 miles.”

“hey Jmitch.. the subaru belonged to my friend, Heath and we rode up together. We got really slowed down due to the overflowing creeks and lack of bridges and camped down near the Wycoff Rd parking area.

The creeks were raging down in the drafts and crossing them and looking for places to cross them made for slow going.

Sorry we missed ya.”

“Mmmm, "Heath"...that reminds me of Heath Bars!”

“ENS-

Did you walk back out along Wykoff Road? Like the trail? Need a trip report.”

“I seem to have gotten stuck like a skipping record in the eastern portion of the QT. It is a great place. We came down Porcupine Draft last month after a good rain and it was a challenge crossing it in a few places. No rock hopping works when you have 2-3 feet of rushing water. Of course, I pushed some biger rocks in. Nice little adventure.”

“Patrick-

Eastern half of the QT is very nice. Definitely check out Sevinsky and Gore Trails in Foley Draft- very beautiful.”

“What an incredibly beautiful place- cascading streams running full, 5-10 foot waterfalls, ground pine, hemlock and rhododendron.

jmitch, get a camera.”

“Ha Ha! Yea, and replace your garbage bag rain gear.”

“I'll put something up tonight. I'll have to refer to the map. I'll have a few pics too.

I did enjoy the QT.

We actually made it up the QT to the Foley Trail and took that to Hoover Rd and walked Hoover Rd into the Wild Area and then back to the car. I am guessing we did about 19 miles total for the trip. Total bummer we missed you. We started hiking at 10 Saturday morning and had a good pace. We had to hike around some swampy areas, which were many.

It was the first draft that we hit after getting onto the QT that slowed us down. It took us almost 2 hours to go less than a mile, from walking up and down the creek to find suitable places to cross. Heath fell in at once point. It started to get dark and we hadn't gotten to Wycoff Road yet and had atleast 5 miles to go before Arch Spring, so we decided to camp near Wycoff road. We found a nice semi dry place along the cascades.

Yesterday we checked out the Gore Vista on our way back.

Didn't see a single Elk :(”

“We ended up walking out on Hoover road by accident on Sunday of the trip back in August because everytime we pulled out a map, the rain destroyed it.

Something about this place and rain. Every other trip I have stayed dry.”

“it didn't rain on us during the weekend, but they got 3+ inches of rain on Thursday and everything was running strong. The top of the plateau was nearly a swamp.”

“How's Gore Vista?

I drove down to Wykoff Rd. parking area when I first got to the trail. I should've done so again before I left.

That same draft gave us problems when I hiked with WK and others 2 years ago. Very pretty stream with cascades, though.”

“it was definitely beautiful. Probably the most beautiful part of the hike.”

“Jimmy San and I are thinking about thru hiking this sometime next year as a prep hike for his JMT hike. Think we can do it in 4 days?”

“I still say you should do the Black Forest instead, although, I enjoyed the Quehanna very much. I think the Quehanna would be an awesome fall trail. I wouldn't want to hike it in the summer.”

“That is what I am afraid of. His hike, if he is able to make it, will be in August so we would have to do it colse to that month.”

“you could take 4 days and have a great time on the Black Forest Trail... I totally recommend it over the Quehanna.”

“There are things on the Quehanna I prefer over the BFT.

ENS- where are the pics?”

“

this is the only one I have up so far.”