Lumberzac tours PA

“I spent all of last week doing a road/kayaking/hiking trip through Pennsylvania. I ended up putting close to 1500 miles on my car and 60 - 70 on my feet. I’m still working on a trip report but thought everyone might like to see some pictures first.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560562512lBRXYa?vhost=outdoors
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560561143HssAkX?vhost=outdoors
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560562036zMBXLG?vhost=outdoors
http://travel.webshots.com/album/560561633OflRYN?vhost=travel”

“Hey Little Buddy!!

Did ya visit Da Captain?”

“You were kind of in my back yard.”

“Here are a few things I learned while in PA. 1) The highways are always under construction. 2) You can’t buy beer from the supermarket. 3) Never bad mouth the Steelers or Sidney Crosby when in Pittsburgh.”

“I didn't make it down to Philly, so no hanging out with Da Captn. Maybe next time.”

“yeah the way they sell beer is really weird...”

“We sell beer the same way as anywhere else. Pays your money, get your beer. The difference is _WHERE_ you pays your money. I gets confusing even for us. Cases only from a beverage outlet. Six-pack take out license from bars and other retail outlets.

If you want wine or hard liquor you have to go to a state package store. [sarc]It's so much fun.{/sarc]”

“I like Maine's setup. One stop, go to the supermarket, buy beer, wine, and liquor.”

“Yee-Freakin'-Haw!!!!”

“Marko.. really... you should know better. In Maine it is "wicked good" or "eh-yeah"”

“nice pics!”

“I'm glad you are enjoying your tour Zac.

New Hampshire Beer and Wine are everywhere, anything else is only at State owned stores.

In Mass, there used to be no beer and wine at supermarkets - now a few can do it. The rest is at liquor stores or places that specialize in beer and wine.

It used to be no Sunday sales of alcohol (except at licensed bars and restaurants) in MA.”

“In Wisconsin everything is everywhere and you can get it anytime (but not all the time).”

“So if you want to drink responsibly on Sunday stock up on Saturday.”

“NY you can get all but hard liquor and wine from the supermarket, gas station convince store, or pharmacy. Wine and liquor you have to get from a liquor store and beer kegs you have to get from a beer distributor (there are at least one or 2 of those in most towns). The blue laws went away a few years ago so you can buy any day of the week. Most bars around me are open until at least 4am.”

“No, Sunday is also a good day for drunks.”

“I don't buy beer, but from what I've read, buying beer in PA. is not consumer friendly. Some people are trying to change that, but I'm not sure if they will. The bars and distributors don't want anyone cutting into their business.”

“Maybe that's why the highways aren't done. The workers get frustrated when the go home get beer. ;-)”

“Roads have always been a mess in PA., but the the construction while a PITA, is a good thing because at least they are fixing them. I drove on the turnpike today and they were inspecting a bridge that had the same construction as the one that collapsed in Minnesota. It wasn't a good feeling driving over that bridge. They just inspected bridges around here and some of them got a 2 out of 100 rating.”

“Anyways, nice pictures,the grand canyon is amazing.”

“NY is nice. Almost perfect except for Sunday and liquor in liquor stores only. But there are more liquor stores than supermarkets so I guess it doesn't matter. DC's a little stricter on beer and supermarkets. Most don't carry

Missouri was awesome, though! Beer, wine, liquor - all at the supermarket and all available on Sunday. Almost a reason to move there. LOL!”

“Bear, liquor stores can be open on Sundays in NYS as long as they are closed some other day of the week; normally Monday.”

“Uhhhh? When did that happen? Last i knew there was a blue law forbidding sunday sales, no?”

“Some time in '03 or '04.”

“Finally found a little bit of time for writing. Here's the first weekend. More to come at some point.

Lumberzac’s PA tour, TR - 8/24/07 - 9/03/07

Part 1 - Driving to PA the long way.

There's nothing like adding an extra 115 miles to an already long drive. The plan was to meet up with Scorchfire and her friend Kaiti at a campsite outside of Milford, PA Friday night, and then head to the Delaware Water Gap Saturday morning. I found out a week before the trip that I had to do a project walkthrough meeting Friday afternoon on Lake Champlain. Of course the meeting ran late and I didn't end up leaving to get back to the office until 4:45. To make matters worse, I go stuck behind a logging truck on Route 8 going 20 in a 55 with no way to pass. Some time after 7, I was finally leaving the office and heading for Pennsylvania. The drive down was relatively uneventful and was mostly interstate highway driving.

I arrived at the campsite around 10 in a bit of a foul mood, but that improved after opening up the first beer. Vacation time had finally arrived. We sat around in out makeshift camp for a few hours before heading to bed.

Part 2 - Hitting the water at last.

Morning came very early, 5:30am to be exact. The people at the kayak rental repeated to me multiply times to be ready to meet no later than 8:30. We broke camp, and hit the road arriving at Smithfield Beach way too early finding the parking area mostly vacant. Close to 8:15 a van pulled into the lot pulling a trailer full of canoes. WTF, I said I wanted a kayak. We walked over to the van and the driver handed Kaiti and myself folders with waver forms to sign. He told us that we had to sign them and then take them to Dingmans Ferry where we would launch and get our kayaks. Had we know this we could have saved a lot of sitting around and just spotted a car and gotten on our way much earlier.

I drove my car over to the far end of the parking lot, closest to the pullout area where it would site for the weekend. I kept having flashbacks of how I found my car in Lincoln Gap, Vermont with the windows smashed out after hiking part of the Long Trail last summer. There wasn't much I could do but hope for the best and we drove the 20 miles to Dingmans.

We got to Dingmans, paid our money and launched. This would be the first over night I've done in a kayak and the first time kayaking a river. It took a little getting used to the transition form single paddling or the oarlocks of my canoe to a double bladed paddle, but soon I got the rhythm down. The river paddling was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the rapids. At one rapid section Scorchfire instructed Kaiti to be careful not to hit a rock, only to hit one herself while her head was turned and get a big wave of water. The whole scene was rather comical, although I don't thing Scorchfire enjoyed it at the time. After sponging out most of the water, we made our way down river and picked a campsite for the night.

It was still fairly early in the afternoon when we set up camp. The heat was atrocious (just sitting there I had sweat pouring off of me) making it hard to make an effort to do anything. By dinner time the temperature probably dropped to about 95 with at least 90% humidity. After eating we didn't have to worry too much about what to do as a thunderstorm moved in sending us all to our tents temporarily, or so we thought. It ended up storming all throughout the night as cell after cell moved through. I found out that my new Henry Shires Double Rainbow leaks along the center ridgepole (need to seal the seams a second time). Some time after the sun just started to rise, it finally stopped raining.

When we finally emerged form our tents, everything that was outside was completely drenched and covered in mud. This made packing up a lot of fun. It was time to hit the river again. With all the rain we got throughout the night, I figured the water level would have risen more than the few inches that it did. The storms did nothing for the humidity other than make it worse, but at least they cut the temps down some. The final stretches had longer sections of flat water than the day before, but still had some fun, small rapids. Kaiti had to show us up, by hitting one section backwards. ;-) We finally hit the last few bends of flat water and pulled out.

I was hoping for more paddling time as the weekend felt too short. Scorchfire and myself walked back to my car (it was unharmed) and drove up to Dingmans to get hers and then returned to Smithfield to load up gear and her boat. We said our good byes and parted ways. They headed home, while I headed on for the next leg of my trip.”

“Part 3 - A brief stop along the way.

From there I made my way out to Scranton to visit my friend Beth, actually I just stopped there to get a free shower. It was after the shower that I really started feeling my sunburn and how tired I was. I nearly fell asleep on her couch. We decided to go get something to eat at a local dive bar and I got a tour of "beautiful" Scranton, PA. After dinner, I got in my car and headed towards Slate Run.

Part 4 - If you can't stand the heat, get out of the Black Forest

It was at some point during the 3-hour drive that I discovered that my map directions didn't have the correct exit numbers; the directions had the old exit numbers before PA switched to the mileage numbers. Somehow I found the right exit or at least an exit that got me onto Route 44. It was pitch black by the time I drove through Jersey Shore and I wasn't quit sure how much farther I had to drive. The road just kept climbing and getting narrower. At one point I almost ended my trip. A dark object moved into the road and I slammed on my breaks as a 200 - 250 pound black bear ran in front of me.

It was a few miles after the bear encounter that the weirdness ensued. There was a pickup truck driving slowly in front of me. The woods along the road became illuminated as a spotlight was shined from the cab of the truck. The only thing I could think of was they were jacking deer. I kept my distance away from the truck. I checked my cell phone only to see it was out of service, which didn't really surprise me for being up in the mountains. Shortly after a second truck doing the same thing passed going in the other direction. Still later the truck in front of me pulled off to the side of the road letting me pass only to pass me later on about 10 miles up the road.

When I got to the trailhead around 10:30, I decided it was too late to hike in to set up camp and opted to try and sleep in my car. It was an uneasy night and I probably wouldn't have slept at all had I not been so tired already.

I survived the night and packed my bag the next morning transferring a bunch of gear from my dry bag to my backpack. I set off going down a dirt road before the trail cut into the woods. The morning was cool and clear and I was making good time. I passed the first campsite, right in the middle of the trail, and was glad I opted for the car the night before, as I probably would have walked past this site. The trail crossed a forest road, which I started to follow, but corrected my course when I stopped seeing orange blazes.

The trail dropped down into a stream drainage only to cut back up hill to follow another drainage. In no time I was on top of Hemlock Mountain. At the pace I was maintaining I estimated I be getting to camp on Little Slate Run around 2 and I figured when that happened I'd just push to the next campsite. My pace slowed while I climbed the Gas Line Ridge, as the days sun started to kick into full force. I took a half-hour break on a small knob on the ridge to eat lunch and then pushed on for the top of the ridge.

When I got to the forest road at the top the heat was getting to me. I walked the forest road and decided I didn't feel up to checking out the White Birch Vista. When I got to the point where the trail diverged away from the road and into the next drainage, it became apparent to me that something was wrong. I was sweating profusely, I was extremely tired, my head was pounding, I was dizzy, and felt like I was going to throw up. Despite drinking 4 litters of water, I was suffering from heat exhaustion. I was also having some trouble regulating my body temperature. One moment I was hot and the next I felt like I was freezing. It wasn't a good position to be in considering I hadn't seen anyone since my friends in the pickup truck passed me the night before. I took my pack off, drank some more water, got something to eat, and laid beside the trail for about a half-hour. I studied the map and decided the only thing I could do at that point was hike down to the next campsite, setup camp for the night and hike out to the car the next day using some shortcut trails and roads.

When I started making my way down the trail, I felt like I was drunk, which went away eventually. I kept my pace slow and made sure to take plenty of breaks. I got to the campsite on Little Slate Run at around 6pm. I started off that day hiking at a pace around 3mph, but ended it at less than 1. I set up camp, ate dinner, and was in my sleeping bag before dark.

I slept pretty well that night only waking up at some point to a nearby coyote howling into the night's sky. The next morning I felt better, nearly 100%, but stuck to the plan the night before and hiked out, back to my car. I was in my car heading down route 44 by 10 am the next morning.”

“Part 5 - Ok, I'm out of the woods so now what?

I drove almost all the way to Jersey Shore before getting into cell phone range again. I was in a bit of a dilemma, it was Tuesday, I wasn't supposed to drive to Pittsburgh until Thursday, because I was supposed to be hiking until then. Well, what was I going to do for the next two days? I decided to give Beth a call because she was the only person I could think of at the moment that lived somewhat close by. I was lucky that her friend was with her that was familiar with the area and suggested checking out the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. She gave me directions, which I did a crappy job of taking down because I was driving 70mpr down 220. I got as far as US-15 heading north towards Mansfield when I realized I was lacking complete directions. I found a place to pull over and study my map (a different one than the one with the horrible directions from earlier in the trip). It was while studying the map when I noticed Tioga and realized my friend Adam lived there and I was practically in his back yard.

I called Adam and he gave me detailed directions to the northern trailhead for the West Rim Trail as well as the locations of a couple of gear shops in the area where I could find a map and guide as well as other supplies. I made sure to not be driving while I transcribed the info this time and had no problem finding the trailhead or the gear shops; I even stopped at the ice cream / general store for a hot fudge sundae. With map and guide in hand, I was ready for the modified next part of my trip.”

“Sounds like a great time LZ, when you did the Gap, you were five min from my house. I would have bought you a few beers iffin I knew you were that close.”

“Now you tell me. 8p”

“Had you stopped for booze at the state liquor store in Jersey Shore the PM shift guy (tall with glasses) is a big hiker, he'll do either loop of the Keiper as a day hike and probably the BFT too.

Tioga? I'm a happy taxpayer there. You and your buddy can make plans for this trail next time: http://www.hike-mst.org/tioga1.html”

“here's my version of the TR:


Friday, 8/24/07
Rushed home from work early around 3:30pm to run around and last minute pack. Kaiti met at my house around 4:30pm and we put my kayak on my roof and took off around 5pm - just in time for rush hour! We only hit traffic really on I-80 for the 9.5 miles we were on it, thankfully. However, it did take us 3 hours & 15 min to get to the designated campsite in Milford instead of about 2 and a half. We had crappy directions to the campsite (thanks to lumberzac's poor map!) but I remembered when seeing it how to get there - thankfully I had been there before or we would NEVER have found it! We ate dinner, had a few beers, and lz got there shortly after we arrived (about 45 min later). He joined us in the beer drinking and we talked a bit and went to bed around midnight after planning our day out for Saturday.

Saturday, 8/25/07
Woke up around 5:30am (I set my alarm so early b/c lz engrained in my mind that we were NOT to be late to meet the kayak rentals at 8:30 at Smithfield Beach, which was 45 min or so away from where we were camping). We packed up, set out our map route to get to Smithfield Beach, and Zac followed me out. We obviously got there about an hour early, but that was fine because we used the facilities, cooked breakfast, etc. Kayak rental guy came only to give Zac and Kaiti papers to sign and tell us to go BACK to Dingmen's Ferry (where we were putting in), which was annoying, but whatever. We headed back there, got them situated, got my kayak situated and put in. We were off! Kaiti was a pro in seconds! We kayaked about 15 miles or so, only stopping once to sponge-bail out water from my kayak (I hit rapids sideways because I wasn't paying attention and talking to Kaiti!) and another to stop for a mid-afternoon snack. We got to camp a mile or 2 after Bushkill Access around 2pm since we started out so early. We had no beer left and didn't want to start a fire because it was SO EFFING HOT!!! Nothing to do.... nothing to do... we set up camp and ate dinner around 5:45pm or so. Sat and stared and talked. Damn toads never brought us back our beer and we were too chicken to ask the nearby campers if they had any.
Around 7:30pm, the worst thunderstorm ever rolled in.... we hid in our tents to wait it out but it never relented.... we wound up falling asleep and not getting out of our tents til Sunday morning.

Sunday, 8/26/06
I had been awake off and on all night due to the thunderstorms that came and went all during the night. The pouring rain finally let up around 8am or so and I got out of my tent, followed by Kaiti and Zac. We all started packing up and cooking breakfast. Everything was sandy and muddy... gross! We were on the water paddling to Smithfield Beach around 9:30am or so and wound up hitting our destination by 12:30pm. Zac shuttled me to my car - I was nervous that the foam blocks on my roof rack had blown off (I had forgotten to take them off after I dropped off my kayak at the put-in) from the storm, but they were right as I left them! Surprisingly. We went back to Smithfield and picked up my yak and Kaiti and headed home. The ride home was much faster than the ride there - as usual.

Hopefully Zac had a safe ride back and enjoys the rest of his vacay!!! It was a fun time all in all even though we ran out of beer way too early and got to camp too early to do anything. The heat sucked but we all made the best of it.”

“Oh and we just did the same exact trip again this past weekend (me, lumberzac and my friend adam) LOL.. it was THAT much fun!”

“Hey, who's thread is this anyway? ;-)”

“Part 6 - Stalker at the Grand Canyon

I changed in the over glorified pit toilet at the northern terminus of the West Rim Trail, put on my pack, once again hit the trail. The afternoon's sun was as hot or hotter than the day before so I took it nice and slow; I was only planning to hike in a few miles and set up camp for the night anyway. Fortunately this trail didn't have the steep ups of the BFT and by the time I got up the first major hill there was a cool breeze blowing in from the gorge.

In very little time I got to the first vista and got my first view of the gorge. It was quite impressive and I could only imagine what it looked like thousands of years ago, just after the last glaciers resided leaving the scared earth barren of any form of plant life. It was just before the next group of vistas, that I noticed something coming down the trail towards me. As the object rounded a bend I was able to identify it as a coyote. It wasn't real big, maybe 35 - 40 pounds, but it made me a little nervous, because it kept walking towards me and I walked towards it. I've had several coyote encounters in the woods, but never had one get as close to me as this one, at least not when the animal was aware of me. I stopped walking and made myself as big as possible, figuring maybe the animal didn't recognize me as human yet and would surely run away. When it got to about 20 feet from me, I finally yelled, "HEY!" at it. This got Wile E. to run off into the woods, but not that far. At that moment, I wished I had gotten a picture of it before scaring it away.

I made my way to the next vistas and took a few quick photos before heading further up the trail setting up camp for the night in a small grassy area. I sat around next to the fire pit and read up on the guidebook until dark when I called it a night.

The next morning everything was damp with dew and I reluctantly packed my wet tent up. I followed the trail as it went from forest trail to dirt road and back to forest trail. I was definitely feeling good this day and made it to my turnaround point, the vista just before Tumbling Run, around 11 where I took an early lunch. Unfortunately the few was fogged in. After eating I decided I had had enough talking to myself, I had yet to see a single person on any trail in PA, and head back to my car.

On the way out I took the Siemans Trail and cut 2 miles off the trek back. The trail flew by and I was back at my car 5.5 hours after I started that morning. I couldn't believe I covered 16 miles that fast after the way I felt two days before. I went into the bathroom to change and then took a drive up to Colton Point State Park and took a few more shots of the canyon before driving back to Route 15 on my way to Pittsburgh.”

“Part 7 - LZ in the big city.

It was a boring 4+ hour drive to Pittsburgh and I was beat by the time I got onto 376. As luck would have it my map directions were wrong once again (lesson: don't use MicroSoft Streets in the future). The directions wanted me to take an illegal turn, which I never saw anyway, and ended up lost with no place to pull over to get directions. Finally I crossed one of the 5 million bridges in Pittsburgh and pulled into a gas stations just as the cops were mopping up some incident that must have happened 10 minutes or so before I got there. As I pulled in my phone started ringing; it was my old college roommate, Erik and Lisa, whom I was going to be staying with asking where the hell I was. I explained, only to get a reply that I was halfway across town. I got better directions from them and pulled in front of their place 20 minutes later with dinner waiting for me. I took a quick shower to get the hiker funk off of me and then ate.

Both of them had to work the next day, so I pretty much sat around and relaxed; I needed it at that point. When the got home we went out to eat at a Peruvian restaurant with a group of their friends. This was my first experience with a BYOB restaurant; I don't think they're legal in NY. Dinner was good and we stayed until we pretty much got kicked out as the place closed for the night.

The next day, both Erik and Lisa got suckered into going into work for a few hours (an architects work is never done). I went with Lisa and when she finished we walked around downtown for a few hours.

The next stop was Kennywood Amusement Park, with apparently is the 13th oldest in the country. The place was small, but had a number of rides that were national landmarks including the 3 wooden roller coasters. It was something different from what I normally do, but it was a nice change of pace and I had a good time.

Part 8 - Yes we architects are dorks. Deal with it.

Saturday was architecture tour day. We took a day trip to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. I had never been there and I couldn't call myself an architect, without seeing it; let alone a preservation architect after all the rehab work that went into the place a few years ago. We lucked out and got a tour guide that knew what he was talking about. The building is quite amazing, though some of the spaces were a bit claustrophobic for me; Wright designed the building for people 4" shorter than myself. At the conclusion of the tour, we checked out the grounds around the "camp" before heading of to a near by museum which was housed inside an old converted barn. The building was nicely detailed and oh yeah the painting were good too.

From there we went to a barbecue at Lisa's parents to witness the drunken antics.

Part 9 - Touring the city.

Sunday was my last full day in Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania for that matter and I didn't waste it. Lisa had other plans so Erik gave me a tour of a good chunk of the city. The first stop was the Mount Washington Overlook. We drove up to the top instead of taking the Incline (maybe next time). From our vantage we had a good view of most of the city. From there we went over to Chatham Village, which was a housing community built in the 1930s. Upon entering, there was a stark contrast between the noisy and busy city to an almost tranquil environment.

From there we drove to the Western Overlook to get another vantagepoint of the city on our way to the Allegheny Observatory, which was under construction for some rehabilitation work. After that we went over to the northside to check out the Children's Museum, Carnegie Library, and the Emmanuel Episcopal Church, which was designed by H.H. Richardson. The warped brick façade was interesting and not something I expected for a building that age.

It was then on to down town. We stopped for lunch at Primanti Bros. where I had a roast beef sandwich complete with coleslaw and fries in the sandwich. It actually was pretty good. We walked around downtown checking out a stupid walkway under the convention center that took you down and left you at the river with no place to go but back the way you came. Other highlights were the court building, old train station, and history center.

After walking through down town, we headed over to the University of Pittsburgh campus. We walked a large loop and stopped to go in the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel. Finally we returned to the car and drove back to Erik and Lisa's place after a long day.

The final night was a quiet one and I headed to bed early so I could get up early and start my 8.5-hour drive home. I had a great time checking out PA and will have to do another similar trip again sometime.
last edited: 9/14/07 6:20:26 PM”

“Architecture Tour Day? *snicker*

I mean...that sounds lovely. :)

So does this mean you will be getting out of NY more often?”

“He the place is on a big chunk of land with access to hiking trails.


And for your information, I leave NYS once every year and left twice this year.”

“VT doesn't count...it's almost NY. ;)

Are you still doing more of the LT or are you done with it?”

“I went to PA twice this year and spent a night in NJ too. I did eat lunch in Vermont once this year too and it was over a two hour drive to get there.

At some point I'd like to do the southern half of the LT.
last edited: 9/14/07 7:41:58 PM”

“spending a "night in nj" doesn't count because you only spent a night in nj because it was on the DE river and on one side it's nj and the other side it's pa... gimme a break. ya bum.”