Hiking PA Mid State Trail (1 of 9) [TR]

“Recently I was given the opportunity to maintain a section of the Mid State Trail system. The section that I would be maintaining is located south west of State College, a short section of about 2 miles in length, extending from the intersection of the Pennsylvania Furnace Road and the intersection with Ewing Path. I had never hiked this section of the Mid State before and decided to take a little outing to see what the trail was like. Tumbleweed and I put on our hiking boots and headed out to see what condition the trail was in and enjoy the sunshine on one of the last days of winter.

The Mid State Trail, Pennsylvania's longest and wildest footpath, extends 270 miles (currently) from the Mason-Dixon Line at the Pennsylvania-Maryland border near Artemas, northward to near Morris, in Tioga County on the Pennsylvania-New York border.

The trailhead for this hike is located at the top of Tussey Mountain, where the Mid State Trail intersects with the Pennsylvania Furnace Road. The Pennsylvania Furnace Road is a maintained (for the most part) forest road found within Rothrock State Forest. Even though Pennsylvania Furnace Road does extend the entire way from the ridge top to route PA45, the lower section, being on private land and not State Forest land, is not maintained and I do not recommend accessing the trailhead in this fashion. The best way to get to the trailhead is to travel on route PA26 and turn off onto Kepler Road, another maintained forest road. From the intersection of route PA26 and route PA45 in Pine Grove Mills, travel south on PA26 for 1.2 miles. You will then bear right, just past the power line crossing, onto a dirt road. This is Kepler Road. Continue on Kepler Road for approximately 8.5 miles until you get to an intersection of 4 roads. Make a sharp left onto Pennsylvania Furnace Road, and continue up the side of the mountain for 1 mile. Once you crest the mountain, there is ample parking to the left, with the trailhead being on the right side of the road. If you are traveling north on PA26, towards the town of Pine Grove Mills, once you pass Jo Hays Vista at the top of Tussey Mountain, keep your eyes open for Kepler Road on your left, about 0.8 miles from Jo Hays Vista.

Tumbleweed and I parked the car at the top of the ridge and noticed, as Pennsylvania Furnace Road descends the other side of Tussey Mountain, a nice vista along side the road. We walked over to the vista to view the valley, ridges, and mountains beyond. We soon found out that we would get many more opportunities to enjoy this view on our hike.

The purpose of this hike was to become familiar with this section of the Mid State Trail as well as to assess the amount of work that would be required in maintaining it. I was told that this section hasn't had an overseer for quite some time, so I wasn't sure what we would come across.

About 500 feet down the trail we came across our first blow down. It wasn't that large, mostly small branches and such, but it would require a chainsaw to clear it. Tumbleweed and I were able to easily navigate around it as it didn't block the entire trail.

For the next mile of hiking the trail was relatively clear of debris. There weren't any trees across the trail with only a few small branches laying on the trail that we easily removed. Most of the hiking on this section of the trail was on the south facing side of Tussey Mountain. The trail scrambles over many rock fields. The rocks are large and relatively flat, so the going wasn't that difficult and we also had a great view to our left the for well over a half a mile.

After about 0.75 miles the trail came back to the center of the ridgeline and we lost our view. The trail was now walking across a relatively flat forest floor, with only a few small rocks to contend with, as opposed to hopping from boulder to boulder. We came over to the north face of the mountain, hoping to see the vista as indicated on the map, but were disappointed to find that the views had grown shut.

There was a shorter section of "boulder hopping" that we did on the north side, but not nearly as much as we did earlier. Again the trail found its way back to the middle of the ridge and this is where the blow downs started to become numerous. This section of the trail was in need of quite a bit of TLC.

The first blow downs were noticed about a mile into our hike, and riddled the path for the rest of the way to the intersection with Ewing Path. Loppers and a chainsaw will be a must on my next hike out here. The blazes were visible, but could use a little bit of freshening up. There were even some places along the trail that I thought could use a few more blazes. There were two places in particular where I actually lost the trail because the next blaze was not visible from the previous one. If this would have been during the spring or summer with leaves on the trees, it would have been much worse. This isn't typical of the Mid State Trail as it is usually very well blazed and easy to follow.

Also, at about a mile into the hike, we came across one of the forest's less coordinated creatures; a porcupine. As we were making our way across a small rock field and walking around some large limbs on the trail, my attention was drawn to the side of the trail by a rustling in one of these limbs. Only a few feet from me was this large, black pin cushion. Tumbleweed and I backed off a few feet and then just stood there quietly as the large fellow calmed down and put his quills away. We then watched in amusement has he slowly made his way from the trail deeper into the woods. Porcupines are not the fastest nor adept creatures in the woods. This guy seemed to flail his fore paws around wildly in the air as he clumsily stumbled forward. I suppose when you have all those pointy spikes attached to your back, you walk carefully and deliberately. Also, with that type of armor, I suppose he really doesn't have a need to move quickly as there are not many animals that will bother a porcupine. We stood there for about 10 minutes as we watched Mr. Porcupine head off into the woods.

It was nice to get out and do this short hike on one of the last days of winter. The hike took a little longer than usual because of all the trees we needed to either walk around or climb over, but that was OK as we weren't in any hurry. Another option to doing this hike as an out and back would be to hike down Ewing Path to Brady Road, where another car could be waiting for a point to point hike, or you could hike back Brady Road, and up Pennsylvania Furnace Road to the trailhead.

If you do decide to hike this section of the Mid State Trail, be prepared for some great views of Stone Valley to the south. But also make sure you bring along your hiking boots as you're going to need them as you walk across small rock fields as well as hop from boulder to boulder for a good portion of this hike. But then again this is Pennsylvania, so what else did you expect?

Map, photos, and hike statistics at PAHikes.com - http://www.pahikes.com/trails/midstate06.asp”

“Thanks for the report! I used to live in Pine Grove Mills (30 years ago) and hung out in that area a lot, never heard of the Mid State Trail in those days, but just knew that if I went up the mountain from PGM there was this dirt road that went under the power lines and I loved the views from the trails off it. Went there a lot with my border collie Maggie. Now I have a name for it! I'm guessing Kessler Rd is the one I used to park on. I think I saw an elk once--it was pretty scarey, way bigger than a deer and darker. We stared at each other in the fog. Will never forget that moment. Do you know if there were elk 30 years ago in that area?”

“One day some one is going to do a blanket trip report of a PA Hike.. They will leave room for trail names, milage and elevation and iclude sentences such as: "For the next _____ miles, we hopped from boulder to boulder" or "The next ____ miles were even rockier then the previous _______." This would allow for faster trip reports and more time spent destroying ankles, knees and shoes on the trail...

Great report though!!!!!!!

'32oz”

“very cool Scott!! Looks like a nice little section and typical Tussey with the rock fields and views.”

“I think we should do a November trip on the MST.”

“Sunnydayz, the road you refer to is Kepler Road. As for elk in Centre County, there are none that I know of...but we do grow large deer. ENS, I'm up for a hike on the MST in November. How 'bout RB Winter to Ravensburg?”

“I'll have to dig out the maps. A section with a premo campsite and views, chances to see wildlife. The section you mentioned would probably be good. How many miles is it?”