A few friends and I took off last week and backpacked The Black Forest Trail located in north central Pennsylvania. The trail is a 43+ mile loop and is rated as one of the hardest trails in PA. We gave our selves 6 days to hike it which normally would be plenty of time. But unfortunately things didn’t start off well. As soon as we got to the beginning of the trail it began to rain and then about 10 minutes into hiking it began to pour buckets and didn't stop for about 4 hours. By the time we found our first camp for the night I checked out the damage. Pretty much everything I had was soaked, including all my clothing for the week.
Camp for the first night along a quite little stream......with lots of biting flies!
Mist coming off the mountain after the rain. Kind of spooky.
Nothing is more fun then trying to start a fire with wet wood. But we managed to get it going after about half an hour of swearing.
Then we had the wonderful task of trying to get all our stuff to dry.
The next morning we hiked out to a really nice vista that made up for the rain. It was an awesome sight to look across the Appalachians and not see a single sign of human life.
Then while taking a breather there I noticed this guy sunning himself on a rock a few yards below us. It's a Timber Rattlesnake! I had to climb down to get a photo of him. And he didn't let us down. He rattled when I was still 20 feet from him.
Our journey continued on. The vultures circled us from time to time to check on our progress. We made sure to never show any sign of weakness.
Along the trail we came across a really neat spring that flowed from high up in the mountains.
A few more various pics.
Unfortunately we had to cut the trip short. That first day of hiking in the rain for hours on end really screwed it for us. Let me tell, hiking in damp boots is miserable. My feet still have blisters on them. But we did complete 30 miles and one of these days the 3 of us plan on going back there and finishing what we started. Weather permitting of course!
Camp for the first night along a quite little stream......with lots of biting flies!
Mist coming off the mountain after the rain. Kind of spooky.
Nothing is more fun then trying to start a fire with wet wood. But we managed to get it going after about half an hour of swearing.
Then we had the wonderful task of trying to get all our stuff to dry.
The next morning we hiked out to a really nice vista that made up for the rain. It was an awesome sight to look across the Appalachians and not see a single sign of human life.
Then while taking a breather there I noticed this guy sunning himself on a rock a few yards below us. It's a Timber Rattlesnake! I had to climb down to get a photo of him. And he didn't let us down. He rattled when I was still 20 feet from him.
Our journey continued on. The vultures circled us from time to time to check on our progress. We made sure to never show any sign of weakness.
Along the trail we came across a really neat spring that flowed from high up in the mountains.
A few more various pics.
Unfortunately we had to cut the trip short. That first day of hiking in the rain for hours on end really screwed it for us. Let me tell, hiking in damp boots is miserable. My feet still have blisters on them. But we did complete 30 miles and one of these days the 3 of us plan on going back there and finishing what we started. Weather permitting of course!
