PA - AT Hike #11: Hunters Run to Whiskey Springs x 2 Out-and-Backs

 PA - AT Hike #11: Hunters Run to Whiskey Springs, 10 miles Out-and-Back

Amos and I continued our PA-AT hiking project with a camp-over at Pine Grove Furnace State Park and two back-to-back days starting at the Hunters Run Trailhead parking area on Rt. 34 heading northbound (NOBO) for 10 miles out-and-back (5 miles straight through). Out-and-backs are a little boring  for me which is why to create (safe) loops, but there are so many very busy highways and shoulder-less roads in this area that it means doubling back. 

Eastern Box Turtle

The weather was cool but a little humid so I packed an extra water bottle for Amos. It was terribly dry, though. We need rain. Up we went across an unnamed knob, crumbling quartzite under our feet. We came across some recently dug out yellow jacket nests pretty early on but these were not on the trail. I venture to say that ole' bear we saw clawing out the hillside a few weeks ago on another nearby slope must have a cousin here. Quite the excavation! I didn't stay to take pictures, but there's a real difference in the way an Eastern Skunk does her neat little dig compared to the crater holes left by a Black Bear!  

Here comes Autumn!

Young understory Hickories, Sassafras, and Spicebush were turning yellow and red beneath the still green - but thinning - canopy of oak. I made note of some small quarry pits and many large charcoal hearths, some stacked up the hill like stair steps. This knob and its surrounding forests must have been cut over several times before the need for charcoal as fuel for the iron furnaces at Pine Grove and Boiling Springs subsided. These aren't old woods, but they aren't all that young either. There were many small stump-sprouted American Chestnuts. I can only imagine what this woods looked like before the blight killed the mature trees. 

Wrinkle-leafed Goldenrod

Flat-topped Goldenrod

Amos tracked his eleventh Eastern Box Turtle of the season - fitting since this is PA-AT Hike #11 and as I documented this gnawed on, grizzled old turtle with a few portraits, my turtle-tracking hound let out a tremendous bay. Something big thrashed downslope so fast that by the time I stood up to see what it was, the big something was gone. A southbound (SOBO) hiker passed us and stopped briefly to pet Amos, though he was in a hurry to make it to Pine Grove Furnace State Park for a campsite and a hot shower. His trail name was Breezy coming from Maine, heading to Georgia. Happy trails, Breezy.

No swamp today

We dropped down off the mountain and into the low vales where our turn-around point would be at a bridge over a stream. We'd come almost three miles with another half mile to go when there was a low, deep rumbling boom that rattled the forest so much so that birds scattered and a rainfall of yellow leaves poured over us. Amos looked bewildered. I'm sure he heard it differently than I did. Is there a quarry blasting on a Sunday? Was there an earthquake? 

No water!

We had a nice late lunch of apple slices, cheese, and crackers sitting on the bridge over the now dry creek that only a few weeks ago, according to hikers leaving notes on the Far Out app, had been roaringly high. This is the same bridge I took Amos' puppy picture on seven years ago. Now he's getting that frosted look around his face and it makes me a little sad. But he's having a great day, good pace, drinking all his water. A very happy hiking hound.

Puppy Amos ...

...and seven years later!

We turned back around and retraced our steps and in the low light of late afternoon stopped in a powerline right of way to admire the yellow Goldenrod and Wing-Stem, purple New York Aster, and clouds of Wood Aster. It was enough of a break in the forest scenery that I stood a long time and watched Skippers and Buckeye butterflies float from patch to patch. Back to Hunters Run, then on to camp, we had a gloriously cool night camping out under a bright moon. Barred Owls called to each other in the deepest night and Amos snored, wrapped up in his sleeping bag, next to me in the truck.

Two out-and-backs for a nice weekend camping trip

The next morning we got up early and did a walk-about in the campground where we met Breezy again, enjoying a hot cup of coffee. Amos was excited to see him so of course he let out an huge AROO at 7am and, well, it was Monday morning so who cares. Breezy was on his way as I was packing up the truck while Amos hid in the woods because he thought we were going home, which he doesn't like to do when camping, but as soon as I said "let's go for another hike" he popped out and jumped in the truck. Today's hike would be hard for him, as it involves the Rock Maze just south of the AT Trailhead at Whiskey Springs Road, so I figured I'd let him tell me when he's had enough.

Entering the Rock Maze

Now, whoever originally planned the route through the Rock Maze did not plan an alternative route so we had to navigate the steep, boulder ridge carefully together and made it just over a mile in when we were faced with a huge five foot drop that brought Amos to a full stop. I remember when he was a puppy seven years ago. I was able to lift  him down and carry him around the really sketchy bits but here he is at 75 pounds and there was no way. 

A mile into the Maze

We wandered in and out of the Maze trying to find an alternative way around the big drop but instead climbed all the way down off the ridge to a smaller boulder field below where hikers had made their own walk arounds. Much better. We descended steeply down a set of switch backs and wandered slowly through the woods to where we turned around yesterday. Another lunch at the bridge and a slow return.

The Drop - Amos Shall Not Pass

I love this section and have hiked up here often just to explore around the boulder field. The massive spires and blocks of quartzite here serve as an established bouldering site for local rock climbing, but the several times I've been here it's never been crowded (like Pole Steeple can be).  The rock type is quartzite but it is pebbly and unconsolidated, the kind of formation that signals its origins as a river delta.  I am never not amazed by how time is represented in the rocks of PA, how I can imagine that there were once shallow inland seas, mighty rivers, and mountains as high as the Rockies where I wander through these beautiful hardwood forested ridges. 

The AT Trailhead on Whiskey Springs Road marks the Western Terminus of the Mason Dixon Trail that runs 200 miles from Chadds Ford PA. My hiking buddy Kim and I completed the MDT in 2016 after three years of section hiking. Across the road is the NOBO trailhead to White Rocks which will be our next section. 

Notes:

South Central Pennsylvania Climbers for the Rocky Ridge Whiskey Springs Boulder Field

Hiking vlogger Wandering Woodsman's  "Rocky Ridge Rock Maze"