I'm so fortunate to have access to this National Recreation Trail, the 200-mile-long Mason Dixon Trail, just a few minutes from home. Sometimes its so easy to just run out the door, drive a few miles, and hit the trail. But sometimes my excitement with that can get me in trouble. Confession later. With the longer, warmer afternoon of late, I decided to get a good hour of hiking in while there was still good light after work. I grabbed my daypack and some snacks and took off. Starting in Apollo County Park at the Shenks Ferry Road parking area I followed both an older, "dis-blazed' section of the MDT to connect to the current trailway to make a 1.75 mile strenuous loop. The creek ravines here are steep and rocky and the uphills can be real lung-busters.
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| Dis-blazed MDT section |
The MDT is often rerouted due to a number of reasons: hiking permissions are lost storm damaged trails are closed, or trail is moved off roadways as permissions are gained. The work of long distance trail clubs with regard to boundary work and rights-of-way is never ending. Trail crews create new sections and close old ones, blazing, re-blazing, un/dis-blazing as they go. Its a lot of legal and physical work go into the MDT.
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| Storm damaged section |
Within the county park, the old route is still passable but just barely as it steeply tumbles into a ravine that has suffered heavy storm damage. It was hard to navigate a jumble of downed, big trees and at one point it was just easier to climb up on a fat horizontal trunk and travel twenty feet down its length to avoid the literal log jam of trees under it. I had to resort to my GPS to find where the current MDT intersected this old stretch of gnarly trail but soon enough we were bushwacking across up a small stream valley to find fresh blue blazes on the opposite hill.
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| Last ice? |
The little stream still wore its winter's blanket of ice in places and I wondered if this is the last of it here, but knowing we still have some cold days to come, it may hang on a while longer. We had a little fun slipping and sliding on ice patches as we navigated the stream towards where the bright blue blazes shone through the trees in the low afternoon light. A flock of snow geese, one of the largest I've seen all winter covered the sky from horizon to horizon, their barking and squawking filling the forest with noise.
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| V-shaped stream valley |
The shape of the stream valley tells me a lot about it. With no flood plain to absorb water, the banks climb a steep pitch to form a V and that acts like a funnel to direct heavy rains and snowmelt quickly down to the river. The stream is actively carving its way down and out to the Susquehanna, a typical stream profile for this rugged Susquehanna Riverland topography. Fallen trees act as dams to force heavy water up, around, and gouging down and the rocky substrate, full of sharp schist cobble and broken outcrop boulders along its walls, are signs that this stream floods regularly and with force. This is not a place to pitch a tent or linger with the threat of heavy weather.
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We found our way to the current trail by following the V-shaped valley within sight of the nice backpackers shelter high above us on the hillside. We climbed the valley partway up. Here I stopped to check things out, packed out only a few wrappers, and gave the shelter a little spring cleaning by sweeping out leaves from the back corners and tossed branches off the porch. After late lunch of local beef sticks and cheese, a bowl of water for Amos and a some Turkey Hill Iced Tea for me, I signed the shelter log and we were back on trail.
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| 4 o'clock "tea" stop |
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| Sign the register! |
The steep climb up the trail to the rolling field edge above was only made possible by the 90-pound coonhound pulling me via his leash as I'd forgotten my hiking sticks and I am so out of shape from few workouts like this over the winter. I begged him to stop so I could catch my breath and flushed a Pileated Woodpecker from its patch. The tree I leaned against had on its reverse side the best Pileated Woodpecker cavity work - squared off corners on a long rectangular opening and several other access holes drilled into the punky wood where surely beetle and ant larvae were found.
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| Pileated Woodpecker |
I apologized to the big woodpecker for flushing it as Amos took this to mean "Pull!" and off we went to top out at the cornfield ahead. I did glimpse that woodpecker on the return to its tree, flying a lazy, swooping circle around the crest of the hill to make sure we were headed away. It's shed season, so we checked every deer trail that crossed the MDT - and there were a lot - but found no antlers today. We'll try again soon.
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| A rugged lollipop hike |
Now the confession. I was so excited to get out after work for this hike that I neglected to let anyone know where I'd gone. I broke one of my own very very very important rules. Risky forgetfulness for a trail that is known in this part of PA as being not only rugged but risky for the unprepared hiker. A few months back an experienced trail runner died in a fall into one of these steep MDT ravines and others have been seriously hurt trying to navigate this rocky path within a few minutes of where I live. Although my late afternoon hike was adventurous and physically challenging it was luckily uneventful. I didn't realize that I'd forgotten to alert my son and daughter-in-law (who live nearby) until I sat in my truck ready to head home as the sun was setting. I'd actually begun a text to them to let them know I'd finished my hike and suddenly realized I hadn't alerted them in the first place! Idiot. Lucky idiot.
Notes:
Mason Dixon Trail website: https://masondixontrail.wixsite.com/mdts
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