PA Caledonia State Park: Rambles

I'll start at the end of my day hike, a ten mile ramble that combined the AT, Ramble Trail (hence the title of the post), Thaddeus Stevens Historic Trail, and Charcoal Hearth Trail. I had only a mile to go on the Ramble Trail before re-entering a very crowded picnic area when I met Richard and Shadow.  I wanted to take a picture of them for the blog, but his story was so personal, that I felt our time together on the trail was something better to be kept in the heart. 

Trolley Line portion of the Ramble Trail

 

Richard is 77 and a Viet Nam Army veteran who served two tours. He's a biker-hiker who loves his Harley as much as the trails. He walked at a pretty good pace for a guy who'd had a triple by-pass and both knees replaced less than two years ago. His eight-year old Australian Shepard, Shadow, was out in front trotting along at a great pace until she wasn't. She'd sit and wait for him to catch up. "She keeps me walking!" he said. 

AT turns into the park on the Ramble Trail.

Most Pennsylvania counties have reopened (even though COVID-19 infections and deaths continue to rise) so the main park - swimming pool, picnic areas, and short trails - were crowded with people who've been staying home for months now. I'd kept to distant trails all day, however, and had come across only one other person. I came up on Richard and Shadow on the straight-away section known as the Trolley Line and the AT, an old section of rail-trail that brought people out to the park on slow electric trolleys from nearby Chambersburg and Gettysburg in the early 1900s. 

Appalachian Trail (5 miles out-and-back)

Richard has been a life-long walker. He told me how walking the trails of Michaux State Forest, Green Ridge (in Maryland), the AT, and the Mid State Trail saved his life after coming home from 'Nam. "Oh I must have thousands of miles under my belt, just hiking locally mostly." We shared our thoughts on Earl Shaffer's "walking off the war," the first thru-hiker to complete the whole 2,000+ trail after WWII. "I understand why he did it," said Richard.

 

Blacksmith shop Thaddeus Stevens had built for the iron-making village here in the 1830s

He told me of sitting on his sofa for weeks after being discharged.  He couldn't readjust to civilian life. He contemplated suicide and even had his pistol sitting in his lap when "my wife came through the living room and found me there. She said to go take a walk instead. So I did, with her, without my gun." He'd no idea what the AT was then except that it was a long trail and that he could get on it with a short motorcycle ride to the park. After his first five miles "I felt like a giant weight had been lifted."  Some days he went out for ten miles or twenty. Other times he packed a knapsack for a weekend overnight. But because he worked his whole life for a busy machine shop, he never had the time to do weeks out. He took himself to points farther and farther outside Franklin County. "One time I did a day hike of ten miles that took 100 road miles to get to!" I told him that I do the same. We laughed. Shadow stopped and waited. 

Conococheague Creek

I learned his wife was in a nursing home with Alzheimer's for seven years now. He rescued Shadow as a puppy from a local shelter after his wife was admitted. "I didn't know what to do. I felt that old sadness creep all over me again. I had thoughts about just ending it. I didn't want to live with out her. I had no desire to walk or do anything else. She had been my walking partner for over forty years."  There he was again, sitting on the sofa with the same gun in his lap, the thought popped into his mind to get a dog. "We'd never had a dog, always cats. I cried oceans when the last one died. I don't want to think about Shadow leaving me."  

Conococheague Creek.

Richard didn't know anything about dogs but off he went to the Cumberland County SPCA and adopted a mixed breed puppy that the vet later told him looked to be full Australian Shepherd.  "She's been making me walk every day since - after my bypass surgery - after my knee replacements - after putting my wife in the nursing home. I don't know what I'd have done without her." Shadow was ahead waiting for us to catch up.

A gilled mushroom.

The last mile of my hike was with Richard. We laughed and cried and when it was time for me to go left and him right. I wanted so much to give him a hug but knew I couldn't as per COVID-19 precautions.  I petted Shadow and told her what a great hiking partner she has.  As I started to go I turned and asked him one more question. "How far do you walk every day with Shadow?"  Richard scratched his head and thought a moment. "Well, three miles a day if I come here. I can't do the big hills anymore so I look for rail trails, park trails, and stretches of dirt and gravel road. On the old forest roads in Michaux we easily do five."  I told him I hoped we'd run into each other again and walk some more. "I'd love that," he said. We exchanged emails. As  I made my turn I heard him call out my name. I turned and he shouted back "You better be hiking everyday when you are 77! If I can do it, you can do it!" We waved and went our ways.

Charcoal Hearth Trail (3 miles)

Since our summer hike in England was cancelled I have been putting together a series of hikes along the Mason Dixon Line to learn more about the different routes of the Underground Railroad. I came to Caledonia State Park to see the iron furnace that abolitionist and Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens built and owned here. While Stevens lived in Gettysburg, then Lancaster, and fought to end slavery from his office in Washington D.C., his friend and furnace foreman William Hammett helped move freedom seekers across the Mason Dixon Line into Pennsylvania with Stevens' knowledge and support. The old roads - now trails - that lead to numerous charcoal hearths and iron banks were likely the paths they took to connect people to points further north or east. Some freedom seekers worked their way to New York and then to Canada. Others fled towards the Susquehanna, found crossings, and headed towards Philadelphia.

 

The current furnace stack is a half-size scale model built by the PA Alpine Club in 1927.

A small 1927 version of the original 1837 furnace destroyed in 1863.

The iron furnace went into blast in 1837 and remained in full operation until cavalry troops under Jubal Early destroyed the entire village it was learned that it was owned by Stevens. When hearing the news of its destruction, Stevens worried for the welfare of the many families and workers there and helped support them until the forge was rebuilt after the war with money from the iron workers, the Ahl brothers from Chambersburg, and Stevens himself. 

Preserved charcoal hearth platform.

The only original structure that survives today is the blacksmith shop of which only walls remained standing after the village was burned to the ground. After Early's troops wrecked the place, Confederate Army marched through the ruins of the village on their way to fight at Gettysburg and laid further waste to the fields and farms that supported the families who worked at the furnace, forge, blacksmith shop, and hearths. After rebuilding, the furnace remained in operation until 1870 but at a very reduced level.  As I hiked my combination of trails I found the flat round platforms of charcoal hearths everywhere but the ones on the Charcoal Hearth Trail  wonderfully preserved.  As with all furnace operations that require huge quantities of wood to maintain blast, the forested hills and mountains were seriously depleted by 1870 and lack of these resources may have led its decline. 

Huge stump-sprouted Chestnut Oak.

On all of the trails I found great stump-sprouted oaks that were felled during the iron-making days of the forge. Chestnut Oaks provide one of the densest woods for charcoal and it burns long and hot. Original oaks spanned several feet across. It is a species that is quick to stump-sprout. Over time the strongest of the shoots become new trunks that encircle the parent oak stump. I estimated that the multiple trunks for many stump-sprouted trees were over a hundred years old. The parent trees may have been several hundred years at their felling.

Partridgeberry.

 

While stopping to photograph a blanket of Partidgeberry and Mountain Laurel in full bloom, a coyote darted across the trail ahead of me. He stopped for a quick look about fifty feet into the woods and I gave him a little nod and a whispered "Hey there!" before he continued on his way. I cannot help but to be amazed by the return of the wilds after an area such as this has been so heavily exploited.  I heard Ravens, Red-Eyed Vireos, Crows, Ovenbirds, Blue Jays, and Flycatchers.  Walking along the mill race that provided water power to the billows at the furnace, I heard Scarlet Tanagers and Wood Thrush. 

Walking the ridge of Graefenberg Hill.

Mill Race Path (1 mile) 

As I came down off Graefenberg Hill to find the connector to the Thaddeus Stevens trail, I met with one other hiker who said she had seen the coyote cross the road below.  Her dog, Tipper, a sleek black and white Husky, had "woooo-ed" at it and it stopped to look at them as well. She had also seen a Black Bear the weekend before and Tipper, true to his Husky-style of inquiry, had woo'ed at it too, but the bear wasn't haven't any of it and dashed up the hill. I observed a Creek Chub in the race and watched a fisherman pull a Smallmouth Bass from the mill pond across the road, which he quickly and gently let it go, showing his grandson how to catch-and-release. 

I completed the Thaddeus Stevens Trail and went across the road to the main park - boy was it crowded! I found the Appalachian Trail in the middle of it all and jumped quickly on and did a beautiful 2.5 miles up-and-back for five miles total. There was not a soul on the AT so I had it all to myself. More giant stump-sprouted oaks, more tunnels of Mountain Laurel. There are roads built by the CCC in 1937 and wagon roads for ore carries that criss-cross the trail. 

Mountain Laurel blossoms.

Blossom time!

There were a few old sand pits, relics of the mineral company that owned the land after the furnace shut down. While peering into one of these, just a short way off the trail, I got rattled at! I never did find the Timber Rattler though I searched hard for it. I really wanted to see one on this trip but thinking it was in the pit, at least I got to hear one. I do love these snakes and love finding them. Michaux State Forest has always been a good place to see them. 

Mature Hemlock forest.

I returned to the main park with its crowds and happy laughter of children playing in the creek. There were so many kids that I couldn't help but smile. A little boy brought me a stick to show me that it was really a light saber and that he'd protect me from storm troopers (his brothers). I walked carefully through the storm trooper zone and found my way to the last trail of my connected hike, the Ramble Trail. Beyond where picnickers ventured, a mile up the AT section of the Trolley Line and down along the creek, I met Richard. That last mile with him was the best mile I've hiked all season. I hope he and Shadow have many years hiking together to come and I'll write to him to set up another buddy-walk with Shadow. 

Stump sprout group with a seven-foot across parent tree base!

AT in bloom.

Notes:

Thaddeus Stevens is one of my favorite local characters and for years I've enjoyed getting to know him as someone who lived next door in Lancaster,PA, as well as who changed the course of our nation's history. I wish he were around today to beat his fist and shout at the ignorance that still permeates our society, policies, and laws. 

I'm in the middle of reading Hans Trefousse 2005 book Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth Century Egalitarian, but I recently found this locally-written and produced play by Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology Professor Don Rhoads to be a fun watch (see the segment on his bar exam in Bel Air, Maryland, around 20 minutes in). The Institute is in Lancaster, PA.

Spielberg's Lincoln, released in 2012 is my favorite media portrayal of Stevens. He seems to compete with Lincoln for the historical spotlight. A deep consideration of this film is found here in the Gettysburg teaching blog House Divided, for teachers who are covering the Civil War in classrooms,
https://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/blogdivided/2013/02/22/how-the-lincoln-movie-reconstructed-thaddeus-stevens/  

From Speilberg's Lincoln, Steven's chamber-rattling speech... 

 Go get 'em, Thad!