PA-AT Hike #12: Whiskey Springs to Little Dogwood Run

PA-AT Hike #12: Whiskey Springs to Little Dogwood Run O&B 4.5 miles

Rocky Ridge connects to White Rocks like this

This is a tough section of my local AT walk sections and one I've been putting off just because as a day hike, it can be exhausting. But I needed to get away from work and school and take a day, so why not? I plotted a lollipop route using the adjoining PA Game Lands trail system to make it more interesting. Never mind that weird little stabbing headache I drove up with, by the time Amos and I set up the hill, it had faded thanks to a triple dose of Tylenol. 

Push-Pops

Long ago when I was thru-hiking PA with a cousin, this section earned the name The Push Pops that reminded him of the fun summer ice cream treat that emerges from a smooth cardboard tube with a little pressure from the bottom. The whole of Rocky Ridge to its connection with the popular White Rocks Ridge a few miles northeast seems pushed up and out of a slot in the ridge making these angular, almost eruptive formations. Normally I would have walked up to the biggest ones and explored but for some reason I was winded, out of breath, and decided to just sit and admire them. 

Seed capsules erupting on Burnweed

I was feeling a little light-headed, even dizzy, but still wasn't connecting how I was feeling with the latest spike in Covid cases happening at the college where I teach night classes. I had four students out with Covid last week and never thought I'd be next - until this hike. By the time the AT intersected with the old charcoal wagon road for the nearby Boiling Springs (Carlisle) Iron Furnace (1760) I was two miles in and feeling rough. I took the old wagon road up into the rugged woods of the Game Lands and followed it across a knob of quartzite and sandstone. Here we met a gorgeous Black Rat Snake who seemed just as curious about us as we were of him. A real beauty! 

Black Rat Snake

I had planned a short bushwack to connect the two trails and was checking an app that uses LiDAR to identify old industrial sites nearby when a stunning Red Tailed Hawk flew past at eye level at twenty yards. As I  looked up from the phone, the hawk angled its bright iron-red tail with its single black band towards me and swooped around in a half circle.  It's that time of year when hawks are spilling out of the northern woods along the Appalachians to ride the mountain ridge currents south. This beautiful hawk arced upwards into the light breeze and pivoted above the trees towards the south. Safe travels, hawk!  

AT along top of Rocky Ridge

AT near bottom at Little Dogwood Run

Old charcoal wagon road (PA Game Lands) 

Charcoal pit! 

As we hiked off-trail between the old road and the AT we encountered two charcoal pits worth exploring. These broad flat areas were used to stack and burn oak and chestnut logs to make charcoal fuel for the furnace nearby and were often connected by faint traces of roads that fed into main haul roads. They show up clearly on LiDAR as pock-marks along sides of hills. I explored one of the pits and found a fine patch of Burnweed growing there, thriving even in this sudden onset drought at the end of summer when not much else is growing. Burnweed has its tough little cylindrical flowers held tight with no flashy petals to observe but it is a nectar haven for late season butterflies and beetles who can probe deeply for a rich reward. They grow in places where fire (like charcoal burning) has made soils poor for most other plants, but they thrive here,fixing nitrogen and stabilizing ash and char with their deep tap roots.  

CalTopo LiDAR layer 

We stopped for a break at the intersection of the AT and the old charcoal wagon road to complete the lollipop section of this hike. I studied the Lidar app some more and realized just how many charcoal pits were in this area - dozens and dozens. At one time this entire forest was reduced to charcoal to feed the hungry iron furnace at Boiling Springs, which is still in good form at a small park in town (minus its wood outbuildings and sheds). The forest we hiked through today was the second or third version of woodland after the furnace ceased operations in the early 1800s. 

 Virginia Pine

When I stood up from our break, Amos was eager to get going but my head was spinning. He nearly pulled me over (but not on purpose) as I tried to steady myself upright, knowing  now that I was coming down with something unpleasant. Trying to steady my steps with hiking pole and tree holding, I made my way back up and over the Rocky Ridge section of the AT until we came to the long steep way back down to Whiskey Springs. I hated that I felt so bad and wanted to get off the trail as quickly as I could. It was a beautiful day with lots going on, but my body was not having it. 

Heading home

Notes:

CalTopo App - well worth having on your phone if you love exploring landscape history and getting off the beaten trail. 

The Boiling Springs Furnace (Carlisle Furnace) is not far from this section of the AT and later the AT will pass right by it. 

PA Youghiogheny Floodplain Scours

There is no better time to visit the Youghiogheny River than early fall when water levels are lower, giving access to the scour zones of the river's hard-washed edges. These are banks or ledges of stone that for the most part are underwater during the rest of the growing season, but come early autumn they become great places to botanize. It takes a tough group of plants to call the scours home.

Most rocky rivers have some version of a scour zone, especially if winter ice plays a factor in scrubbing these fragile habitats clean just ice-out and spring floods begin. The Susquehanna has its most famous scour banks close to where I live. I am always in awe of the persistence and beauty of plant life that erupts there at the end of each summer.  Exploring such a place puts you literally on the edge of where life is possible. Add to that, scours are relatively rare in Pennsylvania. When I saw the rocky ledges along the Youghiogheny full of prairie grasses and wildflowers I knew I had to get down there to have a look around. 

Late-season Boneset, Blue Flag Iris, Goldenrod, and a heathy stand of native Switchgrass greeted me as I waded into the waist-high meadow that for most of the year is underwater or ice. St. John's-Wort a stand of low-growing Silky Dogwood seemed to go hand-in-hand, where there was one, there was the other. Cockle Burr and Cardinal Flower added a contrast of growing types, from low-to-the-ground then spiking high above the competition. For all the variety of plants found on this long, low bench of exposed sandstone exhibited every growing strategy for this here-and-gone-again meadow.  

Silky Dogwood

At the edges of the scour zone, where flooding is more frequent, little else grows on the hard rocky bank. High waters have scrubbed the flats clean of any soil pockets. But nearby, where a skim of soil survives, a riot of plants occupied the edges. Steeple Bush and Silky Willow held the soil flats in place while all manner of neighbors filled in. It was hard not to find a square meter of thin soil that didn't have a dozen or more species growing in it! 

Scour stripped to bedrock

As I expected there was significant competition with a raft of non-native species. Japanese Knotweed threatened to take over an entire section of scour ledge while a healthy and prickly stand of Common Teasel scraped at my legs and arms. A few garden-variety Hosta lined the faint outline of a trail - as did a scattering of summer's trash left over from river visitors. 

Early Goldenrod 

Soon the first frosts will take their toll on the flowering plants leaving the Rushes in all their glory. Spiked Rush, Canada Rush, Sharp-Fruited Rush, and Creeping Spike Rush were waiting for their moment to overtake the scour land. The Purple Top Grass was in full color and set against the yellow of Goldenrod, put on quite a show. 

Common Teasel

"Bearded" leaf node of Purple Top grass

My favorite find is the bearded leaf node of the Purple Top Grass, where the leaf sheaf unfurls along the stem and reveals a bristly, pink patch of hairs. This is an easy way to identify this native grass but also one of my favorite ways to entice students to look closer and any native grass stand for this singular and sometimes dramatic (who wouldn't love a pink beard?) identifiers. 

On my way out of the floodplain scour zone I met up with a family coming in. They were trying to access the river for a less-crowded experience compared to what they encountered just downstream. "This is beautiful!" their mom exclaimed, so I took the opportunity to explain what made this area so very special. "Well," said their dad, "We will leave this place alone and not wade here - but let's visit with the flowers before we go."

Notes:

Youghiogheny River Scour - Western Pennsylvania Conservancy