PA Rickets Glen State Park: Falls Trail Lollipop Hike

 #28 2022 52-Hike Challenge: Ricketts Glen SP -Falls Trail & Highlands Trail Loop, 6 miles

And so it begins with a few little tumbles...

I started this 6 mi. "lollipop" hike from my campsite at Ricketts Glen State Park campground a little late in the day - after 2pm. By the time I finished the sun was setting behind the mountains in the west.  Not many people were out on Indigenous People's Day but there was a periodic stream (pun intended) of folks navigating the steep sandstone slab steps coming from different directions. It's all about the waterfalls tumbling down two creeks off the 1200'  sandstone escarpment into a meltwater-formed slot canyon below. On this loop there are 17 named falls with a few others on the stem trail leading up from Rt. 118 in the south end of the park. It was a fun romp through geology and glacial history with a little wilderness medicine thrown in for interest.

Sandstone blocks pushed and shoved by the Wisconsin Ice Sheet

I chose to hike the Highlands Trail through glacial till, deposited boulders, and tumbled sandstone blocks.  This is the drainage area of a glacial lake that burst its till banks and poured tens of thousands of tons of water down the face of the bluff.  I traced a tiny branch of the ravine's "founding creek" on top of the ridge to the start of the Falls Trail and headed down, down, down.  

"Founding waters" at the start of the ravine

Let the climb down begin!

The Falls Trail becomes a series of slab-built steps that climb around each of the major falls. Some of the steps are steep and not level. Some are slick with mud or water. There were some folks having to take things very slow. Some decided that the first three falls were enough and headed back up. It took me about an hour to get down to the meeting of the two creek branches where we turned up the western branch and climbed our way out. The climb down made Amos nervous so he went slow but for me the climb up had its own challenges and I needed to push or pull with my arms in some places. In my humble opinion, this may not be the best trail to take your best furry friend. I always worry about what would happen if Amos got hurt and I had to carry a 80 pound coonhound up a cliff? 

I didn't bother keeping track of all the waterfall names ...

...but it was nice to be hiking alongside falls named for the Six Nations!

The colors were really starting to pop with mostly bright yellows from Birch, Striped Maple, Spicebush, Poplar, and Oak growing along the sandstone ledges. Slab sandstone had been placed as pavements between most of the great falls where hikers transition to down-climbing or up-climbing sandstone steps.  In many places the trail was mucky and ran with water oozing from the canyon walls. In winter these places freeze over, including the large spray zones from the waterfalls and the makes traversing the canyon trail treacherous. For safety, Ricketts Glen State Park closes the Falls Trail due to dangerous ice conditions unless you come prepared with crampons, ice spikes, ice ax, helmet, etc. and get a permit from the office. There are several local outfitters that guide ice hikes and frozen falls climbing trips that are permitted by the park

Don't let the flat pavements fool you ...

The waterfalls that tumble down each of the creek branches are mostly named for Northeastern Tribes -  Mohican, Onieda, Cayuga, Conestoga, Tuscarora, Seneca, Delaware, Mohawk and others. It was cool to be climbing up or down these falls on Indigenous People's Day for sure. I loved stopping to watch the different kinds of falls and listen to the sounds they made. Bridal veil falls tumble over projecting ledges spraying water out into the air and make a sifting sound as the water plummets in freeform to the plunge pool below.  Cascades roar down stepped sandstone sliding into their pools with a whoosh. 

Tumbling into the gorge

Scour holes formed in glacial meltwaters

Many waterfalls drop into scoured holes carved by swirling glacial meltwater as it poured off the top of the top of the plateau lake. There are impressive potholes formed by vortexes of silt laden glacial water careening at great speed down the ravine. I found two fossilized burrows of extinct lungfish exposed by broken ledges of old sea bottom sandstone. They serve as small steps or hand holds in places but unless you know you are looking at a lungfish burrow well, it's just another ledge feature. 

Scene of a tumble

As I was navigating down towards the meeting of Leigh Gorge and Gonoga Glen, the sun was beginning to dip behind the rim of the canyon wall. I heard a guy behind me take a tumble off some steep steps in a backwards slip-and-sit. He landed on his wrist which appeared to me to be broken. I helped fashion a splint from his empty long/tall Smart Water bottle and a sock for cushioning. Then I tied his wrist to the splint round and round with a bandana and assessed the rest of him. He seemed fine otherwise, no worse for wear. He and his wife decided they could easily walk back out to the Rt 118 parking area where they'd left their truck.  Nevermind that Amos broke into the wife's backpack while we were busy with his wrist. He ate almost $20 worth of beef jerky!

Each had its own music

Leaf fall brightens the dark ledges

Pretty plunge pool and a series of falls

Reading the rocks

Though the main ravine continues south (now officially called Ricketts Glen) I was well on my way up the opposite Ganoga Gorge when I began to notice the boulders and their layered features. I had been so awed by the waterfalls coming down Glen Leigh I forgot about geology!  Among the sandstone layers were where softer layers of mudstone or siltstone had been scoured away leaving great empty voids. The thick caprock of sandstone from the canyon rim above littered the ravine, telling a story of violent rushing waters that tore into the bluff.

Capstone tumbled from canyon rim above

Study the plaque boulder for impressions of ancient sea life

Breaking a sweat on the climb up...

...there were plenty of places to take a breather and let faster hikers go around.

Amos and I took a few breathers on the climb up and this gave me the opportunity to read more rocks around me. Cross-bedding showed up in many of the boulders - evidence of sand being laid down in shallow waters by gentle currents shifting here and there long before the glacier came. Eventually the  Wisconsin Glacier covered all of northern Pennsylvania with hundreds of feet of ice 20,000 years ago, this area being its "thin end" near its terminus before its retreat. In some places on the plateau above you can find glacial striations, grooves cut into the rock by the movement of heavy ice. The Wisconsin Glacier was the last of four great ice sheets to cover the Northeast during the last million years, though the combined time under ice for all of four ice ages total was less than 50,000 years.  A drop in the geological bucket.

Cross-bedding 

The trail looks tiny compared to the scour hole carved around it

With light fading fast we continued our climb towards the rim. We fell in behind an older couple navigating the steps with care and good humor. She would climb ahead and cheer him on from above. They'd switch places and he climbed ahead and cheered her on. "Come on! Stretch that hip flexor!" "You got this! Bounce on up here! Don't bounce down there!" "This is not the Grand Canyon! No mules will come save you!" "This is how Edmund Hillary did it! Onward!" I was giggling the quarter mile!

The last waterfall before...

...the climb out - following the cheers of the couple ahead of me.

Once on the plateau above I met up with the older couple who were resting on some log benches at the trail intersection with the Highlands Trail. I told them how much I enjoyed their cheering each other on. They laughed out loud, a little embarrassed (but not really) that someone was behind them "listening in" as they thought they were the last hikers out for the day. I assured them that there were others still making their way up the shadowy canyon. "But that's the adventure of it, right? Will we get back to our RV in time for dinner or breakfast?" We had a good laugh.

Atop the Allegheny Plateau

As I walked back through sweet smelling hemlock forests to my campsite I was again in awe of the boulder fields now covered in moss and needles, all placed by the glacier as it receded from the escarpment. The tiny trills of tree crickets came from all directions as the sun finally dipped behind Red Rock Mountain to the west. The last flat mile back to the campground was a delight on the Rose Lake Trail among the hemlocks. We both ate a hot meal. I had mashed potatoes and bacon, Amos had oatmeal to clean out his farty, beef jerky gut and turned in by hiker's midnight (6:30pm).

Notes:

Ricketts Glen State Park's Falls Trail is rated as one of the best trails to hike in PA, but be prepared for a lot of climbing down and climbing up. It's not easy. And, it may not be open to day hikers who come unprepared for serious ice in winter. But there are lots of trails to discover that are safe in winter - I plan to be back for some cold weather camping. The smaller loop of the nice campground complex is open year-round. Yay!

Walter Zolna (the original social distancer) has a great video of the Falls Trail hike on his YouTube Channel. The sounds! I've decided I can't make videos with Amos along, so enjoy one of my favorite PA hiker channels! He really does some excellent work.

MD Catoctin Mountain Park: East Side/ Yellow Trail Loop

 

Catoctin Mountain Park (NPS) East Side

2022 52-Hike Challenge #27 Yellow-Blazed Loop, Thurmont MD - 5 mi.

My first hike since losing our beloved Poppy to Parkinson's Disease was much needed by me and Amos. It's been three weeks and I've not done much other than some part-time work and putter around the house. It's amazing how empty I've felt - almost in a daze. I really haven't had my heart in anything so today's 5-miler helped me focus on the moment, back on the trail for few hours of rocky ups and downs. 

Metabasalts are toothy and jagged

The remnants of Hurricane Ian were just beginning to overlay the area with rain clouds against a hazy, metallic sky. There were a few folks on the trail today trying to get in their hikes before the heavier rains arrive over the weekend. A light wind sifted through the forest canopy which is just beginning to flare with some yellows. The terrain was rocky and geologically interesting as the trail passes through three distinct rock bands: phyllites ("cooked" shales and mudstone), metabasalts (metamorphic lava), and very hard quartzite. The banding of rocks below me and waves of clouds created a mosaic of rock and sky all bent towards the northwest made of continental collisions and the arms of a hurricane.

Hog Rock and bands of rain approaching 

The trail passed alongside a quarry site used by the CCC to cut stone for the original cabin now part of the Visitor Center and parts of Camp David which is centered within the park. Climbing away from the road crossing into Cunningham Falls State Park, the path became rocky and steep but not difficult. I worked up a sweat and shed my hoodie for my t-shirt underneath. 

Zig-Zag Goldenrod, Solidago flexicaulis

Patches of snakeroot and woodland aster were beginning to fade but one of my favorite mid-fall flowers was in full bloom, Zig-Zag Goldenrod. It arched out across the trail in bright yellow sprays of blossoms on crooked stems. Furry bumblebees and blue wasps danced through the arches of flowers and a Mourning Cloak butterfly foraged along a flowery stem. These may be some of the last nectaring days of the year.

Yellow blazes in the valley

Up the ridge and past the smooth hump of Hog Rock, I encountered more people who Amos had to inspect for possible snacks. We cruised through the woods to the Blue Ridge Summit Overlook and found it occupied by a meditating hiker holding a fragrant incense stick in her clasped hands. A light wind carried curls of blue smoke into the leaves. She turned to smile at me and Amos wanted so bad to check out her backpack (snacks) that she giggled. "For my mom," she said and she turned back to her prayers. For Poppy, too, I thought, gazing out past her into the blue hills. 

Meditating hiker

Now on the ridge of the mountain, we hiked through a much drier and fire dependent forest of oak and pine but current forest management policy here continues to call for full suppression so as not to burn so historic structures, neighboring properties, and of course, Camp David.  A recent human-caused fire (2001) near Wolf Rock has given the park the opportunity establish plant recovery areas to observe the robust return of native plants. Gone from these plots is the invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) which is pervasive on the approach slopes and throughout the valley below. The fire management team is slowly coming around to consider very controlled low surface burns, a park volunteer told me at the Visitor Center, but she wasn't sure of when and if these small burns would happen anytime soon.

Oak woods on the outcrops

The downhill return to the Visitor Center passed through a swarm of old charcoal hearths with one site outfitted as a demonstration area. These hearths produced charcoal for the pre-Revolutionary era Catoctin Iron Furnace down in the valley. Industrial slavery powered the furnace, forge, and associated industries with free labor. Some of the items produced at the Catoctin Iron Furnace were the very things that were used to brutalized enslaved people - leg and wrist cuffs, chains, iron collars, and head cages. The trail weaves  past many charcoal hearths. One can see that the whole hillside is dotted with them. Colliers and their families worked so far from the furnaces that when an accident occurred and a man died, they were buried in the hills rather than transport the bodies miles back to cemeteries. 

Charcoal hearth with stack-wood demonstration

Catoctin Iron Furnace, further down the valley (not on NPS land) 

The day before this hike, my friend Ann and I wandered around Pine Grove Furnace State Park about an hour's drive north of here in Pennsylvania. We found the Pine Grove Furnace workers and family cemetery and wondered who they were as only pieces and shards of headstones remained. As I walked the last quarter mile to the Visitors Center I wondered again about the lost workers, the unmarked graves of the colliers, Free Black and Enslaved workers who made the American iron industry possible - and thus our nation's declaration of independence from England. It was a sad note to end my hike with but sadness has been my companion for a few weeks now. 

Notes:

Catoctin Iron Furnace Historical Society maintains the iron furnace living history site and iron workers museum southeast of the National Park.  It's worth a return visit to see just this site.

Industrial slavery at Catoctin Iron Furnace and the Frederick community effort to reclaim enslaved identity at the site:  

DE Trap Pond State Park - Bob Trail Loop

 2022 52-Hike Challenge #26 : Trap Pond State Park, Bob Trail Loop (Inner) 5.5 mi.

Laura and I have been hiking together since we were in high school, so, as sisters, we seem attuned to when its time for our next hike together and such was this past Labor Day Saturday. Laura had an urge and I had an urge so we decided to take our chances at a popular Delaware State Park and see what the hiking would be like on one of the most crowded weekends of the year. Besides cutting through a packed and noisy campground, the rest of our five-and-a-half mile walk on the Bob Trail, Connector, and Cypress Point Trails was blissfully uncrowded and beautiful.

Intersection points well marked

Low water on Trap Pond

There are no natural lakes in Delaware but the biggest ones are related to the thriving saw mill industry once found in the First State. Trap Pond once supplied water to a variety of mills that operated at the outflow from the mid-1700s. Surrounding the lake is a dense and beautiful cypress swamp with Bald Cypress being one of the most prized lumber types for those early mills. Nowadays the mills are gone but the Cypress forest continues its remarkable return. With the help of a new dam in the 1930s under the CCC and Rural Resettlement Program under FDR's administration, the area became Trap Pond State Park.

Ironwood, Ostrya virginiana

In addition to the Cypress, we noted American Holly, Loblolly Pine, Ironwood, Beech, Sweetgum, Swamp White Chestnut Oak, Laurel Oak, Tulip Poplar, and White Cedar. While the water is very low it was interesting to see how the Cypress knees formed their own forest in the leafy mud plains.  The sun was a little lower in the afternoon sky and lent a beautiful slanted yellow light to the forest. Walking on a carpet of Loblolly Pine needles we traveled almost silently through the woods.

Cypress "knees" in their own small forest 

The stars of our hike were the many Cypress trees with their feathery foliage, wide buttresses, and "knees" standing proud of the forest floor. The woody knees grow up from the roots in wet areas and help the tree stabilize in softer soils. When cypress grow on higher ground they do not send up these woody projections but down in the swamp were everywhere. We were hiking at the northern-most range limit of naturally growing Taxodium distichum and it is always a thrill to see such healthy, intact stand just a few hours from my home.  Bald Cypress are planted north of here as specimen trees in landscaping and parks, but to witness a naturally occurring, mature Cypress Swamp, you have come south.

Natural range of Bald Cypress

Unlike other trees that have needles instead of leaves, there are few coniferous species that shed their needles come autumn. Bald Cypress is one, however, and in more northerly regions the Larch or Tamarack is the other. In a few months time the grand Cypress swamp at Trap Pond will shed its canopy and grow a new one in the spring. We look forward to coming back and hiking here in late fall or winter and taking the longer outer loop on the Bob Trail to compare the summer swamp with the winter swamp. I sense a camping trip coming on.

Bethesda Church is getting a make-over!

A spur trail leads out of the woods to the cemetery and grounds of the Bethesda Church that faces out on to vast agricultural fields. Last time I was here a few years ago the church was in dire need of some attention. There were broken windows, a crumbling chimney, and a roof in need of repair. Happily we came out to quite a sight! A volunteer was painting the corner columns and was happy to tell us that things are moving ahead for this important community house of worship, still in use, and now part of the conserved lands and landmarks of Delaware State Parks. The newly installed historical panels shows a picture of the structure in 2000 and more recently while undergoing a complete restoration. What a treat to see this!

Photo credit: Laura Weldon

We were pleasantly surprised, too, by the community of skinks and lizards living in on the edge of the old graveyard and of course we had to stop and gawk at them. An Eastern Fence Lizard was posturing in front of a young Five-Lined Skink by poofing out its bright blue belly and throat pouch and bobbing its head. The Five-Lined Skink, sporting a bright blue break-way tail, seemed  bored with its challenger, giving it a skinky side-eye while continuing to enjoy its warm, sunny perch. 

Five-Lined Skink

I noted how different the Eastern Fence Lizard is from the Northern Fence Lizard (which is the species I am more familiar with up in PA). The Eastern is less sharp-scaled, almost smooth with pigmented scale patterns making up its excellent camouflage. The Northern Fence Lizard has an abundance of pointy-out/sticky-up scales that give it a rough appearance while its patterned scales are arranged in a double row of forward pointed Vs. 

Eastern Fence Lizard (DE)

Northern Fence Lizard (NJ)

Nearby on a gravestone was a tiny hatchling Eastern Fence Lizard baby maybe two inches long and I wondered if the adult Fence Lizard was warning the Five-Lined Skink away from its young? No idea, but it was a treat to meet a baby lizard up close - close enough to see the sparkle in his little eye, unsure what to make of this big lumbering creature cooing over it, "You're so cuuuuuuute!"

Hatchling Eastern Fence Lizard

Our hike continued from the church back to the main path and down into the heart of the swamp drainage basin crossing a dry forest floor on a high boardwalk that at other times of the year would have water flowing beneath it. Gone are the spectacular Prothonotary, Yellow, and Northern Parula Warblers of the spring. Now the woods are crackling dry and the stream a mere trickle. Fall is here and the great migrations of warblers south is underway. We heard a number of resident Pileated Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, and Titmouse but the spring riot of birdlife is now gone. 

Boardwalk over a dry swamp

Raccoon tracks and a trickle that is Thompson Branch

We soon came upon the cabins and campground, fully occupied for the last weekend of summer. The rustic cabins in the midst of cypress knees and loblolly glades were lovely but we hurried through the campground with its noise and big rigs and busy-ness. But - it wasn't long before I was looking into booking a quiet winter weekend in one of the older cabins - more on that in December! We crossed the dam walkway and were back at our start at the historic picnic grounds and gads of people laughing, singing, playing games, kayaking, and eating. And, wonder of wonders - a Rita's shaved ice truck!

Nice water bottle ya got there!

Notes:

Interpretive Ranger William Koth has a nice blog piece about the history of Trap Pond, here: https://destateparks.blog/2020/04/22/history-of-trap-pond-state-park/

Delaware State Parks, Trap Pond website: https://destateparks.com/TrapPond

Trails map for Trap Pond https://destateparks.com/wwwroot/maps/trap-pond/TrapPondMap.pdf

PA Blue Knob State Park: Mountain View, Three Springs, and Pavia Lookout Trails

2022 52-Hike Trail Challenge: #24 Mountain View, Three Springs,  and Pavia Lookout Trails 5.5mi (interlinked loop)

So after Amos spent three long (but sleeping) hours in the truck while I had my meeting in Loretto, PA, I owed it to him to finish our camping trip with a long hike and a summit topper. We got up extra early and parked in the Tower Road parking area on the Ski Access Road and hiked the Mountain View Trail to the Three Springs Trail around the southern summit, then on to the Pavia Lookout Trail with a view.  All the trails were well marked and having intersection posts was helpful since trails interlaced all over the south summit. We made the Pavia Overlook around 8am and all was well with the world. Amos bagged his second peak for 2022, the first being Hawksbill in SNP back in June.

Stunted forest and frost shattered sandstone.

Not far from these trails is the highest point on Blue Knob on a knoll atop the ski resort. This area was used by the USAF during the Cold War as listening post, operated by the 772d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron with many men who had been transferred here from Alaska. The weather on Blue Knob is so cold and sometimes so severe that those Arctic boys claimed it was worse than their base in Alaska. Not far down the mountain is the small village of Frigid, PA, and that should be a clue as to how bad it gets up here in winter. The natural clues of long, cold winters with high winds were frost shattered blue sandstone and the stunted forest. The way the mountain is positioned at the foot of the Allegheny Front makes it a target for fierce winter weather that comes racing over the wall of the Allegheny, funneled directly down the valley and up and over Blue Knob.

Blue sandstone

I loved checking out the blue sandstone as we hiked along. It ran in horizontal shelves with great blocks stacked one atop another, impressed with ripple marks and other sedimentary features from a long ago shallow sea. This rock type is one of many that represent the Burgoon Sandstone formation that underlies the Allegheny Plateau - which is really not a plateau in this area but a deeply incised erosional landscape of low mountains and deep ravines. 

Weather sign

At times the trail was old road, wide and gently rising. Other times it was a rocky path paved with blocks of blue sandstone. Either way, there was much for a coonhound to sniff and he was particularly interested in coyote and bear scat. I spotted old sections of chain-link fence posts that snaked up the hill towards the old military base and I wondered if some of the woods road we were following on the Three Springs Trail was a remnant of the military perimeter road. 

Pavia Lookout

Amos makes his second summit of the year! 

As we circled around the Pavia Lookout Trail through the forest I heard what I thought was a small motor, maybe a drone? The mystery was solved when a lady attempting to ride an e-bike down the rocky footpath and clearly not in control came bumping and tumbling by. I have no problem with e-bikes on appropriate trails but this trail was certainly not a good choice. We jumped off the trail just as she yelled "WHOA!" and hit a rock and tree root that sent her spilling over into the trail. I helped her right her heavy bike and offered to help her push it back to the woods road. She was a little banged up and I worried she might have really hurt herself. She declined help and said she would rest on the bench at the overlook and promised she wouldn't try to ride it back. Lesson learned? 

Perimeter fencing near the old base boundary

After our hike, I decided to drive the short distance back up to the summit at the ski lifts and take another look around. I tried to imagine the three great radar domes that sat up here, surrounded by barracks, officer housing, workshops, and an array of antennas. There are only a few clues of the mountain summit's former life: a large cement pad, a few 1960s-era buildings repurposed for the ski resort, and a collection of cement cable anchors that held the towers to the mountain. It was a beautiful place to sit and enjoy a rest from our final hike at Blue Knob. 

Summit of Blue Knob for a rest

Notes: 

A nice history of the Claysburg Air Force Station atop Blue Knob. https://www.claysburg.us/blue-knob-air-force-base.html