ALL TIME LOW
Since Christy and I both had
more than a week off for Christmas, we decided to spend the holidays with her
family in central Pennsylvania. Since I
knew I’d have a lot of free time, I brought all of my hiking gear. Pennsylvania has been experiencing an
unusually warm winter. In fact, State
College, PA only received 7” of snow through all of 2006. This is the least amount of snow to fall in
that area since records first started being kept. Luckily, a little snow finally began falling on the Tuesday after
Christmas. I decided to hike on
Wednesday to take advantage of it.
On this visit, I decided to
check out a different area. Christy
drove me up to Rockton Mountain, which is only a 20-minute drive from her
parent’s house in Clearfield. Rockton
Mountain features a series of trails open to hiking, mountain biking, and
cross-country skiing. The 2” of snow on
the ground there pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn’t see anybody engaged in
the later two activities. My only
concern was that I might run into deer hunters. It was the middle of muzzle loader season, so Saucony and I were
both decked out in bright orange vests.
Light snow was falling when
Christy dropped me off at the trailhead at 10:30. The trailhead features a signboard with a map depicting five
trail loops. The printed map I had with
me only showed three of the loops. The
route I had planned combined those three into a 9-mile route. I decided to stick with my original plan,
and crossed a dirt road to begin the Horn Shanty Loop.
The Horn Shanty Loop led me
through a pretty stretch of open hardwood forest. Unfortunately I was still close to highway 322, and traffic noise
was constant. I left the noise behind
by descending a woods road, but the scenery became less interesting. I passed a hunting camp, and negotiated a
muddy stretch of trail through a less inspiring stretch of forest. Another long stretch of forest road
followed, before I reached a junction with another loop. From here, a short hike would have returned
me to the trailhead, but Christy wasn’t picking me up until 3:30.
I resumed the hike, and
passed through another attractive stretch of open hardwood forest. This was one of the prettier stretches of
the hike, and I was far enough from the highway that I couldn’t hear any
traffic. I stopped there for lunch, but
I kept it brief. Although the snow had
stopped, it was still cold enough that I wanted to keep moving.
Before long the trail
reached the highway. Saucony and I
dodged traffic and re-entered the woods on the opposite side. A long walk down another woods road led to a
junction with the Coupler Run Loop.
Although it started slowly, this loop ended up being the best of three
that I hiked.
The road eventually gave way
to a footpath, and before long I began descending towards Coupler Run. I may have been day-dreaming a bit when I
was jolted back to reality by a shotgun blast.
The gunfire was close, and I feared that I was about to encounter Dick
Cheney. A few seconds later, 7 or 8
deer bolted across the trail just in front of us. Saucony gave chase, which was alarming since the deer she was
chasing were under fire. All I could
think was how much trouble I’d be in with Christy if our dog, who was still
recovering from her third expensive surgery, was killed by hunters. I yelled at her, and she returned
immediately. There were no more shots,
so I’m guessing that one of those deer didn’t make it. Oddly, I never saw the hunter.
Once the dust settled, I
continued down to Coupler Run. Coupler
Run is a pretty stream, and the trail follows it closely for a mile or so. Along the way, I passed through more woods
and some small meadows. I continued
upstream, and eventually reached a pipeline access. Although most of the trails are well-marked, this particular
junction wasn’t marked at all. The map
shows the trail continuing straight across the pipeline, but no path exists
there. I was forced to guess at the
correct direction. Fortunately I judged
correctly. After a few minutes, I
regained the blazed trail. From there,
I hiked 20 minutes back to the trailhead.
I was about 15 minutes late, most of which was spent back at the
pipeline access searching for the trail.
Christy was waiting for us there, and we piled in for the short ride
home. By that point, it had warmed up
to the point that much of the fresh snow had melted. Warmer days would follow, and before long the snow was only a
memory.
I might return to Rockton
Mountain in the future, mainly because it’s so close to Christy’s family’s
house. If I do, I’ll probably combine
the Coupler Run Loop with a new loop on the same side of the highway. The Coupler Run Loop was the best part of my
hike, and the other loop might be worth checking out.
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Please remember to Leave No Trace!