Wild Woods and Waters, the Celebration Continues!

Thank you to everyone who viewed, commented on, gave stars, and/or made a favorite of yesterday's Blip. Thank you also to the several new subscribers! It was a delightful way to celebrate 1000 Blips, and the overwhelming response made me feel warm and fuzzy and well loved, from the top of my head to the very tips of my toes! Thank you for that! I am grateful!

In yesterday's Blip, I had begun the story of a late summer/very early autumn outdoor camping adventure. Our tale left off at Wykoff Run, one of my favorite cool and green and shady places. From there, my husband and I continued our drive along Wykoff Run Road until we left the Quehanna Wild Area.

Our travels on Sunday into Monday would take us along various tributaries and branches of the Sinnemahoning Creek. We went through tiny rural towns with names like Sinnemahoning, Driftwood, Castle Garden, Mix Run, Hicks Run, Dents Run, Benezette, and Medix Run. From there, we would loop back through Quehanna, to the place where our journey began.

While we didn't really go far (in miles, at least), our adventures were many. We hiked on a little trail we'd never been on before, called Pine Tree Trail; a green pathway lined with trees, it reminded me of so many of the mountain trails I've hiked in Pennsylvania. We explored parts of Cameron and Elk Counties that we hadn't visited before, and spent a blissful sunny Sunday afternoon along the charming little creek that is shown in this photo.

We ended up car-camping not too far from this stream, and we spent Sunday night tenting on comfortable ground beneath the pines. The moon arrived at a reasonable hour, looking fat and well-fed, and kept us company through much of the night. It was quiet and peaceful there, interrupted only by the sounds of several owls that emerged from their trees around nightfall and hooted and hollered around; and some elk that I heard whistling (but not bugling, alas) around 4 in the morning, but of course never got to see.

On Monday morning, after we had packed up our gear, I walked around and snapped some photos of the little stream, including this shot. I had hoped to linger until the sun arrived to brighten things up a bit more, but the light was just breaking in the foggy hollow above us, and we didn't really have extra time to waste, as we had a lot planned for the rest of our day. It was with regrets that we left there, promising to come back again someday; maybe even someday soon.

And then we continued our journey through Benezette, where we visited some of the most famous elk-viewing spots in the state, such as Winslow Hill, where elk are known to hang out, but apparently not on this day. And we stopped at the new visitor center in Benezette, which had some amazing displays, a gift shop, and some really lovely grounds: gentle rolling fields that were green as a golf course, but with lots of signs telling you that no, you were not allowed to walk on the grass, or stroll off into the woods - those places were for the elk, not people. But alas, there were no elk there either, at least not during the time we were there. Perhaps on another day . . .

Trying to see and do as much as possible on our short trip, we caught the Quehanna Highway in Medix Run, stopped and hiked for an hour or two on a trail through forests and bogs at the Marion Brooks Natural Area (where, for the record, I saw a small hawk alight on a tree limb nearby - kestrel? - I wondered, and hoped . . . ), and then finally we began our journey home.

We had time for just one more quick outdoor adventure: we stopped and my husband had a brief swim at Black Moshannon State Park (the beaches are still open for swimming through the 14th at several of our local parks). Meanwhile, I hiked around and took pictures of the lake, which was reflecting some amazing afternoon clouds. And then we returned home, spiritually refreshed but physically exhausted from our travels and adventures.

The song to accompany this, the second and final posting of our two-day journeys through the woods and waters of central Pennsylvania is a celebration of all things wild. It is one of the ultimate road-trip songs of all time, and so I thought it was the perfect selections to accompany this tale of our wild adventures. Here is Steppenwolf, with Born to be Wild. :-)