Coming Home to Fly Apart

Ohio had felt like it was nothing but rain-- aside from the two crowded hikes we went on-- but as soon as we crossed into Pennsylvania at around five o’clock in the evening the sun suddenly burst through and we were graced by the view of the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania. It felt like seeing a good friend again after being apart for much too long. You see I lived in Pennsylvania for a year and it was fantastic! I remember that I loved the fall colors, the rolling hills, and the fact that it was all just small towns. Sure there are two big cities in Pennsylvania (Pittsburg and Philadelphia), but the rest of the place is covered in nothing but small towns and open space.

We drove straight into Allegheny National Forest that evening, and since it was late we didn’t put forth much effort finding a camping spot. In fact, we were probably just barely sixty feet from the road (that’s the minimum distance for camping on National Forest property). We also happened to be right next to an old oil pump. The bonus was that we were not on church property. Though since the campsite was a rushed choice both Eric and Tweedy began to feel trepidation towards the entire state of Pennsylvania, but it was okay, because it would quickly win them over the next day.

Come morning we drove to a nearby trailhead for Minister’s Creek and made a batch of oatmeal along with hot chocolate and some “rosehip tea”—I put it in quotations because really all we were doing was boiling spruce pine needles. Don’t knock it though, it tastes delicious and strong, not to mention it’s a great source of vitamin C. Eh? Not half bad right? 

Following the gourmet breakfast, we made our way along what we thought to be the Minister’s Creek Trail. It was a beautiful stretch of forest, but we seemed to keep losing track of the trail so we found an old abandoned oil piped that we started to follow along. At points we were balancing on top of the pipeline over stretches of muddy ground. There was even a short stretch where we had to balance on the pipe and support our weight with sticks in order to bend around and avoid the trunk of a tree. The sad part is we all managed to pull off that maneuver just to find out that the oil pipe ended suddenly ten feet later. At that point we decided it was time to find another landmark to follow. This brought us over to Minister’s Creek, which we waded across and followed along the opposite bank.

It was on the return crossing of the river that we discovered the entire creek was teeming with crayfish. This led to us catching crayfish for the next couple hours before we finally made our way back to the car along with our bag full of crayfish. It was official now, everyone was in love with the Pennsylvania woods, especially right there by the creek. Upon checking the map we found out that what we thought was the trailhead was actually the part of the forest where people could camp wherever they wanted. Next thing you know we had our backpacks on and we were hiking back to an island type thing where we made camp. Here, maybe you should just take a look for yourself.

That night we had a crayfish boil, and it was delicious! Unfortunately it was not enough food for three big dudes so I made some beans for dinner as well, and after dinner we got a roaring fire going and sat around chatting until the desire for sleep won over.

As soon as we woke up the next day we got back in Minister’s Creek and began an even more intense crayfish hunt then the two hour one from the day before. If I were to guess I would say that we were wading around in the creek for nearly four hours, and our haul of crayfish was stupendous! Still we had to supplement the meal (that's what happens when you're trying to feed three big dudes) before we broke camp and headed back to the cars. It was difficult saying goodbye to that campsite, but now we were on a press for time. Eric needed to get to New York City in two days so he could fly back to Colorado in order to be at his friend Isaac’s wedding, so onto the road it was. We booked it down to central Pennsylvania that night where we ate dinner at a Burger King before once again sleeping in State Games Land. Now we found out at a later point that it is actually against regulations to camp in state game lands in Pennsylvania, but no one ever seemed to mind while we were there, so I didn’t feel bad about it. In that particular state games land campsite yielded many wild discoveries that we made during a midnight hike up a creek bed. This included several species of salamander and ever a box turtle who was our companion during our short stay there.

The morning of October 5^th it was time to be back on the road again. We were planning on being in Philadelphia that night, so we needed to start heading south. Our options for what we could do that day were fairly slim. I told Eric about some things that were worth seeing in Pennsylvania and he chose Centralia. Just a little history as to the city of Centralia. Back in the day it was a booming coal mining town with somewhere around 5000 people living there. For those of you from real cities thinking that is hardly anything… well let’s just say as far as Pennsylvania towns go that would be in the top ten percentile. The town was doomed though. Eventually the coal mine that actually stretched underneath the homes of the workers there in town caught on fire due to a freak accident. At first the flames stayed away from the boundaries of the town, but in the 1970’s it started to cause sink holes right next to the border of town and there was a federal evacuation order of the town. A few people still remain (I think the technical population is three), but for the most part it is just a ghost town now, take a look for yourself.

We spent some time hiking around the town that is now nothing more than a barren tourist attraction and set of four-wheeling trails. Four wheelers would not fit in our cars though, so we were just hiking through the four-wheeling trails. Most of the town has transformed into something of a trash dump, but if you go far enough in on the roads it’s still possible to find young woods that have reclaimed the plot of land from the people who abandoned it. It was on these deeper trails (right around sunset) while we were just hiking around, when Tweedy (he was in front of all of us) started growling and backing up past Eric and I. Apparently he had caught sight of a black bear, and once Eric and I had calmed him down we went up to the place where he had seen it in hopes of snapping a picture, unfortunately he had already disappeared so I don’t have a picture to show you. We did search for a while longer though, but we couldn’t stick around forever. There was a plane to catch the next day in NYC and we had our first couch surfing appointment to show up for. For those of you who don’t know, couch surfer is actually a website/app that pairs you with locals in an area who are willing to offer a floor or couch to crash on to travelers coming through. It’s a great way to meet people both while traveling and as a host.

That night in Philadelphia we stayed with a super nice girl who was going to school at the nearby medical university. Helaina was super sweet to us and got a place for us to sleep in the basement of the small little apartment that she lived in. It wasn’t a finished basement, but why would we care about anything like that? A place to lay our pad inside is more than anyone of us could ever ask for after a week of camping in random locations across the state.

The next day we drove straight to New York City. Now I know all of those Los Angeles types will always say their traffic is the worst, but that’s only because most people in Los Angeles haven’t tried to drive through New York City. We dropped off Eric’s car in a suburb in New Jersey and then all of our lives rested in my hands as I drove us into the city area. The good thing about that is I don’t think I was ever traveling fast enough for a wreck to cause any damage to the car, let alone the occupants. Still I thought it best not to test that hypothesis and got us to a park to cook some beans for lunch without a scratch. I think the fact that we cooked on a camping stove in a park in New York City is a fairly unique experience, and the beans were fantastic, not to mention hot as could be thanks to those peppers we got from the girl in Kafe Kerouac.

After eating it was time to say goodbye for a short time to one of the three parts of our traveling unit, so we got back on the road and I managed to maneuver us safely to the airport terminal. And so three became two. And let me tell you, the adventures did not even slow down, but more on that next time.