They really are mountains, albeit low. Look to the very center of this photo and a little to the left. You can see how the ridges rise and fall away to the distance. Quebec Run Wild Area is truly remote, located at the top of the Chestnut Ridge.
The Wild Area is "protected" in order to maintain its wild character, which makes all the difference in the world for me. As in all our state forests, the trails are blazed and maintained beautifully. Oh, the glories of a grassy old forest road through the sunlit mountains of mid-March, down near the Mason Dixon Line! You can see the ridgeline in the distance.
Quebec Run itself is a beautiful mountain stream shaded by hemlocks. Because it's broad and shallow, the brook babbles peacefully. Not too loud. It's a native trout stream. The teaberries in the woods around here have the mintiest taste I've ever found in the wild.
This is an old, old land. It's been sold and resold. But now, at last, this much of it is protected from the frackers, and the timber men, and the oilmen. In an uncharacteristic stroke of support, Gov. Corbett decided not to open the remaining "unleased" 60% of our state forestland to the gas drillers. Quebec Run is as beautiful a spot as you'll find in the Southwest of Pennsylvania. The novel, American Rust, calls Fayette County "Fayette-nam" because of the social disintegration in its economically devastated towns. But this part of Fayette County is so profoundly beautiful. It's exactly an hour and a half from Pittsburgh.
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