I visited the Quebec Run Wild Area several years ago, and I hated how popular it was with mountain-bikers and their unleashed dogs. But on the Tuesday before Easter, I had the place more or less to myself. I did meet a few bikers on the trails, but only three or four, and no damned dogs. These photos cannot be enlarged, which is too bad because the hemlock beside this stream is truly beautiful.
A "wild area" is a protected zone inside a state forest. Back country camping is permitted, and I'm so sorely tempted! Once you get away from the major mountain bike trails, this place is extremely quiet and wild. It's beautiful country of hemlocks, and rhododendrons, and more clear little rushing streams than you can count. It would be easy to find a solitary spot and set up camp.
Many of the best trails follow the beautiful mountain brooks, like this one. They're clear, and cold, and rapid. Not big enough for kayaking, but definitely big enough to make the music of the forest.
Vistas are rare in this quadrant, even though it's in the higher altitudes.
A few interesting camps are built along the edges of the state forest land. I liked this place because it was an old 1970s-style trailer with a permanent room built onto it, sitting right beside the creek.
And this one is meant to be camouflaged, I think...
There were even a few patches of snow left on the ground at 4pm in certain areas of Quebec Run.
The area runs along the Mason-Dixon Line, which I crossed to take a little drive down country lanes.
The Allegheny Trail? Who's ever heard of that? It apparently begins at the Mason-Dixon Line and runs 300-some miles into West Virginia.
On the Pennsylvania side, there are enormous windmills, like this one. I love renewable energy, and I'm glad to see the windmills--even though they do create disturbances in the forest. But damn, these things look sinister up close.
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