Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail, Northern Terminus

The northern end of the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail offers some good views out over the valley of the Conemaugh River.  Unfortunately, it's a noisy valley, and so the first three miles of the trek are accompanied by an urban soundtrack of screaming automobiles, and trains, and construction vehicles, and heavy duty trucks going in reverse.  Of course, the LHHT stretches 70 miles along a ridge from Ohiopyle to this place, near Johnstown.  In fact, if you click on this photo you'll see Johnstown in the distance.  A friend and I did the long, uphill climb from the northern trailhead parking lot all the way to the first campground on the trail--just under six miles.  The hike took about three hours and a half. It was a scenic fall hike, with most of the leaves still green, and a beautiful night to sleep in the forest, where a barred owl serenaded us from very nearby until about midnight.