The great beauty of Quebec Run Wild Area--Forbes State Forest--is not in grand overlooks or broad vistas, but in gentle streamside scenes such as this. It's more than 7,000 hilly acres of forest, mostly oaks and maples with hemlocks along the many waterways. This is up on Chestnut Ridge, the summit just east of Uniontown, and the Mason-Dixon Line forms the southern border of the "wild area."
If you come here on weekends, you'll find suburbanites aplenty, riding their mountain bikes on the hiking trails, nearly running you over, and letting their obnoxious dogs run off the leash to bark at you and sniff your genitals.. Don't come on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Come instead on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and you'll probably have the place all to yourself--as my friend and I did this past Monday and Tuesday.
We got here at 10:30 on Monday morning, hiked till 5:00, spent the night at a pleasant spot on Mill Run, then did another trek Tuesday morning before heading home. A barred owl serenaded us from late afternoon until sunset, but the night was quiet and still. No noise at all except water splashing in the nearby brook and an occasional gust to rattle the dry leaves overhead.
This has been the ugliest October we've seen in my lifetime. The trees are mainly still green, due to outrageously warm overnight temperatures. But up on the west side of Chestnut Ridge, it felt and looked a bit like fall. It drizzled off and on much of the first day, and nighttime temperatures dropped to 36 degrees. So, to recap: Come to Quebec Run during the week; come in the fall; and come prepared, because these highlands can get unexpectedly cold at night.
