Buchanan State Forest

The Buchanan is officially my favorite state forest.  Here's a roadside overlook in the Buchanan State Forest.  Pretty enough, but nothing like the views that await the one who's willing to hike or travel the lesser roads.

This shale face was steep and probably 100 feet from top to bottom.  I walked to the top and discovered that a family had driven up there and set up camp.

Nice view from up there.

This is a spot in the Buchanan State Forest where hang-gliders get launched.  I put up my hammock in a shady area in the nearby trees and waited on a Tuesday to see if anyone would come and take a flight, but in the three or four hours I spent, I saw not another soul.  This is from the summit of Sideling Hill.  If you've ever driven the Pennsylvania Turnpike, then you've probably seen the name of the hill on road signs.  
The view from the trees wasn't quite so grand, but it was cooler in the shade, and I exited the hammock frequently to go and look again at the nearby vista--just to make sure it was still there.  

Here's another view from the crest of Sideling Hill, but whereas the top photo looks east, this one looks west.  I believe that other hill over there is known as Harbor Mountain.

Can you imagine speeding in a little hang-glider straight for that spot where the land falls away?  I like to believe I would do it, but I've never even braved the hang-gliders that skip across the sand dunes at the Outer Banks...

And here's a view looking south from Harbor Mountain.  This is also a hang-glider jumping-off-place.  It would be fun to fly low out over that country.  From up here, you'd never know that it's crawling with ignorant Trump chumps, with its orderly farms, its quaint villages, its grand old farmhouses, and dark forests, and pretty churches surrounded by ancient cemeteries; its rivers, and ponds, and contour-plowed hills.