Laurel Highlands Trail, Route 31 Shelter Area

A friend and I have taken to doing winter backpacking trips along the Laurel Highlands Trail.  We get one of these Adirondack shelters, gather lots of firewood, attach small tarps in the big gaping openings on either side of the chimney, and have ourselves a merry old time in the wintry forest.  No humidity, no bugs, no other people making their noise!  (No one to complain when I play my pan flute in the chilly forest nights.)

Along the Laurel Highlands Trail, you're required to stay in one of the official camping areas, and you have to reserve your site beforehand, either for a tent or else one of these cool shelters with a fireplace.  See, it's kind of cozy inside these shelters.  Of course, it can get plenty cold, even with a fire going--hence the tarps.  In fact, the day we arrived it was an eerie 70 degrees.  Overnight the temperatures plummeted to 24 degrees.  When we woke up the next day, it was frigid.  That day did not see temps rising above 34 degrees.  On our second night, we kept the fire going all night long, which made it bearable, even though ice formed in my water bottle, which was all of 10 feet from the fire.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for a little place like this in the woods--though this cabin has a slightly creepy air about it.  

You're not technically supposed to stay two consecutive nights in these shelters along the Laurel Highlands Trail.  They're primarily for "thru-hikers" who do the whole 70-mile trail in one long trek.  (I am going to be one of them someday.)  And if it had meant depriving someone else of a place to stay, then we definitely would not have stayed two nights here.  But I looked online beforehand.  Aside from us, there was no one staying in the Route 31 camping area.  You see very few people on the trail in February.  So my friend reserved the shelter in his name on the first night, and I reserved it in my name on the second night.  The park ranger did stop by, and he knew exactly what we had done, but didn't seem to care.  

We hiked mostly around the Blue Hole Division of the Forbes State Forest.