East End Pittsburgh, with a Link to Hoye-Crest

 

How colorful the east end of Pittsburgh appeared from the roof of Shadyside Hospital on Halloween morning.

For a link to my most recent mountaineering adventure at Hoye-Crest, in Maryland, click HERE. 

North Country Trail: Minister Road to Minister Creek, Allegheny National Forest

                                       

On a recent visit to the Allegheny National Forest, I found a spot on a map that looked intriguing, then drove there and found that it was, in fact, not at all intriguing.  But en route to that place, I came across the old remains of the original CCC camp that was located in the national forest in the 1930s.  This place was used as a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

What was an American POW camp for German soldiers like, I wonder?  All I can picture is Hogan's Heroes.

This is not the loveliest fall we've seen in recent years, but it is the longest lasting.  I've never before seen so many trees keeping their leaves past Halloween.

A female hairy woodpecker.  (Who names these things?)

Abandoning my original plan, I cut south on Minister Road and decided to catch the North County Trail all the way to the Minister Creek Trail. I wonder who this minister was that got a creek and a road and a campground and a trail all named after him...or at least named after his occupation.

Where the NCT meets the Minister Creek Trail, there's an abundance of beautiful back-country campsites, like this one...with an old folding chair sitting by the fire ring.  

Don't you hate it when folding chairs appear in unexpected places?  I've found folding chairs in many a far-flung woodland spot.  I think hunters sometimes carry them into the woods and leave them.  And back in the 1980s, when my uncle would come home from work and collapse into his recliner to watch professional wrestling, someone would inevitably produce a folding chair to clobber their opponent.  How did folding chairs get so...ubiquitous?

It was a beautiful, golden autumn day to be among the trees.

This photo was meant to capture the rock cliffs behind the trees.  This is close to a rock formation called Sleeping Giant, which is only known to locals, and which I've covered once on this blog and once on the old blog.  Lots of big rock cities in the woods here.

The caves that you see beneath the boulders could offer shelter in a pinch, but they're not the deep caves that remain 50 degrees year-round.  These are "tectonic caves," basically nothing more than crags beneath and between the rocks.  This tall rocky ledge runs for a long distance parallel to the trail. 

And the forest was lovely in the yellow light of late October.  

A few weeks ago, I hiked to the Minister Creek Trail (North Loop) from the west along the North Country Trail.  There were Scouts from Ohio building a bridge.  Looks like they finished the task.