Solo Overnight at Cornplanter State Forest

October is lingering long.  I love it.  I'm not sure when I've seen the trees hold onto their leaves this late into the fall.  Maybe it's due to the very dry weather.  See how low Oil Creek is running on the day before Halloween...

I was in the neighborhood, so I stopped by the park office at Oil Creek State Park and told the lady behind the desk that I had a single night to spend alone in the woods, but it has to be ALONE.  She said, "Sorry, we've got 4 sites reserved at one of our campgrounds and 5 at the other."  (These are just small backpacking campgrounds--no car-camping.)  And so, I went to Cornplanter State Forest.  It's only about 5 miles from my house.

I felt a little creeped out to be doing a solo backpacking trip again--the night before Halloween.  Have I even done a solo trip since a guy tried to murder me on North Fork Mountain in 2022?  (For that woeful tale, click HERE.)  That was 4 years ago...  But I'd scoped out a remote sight, far from view, and got there shortly before dusk.  There was a bowhunter with Vermont plates in the woods, but we paid each other no heed.  I thought to myself, "If it were PA plates, I might feel a little uncomfortable that he knows I'm spending the night alone here...but Vermont plates?  He's harmless."  It was a beautiful thing to have the night close in around my little encampment.  My last visit to Cornplanter was so disappointing that I didn't think I'd ever go back.  Huge swaths of the forest had been cut down and sold, and many tree trunks still littered the ground--which they will still be doing 30 years from now.  I was mad.  Cornplanter was never an exciting place, but it was pleasant and close by.  But...I went back on short notice because I thought I knew an area of the forest that had been spared the saw.  It was really great to spend a night alone in the woods again.  Coyotes and barred owls sang into the night.

And I slept like a baby till 4:30am, after which I slept fitfully.  It got down to 32 degrees overnight, but all was well.  My new philosophy of life is to keep my backpack ready to go at all times.  I leave it completely packed with food, water, toiletries and everything.  I attach a note telling me what I need to add--like bear mace or a hat.  Then--as happened just yesterday--when I get the spontaneous urge to take off, it's ready to go.  It's been a good psychological trick for me.  It makes me feel as if there's one less hurdle between me and a night in the forest.

It's a glorious thing to wake up to the sunlight in the October trees and the earthy smell of fallen leaves.  I might go back to Cornplanter with the sole intention of scouting out a few more places where I could do a quick overnight without any preplanning.