Buffalo Camp Road

This is the bridge to nowhere. The sign above it reads "Sawhill Bridge." (That's not "Sawmill," but "Sawhill.") I don't know what names might have once been tagged onto the tangled dirt lanes that pass through SGL #232, but I came upon Sawhill Bridge while following the old Buffalo Camp Road from west to east.

Sawhill Bridge connects PA221 with Buffalo Camp Road, but Buffalo Camp is gated and inaccessible to any but walkers, cyclists, and horseback riders. My guess is that the little connector lane between the two larger roads was once called Sawhill Road. Who knows? In any case, this is in Washington County, not too far from the pretty little hamlet of Taylorstown.

So, my wife and I are negotiating with each other for an iPhone, which will solve the problem of my abysmally bad photos. In the meantime, here are a few more lame-arse cell phone shots of an otherwise very scenic trek through the central/eastern portions of SGL #232.

Actually, the easternmost areas of this vast game land are mostly fields, and--strangely--they seem to be cultivated, too. I don't know if the PA Game Commission has taken to leasing out its land to farmers, though I do know that deer graze in open spaces, so fields are desirable for hunting.

Starting at the western end of Buffalo Camp Road (which is also gated), it takes about an hour to reach the covered bridge at the road's eastern end. You cross two old bridges en route, both of them constructed for vehicles, as attested by the fallen sign.

Actually, if you're walking along at a good citified clip, you'll reach a wide grassy intersection about 45 minutes into the trek. At this spot, the better graveled road (which I take to be Buffalo Camp) makes a sharp left. A lesser-used road continues straight ahead, crossing your second derelict bridge over a beautiful stream and coming to the covered bridge pictured above. The lesser-used road may be Sawhill.

The road more traveled-by leads up a hill and through a clear-cut, as seem in the last photo. It's not at all picturesque, but it does remind me very much of the road from Elat to Enongal in the South Province of Cameroon: a walk I used to make twice a day, everyday. That's why I took the picture.

A local ex-Presbyterian told me that Buffalo Camp used to be a Presbyterian church camp for kids. I'm not sure where the camp itself was located, but there is one especially large open area that I suspect might have been the site. Down in Washington County, Presbyterianism has always had a decidedly "campmeeting" feel to it. Personal conversions, rollicking tunes, the sawdust trail to salvation. It all gives me the willies. But history lingers long in these valleys.