Magic Bus Day

In the biographical book Into the Wild, the author quotes the diaries of Christopher McCandless, a young man who escapes human society by hitchhiking to Alaska and trekking as far out into the wilderness as he can.  He's hard pressed to find shelter, but upon arriving at a remote spot near a river, he chances upon an old school bus that hunters once used as a camp.  In his journal he declares, "Magic bus day!"  Of course, months later, his malnourished body is discovered inside said bus...

Yesterday was my magic bus day on one of the lesser-traveled paths through Hillman State Park.  Hillman has trails running every which direction, like veins through your arm: some major, some minor, some tiny capillaries leading nowhere.  Select tracks are traveled by mountain bikers and hunters.  Others are much neglected and slightly overgrown.  The more heavily used trails always have bike tracks on them.  They tend to run alongside the old forest roads, and they wend unnecessarily up and down, over and around, just to make the bike ride more fun.  If you follow the lesser-used trails, you discover more sights.  These paths are straighter, more overgrown.  They're the old farm lanes and mining roads that aren't much fun for bikers, but they lead to some interesting discoveries.

One lesser-used trail runs through meadows of goldenrod, swarming with honeybees, goes through some nice gallery forest, descends to the only stream in the park. (It's a strangely waterless place for Southwest Pennsylvania).  This tiny creek is known as Dilloe Run, a marshy, slow-moving body of sluggish water.  On the other side of the stream valley, the track ascends a hillside into beautiful evergreen forests--very old--and comes out at an old oil camp.  The oil camp reminds me of the North Country.  Not far beyond it is this Magic Bus.  I wonder how it got there?  Some people might call it a little creepy.  Actually, yeah, it is a little creepy.