The lovely, lonely, little-known Lick Hollow Picnic Area is one of only two picnic areas in the Forbes State Forest. It's a beautiful place, and serves as a trailhead for some great treks out onto the Forbes, including the one described just below to the uber-cool Pine Knob Overlook.
The picnic area is closed after Labor Day, but if you park at the gated driveway on US-40, you can hike in on foot. I love having places like this all to myself. Honestly, I'm not sure that people take picnics anymore. It's kind of an old-fashioned thing, but I could see coming back here with the family and a basket--not that my wife would ever go for anything like that. It's just so pleasant, and scenic, and sunken into sheltered little valleys in the forest floor.
State forests are a very different thing from state parks. Whereas park lands are more or less protected--despite Governor Corbett's best efforts--the state forests are "working forests." Like our national forests, they're "multi-use areas." This means that they're open to logging and fracking as well as all the regular recreational uses like backpacking, hiking, hunting, and picnicking.
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| The age-old conundrum: Two roads, yellow woods... |
In a state forest, you can expect fewer amenities than in a state park, but the trails still tend to be well marked and maintained. This is a truly lovely place, unphotographably beautiful, with rocky streams, huge boulders, steep cliffs, and deep wooded hollows echoing with "the sound of many waters."
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