Today I drove two and a half hours east just to hike in new territory. That's the way it goes; you have to push further and further afield in order to get the adventurous thrills that you can no longer get in the well-worn paths close to home. But the wife and kids were away, and so I drove halfway to Harrisburg and did a trek on the mountainous Buchanan State Forest, named after President Buchanan--that ineffectual fellow who preceded Lincoln and wrung his hands as the Union dissolved under his watch. Buchanan is the only bachelor President the US has ever had. His sister served as First Lady. He never really courted women, preferring the company of a certain William Rufus King, a senator from Alabama. The forest named after him is scenic and rugged and crisscrossed by a vast network of tangled trails, many of them overgrown. Above is the view from Blankley Road. Below is a view out over the Sweet Root Natural Area, one of the protected zones of the forest.
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