Forbes State Forest

With all the snow melted and the rain finally letting up (for a time), I headed off to the lovely ridge just east of Uniontown where the westernmost of the mountains begins.  Its actual name is Chestnut Ridge, and it is there in its shadowy hollows that a young George Washington ambushed a French military unit in a move that would probably be deemed a war crime by the Geneva Convention.

But I did not go to Jumonville Glen to listen for the ghosts of Frenchmen being murdered in their sleep.  Leaving the National Road, US 40, at the very crest of the ridgeline, I headed south on the smaller road that runs all the way to the Mason Dixon Line, passing through the Forbes State Forest en route.  I thought I'd turn onto the small forest road that leads to the rocky overlook that commands a view westward over Uniontown and environs. 

The little forest road was open, but too muddy for my car to travel on.  So I walked until I turned off onto an even smaller road, pictured here.  This is all in the state forest and entirely open to camping.  However, I'm not sure I'd want to do it.  Empty beer cans and bottles told me that kids ride their ATVs out here and get drunk. 

I decided to explore the more easterly flanks of the ridge, where I came upon this old furnace.

As well as this little cabin with a "for sale" sign out front.  Nine acres, $50,000.  It's a dream place, though the nearest neighbors are a little too close.  It looks like there's no sewage, no running water, and no electricity--entirely off the grid.  That would be fine, fun even.  But I don't see a stovepipe either, which tells me that the place is only used in summer and probably not very well insulated.

Ah, but how happy I would be to have a little place like this all to myself.

The forest map shows an area called "Hull Cemetery."  As far as I can tell there's only one person buried here, one Jacob Hull, a 49-year old veteran of the Civil War who died in the 1880s.  You do see the rebel flag in some parts of rural Pennsylvania--which offends and angers me to no end.  Young Pennsylvanians were sent off to give their lives in opposition to that flag, which is a symbol of bigotry, hatred, and oppression.  Thank God they knew not to put one on this fellow's grave.