A Night in the Cornplanter State Forest

The Cornplanter State Forest is composed of a few scattered tracts of woods in unexpected places.  Not the most inspired or inspiring place to do an overnight.  The biggest tract is just outside the river town of Tionesta, and nestled up against the edge of the Allegheny National Forest.  It's nice enough, I suppose, but it would never be my first choice in an outdoor destination.  I walked its trails many years ago, and my impressions of it are about the same: pleasant, unremarkable, more a walk in the woods than a wilderness trek.  (To see that article, click HERE.)  But my plans to stay at the Kennerdell Tract of the Clear Creek State Forest were dashed pretty late in the day by the fact that my backpack had ripped badly.  So, many miles from home, I needed to find a place where I could pull off the road and camp relatively close to my car on a Friday night.  It had to be close to the car because I didn't have a backpack to transport things very far into the woods.  I remembered Cornplanter and thought it would work.  

And it did.  Beautifully.  I dragged what gear I could about half a mile into the trees in a big duffel bag.  I bushwhacked about 200 feet off of the Hunter Run Trail and set up camp.  At first, it all felt too rushed, too perfunctory, too much a campsite of necessity.  But I put up my hammock and watched the night go dark around me.  It was so quiet and so calm.  I really loved it.  Before long, the most wonderful owl started calling into the night: wild, mournful, persistent.  Now it was close-by, now far away, now a bit to my east, now to the west.  It called all night long and into the early hours of the morning.  I always hope to hear an owl when I'm out alone at night, but never have I gotten such a terrific earful as the one the humble Cornplanter State Forest gave me.  

 And though I did occasionally hear the odd nocturnal vehicle out on the nearest road, it was rare.  Mostly I was just a guy alone in the woods, and it was nice.  In the end, it was a really beautiful time in among the trees there.