Quebec Run, Sumey Road Area

This, my friends, is a nearly perfect hang.  As a hammock camper, I’m always striving to achieve the most perfect “hang” for my hammock tent.  Quebec Run Wild Area in the Forbes State Forest did not disappoint.  The trees are straight, tall, and evenly spaced.  My friend marveled at the enormous hemlocks, to which I said, “Dude, I gotta take you to Anders Run.”  Still, you couldn’t hang a hammock camp like this at Anders Run.  The tree trunks are too big and the land is crazy steep.  (It’s true that hammock camping is the only way to do it on steep terrain, but still…)

We met up at the trailhead after work on Halloween.  My backpacking buddy wanted to go in by way of Sumey Road, which he found on a map.  I had no idea what a long, narrow lane it would be.  Happily, I met no vehicles coming the other way because in places it’s little more than a gravel driveway.  But it does take you to a lesser-visited part of the wild area.  In fact, other than my companion, I only saw one other person on this whole 2-night trip—a mountain biker who hesitated to follow the trail through our camp.

It was a good trek.  Actually, I hiked the day after Halloween, playing my pan flute in the woods and stopping to re-read “Brideshead Revisited,” which I last read some 30 years ago.  My friend did not hike with me.  He fished.  But the water was low and stagnant from the drought.  It rained off and on all Halloween night, but not enough to make up for a 6-month drought.  Though it was certainly enough to get our gear good and wet.  I often say that I can make it rain by putting up a tent.  Should have done it sooner.

Quebec Run is good place, but for me it’s not all that special.  I wanted to go back to the Hickory Creek Wilderness on this trek, but the guy I hike with didn’t want to drive that far.  Up north?  That’s where the real woods are.  Plus, I wanted to make sure my camp was ready for the winter while I was up there.  

But honestly, I feel like everything I say on here is just idle chatter.  I can’t stop thinking about the fact that tomorrow is Election Day, and we face two possibilities: a victorious fascist regime or an insurrection prompted by a defeated fascist regime.  This is not good.  Where did we lose our way as a nation?  I remember believing that America was always the good guy….