Hiking the North Country Trail in Pennsylvania - Part 2

See the previous post for part 1.

Day 4, 17 miles
Tuesday our good luck ran out as we woke up to rain and wind. We had 17 miles to go and our destination was a shelter on a small tract of state forest land just north of Cooks Forest State Park. Reluctantly we took down our tents in a light rain and started out. Within 10 minutes my shoes were soaked from the wet trail from the nights rain and I knew it would be a long day. From the starting point we had another 11 miles or so through the ANF as the NCT heads due south. I was exhausted from the previous day and the next 8 miles turned out to be the toughest we had hiked on the trip. Instead of a gentle plateau walk this section was lots of ups and downs with more climbing than we had done the previous three days. The forest composition changed as well with no hemlocks at all. The hiking reminded me more of trail further to the east where the Allegheny Plateau is more rugged. All morning it rained and we were hit by strong winds. The temperature never got above 50. We pushed on quickly to reach the Amsler Spring shelter, the third and final shelter in the ANF. We were planning to take a long break there, get out of the rain, and get some hot food in our stomachs. About noon we finally rolled in the shelter. Unlike the other two shelters we passed this one is right by a road so it is not in as great a condition as the other two in the ANF. There was quite a bit of bird poop and dirt on the floor. Nevertheless we were very cold so being able to get out of the rain was a nice treat. We cook a hot lunch and tried to warm up as best we could. The shelter front was facing into the wind so we never could get really warm in there. Forty five minutes later with hot food in us we faced the rain and moved on. We had 3 miles uneventful miles through the ANF. About 1 miles south of the shelter underneath some hemlocks we passed the only established campsite I recall seeing for the day. The end of the ANF brought us into PA state gamelands. About this time the rain finally let up for the most part. We had a short climb up to a plateau at which point the NCT merges with the Baker trail at a grassy forest road. The rest of the way to Cooks Forest the Baker Trail and NCT are one and the same. The next couple miles through the game lands we simply followed the grassy road. After the harder hiking earlier in the day I was fine with this and actually thought this stretch was scenic in an odd way. At certain points the road was also a gas line which we could tell as the line was a small pipe at ground level. Sometimes we simply walked on this since the trail was so wet. The trail crossed PA 66 at the gameland boundary. Shortly before this the trail went back into the woods and through and interesting wetland with a cool bridge.

The bridge has seen better days

We crossed the PA 66 and the NCT followed a gas line swatch on private land for about a mile. It then turned left and made its way through a small section of state forest land. Surprisingly this small stretch of state forest land was one of the most scenic parts. Through the middle of it runs Maple creek and there were lots of trees that looked a lot like red spruce. The trail paralleled Maple creek before turning to cross it. Right after we crossed it we arrived at our destination for the day, the Maple creek shelter. This shelter had just been built last year and was in perfect shape. Indeed the whole area around the shelter was a beautiful little area.

Maple Creek Shelter

Bridge Over Mapl Creek near the shelter

The one side of Maple creek was lined with spruce was quite beautiful. The rain stopped and the sun even peaked out a few times. We managed to even get a fire going and warm up making for a pleasant evening despite the crappy weather that day.


Day 5, 8 miles
We woke up at first light and started hiking. We had 8 miles to our car. As soon as we started the rain came. We had a little more of the state forest to go through. We crossed the south branch of Maple creek before leaving the state forest.

South Branch of Maple Creek

A short road walk brought us the boundary of Cooks forest. Pretty much for the rest of the time we would be in a large hemlock forest. Most of the way the trail paralleled Toms run and we had about 5 miles of easy walking on an old grade in the hemlocks. Unfortunately it rained harder and we got very cold and wet. We pretty much raced through this section. We arrived at a road and the parking area for the forest cathedral trail. This section has some virgin hemlock and unlike the Tionesta area they are still there. The size of the virgin hemlocks here are quite impressive. They are huge and rise for hundreds of feet. We quickly admired them but the cold and rain made us keep going. After leaving the forest cathedral trail we had a short mile back to the car. We had made it, albeit very cold at this point. We quickly told the park office we were back and were on our way to find food. A stop at the pizza hut buffet in Brookville was heavenly.

Overall Impressions
The NCT was certainly different than a lot of other long distance PA hiking trails. Overall the terrain was gentler than the long trails further to the east like the Black Forest, Mid-State, and Standing Stone trails for example. The fauna was different as well. Hemlocks seemed to be much more prevalent and the forest was generally more "open" for lack of a better word instead of being choked with mountain laurel for example. This would be the one area in Pennsvylania where bushwhacking wouldn't be that hard. We saw relatively few established sites and overall other than the part by Minister Creek and Hearts Content I don't think it sees a lot of use. Despite the lack of established sites the forest is so open finding a place to camp would almost never be a problem. The section south of the ANF in the state forest and Cooks forest was very scenic. All the shelters we passed except Amsler springs were in really beautiful locations and very clean. It was also the most well bridged trail I have seen in PA. Every stream of any note had a bridge.

One of the interesting bridges we crossed

Finally there were quite a few active oil and gas wells on or near the trail. Note that none of these were Marcellus shale wells but rather conventional gas wells or oils wells. This certainly detracted from the trail in the stretches were we saw a lot but looking back this was only a small part of the total trail. I would not let this influence your decision whether to hike it or not.