Susquehannock Trail

This last April I wanted to do a longer backpacking trip around 70 or 80 mile, somewhere in the east. I also wanted a more solitude that could be provided on the Appalachian Trail. Fortunately Pennsylvania has a wealth of lightly used long distance trails. Having hike all or part of many Pennsylvania trails I decided on a PA trail that I had never hiked on before, the Susquehannock trail.
Located on the rugged Allegheny Plateau in north-central Pennsylvania, the susquehannock trail is a 85 mile loop located primarily in Potter County. The trail has an active trail club (http://www.stc-hike.org/) and is fairly well maintained. The trail passes through several state parks as well as the Hammersley Wild Area, the largest roadless area in Pennsylvania. This is the most remote part of Pennsylvania and very lightly populated, meaning plenty of solitude on the trail. Recently the club cleared a couple of cross connectors allowing shorter loops to be made. I decided on a loop using the central cross-connector just cleared last year. The connector connects at approximately miles 74 and 14 of the STS allow a 68 mile loop to be made. I highly recommend getting the trail guide produced by pine creek outfitters. The guide and maps are accurate and the campsite locations indicated proved to be good.

We decided to start from Ole Bull state park and hike the 68 mile southern loop in 5 days.

Day 1

We arrived at Ole Bull State Park, around 10:30 in the morning to a cloudy sky. After signing in at the part office we were on our way. The trail immediately climbs 1000 feet to the top of the mountain overlooking Ole Bull. Fortunately the trail is switchbacked and part way up is one of the few large vistas on the hike where you can see Ole Bull below.

Vista of Ole Bull

In what would be the theme of the hike, after reaching the top we almost immediately descended Impson Hollow reaching some hunting camps and a pine plantation at the bottom. Then we began another climb reaching the top of the plateau again. Next we descended to spook hollow where the trail builders had some fun with the signage.

Spook Hollow itself was a dark pine plantation. After safely getting through spook hollow the trail remained fairly level for the next several miles as we remained on top the plateau. At one point the Donut Hole Trail merges with the Susuquehannock and you will also pass 2 trails that link to the Black Forest trail. After a time we came to the steepest descent of trail down Morgan Hollow. This is one of the steepest trails I have seen in PA and some large blow downs did not make the 700 foot descent any easier. We eventually reached the bottom and crossed a bridge named Ted's Truss. One more climb and descent brought us to Greenlick Run. After having gone 13 miles we decided to call it a day. We found a small campsite near the area indicated on the map and set up camp. One thing to note is that the campsite locations designated on the map are fairly accurate and beyond those there are not many established sites.

Day 2
Overnight it got down to the low twenties so we didn't waste any time in the morning getting moving. The trail continued to follow Greenlick run for another mile or so. There were a few tricky crossings and I ended up with a wet foot. After climbing out of the the hollow with Greenlick run we stopped for breakfast. After that the STS followed a few roads on level ground before coming to a gas line.

The gas line you follow a while

We followed the gas line for a while before veering off into the woods again. After going into the woods we went into a pretty gorge created by Scoval Branch. There was a lot of beaver activity here. We continued in the gorge before another climb to the top of a mountain. The top of the mountain had been clearcut. Next we had a thousand foot descent to the town of Cross Fork. We were both looking forward to this as there is a restaurant in Cross Fork.

The town of Cross Fork

After descending several miles we arrived at the town and hit the restaurant. After talking almost 30 miles the food was heavenly. We had stromboli, halepeno poppers, ice cream, and several beers. After eating we left Cross Fork and had another 1000 foot climb. All the food made the climb rather hard but eventually we reached the top. Once at the top we descended to the Hammersley Fork in the Hammersley Wild Area. This is the largest roadless area in Pennsylvania and the STS does not cross a road for 10 miles. The Hammersley Fork makes a beautiful narrow valley. Along the way are excellent camping spots. In addition there is a famous landmark known as the pool where there is a deep swimming hole.

The Pool

We pressed on another few miles before stopping for the day after another 16 miles.v We were tired as much of the trail along the Hammersley follows sidehill that was in desperate need of repair making for difficult going.  Whoever had been at this site before build one giant fire ring.

Our campsite the 2nd night

Day 3
After another chilly night we had a 16 mile day ahead of us. We packed up and were on the trail early. The STS continued to follow the Hammersley for another couple miles before climbing out of the valley. The climb brought us to another dirt forestry road and we immediately had another descent of a couple miles down Gravel Lick Hollow. This was one of the prettiest stretches of the trail. The hollow was very wide with open forest and hemlocks scattered about. The descent was gradual and the trail was in good shape here.

The view down gravel lick hollow

 Once we got to the bottom the trail followed along side the east branch of Sinamahoning Creek on an old road for over a mile. To the right were scattered houses and farms along East Branch Road, one of the few paved roads we crossed.

The valley created by the east branch of the sinamahoning

We left the road at an old 1980's era TV satellite dish and walked across the valley on a dirt road through a farm. After crossing east fork road we stopped for lunch. We still had 8 more miles go from here. For some reason this next stretch felt like the hardest part and my least favorite stretch of trail. The STS does a roller coaster here with several ascents and descents, some of which are quite steep. Some of he forest here must also have been logged as unlike the large, open forests we had been seeing, the trees here were smaller and we had quite a few blowdowns to contend with. Plus by this point we had already walked 35 miles in 2 days so that was catching up with me. In any event we pressed on, climbing and descending several times. I also managed to bend a pole tripping on perfectly flat ground. Luckily it was still usable since they were doubling as my tent poles. After a long afternoon we arrived at the target campsite, at the intersection with a side trail that takes you to Prouty place state park. The campsite itself was nice and we had a pleasant evening.

Our 3rd night campsite

Day 4
I woke up refreshed on day and felt much better. We had a shorter day today with fewer climbs. Today would also be the day we took the newly cleared and blazed cross connector to close the loop. We didn't know what to expect with the cross connector as we just had the directions from the STS newletter. From our campsite we had a 500 foot climb back to the top of the plateau. Once at the top we had breakfast and had a pleasant mile long walk along the top before reaching the cross connector around mile 74. The intersection was quite obvious. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was in great shape. When the STS trail club said they cleared it they meant it. The connector was well blazed and they did an excellent job in clearing it. In fact it make have been the nicest part of the trail in terms of the trail conditions we encountered!

That is one well clared trail

The blazing on the connector seemed to alternate between orange and yellow for some reason. The trail climbed briefly up to a forest road before bringing us back down through a beautiful hollow lined with hemlocks in parts down to East Fork Road, the same road we crossed the day before. Along the way we passed some impressive beaver dams. This stretch back down to East Fork Road was one of the nicest parts of the hike.

A beaver dam on the cross connector

Once on east fork road we followed the road south for a short while before turning to climb back up over the mountain on. At first the trail followed an old woods road before going straight up a steep hollow to a gas line. We followed the gas line a short ways to a dirt forest road. After following this north not more than 500 feet we make right down an old abandoned grassy road. A short descent brought us to an old rail grade. We made a left and  followed this rail grade for a couple miles. The blazing disappeared after we crossed a small stream but looking at the map it was obvious if we kept following the grade we would get back to the STS. We finally arrived at the intersection of the trail grade and the STS at this beautiful structure. If you are trying to find the cross connector coming from the east side as of the time of our hike there is no blazing on part of the rail grade that intersections the STS. However, the STS and the rail grade meet at the brick building in the picture. If you follow the rail grade you will eventually cross a stream and following the stream the blazing does start. The rail grade itself is wide and very easy to follow. Here is a link of a gps track of the route I created.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=210464570546409562792.0004dbf830c29f278370b

Hunting camp at the intersection of the the STS and the rail grade which the cross connector follows.

Once on the STS we descended to Hogback hollow. The next several miles were quite scenic as we followed the stream before calling it a day at the nicest campsite we saw on the trail by far under some giant pines.

Last day campsite

Day 5
After a relaxing evening we woke up with about 10 miles needed to get to Ole Bull. We had been lucky with the weather with no precipitation but this morning that would change. The sky was cloudy and we quickly got underway before 6:30. We continued to follow the same stream through a large stand of Hemlocks for the the couple miles. After this we had a combination of road and trail walking along cross fork creek before one final climb over the mountain to get back to Ole Bull. At this point the rain started coming down harder as we climbed up Cherry run. After a long climb we reached the top, rather wet now. We make the final climb down another beautiful hollow to Ole Bull. The sun magically came out and the rain stopped.

The final descent to Ole Bull

By 10:30 we were back at the car, almost 70 miles later.