Allegheny Front Trail - West Loop

With the government shutdown I was unable to go to work the first weekend of October. I decided to take advantage of that and go on a little backpacking trip. I had to do a loop since I was by myself and chose to finish a trail that has been on my list for a long time, the Allegheny Front Trail (AFT). The AFT is a 40 mile loop trail that encircles Black Moshannon State Park in the Moshannon State Forest of Pennsylvania. It is located about 20 minutes west of State College. I used to live in State College and did countless days hikes and even a few backpacking trip on the AFT. Somehow there were still a few sections on the western part that I had never hiked. My plan was to hike the western loop of the AFT over two nights. Thanks to some connector trails going through the state park you can make the AFT into two smaller loops.

I woke up early and was able to get to Black Moshannon around noon. My plan for the first day was to take the Moss Hanne trail to the AFT proper. I registered my car, crossed route 504 and took a short trail to the start of the Mosse Hanne. The Moss Hanne trail is a 4 mile long trail that skirts around the bogs on the western edge of the lake at Black Moshannon. This section is very flat and mostly goes through red pine plantations that ring the lake. Maybe because I've done this trail 3 or 4 times now I found it to be a little boring but the fall foliage did at least provide some nice scenery.

Fall colors around Black Moshannon

One of the more interesting sections is a long stretch of boardwalk that crosses the bogs around the head waters of Black Moshannon Creek.

The upper reaches of the Black Moshannon

After a couple hours on the Mosse Hanne trail I finally reached the Allegheny Front Trail proper. I had about 5 easy miles to get to my destination for the night. This part of the AFT was mostly flat and rolling through mature open forests with some hemlocks thrown in. I reached my destination around five, a small hemlock filled hollow next to a stream. I found a fire ring but went a little further down the trail and set up my tent on a bench underneath some hemlocks by a stream. I made myself dinner on my bushbuddy and was asleep by 8 pm. I woke up at sunrise the next morning and was on the trail at 8:15. I had a long day. I decided I was going to try to push all the way to the Shingle Mill trail near the end of the hike, giving me a 19 mile day.

The next section of trail was one I had been on during a trail care event several years before. Shortly I got to Wolf Rocks, a large rock outcropping filled with porcupine poop. I crossed Six Mile Run road and the AFT went off into the woods, making a loop back to Six Mile Run road over the next several miles. Once again this was a flat and sometimes rolling walk through mature, open forest. After several miles of this I arrived back at Six Mile Run Road. I stopped for lunch and decided to skip the next section of the AFT. The AFT goes off into the woods before following Six Mile Run to Route 504. This is one of my favorite sections and I hiked it 5 or 6 times when I lived in State College. I had a lot of ground to cover so I decided to simply follow the dirt road that follows Six Mile Run to Route 504. I quickly covered this in 30 minutes and found myself at the main road. The next section is one of the most scenic on the AFT. For three miles the trail closely follows Six Mile Run, a very scenic stream lined with hemlock and rhododendron. I could also tell that the trail care held over the summer had really fixed up this part of the trail. I hiked it several times when I was in State College and there was quite a bit of bad sidehill. The KTA volunteers did a good job fixing some of the worst sections.

Six Mile Run

Another hour later I came to Munson Road. Here the AFT leaves Six Mile Run and now followed the Red Moshannon. The Red Mo as it is called is a large stream that eventually flows to the Susquehanna. It is Red because pollution from an upstream mine has permanently polluted it, making it red. Many of the rocks in the stream are permanently stained and the no fish can live in it. For the next several miles the AFT follows the Red Mo, sometimes near the banks or on sidehill far above the stream. This section was also in great shape. I had tried to hike it several years ago but it was so overgrown I gave up. In 2011 I was part of a crew that went through there and cleared it out. About a mile from Munson road there is a nice view of the Red Moshannon.

View of the Red Mashannon

After the view the ATF drops down to the Red Mo and generally stays not too far from the bank.

The Red Moshannon, notice the stained rocks

Eventually I could start to hear the sounds of I-80 and the AFT left the Red Mo to climb up to the top of the plateau. The climb was long but was mostly on old woods roads all the way to the top. Eventually the AFT crossed Huckelberry road before dropping down again. Not too far after this I came to the junction of the Shingle Mill trail. This follows Black Moshannon creek back to the state park. I took this and a mile down the trail I found a great site under some hemlock trees. I set up camp and relaxed after a very long day of hiking. I was in bed by 8 pm again.

My campsite along the Black Moshannon

The next morning I woke up before sunrise and had an easy couple miles back to my car. I arrived there at 7:30 having finally finished the AFT.