Somewhere New: Indian Wells Hike, PA

Sometimes I like to bend the rules of Somewhere New and see an old friend. Jonathan and I take turns driving the windy back roads of Pennsylvania to visit each other every so often. For the month of October, Phil and I packed up for a long weekend in the mountains at Jon's.

I'm not a fan of Halloween. I started loosing interest in it about as soon as I started loosing teeth. Don't get me wrong, I still liked candy, but Halloween just seems so terribly contrived. So devoid of any real culture. As a teenager it was an excuse to stay out really late with friends running around the neighborhood. As a young 20 something it was an excuse to drink excessively. I just wasn't into it. 

And yet the peer pressure to dress up and show up is high.

And actually, that's how Somewhere New started in a way. That first trip to Boston in 2011 was a protest against a party I didn't want to go to. Not because I don't like my friends. Because I don't like what Halloween has become. Where are the scary movies? The all night pumpkin carvings? 

The celebration of past spirits and the embracing of current life? 

Getting together in costumes and drinking doesn't fulfill any part of me.

I know this view isn't popular though so I chose my getaway location wisely by choosing to spend my time with another self-styled social curmudgeon.

We visited the budding Penn State Arboretum one evening. We watched old, silly scary movies. We carved pumpkins and ate my famous butternut squash mac and cheese. And generally we just gave Jon a big ole dose of socialization that he is usually too studious to seek out.

One thing I insisted on doing was taking a hike in the untapped wilderness of PA. We chose Bear Meadows and did a long winding hike through the tall laurels and up to the vista of Indian Wells. 

Bear Meadows - which gets its name from the common inhabitants of the area - is actually a bog, not a meadow. The area is unique in its variety of trees which are usually found further north - things like Balsam Fir and Yellow Birch, but it actually has strong feelings of the south too. Walking the trail from the parking lot, as you start to climb, you enter a dense forest of laurel that stretches well above your head. Every so often Phil would let out a "Hey OH!" to ward off any roaming bears. 

The hike is about 6 miles with a pretty good climb that empties out to a rocky outcropping and a great view of the fall foliage. 

Ground Cedar sporting strobili

Somewhere New: Susquehannock State Forest

I somehow forgot to post this back in September - oops! For my Somewhere New September I roped Rachel into another little adventure. This time - our first backpacking experience. We realized on this trip that we have been together for some of the most liberating experiences of our lives - like the time we took our pants off on the NYC subway or the time we jumped out of a plane.

I had read somewhere that Cherry Springs State Park in upstate PA - part of Susquehannock State Forest - is one of the best spots to stargaze on the East Coast. Not wanting to be part of the crowds though we decided to go out into the woods and find a more secluded place to stargaze.

Our first night we made camp at Cherry Springs vista. As soon as we set up the tent a fine rain started to fall so we scrambled in (carefully so as not to hit our heads trying to sit in a tent the size of a double wide coffin)and chatted until we fell asleep.

In the morning we crawled out and were excited to see the clouds and mist still blanketing the mountains below us. We set out to Hammersley Wild Area - the 2nd largest area of PA without roads and spent the next two days camping and hiking the mountains.

We never passed another person on the trail so not only was it our first time backpacking but we did so with no real backup support in the way of fellow hikers. The quiet of the forest and all the different trees and ferns were illuminated by the most gorgeous light and I was happy to have Rachel to share it with but not 100 other people.

While we didn't see any bears or dangerous wildlife the trip was not without incident. Mostly it was stupid first-timer incident to be frank. I lost our campstove before we even got to PA by leaving it by the car to be stolen in WV. On the full night we spent camping after hiking all day we both were in the mood for something warm but all we had was cold ramen...which by the way is awful and crunchy.

We both thought this natural table someone built was pretty cool. About an hour past where we set up camp we found this campsite and table.

Another incident was when we decided to go off the trail and climb up a steep incline convinced we would find a vista at the top. We trudged up the mountain only to find it infested with thorns. I rolled my ankle coming down and was grumpy for a good 10 minutes.

Thorns attacking you, sleeping on roots and crunchy ramen are part of the experience though and to be honest none of those things really dampened my awe and excitement to be out in the forest on such a beautiful weekend.

The most dangerous thing we encountered...a snail

As the sun went down and the fire eventually died we got our flashlights out and made our way to a clearing. As we walked we talked about the constellations we could identify and figured between the two of us we might be able to find close to 10. As we stepped out into the clearing we both got silent. There were so many stars that we couldn't even find the Big Dipper. The sky was so clear that we could see the gradation of the Milky Way. Especially now that I live in the city where you never see stars it was enough to dumbfound me into silence.

When it gets warm again I'd like to go back and explore more of the trails - this was a great start to an addiction to backpacking!