World's End - High Rock Overlook

Returning to my weekend in the Endless Mountains region, I wanted to post a map of the third and final hike from the trip. After a morning hike through Ricketts Glen and a mid-afternoon trek to the Haystack Rapids of the Loyalsock with a little bushwacking along the way, the short loop to High Rock Overlook in World's End State Park proved the perfect closer for the day. I had planned on at least one hike in World's End, but had not selected a particular trail. Arriving later than planned and being a little more fatigued than expected, I almost skipped the activity. After examining the map, I thought a short out-and-back jaunt to High Rock Overlook on the west bank of the Loyalsock looked promising.



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With only an hour left until sunset, I began the steep ascent, hedging that if I didn't make the overlook by 7:30PM then I would turnaround. I arrived with 10 minutes to spare, took some pictures and swatted at blood-sucking insects. Another a consult with the map suggested I could easily make it a loop hike, which I much prefer over out-and-back. Scrambles down rocky slopes and a precarious fording of High Rock Run posed challenges at the start of the return. Once over the stream, the trail eased up to gentle descent until it reached the park road, which led a third of a mile back to the car.

Statistics
Length: 1.4 miles
Time: 46 minutes
Elev Gain: 420 feet
Total Climbing: 503 feet
Max. Elev: 1,521 feet

Elevation Profile











Park Map

Market Research

Occasionally, I get out of the office for a day to visit the select properties, usually ones we own, but as in yesterday's case, sometimes other properties as well. My boss, a co-worker and I visited four malls, one power center and, for lunch, a great Pizza Joint called Tonelli's.




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We started driving forty miles from our rendez-vous point to Quaker Bridge Mall, which we don't own. North of Trenton, it's little bit out of our immediate trade area, but we do draw customers from some overlapping towns. On our way back toward Philadelphia we stopped another mall that we don't own, Oxford Valley, and power center we own in concert with another company. Then we drove to Franklin Mills, which is the Philadelphia edition of the Mills Corporation (since purchased by another company). You may be familiar with other malls in the same genre like Gurnee Mills in Illinois, Arundel Mills in Maryland, and Colorado Mills in, where else, Colorado.

By the time we finished at Franklin Mills it was well past lunchtime. We headed straight for the highly recommended Tonelli's about a half-hour away. It was worth the wait. We finished our tour at Willow Grove Park, a mall we own and manage. This property is one for which I have responsibilities. From there, I took the train back to Philadelphia and ended the day a little earlier than normal.

Lynnewood Hall

Several months ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal on a crumbling gilded age mansion in the Northern Suburbs of Philadelphia. Though I neither remembered the name nor chose my route to reach it last Sunday, I found myself riding in the right vicinity to try to find the relic. First I headed for Curtis Arboretum, a good guess. Cyrus Curtis, the wealthy publisher of, among others, the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal, did indeed build a mansion on that site of which only the ballroom remains, but it was not the subject of the newspaper article.

I stumbled on Lynnewood Hall by accident really. From Curtis Arboretum, I rode southeast through a residential neighborhood and turned left of Spring Ave. It didn't take long for me to realize the ornate, rusting fence to the right protected the grounds of the mansion I had had so recently sought. I wouldn't learn the name until I reached home and did some research. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the Wall Street Journal article. If your interested, then here is a link to the Wikipedia article. Not surprising it doesn't do subject justice.



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Trip Statistics
Length: 47.2 miles
Time: 5 hours 44 minutes
Riding Time: 4 hours 15 minutes
Avg/ Speed: 11.1 mph
Max. Speed: 28.3 mph
Avg. Cadence: 52 rpm
Cum. Ascent: 2,300 ft.

Kauai Helicopter

Since my original post describing my hike in Haleakala National Park, I've been meaning publish a post on another spectacular adventure from that same trip, my helicopter ride over the island of Hawaii.

This year, my nephew and godson Alex, who lives on Oahu, celebrated his tenth birthday. I wanted to do something very special for the occasion. With his parents blessing, I settled on a helicopter tour of Kauai. Though I couldn't quite time my trip to coincide with his birthday, I flew to Hawaii a few weeks later and surprised him by showing up at his Lacrosse practice with a line about flying to Kauai later that night. We didn't actually tell him he was accompanying me until we were at the airport. Together we flew to Kauai and stayed overnight. The hour-long helicopter tour with highly-recommended Jack Harter Helicopters departed early the next morning.



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If you use Google Earth, I suggest you view this file, which shows the flight's elevation in 3D.

I won't attempt a "play-by-play" description of the tour. Needless to say, the trip was well worth it. Kauai is a very rugged island and some of the best sites are inaccessible to the general public by any other means. We were fortunate to have exceptionally good weather, which permitted the pilot to fly over the normally cloud-shrouded center of the island and show us a few extra special sites, most notably the summit of Mount Wai'ale'ale, the wettest spot on earth.

Airports

While my friend Andy Holmes and I were talking today about our various travels, we briefly touched on the number of different airports we've passed through in one capacity or another. This conversation got me thinking about how many airports I've visited and what a great a subject it is for a map. I counted thirty-two airports, but only nineteen that I used as the origin or destination for a commercial flight. Of the remaining thirteen, seven I have only used to make a connection to another flight and six I have used for private/charter flights. Los Angeles is the only airport that doesn't fit neatly in to one of these category. I flew there on charter flight for the Rose Bowl trip in 1998, and I've connected through on both return flights from Hawaii.



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Ricketts Glen State Park

Ricketts Glen is one of Pennsylvania's more notable state parks. Within its borders, no less than 22 named waterfalls tumble over sandstone and shale ledges as Kitchen Creek descends along the Allegheny Front. The 7.2 mile Falls Trail loop passes 21 of these waterfalls, with the 22nd just a short distance from the parking lot. On this trip, I considered every other activity secondary to hiking this trail



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An early 6:00 AM departure from my hotel allowed me to reach the park by 7:00 AM and beat the crowds—I saw only three other people on the first half of the hike and relatively light traffic on the back half. Starting at the trailhead off PA-118, I hiked north through the park's namesake glen. The trail parallels Kitchen Creek through a dense forest for about a mile and half before it reaches the first waterfall, Murray Reynolds. Colonel Ricketts, the civil war veteran who owned the land in the 1800s, named each waterfall either for an acquaintance or a local Indian tribe.

Proceeding along the trail I passed two more waterfalls, Sheldon Reynolds and Harrison Wright, each very distinct from the others, before reaching Waters Meet, where Glen Leigh and Ganoga Glen join to form Ricketts Glen. From this junction, I saw Erie Falls, the tallest yet (47') cascading behind the trees in Ganoga Glen. On the advice of a hiking guide, I headed east toward these falls. At this point the trail, which never was all that level, became much steeper. Beyond Erie, Tuscarora falls an identical 47', but trees blocking the view prevented me from taking a clear picture, the only such occurrence. Once passed Conestoga Falls, the trail turns north again and presents three cascades—Mohican, Delaware, and Seneca—that come is such quick succession it hard to tell where one begins that the other ends. The next waterfall, Ganoga, is not simply the tallest in the park, it's over a third taller that the next tallest. Three more falls between 10 and 20 feet close out the ten in Ganoga Glen.

The highland trail connects the the tops of the two glens. The surrounding forest offered a nice, quite change of pace before I delved back into the waterfall paradise. Of the eight waterfalls along the descent through Glen Leigh, I particularly enjoyed F.L. Rickets (38') and Ozone (60'). In my opinion, the latter occupies the best site in the park as it is visible from a good distance down the glen. Glen Leigh ends at Waters Meet. From there, I traced my steps to the trailhead. But before finishing my hiking for the morning, I peeked at Adams Falls south of the highway and completed the easy, one-mile Evergreen Trail.

Click on the blue pins in the map to see pictures of the waterfalls. Here are a few other pictures from the hike.

Kitchen Creek through Ricketts Glen.
















Waters Meet
















Highland Trail

Haystacks Hike in Loyalsock State Forest

I tucked away the bike and pulled on the hiking shoes this weekend. Friday, I rented a car and drove to north-central Pennsylvania, near an area known as the Endless Mountains. Leaving Friday gave me the opportunity for full day of hiking on Saturday. I hiked three trails that day. This post details the second hike, a 5.2 mile trek along a portion of the Loyalsock Trail to the Haystacks rapids.




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From the parking area, the trail quickly descended a rocky, forested hillside to an old railroad bed. Before heading west along this grade, I peeked at nearby Dutchman's Falls. Returning to the main trail, I did not benefit from the gentle grade of the railroad bed for very long—at most a quarter-mile—before the veered splintered off toward Loyalsock Creek, a fairly shallow, swift stream about 75-100 feet wide peppered with beige boulders in most places. The trail paralleled the waterway until it reached the Haystacks. Expecting a much larger feature, I hiked by it, only pausing for enough time to snap a quick picture. Just passed the Haystacks, I lost the trail. Thinking my destination lay relatively close, I pressed on before aborting the mission at a creekbend where where a half-dozen teenagers floated on inner-tubes. Bushwhacking my way perpendicular to the creek, I eventually found the old railroad bed which provided an easy path back to the car.

Trip Statistics
Length: 5.2 miles
Time: 2:20
Elev Gain: 302 ft.
Net Climb: 970 ft.
Max Elevation: 1,726 ft.

Elevation Profile








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Dutchman Creek flows under a culvert built for a railroad that served this area during the lumber boom in the late 1800s. Today, the railroad bed is a recreational trail.

















Dutchman Creek just before in plunges over Dutchman Falls

















Dutchman Falls

















Upstream view from a boulder in the middle of Loyalsock Creek

















Downstream view from a boulder in the middle of Loyalsock Creek.

















Though, I did not know it at the time I took this picture, these rapids are called the Haystacks. They are the reason I chose this hike.

















I would hike no further downstream that this bend. From here, I began a very difficult climb up a steep, rocky slope to regain the main trail. The group of teenagers brought innertubes to float down the rapids.


















Tough most of the hike to the Haystacks tracked the shore of Loyalsock Creek, I gladly used the old railroad, which was a much easier route, for the return trip.