Mile 34.00 to 36.79, circled via other roads/trails, hiked June 9, 1998
Mile 36.79 to 42.21 (0.00), shuttled pair of cars, hiked November 19, 1998
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To reach the Manor Road parking area by car, take PA Route 44 north approximately 30 miles from US Route 220 in the vicinity of Jersey Shore. You will pass junctions with PA Routes 973, 414 and 664, and a side road to Hyner Run State Park. Beyond that, occasional unpaved roads intersect Route 44. When you pass Trout Run Road -- which is also one point where the BFT crosses Route 44, at mile 23.19, go about 3/4 mile further on Route 44 to a side road to the right near a wooded pine plantation. This unmarked road passes a few houses and a ranger station before intersecting unmarked Manor Road, essentially bending left to follow Manor Road. As the road bends left, there is a gate straight ahead and a parking area to the right. To reach mile 34.00 of the BFT, hike straight through the gate, following the Gas Line Trail woods road (blue circle blazes) for 1.19 miles. Continuing straight ahead on the woods road at the BFT junction heads toward mile 33, turning left off the road downhill heads toward mile 35. To reach mile 36.79 of the BFT, hike to the left (as you face the gate) along unpaved Manor Road. After a little over one mile, the BFT will intersect the road from the right at mile 36.79 and continue following the road straight ahead. The most difficult of the three hikes we made in this area was on April 5, 1998, covering nearly ten miles including the additional roads and trails we used to loop back to our car. We actually parked at the BFT mile 23.19 crossing of Route 44 and hiked about a mile along Route 44 to the pine plantation and Gas Line Trail woods road. Proceeding 1.19 miles along the blue blazed Gas Line Trail, we intersected the BFT at mile 34.00 and continued straight ahead. At mile 33.33, the BFT turns right, leaving the old road. Over the next 2.19 miles, the BFT passes by a series of vistas in various directions. Switchbacks at several points contribute most of the descent (over 1000 ft) to Naval Run. The BFT then follows Naval Run upstream in a flat segment from mile 31.14 to 30.42. After hiking over 5 1/2 miles total, we then readied ourselves for the ascent of Hemlock Mountain. Over the next 1.11 miles, we gained about 900 ft of elevation as the trail ascended logging skid trails and switchbacks. It took us close to an hour to complete the climb. From mile 29.31, the trail follows the top of the mountain for about 1/2 mile. There are two pleasant vistas, and we stopped at the mile 29.15 vista for a lunch break. This vista looks down Pine Creek toward Bald Eagle Mountain, about 25 miles to the south. You can also see PA Route 414, about a mile or two away as the crow flies, close to 30 miles driving distance along paved roads. Continuing along the trail, we descended moderately off the mountaintop, and dropped about 300 ft to a saddle, rose back about 150 ft, then dropped about 80 ft to another saddle. These came over about 1 1/3 miles, leaving us at mile 27.84 where the BFT turned left. We continued straight on an unmarked trail which led us back to the Big Trail forestry road in 8/10 mile. Turning right on the road, we followed it a short distance, about 1/4 mile, to its intersection with Trout Run Road. We turned right on Trout Run Road and followed it about 3/4 mile back to Route 44 where our car was parked. For about the last 1/3 mile before Route 44, the BFT segment between miles 23.50 and 23.19 follows the road. Our June 9, 1998 hike was the easiest and shortest of the three, although it also involved a major descent and ascent. Parking at the gate at Manor Road, we retraced the Gas Line Trail segment, but this time turned left, downhill, off the woods road at the mile 34.00 BFT intersection. The BFT follows the Slide Hollow Trail along this segment. After dropping moderately for about 4/10 mile, the trail switchbacks up to a ridge again, follows it for 1/2 mile to mile 35.15, then switchbacks steeply down to Little Slate Run at mile 35.40. We snacked at that point, let Maria walk on her own two feet for the flat segment along Little Slate Run, then began to ascend at mile 36.06. The beginning of the climb was steepest, and it became more moderate as we approached the BFT intersection with Manor Road at mile 36.79. The trail turned right at that point, but we turned left to follow Manor Road a little over a mile to get back to our car. The total hiking distance was just over five miles, just over half of that on the BFT and the rest on the mercifully flat Gas Line Trail and Manor Road. To get the "real" BFT experience of dropping from ridge to valley and climbing back, this is the shortest and easiest hike that we would recommend. (Realize that "easiest" is a matter of comparison to other BFT segments -- this is not an easy hike but the others are even worse!) The last of the three hikes, on November 19, 1998, represented a number of firsts for us. It was our first hike in Pennsylvania -- on our first return trip to the state -- after moving to Indiana in July, 1998. It was the first time we shuttled a pair of cars to facilitate a longer end-to-end hike rather than looping or doubling back. (It's easy and cheap to rent a car in Williamsport to facilitate this. We are not aware of any organized shuttle services for the BFT though many trails have them.) It was the first time we donned hunter orange -- while living in Pennsylvania, we made late fall hikes on Sundays when hunting was banned by state law. And, it was the first time we hiked from the Route 44 vicinity to the Route 414 vicinity. After hiking about seven miles, it took us over 33 miles of driving on paved roads to shuttle back to our other car. After parking our rental car at the Hotel Manor, on the Slate Run forestry road just off Route 414 in Slate Run village, we drove our car via Slate Run road, about 7 miles, the last half unpaved, to Route 44, then turned south on Route 44 about three miles to the pine plantation and Manor Road parking area. We began hiking along Manor Road in a northbound direction, reaching the BFT at mile 36.79 in a little over one mile. The first 1 1/2 miles of the BFT was easy by comparison to other trail segments. It followed Manor Road, turned off for a while, then crossed Old Mountain Road. At mile 38.24, the trail began descending into Foster Hollow, reaching the junction of the two forks at mile 38.55. For the next half mile, the trail climbed moderately about 400 ft along the right fork of Foster Hollow before turning away to the right. The trail follows the top of a plateau about 1800 ft for the next half mile or a little more. Now, if you have the "new" BFT guide, you may know better than we did what to expect next. Our "old" guide did not have the rerouting over the last two to three miles. We can say that the next half mile to mile after the rerouting included some of the most spectacular hiking on the BFT. Among the highlights were a vista facing toward Slate Run, then, an extremely narrow ridge line with steep dropoffs on both sides. We don't have the "new" BFT guide topo maps, but we can see the ridge on our USGS Lee Fire Tower map. Then, the trail began to descend, with some really steep segments through rocky areas. To be honest, this is one of the two hiking segments we've ever done -- the other was on the Loyalsock Trail -- that we descended and cannot believe we could ever ascend it in the other direction. (We probably could, but we don't want to think about it!) The plummeting descent became a moderate descent as the trail curved left (east) and suddenly emerged on Slate Run Road, about two miles up from the village. Jogging down then immediately across the road, it descended partway to Slate Run and followed a generally flat segment along an old railroad grade to the point (original BFT mile 0.20) where the original trail routing drops from mile 0.00 on Slate Run Road. You could hike up to the road if your car was parked there. Since our car was at Hotel Manor, we followed the trail across Slate Run, then turned right to follow the trail rerouting or High Water Route along Slate Run as it descended to Slate Run village. One final stream crossing at the site of a former suspension bridge put us in the Hotel Manor parking area where our shuttle car was parked. Other Possible Hikes in this Area: You could park in different spots, as we did for the first hike we described, or you could hike in different directions, but our experiences basically cover over 14 miles of BFT hiking, one-third of the trail, that can be accessed by starting or passing through the Manor Road parking area at the pine plantation off Route 44. |
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