Revised October 17, 2001

Location, History, and General Information

The Golden Eagle Trail is located in the northwestern corner of Lycoming County in north central Pennsylvania, about 40 miles northwest of Williamsport. The trail can be reached by traveling north on PA Route 44 from the vicinity of Jersey Shore on US 220 between Lock Haven and Williamsport, then following PA Route 414 past Jersey Mills and Cammal to the trailhead. Detailed information about the Golden Eagle Trail is found in the trail guide, a tri-fold brochure, which is the source of the information in the following paragraph. The guide contains mileage and descriptions along the GET, and includes a topographical map of the trail with 100 ft contours.  Additional information is also available from: District Forester, Tiadaghton State Forest, 423 E. Central Avenue, South Williamsport, PA 17701.

The Golden Eagle Trail is an 8.9 mile circuit trail, located 2.9 miles north of Cammal on Route 414.  The trail was constructed by the Bureau of Forestry and the Waterdale Youth Group.  Because of the rugged topography, locations for overnight camping along the trail are extremely limited.  For this reason, OVERNIGHT CAMPING IS NOT PERMITTED ALONG THE GOLDEN EAGLE TRAIL.

(Note: From the designated parking area, the distance is 9.1 miles, and the parking area is 3.5 miles north of Cammal.  We were unable to locate the mile 0.00 beginning point of the trail described in the guide, but the parking area is clearly shown on the topo map in the guide.)

Our Hiking Experiences We Complete the GET in one day hike on October 12, 2001!

For the last few years, as we have made our fall pilgrimage to Williamsport to hike various trails, Aimee has always stopped at the Visitor Information Center next to the Hampton Inn and Perkins Restaurant, across the street from Wegman's in downtown Williamsport.  Some years, there have been trail guides for the Golden Eagle Trail stocked there.  We picked one up, and for our 2001 hike, Mike decided we would attempt it, although he wasn't certain that we could complete nine miles including two ascents of approximately 1000 ft. On a cloudy fall day with a predicted high of 65 to 70 degrees, and a chance of late afternoon showers, we got an early start from Williamsport and reached the vicinity of the trailhead well before 10:30.  Like most trailheads (it seems) this one is not extremely easy to spot, but it's better than some.  About 3.6 miles north of the Cammal General Store, there is a small parking pulloff on the right side on PA 414, big enough for two cars, with a small wooden sign "Golden Eagle Trail Access, .4 mile to G.E.T."  Another handy landmark is that the paved bike trail cuts diagonally across the road from right to left just at this point. Mike immediately determined that the trail was well marked with bright orange circles, same as the Black Forest Trail.  We began a steady but not steep climb on a wide dirt trail with easy footing, following Bonnell Run upstream.  A trail register was placed no more than 100 or 200 ft above the parking lot.  The trail began to ascend more and more above the stream, probably 30 to 50 ft by the time we reached the junction.  Here, we encountered one of our few navigational problems of the day.  We had thought the parking area, the only one we'd noticed along the highway, represented mile 0.00 of the trail and thought we were hiking along Wolf Run.  But the map indicated a left turn at the junction while the trail turned right!  After a brief stop to think it over, Mike decided we had actually been hiking along Bonnell Run, that the 0.4 mile access segment was not numbered in the guide, and that we had reached mile 6.88 according to the guide.  Although confusing, he proclaimed it was actually better to climb the hill in this direction because the uphill was longer and hence not as steep.  Subsequent events proved him exactly right, and we would strongly recommend hiking exactly the direction we did. It had taken us 10 minutes to hike to the junction, including a stop to write a comment in the trail register.  Reaching the top of the hill, 1.06 miles and 800 ft uphill, took the better part of an hour.  Aimee steadily pulled away from Mike as he carried Maria, probably beating him to the top by close to 1/4 mile and at least 5 minutes.  About 3/4 of the way uphill, Mike heard a jingling sound behind him and turned around to see a dog followed a few dozen feet behind by two hikers.  He let them pass and told them to tell Aimee not to send a search party out, that he was following shortly behind her.  Maria did not fuss much about missing Mom; instead, Maria and Dad amused themselves by making silly puns around the theme of a Halloween sprite being confused with a can of soda!  Well, Dad tried to make puns while gasping for air while Maria shrieked with laughter so loud that Dad suspected it carried all the way down to Pine Creek! When they caught up with Mom waiting on the hilltop, there was no time to relax on a flat segment -- the descent was immediate and steep!  It wasn't quite as bad as the "off the cliff" descent from Smith's Knob vista at mile 6.65 on the Loyalsock Trail, nor the "plummeting" descent in the reroute segment near mile 40 of the Black Forest Trail.  Mike likened it to the BFT segment near mile 30 from Naval Run up Hemlock Mountain, which we had climbed while doing the BFT.  Here on the Golden Eagle, we were glad to be descending, though certainly not quickly.  We passed several breathtaking vistas listed in the trail guide as well as some interesting rock formations as we continued to drop over rocks and switchback until we finally hit the Wolf Run junction at mile 8.64 (also mile 0.30).  It had taken us one hour and 43 minutes to hike the first 2.16 miles, but Mike assured Aimee this slow pace was expected as we had completed the most difficult part of the hike.  Indeed this was true, and we strongly recommend following our direction and climbing over the ridge separating Bonnell Run and Wolf Run at the BEGINNING of the hike, not after 6+ miles. This was also the point that Mike had anticipated Maria would begin hiking on her own, and she did for about 1/4 mile until we stopped for lunch sitting on a log in the streambed.  There was very little water running in either Wolf Run or Bonnell Run, although we're sure the situation is different after a good rain. After lunch, we continued the gradual but constant climb upstream.  Maria spent a lot of time picking up leaves and playing with bark on trees, which made our progress slower than anticipated.  Also, although the trail guide clearly described points of interest, we missed several side hollows and even "Wolf Rock."  It wasn't until we passed the abandoned stove at mile 2.13 that we knew for certain how far we'd gotten since about a quarter mile past our lunch stop. After that, the stream hollow became less and less noticeable, so that we weren't quite sure when we reached mile 2.65.  The guide and map seemed to indicate an abrupt turn out of the hollow there into a short flat segment.  Before we knew it, we were climbing moderately again, and Aimee, who was leading, actually passed the overlook at mile 2.94 where we had planned to stop for a snack break.  Mike did notice the path to the side, leading to a log where we sat and studied the ridges in the distance.  We were pretty well convinced that the last one was the ridge over which PA Route 44 traveled in the vicinity of miles 12 to 23 of the Black Forest Trail.  Convinced that she had to speed up so that we'd get back to town in time to eat dinner, give her a bath, and still be able to go swimming in the hotel pool, Maria took off like a shot after the snack break.  This dispelled any concern that she might have been tired after hiking over 2 1/2 miles, climbing constantly uphill more than 1000 feet.  We quickly reached a flat section on the hilltop -- the map showed its highest contour at 2100 ft -- and the dirt path ended with a right turn onto a grassy road in the state game area.  About 1/8 mile along this road, it made a curve to the left to stay on the hilltop with the Beulahland vista straight ahead.  We stopped there to take several photos, featuring the sign which indicated an elevation of 2180 ft.  This proved that we had climbed 1300 ft since reaching Wolf Run.  Continuing along the grassy road, it turned left again in about 1/4 mile at the site of another vista at mile 3.76, then began to descend somewhat.  Maria, by this time, was so giddy that she was running down the hill, probably at least a hundred feet in front of Mike and Aimee.  Not quite what we had expected from a six-year-old who had hiked over three and a half miles including a 1300 ft rise!  We actually had to yell ahead at her to slow down because our map and guide seemed to indicate a turnoff shortly into a saddle which would lead to Bonnell Run.  Indeed, the turnoff was quite well-marked with a wooden sign "The Saddle to Bonnell Run."  The path was moderately steep downhill for the next 1/3 mile or so, then it turned right, into a side hollow of Bonnell Run according to the guide.  Literally, into the hollow, as we picked our way down a boulder-strewn path for what was probably 1/10 mile or so, but seemed much longer.  Mom picked her way, while Maria descended like a banshee with Mike holding her hand like an anchor to keep her from falling -- she nearly pulled him down more than once!  Finally, the trail curved a bit left and began to follow dirt rather than boulders.  Mike assumed this must have been mile 4.35 where the main hollow of Bonnell Run was reached.  About a minute later, Maria asked, as she had been doing repeatedly since leaving the mile 2.94 vista, how far had she been hiking on her own feet?  When Dad told her she'd done 4.1 miles, she was satisfied she'd broken her own personal distance record of 4 miles, plopped down immediately on a log, and asked Dad to carry her the rest of the way! The remaining 2 3/4 miles was a steady constant descent along Bonnell Run, with much of the path in the rocky streambed itself.  For this reason, it would have been more difficult than the Wolf Run segment, except that we kept going downhill.  Mike was tired, but he kept carrying Maria at a close to 3 mile per hour pace mainly to prevent Aimee from passing him and setting an even faster pace! There weren't many points of interest along this stretch, so the main aid in determining how far we still had to go was our watch.  When we reached the section where the stream began to cut a canyon, we knew we were at mile 6.56, and shortly thereafter, we saw the trail junction at mile 6.88 where we'd originally turned uphill this morning, thus completing the loop.  Stopping at the trail register long enough to note Maria's hiking record of 4.1 miles, we emerged out of the woods into the parking area along Route 414, one hour and three minutes after Dad resumed carrying Maria, and six hours and twenty-eight minutes after beginning our 9.1 mile hike in the morning.

This is the sign marking the parking area, about 3 1/2 miles north of Cammal on PA Route 414.  Interestingly, it does not correspond to mile 0.00 in the trail guide, although it shows as the only parking area in the trail guide topo map.  There is a starting point designated as mile 0.00 in the trail guide -- but we never found it along the road!  In any case, we heartily endorse starting at the parking area not only because it's easier to find, but also because the elevation changes are best handled by starting the hike here. Here's a view overlooking up Pine Creek from the vicinity of mile 8, approximately 800 ft above the creek.  Nearly the entire hike to this point had been uphill, about 900 ft in 1 1/2 miles, with a descent starting just before this point.  The Black Forest Trail traverses the hill across the creek.  In the same vicinity as the previous vista, but to the opposite side of the trail (left as you descend) is the Raven's Horn, a spectacular view of ridges and valleys along Wolf Run and up Pine Creek.  Maria began hiking on her own two feet after we descended the first hill and reached Wolf Run, at mile 0.30 according to the trail guide.  Dad had carried her 2.16 miles up and down the 900 ft hill.  After a lunch stop on a log in the streambed, Maria carried on while the trail followed upstream in a steady ascent.  Here she is in the vicinity of mile 2, having climbed about 600 ft by this point. By the time we reached mile 2.94, a designated vista in the guide and map, we had climbed about 1000 ft over a little more than 2 1/2 miles, and we were ready for a snack break.  Not visible in the scanned photo, but visible to us, there were ridges beyond the trees behind Maria, including one which Mike believed was the location on which PA Route 44 was situated, near the mile 12 to 23 segments of the Black Forest Trail. Mom and Maria are posing at the high point of our day hike, the Beulahland vista at mile 3.52.  The elevation of 2180 ft meant that we had ascended 1300 ft since entering the Wolf Run valley at mile 0.30.  Maria herself had hiked that entire distance, over 3 miles.  It's not likely that many six-year-olds have hiked 4.1 miles of the GET, including the entire 1300 ft uphill climb along and out of Wolf Run up to Beulahland vista! At mile 3.98, this sign marked the point where we turned left off the state game land road back onto a path continuing downhill.  Maria continued to hike on this section and then nearly pulled Dad off his feet descending a boulder-filled hollow about 1/3 mile later.  Dad was almost beginning to hope she'd never stop hiking on her feet! Have you ever seen a black bear in the wild?  Mike and Aimee had been hiking in wilderness areas many hundreds of miles for nearly 20 years without seeing one -- and they didn't see this one while hiking!  After a nine-mile wilderness hike, seeing nothing bigger than a squirrel, this black bear was in the yard and driveway of a cabin being constructed along PA Route 414 near Jersey Mills, about 6 or 7 miles away from the GET trailhead. The photo isn't the greatest -- Mike was hurriedly trying to work the camera out the car window hoping no one rear-ended us on narrow Route 414 which had no shoulder at that point.  Another car had stopped in the oncoming direction, and they had the audacity to begin driving up the driveway, which spooked the bear enough to make it cross back into the yard and then into the woods. What would we do differently next time?  Very little.  We absolutely recommend parking where we did and hiking the direction we hiked, counterclockwise rather than clockwise around the main loop of 8.34 miles.  Going the opposite way would entail climbing up the steeper side of the hill separating Wolf and Bonnell Runs and climbing up the boulder-strewn hollow near mile 4.3, which was difficult enough to do downhill.  It is possible to complete the trail without doing more than a single climb if you break it into three day hikes: up and down Bonnell Run, up and down Wolf Run, and over the hill separating the two streams then circling back to the parking lot along the Route 414 bike path.