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Our second hike of 1996 extended our westward
progress along the LT to the next segment beyond Kettle Creek. We began
at Brunnerdale Road, in
the Ogdonia Creek valley. To reach this point by car, we took PA Route
87 to Ogdonia, near Camp Lycogis, then turned right onto gravel Ogdonia
Road. Approximately 3 1/2 miles down Ogdonia Road, it has a T or Y
intersection with Brunnerdale Road to the left. The LT also intersects
at this point and the trail markers are visible along Brunnerdale Road.
In 1/4 mile,
the road crosses Ogdonia Creek and there is a parking area on the left.
The weather this day was considerably more pleasant than it had been
two weeks before, with temperatures in the high 70s and not very humid
-- not a bad summer day for hiking. We began our hike here at mile
22.08, as the LT turned off Brunnerdale Road past the parking area and
began following downstream along Ogdonia Creek. Our beginning elevation
had been 1270 ft, and we dropped slowly to 1200 ft at mile 22.50, where
the trail turned sharply right and ascended to a woods road at mile
22.63, 1275 ft. The LT then
turned back left along the woods road and rose to 1420 ft at mile 22.79
before
turning right and ascending again. This turn of events repeated another
time at mile 22.94 where we turned left on another woods road, then
right
into a steep ascent at mile 23.00. At mile 23.26, elevation 1550 ft, we
turned left onto a "Blue X" trail to gain access to Angel Falls.
We later learned that the LT had been relocated in the Angel Falls area
in 1994. It had previously ascended along the falls but had been
relocated to allow revegetation in the falls area. The side trail added
0.3 miles in each direction to our hike, taking us to the very top of
Angel Falls, where Mike got as close as Aimee would allow to take some
photos of the water cascading over the top.
After Angel Falls, we continued upstream along Falls Run, crossing it
at mile 23.58, and ascended gradually but steadily to an elevation of
1930 ft near mile 24.15. From this point, we traveled steadily
downhill, passing the side trail to Kettle Creek Vista at mile 24.70,
elevation 1500 ft, and continuing along the LT as it descended along
the hillside into Kettle Creek valley. At mile 25.24, elevation 1220
ft, we reached the same Kettle Creek crossing that we'd approached from
the opposite side the previous fall.
Aimee was hoping Mike could find an alternate route for the return trip
that avoided the climb. Unfortunately, this could not be done. Kettle
Creek and Ogdonia Creek were separate valleys that did intersect, but
it
was several miles down one valley, almost back to Route 87, before
reaching the other. The major benefit from this attempt at navigating
was a classic pose of Maria reading the topo map over Mike's shoulder.
For whatever reason, the initial ascent to Kettle Creek Vista on the
return trip wasn't as bad as we had been fearing. We stopped there for
lunch, and Maria posed in a grassy area near the vista for several
photos. At this time, she was still too young to walk, so there wasn't
much danger of her making it to the edge and falling off.
On the other hand, the second part of the return climb, from the vista
to the high point near mile 24.15, seemed worse than we were expecting
from our earlier experience taking it downhill. Sometimes you just
can't tell how strenuous a hike is going to be until you do it. Of
course, when we
reached the high point, almost all of the remaining nearly two miles
was downhill. Some of the hills down from the Angel Falls area were a
bit
slow going, but we eventually returned to Ogdonia Creek for the final
0.42
mile back to the car.
This was the first hike Maria made in the backpack instead of the front
carrier. It seemed to work well, as she enjoyed the view over Mike's
shoulder. In fact, when we got near the parking area, she got so
agitated with happiness at the bubbling rapids and small falls along
Ogdonia Creek that when Mike took her out of the backpack at the car,
he carried her back to the creek to look at them some more. Maria, two
weeks short of her first birthday, had now completed over a quarter of
the LT -- nearly 16 miles -- and Mike and Aimee had done a little more
than 37 miles.
Fast forward to a bit over eight years later in
October 2004. Aimee had dropped off Maria and Mike at mile 30.57
on the High Knob plateau, and they had already hiked over five miles to
reach the Kettle Creek crossing. Completing the hike to
Brunnerdale Road would mean a new personal best for Maria, about 8 1/2
miles in a single hike on her own two feet.
Crossing Kettle Creek was not too difficult.
There was a moderately large log spanning the creek, and although
neither Mike nor Maria was confident enough to walk completely across
the log a few feet above the water, both of them easily shimmied to a
point where they could grab other branches and walk the rest of the
way. The creek was about ten feet wide in MIke's estimation.
As noted above, the uphill segment to Kettle Creek
Vista did not seem extremely difficult. One reason is that the
trail followed an old woods road that wound gradually up the side of
the hill. A second reason is that the LT trail guide appears to
have a typographical error. It lists the elevation at mile 24.75
as 1600 ft compared to 1500 ft at the vista side trail, mile
24.70. In actuality, this segment is flat and both points are at
1500 ft as verified by the topo map. So the total uphill climb
from Kettle Creek to the vista is actually 280 ft, not 380 ft.
And yes, the uphill climb from the vista to the high
point of this segment at mile 24.19 is 400 ft, not 300 ft. That
explains our comment above about the difficulty of this segment.
Mike and Maria skipped the 0.6 mile roundtrip on the
"Blue X" side trail to Angel Falls as it was getting somewhat late and
he was worried Maria might be tired after hiking over seven
miles. Maria commented a few minutes later that she wasn't even
tired and it was too bad they couldn't hike some more... maybe another
time...
The
last obstacle they encountered was a temporary detour of the LT in the
vicinity of mile 22.3. A road construction project had closed
Brunnerdale Road including the LT segment running along the road from
mile 22.08 to 21.82. Instead of following Ogdonia Creek upstream
to the mile 22.08 parking area, they were forced to cross the stream --
not exactly the easiest stream crossing of the day -- and follow a
detour "Silver Dot" trail for what was probably the last 0.2 miles or
so. The detour actually saved about 0.3 miles in hiking distance
and brought them out to the intersection of Brunnerdale and Ogdonia
Roads at mile 21.82 where they had left a car.
Footnote: Another new road access, another driving
shortcut. Instead of doubling back down Ogdonia Road to Route 87, Mike
went left from the parking area and continued along Brunnerdale Road.
When it passed along Hunters Lake, he knew he was going the right way,
and sure enough, the road ended at an intersection with PA Route 42
between US Route 220 at Muncy Valley and Eagles Mere. Not only did this
save us considerable mileage by giving us a direct route to Bloomsburg
instead of making a corner at Montoursville, but it also allowed us an
ice cream stop in Eagles Mere, well deserved after hiking up and down a
700 ft ridge then back again. Unfortunately we could not take
advantage of this driving short cut in 2004 and were forced to drive
about 10 or 15 extra miles to get to PA Route 42.
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 Left: This is what Angel Falls
looks like from the top. You can see the water cascading over the rocks
as it begins the drop.
Right:
Another view of Falls Run as it begins to cascade over Angel
Falls. This is as close as Aimee would let Mike get because she
was afraid he'd fall over with Maria.
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 Left: A new type of LT
sign -- red coffee can lid with yellow lettering --
announces that the trail has been relocated to mile 22.50. The Bureau
of
Forestry closed the area around Angel Falls to allow revegetation of
the
disturbed site. To reach Angel Falls, it is now necessary to follow a
"Blue X" side trail, not to be confused with a "Red X" trail or a
"Blue" trail.
 Right: One of
MIke's favorite hiking photos -- he has had it in his office for years
-- shows Maria helping him read the topo map as they pause at Kettle
Creek, mile 25.24. Is there any doubt that this little girl is
going to grow up to be a hiker?
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 Left: Maria's in a grassy
area where we stopped for lunch at Kettle Creek Vista, on the return
leg of the day's hike from Ogdonia Creek to Kettle Creek.
Right: Another view of
Maria in the area we stopped for lunch, this time with the vista in the
background behind her.
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 Right:
An unusual wildflower we encountered along the LT on this hike. We were
not able to exactly identify it, but it appears to be a type of orchid
belonging
to the genus Habeneria, perhaps the Round-leaved Orchid (H.
orbiculata), Snowy
Orchid (H. nivea), or White Fringed Orchid (H. blephariglottis).
 Left: Mike and
Maria at mile marker 25, on the descent between Kettle Creek Vista and
Kettle Creek. Next time, use fill flash!
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 Right: Maria is
about to complete her crossing of Kettle Creek on a log over the
stream. One we shimmied along the log for the first few feet, we
were able to grab the nearby logs and branches to balance ourselves as
we walked the rest of the way.
 Left: Here's Maria near
one of the blue and yellow "coffee can lid" signs along the LT.
This sign points the way to Kettle Creek Vista at mile 24.70.
 Right: Closeup of
Maria at Kettle Creek Vista.
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 Left: A great view of
the fall color at Kettle Creek Vista, mile 24.70. Kettle Creek
lies in the valley 280 ft below.
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 Right: As we approached
the final flat segment within about 1/4 mile of the end, we encountered
a trail detour. It was expected since we'd seen signs at the
other end of the detour near where we parked our car at the end of the
hike.
 Left: Here's a closeup
of the detour sign. Presumably the construction project was
completed and this detour is no longer in place.
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We
figured this might be the only chance we'd ever get to see a silver dot
marking on the LT. It probably took us two or three minutes to
proceed the 15 to 20 feet from the detour sign in the previous photo to
this marker on the opposite sign of Ogdonia Creek. Now we
understand why the trail normally follows the creek upstream to cross
at the road bridge. It wasn't quite as dark as our flash photo
indicated, but we were glad to get across the creek even if we did have
around 50 ft of moderate climbing to do on this final fraction of a
mile.
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