Clear Shade Wild Area, Gallitzin State Forest

Every fall, around or shortly after our wedding anniversary, my husband and I like to go to Rizzo's in Windber for a celebratory meal. Rizzo's is an Italian restaurant with wonderful spaghetti and antipasto. We always get several quarts of sauce and meatballs to go, so that we may enjoy some treats later on.

We often try to tie together our little trips so that they feature an outdoor adventure of some kind and a tasty meal. In prior years, we have sometimes included a visit to Shawnee State Park before our Rizzo's meal. We didn't feel like driving quite as far as that this time, though, so we decided to go hiking in the Clear Shade Wild Area of Gallitzin State Forest, not far from Windber.

Interestingly enough, this makes the THIRD Pennsylvania wild area that we have visited in the past month. The prior two were the Hammersley Wild Area in Susquehannock State Forest, and the Quehanna Wild Area in the Elk and Moshannon State Forests.

We parked my car in a parking lot at the wild area and hiked in on the Bog and Boulder Trail, down to a wildlife observation platform over a marsh. The area is designated as a wild plant sanctuary. You can pick up several different maps in the parking lot area, including a bog path trail and guide that identifies the plants along the way. Tiny signs that serve as identification markers are provided in front of numerous plants as well.

The bog's moss species were colorful, and they reminded me in places of Dolly Sods in West Virginia. We eventually strolled into this lovely little forest area with a nice campsite that we might just have to try out one day.

You can see one of the markers in front of the tree on the right that identifies what species it is. The marked path (see that yellow blaze on the tree in front of us) continues from here onto the Boulder Path; not far away, we caught the John P. Saylor trail for part of our hike, then headed back to the car.

From there, we drove straight to Rizzo's for what turned out to be a delicious meal of spaghetti and antipasto, with all the fresh Italian bread and butter you may want. Good spaghetti you can find multiple places, but nowhere have I ever found antipasto that is just to die for, like theirs is. In fact, this one may have been the tallest antipasto I have ever met; I've included a picture of it in the extra photos area so that you may drool over it!

Now, let me pause here for a quick sharing of further information. On this day, my husband and I were celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary, which was officially two weeks ago. However, we've been together - including "dating" or whatever you want to call it - for 29 years total. Those romantic souls who may be interested in reading about our love story can find some of the details here and here.

And just one last thing: our special meal was topped off with a dessert of dolce vita. (Yes, we had mentioned to the waitress that it was our anniversary, so the dessert was complimentary, as a special treat.) I was pretty stuffed from the spaghetti and antipasto and bread, and could barely even think of dessert. My husband ate most of it, but I did enjoy a few delicious, melty, ice-creamy bites. Dolce vita: the sweet life, indeed.  :-)

The song to accompany this blip posting honoring our anniversary is James Taylor, with How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You.