The Allegheny Front Trail, Moshannon State Forest

The weather was predicted to be nice, and so in the morning, we decided we'd pack up and head for Moshannon State Forest, above Black Moshannon, for some hiking. This is the same place we went about two weeks ago, and we found things had melted down further, and we were able to park the car close to the spot where we normally park.

We put on our boots and grabbed our daysacks and our chairs, and headed down a dirt road. We shortly found our juncture where we took off, straight up the hill to a big cleared area, where we sat and enjoyed the day and the views.

T. Tiger and I were exploring the area, and found a snail. Or rather a snail SHELL, as the snail itself was no longer inside it. Tiny Tiger wore the empty snail shell as a hat, and you may see this photo in the extras. We like to think of it as an escargot chapeau, if you will, though, as a friend pointed out, that escargot was already escarGONE!!!  :-)

My husband wanted to see how everything fit together, trail-wise, so we just kept hiking and exploring, and found another clearing below the one where we sat. Off the corner of that area, we saw a pathway into the woods. Shortly, we spotted the familiar red and yellow blazes of the Allegheny Front Trail, and so we finished our hike on that.

The Allegheny Front Trail is a 42-mile trail in central Pennsylvania that winds through trees and vistas and streams. I'll give you a link here that talks more about this trail for those who are interested. It says that you WILL get wet feet pretty much 12 months out of the year on this trail!

Our hike brought us back down to the dirt road we had started out on, near a well known camping spot and wooden bridge along the creek. The bonus of the day: my husband, digging in the remains of a long forgotten campfire, found a ten-dollar titanium camping spoon.

And then we walked back up the road and out, and back to our car. The gravel road is mostly clear of snow at this point, but there are still stretches of solid ice in the shadows, where it never melts. So I would advise those traveling on such roads to be wary and cautious. It's not necessarily springtime everywhere yet!

I would have to say, having recently retired, I do like having more options than I used to with the scheduling of my days. One of the things we can do is decide on Tuesday morning what we're doing on Tuesday afternoon, without asking anyone's permission. What's that worth? Perhaps it's priceless!

I have two photos so I've picked two soundtrack songs. The Moody Blues, with Tuesday Afternoon, is the first one. The second one is for the Tiger and the escargot chapeau, from which the snail has gone: so the song for that one is the Eagles, with Already Gone.