Follow the River

It was a pleasant enough day, and we'd accomplished most of our household chores on Saturday. So my husband and I decided to make Sunday an adventure day. We nabbed some burgers for lunch in Tyrone and then headed down to hike on the Lower Trail, parking by the flea market at Water Street.

The Lower (rhymes with "flower") Trail follows the Frankstown Branch of the Little Juniata. It is very flat, allowing easy walking, bicycling, or horseback riding. There are scattered remnants of historical ruins, most notably those of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, which operated in the mid-1800s. This area was then used by the Petersburg Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, also later abandoned.

The last time we were here was early November, when the autumn colors were still quite nice. But the colors are done now, and most of the trees are bare. There are still plenty of lovely things to see, including some fine reflections on the water.

We walked about two to three miles down the trail, and as we approached our turnaround point, we heard a crashing sound on the hill high above us. A white-tailed deer was running down what seemed an impossibly steep incline, sending rocks tumbling as it went. It somehow arrived safely at the bottom, unscathed, ran right past us, and disappeared with a tail-flip, leaving behind nothing but hoof prints in the mud.

My husband and I both remarked, as we stood and enjoyed the views along the river, that it might have looked very much the same here hundreds of years ago. The river seems timeless, its waters winding away into the distance. Oh yes, I do feel the pull to leave everything behind and simply follow the river.

Our soundtrack song is this one: John Mellencamp with To the River.

This is nothing like we planned
That's the way it's always been
All roads to the river
I have hated and I have loved
I have prayed and I have sinned
All roads to the river

P.S. Related: there was a book I have read several times that I do recommend to lovers of adventure and survival stories. It is based on the true story of Mary Ingles (or Mary English), kidnapped by the Shawnee in 1755 after a massacre at Draper's Meadow in Virginia. She escaped her captors and followed the rivers for hundreds and hundreds of miles, eventually making her way safely home. That story is called Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom.