Campsite for Two in Moshannon State Forest

With cooler temperatures in the forecast, my husband and I decided it was time for our first backpack of the autumn season. So Thursday morning found us making a half-dozen ham and cheese sandwiches, packing up our gear, loading it into my husband's 2010 Chevy Impala, and heading for Moshannon State Forest, up in the woods above Black Moshannon State Park.

The Impala, whose brake repair tales could form their own mini-series, has developed a new issue: a weird clicking sound from the dash, not unlike the rat-a-tat-tat of an automatic weapon. It started doing it when my husband turned the heat on for the first time the other morning. Now it does it whenever it feels like it, even when the car is turned off! A part has been ordered and received, and a repair has been scheduled. For the time being, we simply grit our teeth, and turn up the radio.

So amid the rat-a-tat-tat of the Clickmobile, as we now call it, we loaded our gear up and took off for the woods. The campsite we were heading for is known as Rattlesnake #2, as the road across the top of the hill to get to Black Moshannon is known as Rattlesnake Pike.

Rattlesnake #1 was a campsite just a short walk out that we used for many years, until they cut all the trees down and destroyed it. Rattlesnake #3 is several miles into the back-country. Rattlesnake #2 is a compromise. Longer walk than #1. Not as far as #3. It is quiet there, but one of the issues of this site is that you can find your way in (if you're my husband, a champion navigator), but getting out is some kind of trick.

The trail in to Rattlesnake #2, which is the site shown above, starts out as an old woods road that devolves into a deer trail, and then sort of ends out in the middle of nowhere. From that point, you head downhill, catch the (almost nonexistent) footpath, and hike over, and then up, to get to this campsite.

Getting out is tough, because of how the trail just sort of peters out at the end; catching that thin thread on the other end is really difficult. So my husband had a new idea: when we got to the point where the trail mostly ended, he pulled a white plastic bag out of his pocket (he meant to bring a  yellow rope, but forgot it), tied it around a tree that was angled across the path, and we both did our best to memorized the trees and landforms around it, so we could find our way back out.

We arrived at our campsite shortly after 1 pm, and then we spent a pleasant afternoon and evening in the quiet of the woods. There is just a little bit of autumn color starting, so far, but there are some lovely bits to see, here and there. In the photo above, you may see my tent, an Alps Mountaineering three-person deal, on the left. To the right of center is my husband's tent, and he has some gear airing out on a clothes line off to the side.

Dark comes earlier now than it used to, and so we take along LED lanterns to stave off the darkness. I read my book until I absolutely couldn't see the words on the page anymore and then we sat and listened to music for a while and talked, before heading into our tents. My husband informed me the next morning, "You mumbled something about strawberries, peaches, and ice cream, and then you passed right out."

Thus ends the tale of Day 1 in the woods, with me passed out, exhausted, in my tent, in the Pennsylvania wilds. Will our intrepid backpackers find that white plastic bag and make their way safely out of the woods? Tune in to our next episode to find out!

Our soundtrack song for this blip is Asia, with Wildest Dreams.