AMC Outdoors, June 2008
A once endangered path will soon traverse the Keystone State—and connect hikers to a larger network.
On the horizon, the mountain ridges lie peacefully side by side, evenly spaced, like waves in the ocean that haven’t yet swelled to curling. I stand atop one just like them—Tussey Mountain—and cannot locate a town, a building, a road, or any other sign of human construction in my view. I like it this way.
The knife-edge ridge of Tussey Mountain is very narrow and serrated. Giant slabs of protruding rock march down its back like dragon scales. The Mid State Trail (MST) weaves through and over these massive chunks of sandstone, making it quite fun to negotiate if you take your time. Since trees cannot grow on these surfaces, this is where you find the best views, and they are plentiful.
An Endangered Trail
When completed (probably later this year), this 320-mile wilderness footpath will stretch from near the town of Everett, near Pennsylvania’s border with Maryland, all the way to Tioga, at the edge of New York State. Currently, the MST makes it as far north as the Middlebury/Wellsboro junction in northern Pennsylvania, with only about 10 to 15 miles remaining.
Tom Thwaites, a retired physics professor at Penn State University, founded the MST in 1969 when he was faculty adviser to the Penn State Outing Club’s hiking division. He set out to build a trail that intersected the state, after he found the wreckage of an old trail system cutting through the state forests that dated back to the early part of the 20th century. Students pitched in to help him construct the MST, using those old trails as a starting point. Until his retirement from Penn State in 1989, he and the students kept the project going, with assistance from a Keystone Trails Association Trail Care Project, but the volunteer effort started losing momentum and they completed only about two-thirds of the work.
“The idealism of the students kind of evaporated in the ’80s,” Thwaites says. “They had tunnel vision and thought more of their careers and their futures.”
Pennsylvania hikers enjoy more than 2,000 miles of constructed and marked footpaths in the state (more than any other state), so the MST has some competition. The Keystone Trails Association designated it as an Endangered Hiking Trail in 1982 because maintenance of the already constructed areas had been neglected over the years. If the brush is too thick, would-be hikers stay away, thereby compounding the lack-of-use problem. “And if these smaller local trails don’t get hiked,” Thwaites explains, “they will dry up and blow away.”
The MST is benefiting from a recent surge of attention, mostly because it has been designated as part of the Great Eastern Trail (GET), a second long-distance hiking trail through the Appalachians west of the Appalachian Trail. This will attract much more use than the MST alone, trail officials believe. In the past few years, there has been a flurry of trail construction both in the Everett section and in the northern tier as the nonprofit Mid State Trail Association, formed in 1984, forges forward to complete the trail. Section Manager John Stein reports that in 2007 more than 2,200 volunteer hours were logged on the trail by about 100 volunteers. It is a good time to be out discovering the MST.
Even though it is incomplete, this longest Pennsylvania trail introduces hikers to eight state parks, two scout camps, four state wild areas, three state forest picnic areas, four state game lands, and eight state forest natural areas. The central parts of the MST contain unique features such as a train tunnel under Paddy Mountain. Here the walking path coincides with the Penns Creek Rail Trail as it parallels the creek, which is a scenic trout stream. Other highlights are the Detweiler Run and Alan Seeger natural areas—two exquisite sanctuaries of rare old-growth hemlocks and white pines. Alan Seeger also boasts an understory of gargantuan rhododendron thickets.
Farther north, the MST traverses a portion of the Great Island Indian Path near Ravensburg State Park. This woods trail is believed to be one of only two remaining bits of unpaved Indian paths on public lands in Penns Woods. This section was passable by Model Ts at one time and even had a still on it run by Prince Farmington, a famous bootlegger.
Southern Stretch
Twice a year, on my birthday and Mother’s Day, I get to not only do exactly what I want, but more importantly, get the entire family to do exactly what I want. It has been my dream to hike the entire MST, but for starters, on this Mother’s Day weekend, my husband, our two teenagers, and I will cover 12 miles south of Everett and 14 miles north of it. (Later, we will move up to sample the northern stretch in Tioga County.)
The MST’s metric system is a challenge at first. Once you get the conversion formula down, though, it just takes a few moments more of figuring before you can announce to the trail-weary group how many more miles remain in the day. (Thwaites decided to measure the MST using the metric system in order to familiarize people with it.)
The trail feels like wilderness because bicycles, horses, snowmobiles, and ATVs are not allowed. We see quite a bit of wildlife and signs of wildlife, since much of this stretch is on Pennsylvania State Game Land property. Large piles of scat loaded with berry seeds and tufts of rolled dark hair alert us that we are in bear country. My 15-year-old son, Bryce, leads our group and comes startlingly close to a turkey vulture on its perch only 10 feet away. Its naked red head looks prehistoric as it flaps its wings, which span 6 feet from tip to tip. When we reach the spot where the vulture was standing, we discover two giant, speckled eggs nestled inside a deep crack in a rock. We also spot a few snakes curled on rocks, including a healthy-sized rattler, but they don’t move in the cool weather.
After an 8-mile walk on the ridge, we descend into the town of Everett. Here, the beautiful, 77-acre Tenley Park offers free camping to MST users. The town is located in a valley of the Allegheny Mountains in a water gap carved by the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River.
After a restful night, we head south of town to walk another stretch of the MST. Most of the trail is considered to be challenging. The ridges are rocky and you may have to travel to find water. But there are very easy sections like the flat miles along Penns Creek, which is even wheelchair accessible. And today’s grassy woods road is a sharp contrast to yesterday’s knife-edge climb. This section follows many of the state game lands access roads, taking us past wildlife food plots planted and managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Over in the tall grasses by the side of the woods road near one of these food plots, I spot a bear, only 20 yards away. I freeze in my tracks and raise an index finger to my lips to silence everyone, pointing toward the bear. Its behavior is unusual: It doesn’t run as we creep closer but appears to be disoriented and shaky. Soon we notice a bright red ear tag and surmise that the game commission biologist must have just released the animal after relocating it. After a brief moment, the bear wanders off in the forest. Although our hearts are racing, we feel fortunate to have even a brief glimpse of this magnificent creature.
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