Lock Haven to Williamsport the easy way!

May 29th Woke to clean cool weather and plenty of time before my $8.00 bus leaves for Williamsport. I ventured down town with my backpack in tow. I stopped by a museum that showed historical item from far and wide. A group of junior high kids were in charge of showing off the goodies. I think it was kind of a school project or just a way to get out of school. A 12 year old dressed like she was going to a prom, was showing me around the front room. The 6 inches heels that she wore had her walking like she was hitting the party punch a bit too much. She tried to open a china closet and almost pulled the whole affair on top of us when she swayed to the right and the closet went to the left. Then when she got it open she showed me a volcanic rock from the Big Island of Hawaii that Uncle Bob had smuggled back stuffed in his underware. What that had to do with Lock Haven I haven't a clue but it sure was fun watching this swaying back and forth around fragile china and silver. Three of the items that did catch my attention was the document signed my Honest Abe Lincoln and 2 signed by Ben Franklin. The museum had a $10.00 front door lock guarding $1,000 dollar letters.


Then I went up stairs and a girl was showing off the doll collection in one of the bedrooms. Just to add a bit of excitement she explained that the dolls keep moving during the night when no one is a round. I had been standing near a closet listening to the whole spook story and stepped out at just the right moment. The girls were all about waist high in size and I must have looked like Frankenstein. All you could hear was patten leather shoes running down the stairs.

Then I walked to the Piper airplane factory. The factory is now in Florida but they have a musuem you can tour for $6.00. The planes cost $2,000 in 1930 when you could buy a car for $100. After looking over all the ins and outs of the aircraft, the guide gave me a guide book from the 1920's. #14 Don't trust your instruments # 21 Don't wear your spurs while flying. #1 Don't take off unless you're sure you can.


I walked back to town to buy my bus ticket. The ticket office was in a store called Puff Daddy-which sold every kind of tobbaco item known to man. I had to wait in line and I felt like I was slowly traveling through a furnace pipe. You couldn't find a piece of clean air or a customer that wasn't covered with a brown haze. The ticket only cost $8.00 but it took 8 years off my life! Most of the customers, the ones I could see, looked like skeletons covered with skin. The cars that pulled up to get smokes looked like they had been in a stock car derby and lost! When it was my turn in line I couildn't get my money out fast enough. "The bus will be here in 30 minutes do you want to wait inside hon?" asked the clerk. I felt like telling her if I had to wait inside this building for 30 more minutes they would have to carry me out.

I did have time to stop by Rock River & Camp Trail and get a new pair of kickers (shoes) My other ones would be a bit heavy for the kayak and besides I did look like Frankenstein with them on. Rick the owner does a lot of kayaking on the Susq. River and we had lots to talk about.


Then the bus showed up and the driver stopped in for smokes at Puff Daddy's. He had a cough like he had swallowed a towel. As we talked on the way to Williamsport, he explained he was thinking about giving up the coffin nails.


The city of Williamport is very old and very nice. Huge houses from the lumber/coal era are all along the main street called "millionare row." These houses are monsters with most covered in brick. The yards are very well kept. I walked down 4th street to the Thomas Tabor musuem. What a treasure of a place. The building held everything that had to do with the area's history. Lumber was one of the main industries,but it also showed the American Indian history of the region. There were also over a thousand minature trains in the basement. I had a nice conversation with the hostess of the musuem. She and her husband had travelled all over the world for the Navy. They picked Williamsport as their last base because of the beauty along the river. She has recently lost her husband to a heart condtion brought on by germ warfare during the cold war. More touring manana and then I head back to Jersey Shore on Monday. My new friend said the trail that I will follow to Clouderport is listed as one of the top 10 in the world. It follows the Pine Creek up the Grand Canyon of PA.

Bits and pieces!

May 28th Since I usually don't have lots of time to sit in front of the screen and there are just things I forget. Here they are!
On my bike ride part that seems like months ago I met with Don the motel owner in Meyersdale and had a lengthy conversation with him. I always like to find out about the backgrounds of the people I run into. Don's grandfather was Amish but couldn't get into the whole control thing of that sect. He left the order but they didn't shun him since he was loved in the community. He also never bought a car and walked everywhere.

When we visited the Wagner Sugar Shack I found out that the Wagners went up into Vermont and brought back super sugar maple trees. They planted them 25 years ago and will have to wait another 10 years before they can tap them. There was already century old trees on the property that is tapped.

The resort at Rocky Gap State park in Md was very nice and all by itself. The dining room had a view to die for of the lake.

There is not enough that can be said about Pa's countryside. When you're in the mountains the trees may be growing close togethor but green plants grow all around the floor under them. Lots of the plants you would see in your house. When the trees are far apart the ground is covered with ferns, a green blanket of tender ferns. Along the roadsides are fields of wild flowers. Like a fella said yesterday about the Amish, Pa wouldn't be Pa without them. Their farms had long lines of clothes hanging out to dry, the barns filled with horses and mules sticking their heads out as I walk along the building, the Amish men as they tip their straw hats driving their buggies by you. The buggies are very quick with retired race horses as the horse power.

The Pa state parks are as clean as a pin. The information board has boxes with lots of items, including rubber gloves.

Everybody and I mean everybody has told me to look out for coyotes, rattle snakes, bears and poison ivy. The number one thing is coyotes with wild stories like the coyote that has breed with a wolf. They are big enough to pick me up with my pack in their jaws and still have room to put a small child under their arm to be carried off to the den! I am thinking if the coyotes breeding with a wolf and a rattle snake. The Army could use them in Iraq.

With all the industries going everywhere except here I have found a company going full bore. The natural gas industry. In State College I met up with 2 dump truck drivers two of the hundreds that were hauling gravel 80 miles for the pads. Now I have met the guys that use the pads. A group of men here at the motel who travel around settting up temporary buildings for the gas drillers. Thousands of wells to be drilled according to these fellas.

Do bears jog?

May 27th--

After a very restful sleep at Centre Mill B&B and a hearty breakfast by my fab host Maria I was ready to hike north. Over the kitchen table Maria and I had some long conversations about her motherland "Germany" and her much beloved husband. He has been gone 19 years now and she is running a full time B&B in a early American 1700 restored home. She and John spent 5 years restoring the property. She also maintains 26 acres of land what a job she does. Maria has a web page if you want to see the home Centre Mill B&B out of Milheim Pa.

As I opened the door to step back into my travels a ground fog swept past the threshold. It would be a cool morning for walking, which is good. Yesterday with the 90 degree heat Maria said she wanted to turn on a fire extingisher on my head when she open the front door and I was standing there. The fog was coming off the fields and covering everything with a spooky look. The road under my feet went through Amish farms and they were beautifully kept. In the distance I could hear the sound of clippity clop and the jingle of metal and leather. Because of the fog I couldn't see the Amish farmer and his horse going along his way, but I could sure hear him. It was magical to say the least. I stood by the side of the road and with in minutes here cames the horses head out of the fog and the rest of the outfit emerged from the cloud. I was in the right place in the right time.

People ask me why I walk around the world--I tell them 'It just lasts like this for a minute, and then there is more to come!' The whole trip has been hiking over mountains and down into valleys and then back over mountains. The last few days have more of the same. The view as I came down into Sugar Valley was more green fields and surrounded by tree covered mountains. The first farm I came to had a small farm house with no electric lines run to it--you know it's Amish.

A young mother was loading her 2 Amish children into a wooden wagon. The children were dressed in their blue and white outfits. The little boy wore the traditional straw hat and the girl had a blue bonnet. I asked if there was enough room for me in the wagon? What I really wanted to do was to take a hundred pictures but the Amish don't like their picture taken so I didn't ask.

At the corner of the family's property, the father was driving a team of 7 horses side by side. He was disking the field and the smooth process to get 7 horses to turn at the same time was a amazing. It was like watching a finely tuned dance troupe in action. I watched for 10 minutes.

On the road to the town of Loganton , a red truck kept driving by with the back end full of what looked like large grass clippings.

The truck would pull into a driveway and drive up to the barn and unload. Than he would do the same all along my road I was walking. He was wondering what I was doing as much as I was wondereing about his actions. He pulled over and said hop in the back of his empty truck and I'll give you a ride for 1/2 mile. As I sat on the open tailgate and we traveled along the highway he told me the Amish were getting into raising tobacco. He was just helping them out by moving the crop from cutter to drier. I wonder about this, when I was at Coybln Lake 2 days ago the Amish father was smoking little cigars he rolled himself.

I continued my journey and went past garden after garden that had Amish women hoeing the rows. At Loganton I stopped at a small corner store and had a smoked turkey sandwich made for me. In the back room was all the dry goods in bulk for the Amish.

I found a shady spot in the front yard of a fella that was sitting on his front porch. A Marine flag was on the flag pole and a bumper sticker of the corp was on his truck. He had just served 2 years but he was a proud soldier. I got to talking to him-big surprise- he worked at a brass manufactory plant making brass rods. A British company came in 2 years ago and closed the whole thing. The plant had a goverment contract to make Army item which is all made in the UK now. It's the same story all over PA but different towns. Lost jobs over seas-down south or China-it's nutty!!

I then headed north on a secondary road called Pine on my map but it is actually called Pine Longthon. My map is older than 9-11 when all the signs were changed for law enforcement to get Al-kida easier. Within minutes a fella came running across his yard with a root beer in his hand. His house sat on 2 acres with 4 horses. His pappy had 100 acres but after the pappy's funeral, he and is 12 sister and brothers broke it all up. Later in the afternoon I was passing a fella on a riding mower. He jumped off the mower and signaled me to the side door of his house. The house had a side porch that this fella had closed in with chip board. A big screen TV was bolted in the corner just opposite a comfy couch.

"Would you like a beer or water?" he asked. As I drank the cold water I noticed a slightly rusted refrigator with a beer tap coming out the front.

"This looks like a man room!" I said.

"Well my wife went for smokes 20 years ago and never came back!" he

said. I think his new wife name might be Frigadar since he spent all his time snuggled up to it. His father had the farm after being adopted and left with 6 acres after his grandparents' death. He worked at a paper making plant at Lock Haven which is closed down and moved away.

After a hour walk the road turned to dirt with lots of forest. I found a small stream and made this my new camp, up from the moving water. I set up tent and watched birds and deer come down to the water to drink. I found a fallen log to sit on and read my book after dinner. From the distance I could hear the sound of a small horse running hard in my direction. The pounding of the ground and the heavy breathing that comes along with it. I stood up and saw a black spot materialize in the woods. The black spot was th size of a loaf of bread, because of the distance and than rather quickly it got to be size of a dog and than it was the size of a full size black bear. The bear was running full tilt right towards me, like I was the target.

Since I do a lot of walking in the woods and have seen hundred of bears I wasn't like looking for sharpened stick but it did get my attention. Until your in the moment you never know how you're going to react. I stood my ground and yelled "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?" The bear put on the brakes, all four feet stopped running and it came to a sliding stop. His chin rested on the log I was sitting just minutes before.

I looked at him and he looked up at me and again I said "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?" Within seconds he turned and ran up a small hill and stood behind a tree with his head behind the tree and his butt sticking out. I yelled up"I CAN STILL SEE YOU!" With this he started to run again in the opposite direction of me. It's one of those things if I hadn't been in the right spot at the right time I would have missed this comedy. I slept like a baby that night, after hanging my food up.

May 27th--

This morning I walked into Lock Haven Pa and will take a 1 day rest ph #570-748-3297 room 402 if anybody wants to call. My motel has breakfast and I was able to chow down when I arrived! So far I have walked 220 miles in 9 days. From here I will follow the Grand Canyon of PA and than over to Clouderport Pa were my loving brother will bring up the kayak for the kayak down the Allegeny River part. The town is very nice and quiet and I had a nice tour of a local home turned musuem.

lots of big numbers!

May 24th--I am leaving State College by way of bus route 320 which I thought might be busy-but there was a bike trail so I walked away from traffic. That way a truck didn't run me over like a snake or groundhog or possum like I have seen along the roadways.

The night before I left I took in a stage show of kids singing the show "13." It was very good-one line stuck-IF IT IS WHAT IT IS THEN IS WHAT IT IS unless Disney changes the ending. I made my first town of Boalsburg, PA around 10:00 am. A older fella was working on the graveyard for this weekend. Does anybody know why-Yes it Memorial Day BUT it was invented in Boalsburg in the 1880's.

I stopped and had a chat with the graveyard lawn jockey. I told him about walking Hawaii and talking with grave diggers there. Their big problem is high tide coming into the grave sites. This local fella says the same thing happens with ground water in this valley of Boalsburg. Sometimes after lowering the casket in the hole it looks like it's floating. They have to take a backhoe and hold down the pine box and throw dirt in real quick. I ask him which way he wanted to go, cremated or buried. He was too scared to talk about it-and this man wasn't a spring chicken. It could use Bob Hope's line," just surprise me after I die! "

I walked into the Colbyn Lakes area and saw 6 beautiful Purchion hores in a large green field. They would all take off running with their tails in the air. Then they would come up to the fence and then off they would go again. At the lake a older Amish father was fishing with his 6 kids and 3 of his sisters. The kids were catching blue gils left and right. The father was just sitting there watching the whole affair. He ran a pallet building company for Johnston and Johnston. I sat by the lake side and ate my lunch as we talked about the area.

After lunch I worked my way through a small village. A fellow contractor was standing outside of his detached garage. As we talked he showed me his restored muscle cars-they were beauts.

He gave me direstions to Poe Paddy State park but I missed the first turn off. I ended up at Penn Woods state park-which was better. Very clean with great sites and real bathrooms and toilets.

I got set up and then 2 cars pulled up. These 4 people started to unloaded this and that like they had plans for staying there for weeks. They walked way back in the woods and I could hear chopping and the sawing of wood. I thought I was going to see a log cabin appear.

After dinner I walked down to have a chat. These 4 young kids were from State College on a short break from work and one who had just graduated. They worked at a smoked rib joint. It just happens to be the closest restaurant to the second biggest football stadium in the USA. The football crowd can get to be 100,500 on the day of the game. This restaurant will serve 30,000 meals in one day. They have pre ordered racks of ribs and the football crowd just drives up and takes the meals over to the field for some major tail gateing.

They live in a 3 story house near campus. On each floor are 7 people-with me so far?-each person pays $600. plus electricity. So that is $12,600 per month!!. As I was talking with the four campers they were all sharping sticks and then sticking them in the fire to make them

harder. I thought maybe it was boredom. Oh no! It was for the occasional bear attack during the night.

One girl had camped here before and heard a noise during the night and drove all the way home. I talked to them about the slim chance of seeing bears. During the night -no make that early morning they must of heard the noise. I heard car doors slamming and tires kicking up gravel at 2:00 AM.

May 25--

I had a long walk because of my little bobo mania. This time I watched the street signs--or the lack of them. After 3 hours of walking I wasn't quite sure which road I was still on. Then a van came driving up. The repair man along with his helper and myself using 3 maps tried to figure the puzzle out. We were all on the right page and road-yipee!

The forest walk was through fields of ferns and mountain laurel in bloom. I made it into the next valley of totally green rolling hills. I came to a huge barn with clothes on a line drying in the wind. As I was taking a picture an Amish lady came to the side window and said, "Hello, would you like some water and fresh radishes from the garden?"

We sat and talked for 10 minutes, they had moved in 10 years ago from Lancaster. A cousin of hers was going to take over the place and make it into a dairy. The barn I thought looked giant. Come to find out, it's the 3rd biggest in the state. Big enough so that you can turn a horse team around inside. I met a fella in the town of Willheim that used to play hide and seek in the barn with 50 classmates.

I found a Minonite grocery store that made food and sold goods. I had a salad and fried chicken to die for. Then I walked on through the country side and noticed a B&B sign posted that just happened to be on my way. A German woman named Maria runs the 26 acres B&B. The house was built in the 1700's and the back of the house over looks a trout stream. I hear Amish buggies going up and down the street with a clippy clop in the front. Tomorrow more walking north towards Jersey Shore PA and then Grand Canyon of PA but that's later. Thanks for listening!

day off at state college

May 23 -Last night I went to see a movie "Woman with a Green Dragon." It was subtitled but was very exciting- I kicked the seat in front of me a few timeswhen bad guys jumped up. This morning I had breakfast at the Green Bowl-lots of green things here. You pick your ingredients(onions/mushrooms/tomatoes and you put it in a green bowl. Then a cook prepares it any way you want and it's all you can eat! It was great. Then on to the laundry-but no small bills. Without a car it can be a bugger. A fellow laundry man gave me a ride to a small store. He came here to race cars and stayed. Lots of workers in the laundry-working on a natural gas line. 480 trucks moving gravel 80 miles and they need 500. These fellas came all the way from NY-since there isn't any work there. The pay has been cut so they have to watch every penny. The sun is trying to peak out and tomorrow may be nice for heading north. Lots to see and people to meet. The waiter at the Green Bowl was interested in my walk and we talked about his remodel jobs.

Williamsburg to State College

May 22nd -

My lovely wife edited the last one from Everett to Williamsburg but it seems to have disappeared! (here is a new one). After leaving the library in Williamsburg I had to find a place to set up my tent. There is a rail trail from Williamsburg to Alexandra with the Little Junita river running along side. The MST runs along this bike and hike path. I followed it for 30 minutes and found a nice place with a picnic table thrown in on the deal. I set my tent up late since I wasn't sure if I was allowed to camp.

That night a cold fog came in and the croaking of the frogs put me to sleep. Next morning I was up early and walking by 6:00 am. Along the path which used to be a canal in the 1800's I came upon a community that wasn't there any more. There was a large iron furnace with a 100 families living there, working the blast furnaces. All that remains is a large stone boarding house.

As I hung my tent out to dry and to get a little food, a biker showed up. Hester Fink who has been riding and walking since he was almost killed in a tractor trailer accident. After breaking his back the doctors said he would never walk again, but here he is.

As I got close to the end of the bike/rail trail 5 people gave me 5 different directions to the continuing MST. One had me running across Route 22. I think they had bets that I wouldn't make it without a truck squishing me. I found the trail and it went straight up the mountain. Then through a lovely wooded forest. Then I came down to the town of Barrie which had its' twists and turns.

No one in town had heard of the trail. As I was walking back from a wrong turn Ron pulled up and offered me cold drinks. He was on a fishing trip with the Methodist church. The river is supposed to be hard to fish so maybe prayers will help.

I found the trail and again it went straight up to the Tussey Mtns. It followed the ridge. The rocky ridge like the back of a dragon. Lichen covered rocks flat and on an angle, thousands of ways to trip you up.

By 5:00 pm I was thinking about finding water and some flat ground for my tent and my carcass to be parked. I noticed the trail crossed the road and the map showed springs. I came to the dirt forest road and started to walk down towards State College. A red car came driving up in the distance. Gregory had the day off and was throwing back a few beers as he drove through the country. I found out that the road I was on was not the right road to be on. My map which is just 1 year old doesn't show it right. I needed to go back about a mile.

Gregory's red Merc car was piled high with everything you could think of and not. There was just enough room for my pack in the back seat. I sat on the trunk and hung on to the crack in the trunk. With my feet resting on the bumper Gregory took off in a cloud of dust-and a Hi OH Red. I was like in the band but facing the wrong way.

Gregory dropped me off at the next forest road and told me of some hunting camps along this long road. The camps would have running spring water. By 6:00 pm I saw a camp and walked down to a vacant camp-except for the porkypine. He was determined to chew through the out house door and eat some salty wood. The camp had a picnic table and a flat spot for my tent. During the night Mr. Porky must not have heard about cutting down on salt. I could hear that bugger chewing away-even on the Hardy trim, which is concrete.

This morning I walked for 4 hours when a truck pulled up and asked directions to state college. Maybe we could find it together. After dropping me off at the outside of town I walked for 5 minutes when a woman stopped and took me to downtown. I took a long bath, in fact I fell asleep in the bath. I will hang for one day. I am at 814-237-4406 and I'll be here until Monday morning

The Cove valley

May 19th--

I left Everritt which was misting with fog. I decided to stay off the ridges and follow the valley road. There are lots more things to see with older homes and farms from the 1700's along the route.

My first stop was at a garage with a man making scrapel and pudding. He is a deer processor but there aren't a lot of deer out in the woods. Today he was using pig parts and cooking it down. He had a 50 gallon drum that was full of pig bones. He boils it until the meat falls off. Than he scrapes the meat and throws it all back in the pot. Then he skims the top of the crud off and adds garlic, onions, and corn meal until it boils down and then he pours it into containers and lets the whole thing jell. The remaining liquid is the pudding and it's poured into containers and left to jell. Finger licking good.

Back to the deer-no one knows for sure, but they think the 14 days of doe season has made the herds kaput. I climbed up a 13% incline road and came down into the Cove Valley with a view of giant farms and hundreds of silos. Lots of Mennonite farms in the valley. I stopped at lunch time at a house to make sure I was walking in the right direction, Charles and June Mountain gave me directions and lunch. I don't usually like sauerkruat but I had 2 helpings yesterday-good thing I don't like it! ha ha.

Charles's family has had the farm since 1771. Mostly dairy but now they have sold the herd and are trying other options. We all had a delightful afternoon eating and talking. Then I was back on the road again.

By 3:00pm I walked into a bulk grocery story run by the mennonites. There was everything under the sun on the shelves. I bought a bag of dried bananas and was in the process of eating them when Shaun the vet pulled up.

He works in the valley with his wife making sure the dairy cows moo on the right end.

He and his lovely wife have walked part of the MST and we talked about the ups and downs of the trail. We made arrangements to have dinner together and then I headed to "them there hills." I found a great spot and set up camp, by this time Shaun had found me and off we went. His family and I had a great meal and it was Sahaun's shout-as they say in New Zealand! After dinner we drove to Roaring Springs and watched a colorful water fountain display.

May 20th-

I got up early and followed the ridge line. I came to a local hunter all dressed in camoflage. He was looking for turkeys and maybe they were looking for him. Keith said the same thing about the deer-all gone-same as 1940's. I walked down to the valley floor and followed the road to Williamsburg. No rain today and also no motels in town, so I'll set up my tent in the town park.