Fifth Avenue Forum

Saturday my wife and I found somebody to watch the kids and we went for a 2 mile hike on the Rachel Carson Trail. We've been doing little segments of the trail here and there whenever we find the time and a babysitter. Saturday we started in a town called Hites and ended near West Tarentum. We ran across what must have been an old location for a mechanic, who decided that the junkyard was not worthy of his circa 1950's automobiles, nor were the hundreds of tires laying around. The property had recently been razed and a new home was being built there. It's also interesting to see the diversity in homes in these areas. This area isn't altogether poor or rural, but you get the sense you may be out in Weedville, PA and not in Allegheny county.

What I love most about this trail is its diverse scenery. At times you'll be walking through an industrial park and within 5 minutes you are a couple hundred feet up with complete peace and quiet. And that 200 ft climb is no joke. According to AllTrails, near the end of our hike we partook in a 34% decline from the hilltop down towards Crawford Run Road which takes you under Route 28 back to where we parked. If we had just walked along Freeport Road, we would have gone from point A to point B in half an hour. Taking the trail took us 2 hours.

We've been doing this for 2, maybe 3 years now and still have not completed the entire trail. Still have 9 more miles to go according to AllTrails. Granted, we only get 2 hour windows to do what we can, but it always amazes us that there are people that do the entire 38 mile trail in one day. The 34% grade is not uncommon, and the blazes are not always well marked.

Nice sunset hike in the snow last night

Awesome pics

Just something about a snowy sunset...nice.

it was gorgeous. Plan to head up next snowfall with tripod, camp chair and a sixer and do a time lapse of the sunset

Spent the day hunting the backside of Keystone State Park. Didn't get anything but it was gorgeous working through the trails and woods in the snow with the clear blue sky above.

Around the lake and in the campground, keystone kind of sucks. But if you cross the highway, it is a fun place to be.

We were in and around the Strawcutter and Davis Run trails.

Moraine is a great place to hunt

My wife SUPs at both places. Neat.

A buddy of mine who works at the Corps of Enginners in Pgh and I used to go there and Conemaugh. He was more successful at both places than I.

I hunted some CoE property on Sunday.

I believe the observatory at Keystone State Park is one of the least light polluted places in PA. Otherwise, what kangaroo said is pretty much correct. It's just a campground.

A buddy of mine who works at the Corps of Enginners in Pgh and I used to go there and Conemaugh. He was more successful at both places than I.

If I were a betting man, i'd guess that the Conemaugh river lake is probably the least used public land/lake within 50 miles of pittsburgh

It used to be my job to go inspect the physical security measures for IT systems at all of the USACE reservoirs in the area. Every one of them had a rec area and most of them were completely empty of people every time I went.

I believe the observatory at Keystone State Park is one of the least light polluted places in PA. Otherwise, what kangaroo said is pretty much correct. It's just a campground.

That's interesting. I didn't know about this. Mingo state park is supposed to be good for stargazing as well. Both if these are a lot closer than cherry springs, I'll have to check them out. Thanks

I believe the observatory at Keystone State Park is one of the least light polluted places in PA. Otherwise, what kangaroo said is pretty much correct. It's just a campground.

That's interesting. I didn't know about this. Mingo state park is supposed to be good for stargazing as well. Both if these are a lot closer than cherry springs, I'll have to check them out. Thanks

This is one of my favorite websites to peruse.

https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.h ... 03/-78.228

I believe the observatory at Keystone State Park is one of the least light polluted places in PA. Otherwise, what kangaroo said is pretty much correct. It's just a campground.

That's interesting. I didn't know about this. Mingo state park is supposed to be good for stargazing as well. Both if these are a lot closer than cherry springs, I'll have to check them out. Thanks

This is one of my favorite websites to peruse.

https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.h ... 03/-78.228

Very cool, thanks for sharing

We got destroyed today, it was a blast

Damn son

That's awesome @eddy. Growing up in Altoona, there was a steep hill up above the Keith z athletic field, we used to tube/sled from the top down. When you add a ramp at the bottom, it was absurdly dangerous. I'm lucky I didn't break my neck on several occasions.

Conditions are mint on the mountain today boys

Conditions are mint on the mountain today boys

The mountains are calling and I must go

- John Muir

- robbiestoupe

Had some family over for sledding on the hill in our back yard. Glad I did because the snow is completely gone 24 hours later.

I have destroyed two sleds in the past week. Both times with my 2 boys in the sled with me. First time was making a jump and landing sideways and second time was yesterday running over a root.