West Rim Trail - Pennsylvania

I went backpacking this weekend with some friends on the West Rim trail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Rim_Trail), and I thought you might enjoy a few of the pictures. The weather was miserable, the trail was muddy, but the fall colors were incredible. The vistas we could see (ones not completely obscured by fog) were great.

Enjoy:

This is a view of the Pine Creek Gorge (aka Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania). It gets a little narrower and more “gorge-like” further North, but the fog was too thick to see anything.


The leaves on the ground did a good job of hiding mud. A lot of the trail connected old logging grades, which meant really nice level paths for several sections of the trail.

One of my friends went all “Bear Grylls” on us and opted for a homemade elevated cot rather than using a tent.

This might be the first time anyone has had the patience to let jello set before eating it on the trail…




This was obviously early on, since none of us are covered in mud yet.


We actually saw a lot of people out on the trail, despite the miserable weather. I think the volume on this trail might be up, since recent flooding has made access to more popular trails, like the Loyalsock Trail and Old Logger’s Path, very difficult.

Peter Swift