Tuesday, May 27,2025
We departed this morning on what we plan to be three months, give or take, of camping along the northern tier of the US. We’ll place special emphasis on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and US Rt-20, the nation’s first transcontinental and still longest highway at 3,365 miles.
We began with a drive to PA’s Worlds End State Park. This beautiful, mountainous park encompasses a portion of the fast-moving Loyalsock Creek. It features an iconic swimming beach at a small impoundment on a tight bend in the creek. Surrounded by high mountains, the swimming area is quite unque. It was a cool, dreary day, though, that did not begin to tempt us to dip so much as a toe into it’s frigid waters.
Instead, we opted to revisit Eagles Mere, one of our early cross country skiing haunts. Initially developed as a source for glass making sand in 1803, the glass business failed after a few years. Then, in the late 1880s, it was laid out as a resort surrounding the pristine lake from which the sand had been sourced. It remains, today, a tiny town of about 150 residents with a summer population that swells to about 3,000 as people flock to the many beautiful homes surrounding the lake.
Forksville is just about three miles up the road from World’s End and, as we drove past the Sullivan County fairgrounds, we were reminded of the Forksville Flaming Fall Foliage Festival we used to attend each fall. It featured lumberjack competitions like wood chopping, two-man-saw competitions and tree climbing and topping. And who could forget the peach fritters, massive deep-fried dough balls harboring sweet chunks of fresh peaches?
Back at the camper we retired early after a dinner of reheated, homemade chicken corn soup and Sandy’s own applesauce.
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
The predicted light rain that began last evening continued through the night and day. Hiking was off the agenda but touring old haunts by car was not. First order of business was breakfast and we struck out for a place Bill remembered reading about near Central, PA. No dice, we couldn’t find anything that matched his memory.
We settled by driving through nearby Jamison City where Sandy’s siblings used to gather each year at her brother, Charley’s, small cabin. We’d spend a long weekend, hiking, visiting others from their home town who might be at one of their hunting cabins or getting something to eat at the local bar or hotel nearby in Elk Grove or Red Rock.
Stopping for coffee at a convenience store, we inquired about a breakfast stop. We were directed three miles down the road to Trails End Café. There we had a delicious breakfast served by a marvelously surly waitress. Fun!
Then off to see Ricketts Glen SP, one of the Stine family’s all time favorite camping destinations. We’d heard the campground had been significantly upgraded and sort of expected paved camper pads. Not quite so. They used to be bare red clay. Now they’ve been covered with red gravel. Not fancy but much better than getting you and all your gear spattered with red clay on a rainy weekend.
We’d have loved to hike one of the park’s wonderful waterfall trails but with the rain …
Next stop, Dushore. It’s a cute, under 500 people, small town with a history as a commercial center for this very rural area. We enjoyed some ice cream at the town’s Jolly Trolley General Store.
Speaking of general stores, we then crossed the covered bridge into Forksville to visit the Forksville General Store. We thought we were going to graze through a general store. Instead, the business had been transformed into a “steak sandwich” specialty restaurant featuring at least 20 variations on that theme. It apparently has a good reputation but our personal assessment will have to wait for another day.
Canyon Vista Drive climbs several miles of steep, gravel road from the campground where we’re staying. At the top we arrived at a spectacular overlook where you can see how the canyon cut by the Loyalsock Creek winds through the mountains. Even the rain couldn’t diminish the beauty.
Back at our camper, we spent an hour or two visiting with our campground neighbors, two couples from the Binghamton, NY area. Larry, Gary, Debbie and Nancy were a lot of fun to talk to.
Finally, came dinner, a ham, carrots, broccoli and onion stir fry in the wok under the canopy in the rain. But the heat was on in the camper and we had delicious, cozy dinner before retiring early.