"A male driver following a GPS unit ended up in the Lehigh River in Easton, city police said. Gabriel Bishop of Sellersville, Bucks County, at 10:37 p.m. Saturday was driving on a bike path, running along the Lehigh River and parallel to Canal Street. Police said he was following a GPS unit, which led Bishop to drive onto the bike path from Hugh Moore Park."
The afternoon I have to unpack from this past month being on the road. I am totally understand if I will leave on Friday or Saturday for my week long trip down to Pennsylvania and the southern tier of New York.
Now the forecast is looking better for Friday and I probably could leave by Friday if I really rushed got things packed in my truck.
I’d love to get back out on the road, I really haven’t had a chance to spend much time in the woods this fall much less this past summer.
I want to try to get to Dicks Sporting goods on Friday before I leave, as I want to try to get some 22 ammo to shoot in the woods. The shotgun and air rifle are fine but I think an autoreloader 22 would be much more fun to shoot on my trip.
November nights are long, but I can tell you November has some of the nicest days. I look forward to the coming week on the road.
The other 
day, I was driving through Greenville, and my gas tank was a little low. I stopped at Cumberland Farms to get a little bit of gasoline to make it home — basically $10 of gas, or 2.7 gallons at the price of $3.61 a gallon. That literally put in about a 1/8th of a tankful — my Silverado pickup has a 26 gallon gas tank.
Back when I was in High School at Greenville Central School in 2001, you could get a gallon of gas for $1.10 cents. My first car, a Plymouth Sundance had a 14 gallon gas tank, and you could get almost a full tank for $10 back in 2001.
To think how much the world has changed since then. My truck certainly is a fair bit bigger then my first car, and gas prices are a lot higher. In some ways things are more fun now, and someways less. I guess the world has just changed.
I have been toying around in mind what I want to do in mid-November as I take a week off from work to travel. While there is two big ifs in my mind — the exact amount of time I will have off and the cost of gasoline — the later being a big expensive question, I have already been thinking what I want to do.
Traveling in November can be tricky. You get up before sunrise, or near it. You have to rush around all day, knowing you have to locate a campsite by 3 PM or so, and be well on your way of setting up camp by 4 PM, because it will be dark out at 5 PM, and you will want to have firewood and a fire started by dusk. The long evenings are not much of a problem, as I have lighting powered by the deep cycle battery in my pickup, but still daylight limits day time activities. The potential for snow and hunting season are other constaining factors. Cold can be bad, but at least with my current set up with the truck, having a dead battery is not a real risk.
I have three different trip options in mind:
The Tug Hill/Northern Tier/Adirondack Trip would take me up through the Tug Hill checking out Whetstone State Park, maybe Moose Plains or Independence River Wild Forest, Brasher-Bombay State Forest near Massena, and then maybe somewheres around St Regis Canoe-area. Would have to worry more about snow, and it would be big game season, but its the shortest and most economic trip especially if gas prices are high.
The Southern Tier/Western NY/Northern Tier of PA Trip would have me going out US 20, probably camping at Stony Pond Campground, then out to East Otto State Forest or maybe Sugar Hill in between. I would check out Zoar Valley, and then probably drive down to Chautauqua County and ultimately to Allegheny National Forest. Probably stay there a couple of days, then head back east on US 6, through the Endless Mountains, and return through Binghamton. That said, this is somewhat repeative of the mid-summer trip, so I don’t know if I want to do it again.
Then there is the trip I really want to take, which is to Coal Country Ohio and West Virigina, and the Wayne National Forest and Monongahela National Forest. It would be a delightful trip, even if it was kind of a lng trip. But that is dependent on gas prices, and if I can get a week plus off to make it all happen. But I have truck and gear, so it could be really awesome trip if I could make it happen. I want to travel to new frontiers, and I am ready to make that happen.
I really like Northwest Pennsylvania. It’s so wild and different then anything in New York State, without all of the restrictions applied on the land and people of a liberal state like New York. All things rugged and back country are vastly different then in Albany.
Time seemed unlimited on vacation. Eight days and nights sure seemed like a long time. Every morning lighting the cook stove, cooking up breakfast on styrofoam plates, packing up the gear, tearing down camp, and heading out for the day, exploring truck trails and wild landscapes. Set up campsite, turn on Christmas lights, build a campfire, and burn the day’s garbage, while listening to country music with my cowboy hat on.
In contrast, the land of work is vastly different. It’s setting an alarm clock, getting up, making breakfast on an electric stove, and catching the bus to work, and sitting in an office all day. Then come home, cook dinner, wash dishes, and sort the trash for recycling. Walk down to the park or the library. No opporunties to burn anything.
Man cities, and my urban reality in the state that best represents liberal statism, sucks.
In eight days, I managed to burn through 86.8 gallons, travel 1490 miles, and got 17.0 MPG. Those truck trails sure make Big Red burn a lot of gas. And I sure need the $310 to cover the cost of gas, plus the other $90 for beer, food, and supplies. Hell, even the styrofoam plates and paper towels aren’t free.
I also realize that I won’t be up for such an adventure for quite a while. It’s a mix of money and just getting the time off, but the reality is I probably won’t be back in Pennsylvania for a while. Somehow, trips to Adirondacks don’t seem so far or exciting, as Northwest Pennsylvania.
After looking forward to this trip, all that is left is some pictures, burn out tin cans for recycling, and the hang-over made up of memories.
The Brookfield Auto Trail is located in the Charles Baker State Forest, a large state forest and popular equestrarian area that gets much use. Much like you would expect in such an area, there is a lot of mud, lot of horses and horse flies. I did a drive through of the truck trail, but was under impressed by it all.
CNY Hiking did a great write up about it, so I won’t go through all of it, but I will make some brief comments about it. CNY Hiking has pictures from all of the stops, and a copy of the map and associated tour pamplet that is also avaliable at the main-horse Assembly Area on Moscow Road.
Next to the Assembly Area is a Camping Area, with 21-sites closely put together. I was not a big fan of them, simply because they where too dense, particularly for equestrain use. They should have been far more spread out, like along the many miles of truck trail, or at least with a little more privacy.
Almost all the miles of truck trail where easy to follow, and nice and smooth. The trails where gravel and well maintained, although some of the markers had disappeared into the grass.
Many of the stops are moderately interesting, although there are no great vistas in the entire route, which is relatively flat except for a few moderate hills and valleys. One of the more interesting stops is the No 6. Water Hole, dug originally for firefighting.
There are no large ponds at Charles Baker, although Lost Pond is a man-made pont in one of the valleys. It is very rough country around there, and muddy from the horseys.
Along Truck Trail Number 6, there is this fascinating old marker nailed on to one of the White Pines in the planation.
The best part of the Charles Baker Auto tour is no more, the old firetower site. The fire tower was demolished in 1978, and supposedly was a very popular end to the tour, with views of the valleys surrounding the Charles Baker State Forest.
Here is a map of the route, although I also recommend you see the CNY Hiking Write Up.