Old Loggers Path

[Knotty]

My youngest daughter and I took advantage of a weather window to hike the Old Loggers Path in north central PA over the course of four days and three nights, starting Friday 5/20 and ending Monday 5/23. This was longer than needed but we were looking for an excuse to spend more time in the woods and this trip was a test of my knees and hips (which did just fine) so I didn't want to push my luck.

The trip was awesome and we managed to avoid any serious rain. The only continuous rain we encountered was while we slept Sunday night. All the streams and rivers were flowing full, due to all the previous days of rain, and were beautiful. The hike was a wet one with seeps all over the place but the trails were much less rocky than what I've come to expect in PA.

The first night we got to camp alongside what many consider to be the most beautiful river in PA, Rock Run. I have to agree that it is.

On day two we encountered a rattle snake. One of the highlights of the trip for me. A troop of Boy Scouts hiking the opposite direction saw two others. The ranger told us to be on the look out for them. That night we camped on a small island in a ravine.

For the last night we decided to try camping at elevation on Sprout Point Vista but heavy fog rolled in obscuring any views and any hope of drying out our socks and boots.

This was Breezy's first backpacking trip and she proved to be an excellent hiker and camper. Due to her constant worry about running into bears, she earned the trail name of Breezy Bear.

Enough talk. Here are the pictures. (fixed the link)

Of course we have to talk gear, so...
-My rig was one of my DIY Gathered End hammocks with the stretch-side mod, a DIY detached bugnet, a Phoenix under quilt and a DIY make your own sil camo tarp.
-I swapped out my usual whoopie slings and tree huggers for OnRope1 Cinch Buckles and 1" webbing from Speer with a Dutch Clip sewn onto the end. This proved to be the ultimate in convenience. Probably worth the extra weight.
-My daughter chose to take the Speer hammock with velcro on bugnet (due to its low weight) and JRB Nest UQ. This trip confirmed that I absolutely HATE the webbing with tri-glide suspension system.
-Put Dutch Tarp Flyz on my daughter's MacCat Deluxe. The holes are small so threading on the 2.2mm line was tough but I really liked these doodads. So small they almost don't exist yet they work so well.
-Originally planned to use a Backcountry Boiler but it had been raining for a week and finding the right wood just seemed too challenging, so we brought an MSR Pocket Rocket canister stove and a GSI Dualist cook kit.
-Water was purified using a Platypus GravityWorks gravity filter, which worked great. This location provided the best tasting water I've ever had on the trail.
-Food on two nights were meals we dehydrated ourselves following Babelfish5's YouTube instructions. Yummy! Thanks Babelfish5.
-My pack came in at about 24# and Breezy Bear's was 18#, with everything but water.