July 14, 2021 Morrison Trail

Dewdrop Campground Allegheny National Forest Warren, Pennsylvania Day 3

We slept in and then I took a short walk in the campground while Tim did his morning workout.  After breakfast, we drove up to Jake’s Rocks to post the blog and check the weather.  We wanted to hike the Morrison Trail today…but it was raining…of course it was raining!  The weather forecast indicated that once this rain passed over it was going to be a nice day…hallelujah!

The Morrison Trail is a 5.8-mile loop.  Our original intention was to walk in for 2 miles or about 45 minutes and then retrace our steps and return to the Jeep.  This trail was so pretty though.  It followed Morrison Run.  We were feeling good, and having an adventure and so we decided that we would hike the whole loop!  Everyone knows that it is NOT a proper adventure if there isn’t an element of challenge…we found ours!  The trail followed the stream into dense forest with lush ferns and tall hemlocks and white pines. 

There were several stream crossings.  The water was really rushing due to all the recent rainfall.  We had made about a dozen or so.  As we made progress the stream became wider and deeper.  It became trickier to find a good place to cross.  At this bend, there was no good place to get across and keep our feet dry.  We finally took our shoes off and looped them around our necks.  We tucked our socks into our pockets and we forged our way in the icy cold water.  It was fun!  We were on an adventure after all…if we wanted an easy walk, we could have found a sidewalk or a treadmill…this was a challenge!

We got to the second place where the water was wide and we removed our socks and shoes again.  The third time we found ourselves contemplating whether to take our shoes off yet again, then the heavens opened and it started to pour.  We stood against some bigger trees and we were protected from most of the rain.  We knew that taking our shoes off at each crossing was taking a lot of time.  We still had 3 miles to walk!  So, at that third crossing, we slogged across the stream in our shoes.  It turned out to be a good choice because there were six other deep and wide crossings after that!  We just hiked with water oozing out of our shoes.  We were still having fun!  We were in a beautiful place by ourselves and we were adventuring! 

We saw a frog.

Flora of the day.

This fungus was about 18 inches in diameter and about 2 feet high. 

I have more than 21,000 steps today.  I feel tired but I feel good!