Goodbye Blue Sky

Joseph Vincent Paterno

1926 - 2012

May a million shooting stars illuminate your journey.

Hearts are heavy this morning in the Penn State family and the world now spins a little slower on it's axis. A life-long constant has been taken away from many of us after the indescribable circumstances of the past 2 grueling months. Thank you Joe for all you did for your fellow man, your community and college football. I've learned more valuable life lessons from you than I can put into words right now, and I will never forget it. In a not so small way you made the world a better place to be, and when you come right down to it that's what it's all about. I can only hope the healing powers of time come quickly for the Paterno family.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

One Last White Out

Beaver Stadium - January 22, 2012

Please consider signing the petition to rename Beaver Stadium in honor of Joe Paterno:

Paterno Field

Kind of Blue

The Pinnacle

Prelude: There is a lot of sorrow and heartache in this state right now. A group of underprivileged and vulnerable children have had their innocence taken away from them in a particularly horrible fashion. Everyone here is heartsick, confused, sad and angry and, I suppose, each person is sort of dealing with it in their own way right now. I did what I almost always do when I'm confused and heartbroken - I went for a long walk in a beautiful forest. That's what this post is about. If you are looking for vitriolic rants, righteous indignation, conspiracy theories, strident proclamations or endless verbal traffic jams you might want to click on over somewhere else. You won't find it here. I endeavor to be more of a "dawning of the age of reason" kind of guy...Be good to each other, people.

The Hike

Blue Mountain, the prominent ridge that forms the eastern edge of the Appalachian mountain range in Pennsylvania, has many outcrops, water gaps and vistas but none of them have quite the dramatic viewshed as does the Pinnacle in Berks County. Flat Rock vista and Doubling Gap in the Cumberland Valley are a close second. Both, the Pinnacle and Flat Rock vistas, are only accessible by putting on your walking shoes and climbing the flank of Blue Mountain virtually from the valley floor, and they are very popular with hikers. Despite having bagged the Flat Rock many more years ago than I care to admit, I have never been to the Pinnacle. Seems like everyone else I know has been there except for me. That is until yesterday.

Blue Mountain here is criss-crossed with hiking trails and there's more than one trail that leads up to the Pinnacle. I opted for the easiest approach, a 9 mile round trip with approximately 1,000' of elevation gain from the trailhead at the Hamburg Reservoir. You'll want your hiking boots for this hike because of the rocky nature of the trail in some sections and the general topography.

Hamburg Reservoir

A brilliantly blue Sunday in early November sets the stage for a surprisingly scenic and rewarding hike to the top of Blue Mountain via Furnace Creek and it's ravine, but first we traverse the north side of the Hamburg Reservoir after a short climb and a bridged stream crossing from the parking lot.

Green is the Colour

The trail then closely follows Furnace Creek as it tumbles it's way down Blue Mountain through a steep sided ravine with a maze of rhododendrons and hemlocks. This area is home to plenty of eastern cougars, copperheads and timber rattlers so make lots of noise and carry a big stick.

November Road

An abandoned but well graded and protracted forest road makes for easy walking through the thickets to the top of the mountain.

Lost in My Own Backyard

The day started off a little on the cool side with temperatures in the upper 30's, but it eventually warmed up into the 50's. It was especially chilly here in the shaded ravine of Furnace Creek but the steady climbing kept you warm enough to the point where it was soon time to shed some layers. By the time I reached the ridge top I was only wearing a thong and flip flops.

Blue Sky and Hemlocks

An intoxicating combination on a golden autumn day.

Furnace Creek

Water is plentiful here, between the stream itself and 1/2 a dozen or so freestone springs gushing forth and feeding the watercourse it's all around you. In fact, the entire Furnace Creek watershed including Hamburg Reservoir is part of the water supply for the town of Hamburg. It's even designated as a Class A wild brook trout stream by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission but fishing here is not allowed because of the water supply thingy.

The Great Valley

After a couple of miles of fairly level ridgetop walking you come out here, my first view of the Great Valley from the Pinnacle. Looking south.

Canopy of Blue

Looking southwest here, the town of Hamburg is discreetly tucked behind the secondary ridge in the background.

The Pinnacle

It's more than just the apex of hiking in here southeastern Pennsylvania, according to my good friend, kindred spirit and all around babe magnet, Glen G it's a great spot to pick up hiking chicks. You can even check each other for ticks when you get home. All I got was a face full of pepper spray.

Autumnal Display

The Pinnacle trails are popular for a good reason. If you're the anti-social loner type (and we all know how they turn out) you would be better off avoiding weekends with nice weather or beating the crowds by getting an early start in the morning, which is what I did.

The Nadir

Goodbye blue sky.

Billie Holiday - God Bless the Child

Kind of Blue

Falling Waters

 Kitchen Creek Headwaters

The Glens Natural Area in Ricketts Glen State Park is now world famous for it's Waterfalls Trail which passes 22 wild and free flowing waterfalls in a pair of steep sided ancient glens complete with old growth timber and wild brook trout. The last time I hiked this trail was 30 years ago when I was in my mid twenties, now that I'm in my mid fifties I decided I was long over due for a return visit. The record rains that poured down on us here in Pennsylvania during the month of September only underscored that notion.

Never have I had a more difficult time getting a proper exposure and adequate depth of field on flowing water, so I'll apologize in advance for the sucky shots. Sunny skies combined with a dark ravine and raging whitewater made for super high contrasts and challenging shooting conditions. As a result I lost a lot of detail in the highlights of the cascading water. I know, I suck. So be it, I enjoyed this hike tremendously and it definitely won't be another 30 years before my next visit. Hopefully the ambient light will be better when I do.

Mohawk Falls

Small scale lumber baron Colonel Bruce Ricketts purchased this land in 1868 to harvest the timber but soon learned from local trout fisherman that the two branches of upper Kitchen Creek head-cut their own deep gorges in a series of impressive waterfalls shaded by giant pines, oaks and hemlocks and then united at Waters Meet. Col. Ricketts built trails up into the glens and they soon became known as the Glens Natural Area.

Kitchen Creek

A member of the Wyoming Historical and Geographical Society, Col. Ricketts named many of the waterfalls after American Indian tribes.He also named a few after his family and friends. At one time he owned or controlled around 80,000 acres of land in this area.

Oneida Falls

At one time, back in the 1930's,  the Glens were even considered for national park development but World War II brought an end to that plan and in 1942 the Ricketts family sold the Glens to the Commonwealth for a state park, which it became in 1944. The Glens became a natural area in 1969.

 Ganoga Glen Trail

I first hiked through these glens way back in 1980 and they look pretty much the same today as they did back then excepting that the area seems to be a little more popular today. Even the old gravel trailhead parking lot at Lake Rose has been paved, expanded and modern restrooms have been added. Back in 1980 you could count the number of other hikers you would meet in a day on one hand. On this day, a chilly weekday in late September, I stopped counting at around 20. You would be smart to avoid popular holiday weekends when hiking here, and don't attempt this steep, wet, rocky trail in the winter without your ice axe and crampons.

Ganoga Falls Precipice

Ganoga Falls is the highest of the 22 falls with a single vertical drop of 94 feet. Ganoga is an Iroquois word that means "water on the mountain". Kitchen Creek was an impressive sight to see as well as hear with it's waters still raging from recent rains.

Ganoga Falls from the Trail

The colors of the fall foliage here in the Endless Mountains are running a little behind Potter County in intensity. The leaves here are just starting to color up but they should be at their peak in another two weeks or so.

Ganoga Falls

I don't know who actually put these stepping stones in place (possibly Col. Rickett's trail builders?) but they were a welcome relief on this steep and rugged trail. The vertical drop from the Lake Rose trailhead to the Waters Meet is about 1,000'

Ganoga Falls Plunge Pool

There was so much mist and spray coming off the falls at this volume that you had to constantly clean your camera lens and keep your camera body dry with a bandanna. Even at this distance. This is where you want to be on a hot, humid summer day in Pennsylvania.

Ganoga Glen Trail

You'll want your hiking boots for this trail, a challenging 7.2 mile loop trail if done in it's entirety so make sure your in good shape and leave your flip flops back at the car. Every year hikers fall and are injured and have to be rescued by one means or another. I would imagine that rescue here is very time consuming, arduous and expensive.

Whitewater and Black Forest

The elegant sound of the flowing water filled the entire gorge and was impossible to ignore since the trail runs so close to the stream.

Silking Water Over Red Shale

Kitchen Creek

The fly fisherman in me even spotted quite a few tan colored mayflies about a size #18 emerging from the turbulent flows, and at one point an honest to goodness nice sized brook trout jumped completely clear of the foaming froth while chasing an emerger. Downstream of the Waters Meet, Kitchen Creek is classified as a Class A wild trout stream by the PFBC. It's all a moot point though since fishing is not allowed here in the glens. But it's still nice to know they're there.

Delaware Falls

As falls Kitchen Creek, so falls Delaware Falls

Sidehilling in the Glens

Down through the Allegheny Front, this trail has to be one of the most magnificent hikes in Pennsylvania, if not the entire East.

Mohican Falls

For my money, one of the prettiest falls in the park. A beautiful and timeless scene.

Mohican Falls

The last of the Mohican Falls shots.

Stepping Stones

The sheer volume of water in this creek was unbelievable for such a small first order stream, and the stone steps and well graded trail bring you right up close to the edge of the waterfalls and creek.

Fast Water in Early Autumn

Dead Wood #1

Dead Wood #2

The Waters Meet 

The junction of the Ganoga Glen and Glen Leigh branches of Kitchen Creek. Ganoga Glen is on the left and Glen Leigh comes in on the right. The pleasant lassitude that the water induces here makes this one of the better spots in Pennsylvania to enjoy your sack lunch. Which is exactly what I did this day.