An Adventurous Day Out in the Allegheny National Forest

Having to sit at home due to the pandemic, I guess, is one of the awful punishments that one can get. It so happened that Sumukha and I had run out of groceries at home and wanted to pay a visit to Walmart. On a warm and sunny Thursday (15th Oct) morning, We borrowed a car from a friend and started driving to the Walmart. Just as we were driving through the interior roads of State College, the picturesque scenic beauty with fall colours took our breath away. We instantly decide to go on a one-day trip to wherever possible. We paid a visit to Rey Azteca, an amazing Mexican restaurant in State College, and rigged up a tentative itinerary for the trip and scheduled it to be on Sunday (18th Oct). We decided to take a trip to the Allegheny National Forest. I also put a word out for the gang to join the trip. It was not surprising that 8 of them signed up even with such short notice. By then Sumukha and I had already booked 2 cars from the Enterprise. Apparently, so many people had planned a trip that weekend that there were no cars available at the Enterprise branch that we usually rent from. Instead, we booked it from the University Park airport.

Sumukha and I got the cars on Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, we got one of the cars upgraded to an SUV. That night was a treat to those who wanted to test drive cars on the US roads. Under Sumukha's supervision, Nishanth and Arjun made the best use of the time to drive around State College. Meanwhile, Vishaka, Mansukh and I decided to work out a concrete itinerary. After due deliberation, we drew a neat itinerary for the next morning. We planned a calm, easy-going, flexible itinerary with room for inclusions and deletions of destinations. Little did we know that this was going to most unexpected turns (literally and figuratively) during the journey making it one of the most memorable hikes of all time!

As scheduled, we embarked on this journey at the crack of the dawn. Unfortunately, Nishanth could not make it to the trip. Just before everyone arrived at the Nittany Gardens apartments, our point of departure, Vishaka had called dibs on the "Fun Car". Before we decided on anything this car was filled. Vishaka, Chirag, Madhav, Mayank and myself were on this one and Ankush, Arjun, Niranjan, Mansukh and Sumukha were on the other one. The next two hours was a drive all the way from State College to Warren. While the "WAP" blew the "fun-car's" roof, Ankush and Niranjan had a good nap in the other. We also understood that State-College is the lonely "blue" county in the near surrounding!

Having had our breakfast at Subway, we made a beeline to our first destination - The Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River. Although the dam didn't have much to offer, it was a treat to everyone's eyes, for it had only seen digital screens for months! The weather was calm and so was the river. We enjoyed the view for about half an hour, took a few pictures and drove for the next destination - The Rimrock Overlook. It was about 9 miles away from the dam. But what took everyone's breath away was the drive en route to the Overlook. The tall trees with colourful leaves offered a stunning 360-degree view. The leaving swayed away by the fall-breeze added to the beauty of the scene. We got terrific time-lapse of the entire drive. We reached the Rimrock Overlook that offered a breathtaking panoramic view of the Alleghany Forest and the Alleghany River. The tiny hills of the Allegheny Forest looked as if broccolis were decorated with colourful flowering heads. We spent about half an hour enjoying the stunning view. We then left the Overlook and headed towards the Rimrock and Morisson trail, which was just about a couple of miles away. And this is where things went a little crazy!!

The idea was to hike as much as we wanted. Morisson loop trail was about 17 miles and the Rimrock loop trail was about 9 miles. We knew for sure that we wouldn't want to hike any of the two. Our aim was to get to the Allegheny River (if it is less a couple of miles) and then simply return. According to our estimate, it would take at most a couple of hours. With this plan in mind, we started hiking. Everyone's energy was at its highest. Madhav and Vishaka sang their favourites at the top of their voices. Just when we were about a mile into the forest, we met an old couple returning from their hike. They were happy to see this joyful band of baboons hiking into the depths of the forest. Unfortunately, we met them at a junction where we had to carefully make a choice before taking any turn. The couple, looking at our energies, gladly suggested the longer route ( they didn't know our plan and we never bothered to tell we wanted to walk less) and it never occurred for us to check the route we were taking. We simply followed the trail. It was only about an hour later that we realized that we were walking way too much never getting anywhere close to the river.

We walked and walked for almost 2.5 hours. It was trees everywhere. Everything seemed yellow !! You look down and it's yellow! You look up and it's yellow! It was 1 pm when we started our hike and it was 3:30 pm when we saw the glimpse of the Allegheny River. Our destination was the Morrisson Campground. None of us actually planned on visiting the campground. Consequently, it did not occur to us that we should follow the trail until we reach the campground. Just as we saw the river, we took a detour from the trail and walked towards the river in excitement. None of us gave an iota of thought about finding the trail when we returned from the river. Everyone's energy was about 70% drained. We had already walked about 6 miles without any preparation. The worst part was that we had to walk another 6 miles to go back. To make it even worse, it was cloudy and was getting dark. Realizing this, we spent less than 20 mins near the river and started walking back. This time everyone was extremely cautious about the turns that we took. Although we had lost our trail, luckily we found ourselves back in the trail in less than 10 mins.

In about an hour, it started raining. We had no choice but to continue. Time was literally chasing us and we had to beat it. There was absolutely no way out of the thick forest had it gotten any darker. 10 of us had formed a line and the line started breaking quite frequently the longer we walked. At least, we found the stream of water that we had to walk by to reach the parking lot. Around 6 pm we finally made it back to the roads. The look on the faces, the swearing, hogging on snacks, gulping bottles of water were the evidence of the adventurous experience. After resting for about half an hour we drove back to State College. Not to mention that the fun-car did not lose any energy and kept the car entertaining (except for when Vishaka fell unknowingly asleep; but he was "back-online" shortly :P).

Nevertheless, it was one of the funniest and craziest experiences. We never planned on hiking 11 miles over 5 hours!! Although it was tiring and taxing, it was one of the most memorable trips. Without a doubt, what makes a trip better is the company! Kudos to everyone on the trip!!

Dream. Travel. Explore.