Yellow Springs trail to PA443 (9.50 Miles)

We finished hiking this section on July 25, 2010.

Rt 443 (Rt 72) to Rt 443 (11/29/2009)
The first part of this hike was done last year as a short hike with Indigo. We hiked from Rt 443 to the second road crossing of Rt 443. The small stream was running pretty high and some hikers with big packs were crossing as we came to the stream.

Cold Spring Trail to Rt 443 (7/24/2010)
We started this hike with B2 early as we wanted to get on the trail, because the heat today was suppose to be in the 100’s and high humidity. We headed to the trail but took a wrong turn and ended up on a dirt road that had a sign that said Road Closed. It was on the Fort Indiantown Gap military base and many hummvies were coming and going so we turned around very quickly.

There is a guard station we passed so we went back to ask for permission to enter as Dirigo thought it was the road we needed to go on. The guy at the guard station told us we needed to talk with the Range Control to get permission to go on their land. He gave us a phone number and Dirigo called and talked with Staff Sgt. Thompson who asked us to come in to Bld 11-9 and he would show us on the map which way to go to avoid military land. We went to Fort Indiantown Gap base and Staff Sgt. Thompson was so wonderful and helped us figure out the way to get to Cold Spring Road and to the trail. Everyone we encountered at the base and guard station was very nice. Thanks.

We found the road and Dirigo and Python remembered the road when they got on it, as they remembered the old box cars that they use for training. The signs say if there is a red flag
being flown you have to either wait or use caution as the range is in use. Great! We were in luck, no red flag.

We got to the end of the Cold Spring Road and went on to the rough road to the parking lot with the Tacoma. Love this truck, cause it handled it with ease.

We got our gear together and starting hiking around 8:00ish. The climb up the Cold Spring Trail was heart pounding first thing in the morning, but all the working out proved to be helpful as it seemed like it went by fast. It was straight up the mountain (not Delps Trail steep), but had some nice stone steps that were a bit slippery. We took a short break at the top and finally started hiking on the AT. [Python], [Dirigo], [B2].

We followed an old stagecoach road for a bit and came to a few piles of coal waste up on the side of a hill. You could see where they might have mines many years ago, but the forest around the area is all grown over.

B2, Python and Dirigo took the blue blaze to the Raush Gap Shelter.

This is a shelter we have been wanting to visit, but it was nothing like we imagined. We had thought it was a double decker shelter but it wasn’t. Not sure where we got that info. It was a nice shelter regardless, and it has a running spring right in front of the shelter. It only had a trickle of water coming out but enough that if you needed water you would have some. None of us needed water as we all brought plenty.

We met a young lady at the shelter who was section hiking from Snickers Gap to NJ. She was from Colorado and was not happy with the heat and humidity. She was not use to this much humidity and suffering. She said yesterday they came across a very large, she said it was 8 feet long, but we doubted it, Rattler. She was freaked out by it, and said that she had seen rattlers in Colorado but when she would see them her gram always had a hoe to kill it. She didn’t have a hoe. She said they were only hiking about 7 -9 miles a day, and her legs would swell if she did more miles. She and her friend, (husband/boyfriend, we didn’t know) had set up their tent down from the shelter and she left her backpack in the shelter hanging.

After leaving the shelter Dirigo decided to hike in her Keen sandals that she had worn rafting in the Grand Canyon. She seemed to have no problem hiking in them out there so she thought she would try it here. Her feet were already in pain, so what the heck. Besides getting rocks in them, they worked out Ok, but not sure if she would use them for a longer hike.

The AT went onto Game Commission road and it was at one point part of the Susquehanna & Schuylkill Railroad. The old rail road bed now is a hiking and biking path which connects to the Gold Mine Road down over the mountain from where we were. We passed over an old railroad bridge and found some sweet trail magic.

About 10 men were on a work trip doing diversion work on the creek. They invited us over to partake in their food, but we told them we had just eaten. B2 & Python went over to talk with the guys as Dirigo went over to look at the work that they were doing.

One man came over to Dirigo and explained the diversion system and explained how they put the rocks into the system and it grinds them up, and every once in awhile they have to come clean it out and add more rocks. It helps keeps the pH of the creek and streams below at a good and healthy level. B2 got some water from the men as they told us to help ourselves to whatever they had. B2 thought the water might come in handy later in the hike, as it was getting hotter and hotter.

To the left of the bridge and near where the men had their truck set up is where there use to be the old Rausch Gap train station. The trail takes a hard right and passes through the old Rausch Gap Village, and you could see some of the old foundations of to the side of the trail. There was also a trail to an old cemetery that we passed.

The trail went over a footbridge and then we started the ascent up Second Mountain. This was very tiring as it was getting so hot and it was almost a mile to the top. Once we got to the top we took a short break as B2 was not feeling well, and we all needed to pump some fluids into us. Once we got some food and drinks we moved on, and started the long descent into Swatara Gap. There were a few switch backs down the mountain and it was wide in some places. The ATC book is not up to date as there was a planned re-route in 1998 and it has been done, but the book does not reflect it.

Once off the mountain we walked into an open field and the heat hit us square in the face.

We were all glad that this was not a long walk thru the field. We reached Rt 443 and B2 drove us back to the top of the rough road at Cold Spring Road, as we knew her car was too low to make it down and back. Python & Dirigo hiked the mile back to the truck, under shade.

Cold Spring Trail to Yellow Spring trail-Out and back (7/25/2010)
The day of weirds or “The guy who kicked the hornets nest”.

We were heading down the Cold Spring Road and at the rough road, Python got out to take some video of the Tacoma going over the really bad section. As Dirigo was driving down, something made a loud pop sound. We both thought maybe a tire, but nothing looked bad. We hoped not to come back to a truck with a flat tire, as this road is not easily accessible so getting a tow truck in would be nearly impossible.

We started up the Cold Spring Trail and again it went by pretty fast, made it up in less time than before and took a very short break.

We came to the blue blazed Sandy Spring Trail rather quickly. There was a sign leading to The General which is an overlook of the valley.

About another .4 of a mile we came upon a man hiking towards us with a very large pack. Thru-hiker?

The guy was not a thru-hiker and he asked how far to the Yellow Springs trail. Dirigo told him he had already passed the Yellow Springs Trail, and it was almost 2 miles or a little less back in the opposite direction. He turned around and starting hiking with us and told us he had been stung by hornets and he needed to get off the mountain. We asked where he had stayed last night and he said near the grassy flat area? Not a clue where that is!

He told us that he was hiking and stepped on some leaves and there was a hornets nest there! He had alluded to friends being with him but no friends were seen. He said he had called his wife and they were meeting him at the bottom of the mountain. He didn’t make a lot of sense, so then he asked another question and we both told him the quickest way off the mountain was the Sandy Spring trail. He said he didn’t have any maps, so we showed him ours and said to hike back the way we had come and to look for the sign to the General. He was not making a lot of sense and sweating profusely.

We came to the ruins of the Yellow Springs Village.

This is a grassy area we think the guy was talking about? It has a mail box with a trail register in it but it was full. The blue Blaze Yellow Springs trail leads to an old incline plane, and a stone tower, we needed to go to the second intersection of the Yellow Spring trail which was where we ended our hike with B2 &Rock Star in the winter when we hiked. We had been to the ruins when we hiked with them.

We started to descend from the village when we came to a place where we saw rocks and some trash and hornets
near it, so we both thought that might be the place the guy got stung. As we walked a little further we saw all kinds of stuff littering the trail, and Dirigo noticed some shoes off the trail and many hornets swarming around them. This was the site of the attack. We noticed wet wipes and rope near the trail, and then there was a rope strung from 2 trees near the hornets. Very strange.

Off to the other side of the trail was food. Potatoes, pop corn, and pasta/beans in baggies. We were not sure if it was left for someone (friends) so we didn’t pack it out.

We came to the Yellow Springs Trail in the narrow ravine and turned around and headed back.

As we descended the Cold Spring trail we could hear many 4-wheelers near the parking lot, but when we got there we could hear them near by but never saw them. The Tacoma was intact.

Tornado warning and sideway rain about an hour after we got off the trail. The drive home was crazy rain and we couldn’t get into our neighborhood because trees were down from a tornado that came through. Crazy day!