Canyon Country Campground

We were able to close up and setup in weather that wasn’t too bad.  Everything in between is another story.  The rains came down steadily while we traveled from the Rochester area to central PA.  It was at its heaviest as we traveled route 6 from I-99/15 to the town of Wellsboro.  This was also my first experience with the truck’s engine assisted breaking when towing down hill.  It will take some getting used to as the truck automatically shifted down to 3rd gear and allowed the RPMs to rev.  I can’t imagine what its going to be like out west with severe and lengthy downhill grades.

Our site at Canyon Country Campground is nice but was quite muddy when we pulled in to set up.  The site was pretty level left to right, which is a good thing as we didn’t need to drive one side up on a board to help level it.  Once we had it all setup and went inside to check things out our excitement began.  When we carefully opened the refrigerator, a beer wanted to fall out.  This wasn’t a bad thing as I took it as a sign that the beer wanted to be consumed.  The real issue was all the olives that wanted to come out too.  Evidently the olive jar was put away without its lid securely tightened and we ended up with olive juice and olives throughout the refrigerator.  As Amy finished cleaning up the fridge and washing down the shelves, she noticed water under the kitchen sink.  The drain trap was very loose and needed to be tightened down.  An easy fix but makes us wonder if these will be prone to loosening while driving down the road or if it wasn’t tightened enough to begin with.  I tend to think the latter because we had a similar incident with the bathroom sink earlier this summer without having traveled much.

Friday morning was cold and chilly but it wasn’t raining so we decided to take a short hike. There is a trail that starts in the campground and brings you to an overlook of the canyon (gorge).  It turns out that the trail actually brings you into Leonard Harrison State Park.  We decided to take the Turkey Path trail from the rim to the bottom of the canyon.  This was a very nice hike with several waterfalls along the way.  The 1 mile hike to the bottom and back took us a little under the estimated 1.5 hours.  We got back to the campsite to have some lunch and decide what to do for the afternoon.  Given that the weather while we are here will be suspect at best we decided an afternoon bike ride on the Pine Creek trail was in order.

We started at the Darling Run access point and rode 8 miles north to the end of the path. Although this was not the most scenic part of the path, the views were still lovely. It felt good to be out riding along a wide well-maintained path. In fact, the bike path seemed smoother, wider, and flatter than the roads we took to get there. As we got closer to the end, Amy wondered whether there would be an ice cream stand. We agreed that it was not likely, but she remained hopeful.  Sure enough, just before we reached the endpoint, there was a sign for “Pag-omar’s Farm Market”, advertising snacks and ice cream.  Her wish came true and we enjoyed a well-deserved ice-cream cone.

We hope to get out for another ride along the trail, only this time we will head south to see what is in that direction.  Who knows, maybe Amy will wish up another Ice-Cream stand in the middle of nowhere.