Pollywogs!

We hiked a portion of the Loyalsock Trail this spring, a short loop as we utilized some side trails.  Hiking up to Smith’s Knob was a nice hike with moderate climbs.  The very last incline was a little steep, but I managed to kick it into low gear…

The hike was amazingly beautiful, there were portions where the forest was just so grand.  Very, very old hardwood trees…they really are beautiful when nearly full grown.  These babies we have around here are just little slips compared to a full sized black cherry or oak tree.  The pictures barely do them justice, go see them in person!

It is surprisingly hard to find a good online map of the Loyalsock Trail, so I found a gigantic one online and uploaded it to flickr, as the original host was TERRIBLY SLOW.  I also created a smaller map detailing the route we took.

Full Loyalsock Trail map:

Smith’s Knob detail:

Regarding our route, finding the parking was pretty difficult.  I had tried using google streetview to find it, but ended up finding the wrong place.  When we finally did locate the parking, I made sure to take good photographs!    We climbed up the blue route, cut across on the yellow route, then back on the Loyalsock Trail, and then down back to the car on the white route.  Each trail was clearly blazed and easy to follow, except for the first decent on the white blazed trail.  It appears to no longer be maintained, although it is very clearly marked.  Basically a scramble across open forest for about a quarter mile down to a grade which gradually and easily descends back to the parking spot.