Laurel Hill State Park

Trip: 58
Nights: 191-193

Last weekend was the annual Aliner Ascape rally, which has settled at Laurel Hill State Park near Somerset, PA. We missed last year when my career blew up 3 weeks before the camp out, so it was great to get back this year to see old friends and a make new ones.

The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere. We had to drive 40 minutes to find a brewery. The town of Somerset is about 20 minutes, and that is really the closet store or gas station. However, it is very worth the effort. It is an old CCC camp with a really nice lake, trails, streams stocked with trout, and picturesque mountain views. Also, there is a stand of hemlock that got missed when we clear cut SW PA (and the rest of the country) in the 1800s. So the trees are 250-300 years old. They were there when PA reported to the King.

We arrived on Thursday and quickly settled into catching up with friends. The campsites are levelish with power. Thursday night was a group campfire with about 25 friends. On Friday we went out birding in the AM and made the trek to the "local" brewery on Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect all weekend, sunny and breezy with highs around 70F (20ish C) and lows in the 50s (13ish C). I may have logged some hammock time on Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturday we again went birding in the AM and in the afternoon I went to visit that stand of old hemlock.

The stand is only about 6 acres, and it's an easy 15 minute hike to get there. When I arrived I had the place to myself. I was standing and enjoying the magnificent trees when I realized I was alone. No people anywhere. There was a flat rock perfectly situated to meditate under one of the larger trees. The rock looked natural and not placed there. I accepted the invitation and took at a seat on the rock. I suck at meditation, so I mostly failed at clearing my mind. But I did greatly enjoy about 15 minutes of nothing but the wind rustling the leaves, the nearby stream, and one very chatty blue-headed vireo before anybody else showed up. However it was there that an idea popped into my head. (I know, like I said, I suck at meditating.) I've thought about an extended multi-week camping and working from the road trip for the last few summers, but for various reasons the timing was never right to do it. A lot can change in 12 months, but looking forward from now, we can do that trip next year. So I'm thinking of making this annual camp out the first stop on a 3 week camping tour of the NE US. I can work in some mooch docking with family, and my first camping in Vermont and NH before visiting more family in Boston before heading home.So it was at least a productive idea.

After communing with the large trees it was time for the group potluck dinner where I ate too much and also accepted the offer of moonshine. It would have been rude to refuse, right? By Saturday night we were peopled out so we retired to the camper early to play cards but actually ended up calling it a night early too.

Sunday was go home day.