Sproul State Forest on a Fatbike

Monday, December 26 -- Laura gave me the whole day for an adventure ride.  I've been eyeing this area of PA for several months -- pouring over web histories, looking for old photos, doing background research, google-earthing, mapping and remapping, and otherwise anticipating this gem of a ride.


Fatbike Adventure in Sproul State Forest from Matt Kretchmar on Vimeo.

History

The area is now the Sproul State Forest, north of Snow Shoe, PA.  It looks largely vacant of major population centers and has lots of interesting topography (read hills).   The area used to be mined and logged extensively, mostly in the late 18th century and first half of the 19th century.  The railroad plays a major role too -- the Beech Creek Railroad went through the area in the 1890s to haul all the goods out of the area.

One of the rail towns in the area is Kato, PA, which is nothing more than a ghost town now.  There is a bridge there, and supposedly some old foundations hidden in the underbrush.  But mostly it is a junction of two roads and a number of ATV trails and a bridge spanning Beech Creek -- but nothing else to tell of the town and families that lived there 100 years ago.

Another town is Orviston.  There is still a town there with about 40 or so houses.  In my brief stint through town, it seemed to me that there were no paved roads out of town.  Though people still live here, there is really nothing left.  Maybe a church and an old factory building which is now apparently an apartment building.

It seems there are plans to convert the rail bed into a rail trail project -- mostly for ATV use rather than bicycles.  There just isn't much of a population base here, so it doesn't make sense to think of the trail as a transportation alternative.

The Ride

I started riding a little before 9am and ended just before 4pm as darkness was settling in.  I totaled 5 hours of riding time (2 hours of stopping time), 58 miles, and 5840 vertical feet.  The area is best characterized as a high (for PA) plateau (The Appalachian Plateau Province) with most of the relief coming from river cuts.  This is different from the ridge-and-valley topography of central PA that I am accustomed too; the two regions are separated by an escarpment.  Much of the area is new-growth forest or "PA Savannah" since it was stripped mined, a different feel than Rothrock State Forest and similar to the AEP recreation lands I rode in Ohio.  There is an abundant selection of wide forest service roads, jeep trails and ATV trails; lots of each, take your pick.   The temps were in the low 30s all day with a few spitting flurries, ideal fatbike conditions.

The route is mapped here.

I started in Snow Shoe and headed north.  Right away I had my first issue, not being able to find the dirt feeder road heading north off the highway.  I rode back and forth on Rte 144 several times looking at the GPS to find the feeder road, but nada.  Later I learned that this "road" dissects a truck service facility and was hidden in the mess of old truck parts lying about.   So I decided to take the return loop as my start, heading north on paved Fountain Rd and then Pancake Rd.  I found my first snow covered dirt with a climb on Rusnak Hill Rd.   Then a left on Blackbear, right on Kato Orviston and left on 11 Rd.  Things started to get interesting here.

I entered the "Wolf Run Ridge" area which seemed to be divvied up in to parcels of 3-5 acre remote lots.  Most of them weren't developed and there were lots of evergreen trees here.  It had kind of a Colorado feel to it with broad gravel roads, a blowing cold wind, and evergreens.  I could see the reason to build a little remote log cabin out here, very pretty.

The real treasure started as a veered off 11 Rd onto Little Wolf Rd and then Wolf Run Supply Trail.  Though these are roads on a map, they are really nothing more than jeep trails, barely passable by a capable 4x4.  They were through thick brush, sometimes rocky, sometimes mucky, but largely beautiful! I stopped often to snap photos (a major ordeal in the winter to deglove and dig out the camera, and then do everything in reverse).  These roads are perfect for the fatbike, I just couldn't stop being amazed and smiling big silly grins.

The network of jeep trails seemed to go on forever.  And like most areas of this ilk, some roads are on the map, some roads on the map dont' exist, and many more "roads" are out there than indicated on the map.  The GPS really helps with the urge to explore as I always know where I am, more or less.

I hung a right on Stone Trail and quickly lost elevation, heading down the side of the mountain.  I came to the actual "Wolf Run", a major stream flowing rapidly downhill.  In the summer I would have blasted right on through without a thought, but in the winter I couldn't risk getting wet feet on this cold day being so far away from the warm car.  I tiptoed across on some rocks using the bike as an impromptu leaning pole.  The big tires got caught in the rapidly moving water and the bike starting moving downstream quickly.  I had to employ some extra strength to keep the bike near me, all while perched precariously on slippery rocks.  I managed to cross the stream without major incident and then began the long jeep trail climb uphill for the next 45 minutes.  This uphill climb seemed, at times, to be the stream bed and I found it easier to ride in the deeper tread where there was a pebbled foundation under the water.  I followed Wolf Run Trail up and out to the major fire road Panther Rd and then on to Rte 144, the northern loop of it.

Time was getting on and I was behind schedule.  No big deal, as I had found tons of stuff to play on and wasn't at all disappointed with being behind schedule.  But the daylight hours were limited and I didn't pack lights.  That and I was getting hungry.  Time to merge with the preplanned route and get on with it.



My next target was to cross Rte 144 and head out Yost Ridge Road.  This is the namesake that started this whole adventure as I had a newspaper column someone wrote to encourage folks to get off the beaten track and explore a little.  Yost Ridge followed a ridge for about 5-6 miles out to the point -- a lookout over the West Branch Susquehanna.  The road undulated moderately for most of its length and then dropped a couple hundred feet in the last mile.   Even with the elevation drop, I still got a 1500 ft vertical view over the river valley below.  This area is beyond beauty -- the path of this winding river as it has carved out this valley/gorge over several millennia and now lies some 2k ft below.  Not grand by western states standards, but certainly by eastern perspectives.

I stopped on the point to eat my sandwich, ham and swiss.   And my diet pepsi.  I always like the caffeine at this point in the day and the sugar helps too.   I got two new Relevate Design bags for Christmas presents -- the small tankbag and the feedbag.  Both were awesome and much appreciated to expand the capacity of my small camelback.

 The only problem is that last mile of elevation dropped had cooled me off considerably and the point was gusty and cold.  I chilled quickly, so ate fast and got back on the bike for the climb back up Yost Ridge.

My next destination was the true unknown.  I wanted to follow a spur off Yost Ridge Rd called Frenchman Trail.  It must follow a run down the side of the mountain toward Yost Run stream at the bottom.  It started out as a jeep trail and quickly degraded from there.  In the end, I was mostly bushwacking my way down hill, jumping logs and stones.  Eventually I parked the bike and scouted ahead on foot wary of getting too far down the mountain before having to make the decision to push the bike back uphill.

And push the bike back uphill I did.  The trail disappeared and I didn't have the daylight left to risk going any further downhill to find a passable route.  At least I got warmed up quickly with all the pushing.

My next destination was to head down to the Beech Creek Valley via Orviston and Kato.  I did 6 miles on Rte 144 and then hit the major forest service artery of De Haas Rd.  This led down to the ATV recreation area with miles and miles of side trails beckoning me.  Ah ... later time.  I did have about 10 straight miles of downhill, the last 3 of that very downhill.  Again, got chilled.  I wish I had taken an extra layer.

I rolled in to Orviston, a tiny town of about 40 houses and nothing else.  Ok there was a church but that's it.  I am not even sure there is a paved road in or out.  This is an old railroad town that is still clinging to existence.  It is very remote from anything, geographically and culturally.

I noticed my chainrings were wobbling.  Found out that 3 of my bolts were very loose and the 4th was missing!  Good thing I had taken the multi tool out of Laura's cyclecross pack cuz I needed it badly there.

Coming out of Orviston, I followed forest service road "Orviston Kato Rd".  It climbed relentlessly out of the river valley to the ridge line above and then kept undulating.  My legs were growing tired of pushing a 35lbs bike uphill and the hour was growing late.  I logged 10 miles of this hard going to fall down into the valley again at Kato.  I knew this was a ghost town, but I was expecting more than I found.  There was only a bridge.  Some claim there are foundations hanging around still, but I didn't have time to get off and find them.  This used to be a town of 200 or so people ... nothing now!

I headed back to the car and used the "outgoing route" that had eluded me earlier.  Even my GPS was giving up with "low battery" warnings.  I rolled up to the car with about 20 minutes of usable daylight left.

Great ride!  Can't wait to go back to that area to ride more, with more food and more daylight.