WARREN, PA.: My first backpacking trip many years ago took place in Allegheny National Forest.
It was a great setting, but that trip to outside Marienville, Pa. was an unmitigated disaster. Friend Mark Gibbons and I made almost every rookie mistake. That included carrying but never eating a 48-ounce can of spaghetti that got heavier as the miles grew, in the rain, after we got lost on Day 2.
Subsequent trips improved as outdoor skills increased, and the 517,000-acre federal forest with its 600 miles of trails in Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties in northwest Pennsylvania always remained special to me.
Destinations have included 12-mile Hickory Creek Trail in the Hickory Creek Wilderness, the old-growth trees in Heart’s Content and Tionesta scenic areas, and a 7.1-mile loop Minister Creek Trail that is one of the best in the national forest.
Nearby sites include Cook Forest State Park with its famous Forest Cathedral of towering white pines and hemlocks, and Kinzua Bridge State Park with its sky walk, a former railroad bridge that was destroyed by a tornado in 2003.
A fall trip to Allegheny included a new hiking destination: the fern-filled, boulder-filled, outcropping-filled Morrison Trail.
It is actually a double loop trail with the 5.3-mile Morrison Trail Loop and the 8.3-mile Rimrock Trail Loop. You can hike the whole thing in 11 miles; the two loops share a leg.
The Morrison trails can be hiked in two to three days or you can opt for a day hike.
It is a pretty wooded trail system with ravines carved by small streams and small meadows. The trails also sit on Kinzua Creek Arm, part of Allegheny Reservoir with its 90 miles of shoreline.
It is one the most scenic and popular trails in the Allegheny National Forest with extensive streamside and side-of-the-hill hiking. You can hike it year-round, although some say it is at its colorful best in the early spring when the snow is melting and wildflowers are starting to emerge.
It is marked by off-white diamonds. The well-established trails have their ups and downs. They can be wet in spots and rocky. Sections are along old roads.
The shorter trail follows an unnamed stream that is flanked by rocky outcroppings of conglomerates and drops to Morrison Run. There are plenty of small waterfalls and thickets of mountain laurel. Peak color is usually late June. You cross the stream three times with no bridges.
At the Forks of the Morrison, you hang a left and it is 4 miles back along Morrison Run and through the woods back to the trailhead.
On the longer trail, you will descend next to Campbell Run, another small stream. You will then ascend along Morrison Run, a native trout stream, and cross that stream four times. It is a hike filled with small cascades and pools.
Slopes along the 12,080-acre reservoir and along the streams can be steep with large moss-covered boulders.
The forest is mostly second-growth oak and hickory. Hemlocks can be found in small groves along the streams and in scattered locations you will find magnificent old-growth white pines that escaped timber cutting.
The U.S. Forest Service rates the trails as difficult.
Access is off state Route 59 between Warren and Bradford. The trailhead is 3.9 miles east of the Morrison Bridge across Allegheny Reservoir. That is about three hours from Akron.
Black bear warnings are posted at the trailhead. There is also a notice that you must carry drinking water.
It is a half-mile hike to the where the two Morrison loops veer off.
The trails lead to isolated Morrison Campground, a facility with 32 campsites for backpackers and boaters that sits next to flooded Kinzua Creek, part of the reservoir. There is no access via vehicles.
It offers picnic tables, fire rings and vault toilets but no drinking water. The fee is $12 a night. No permits are required.
You can also camp along the trail and there are plenty of first-rate sites, as long as you are 1,500 feet from the timber line of the reservoir under forest service rules.
The trails lie south and east of the Rimrock Overlook next to the reservoir.
Elevation on the Morrison trails ranges from 1,328 to 2,055 feet, the forest service says. The trails are maintained by the federal agency and volunteers.
The area may be used by hunters in late fall and spring, and hikers are encouraged to wear fluorescent clothing as a precaution.
The trail is also one stop on the 29-mile Longhouse National Scenic Byway, a driving loop with scenic vistas and recreational sites around the reservoir. The reservoir extends north into New York state.
Stops include Kinzua Dam, built in 1965 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and scenic Jakes Rocks, a jumbled mass of rock that offers up-high vistas of the reservoir and surrounding forest from Coal Knob Ridge.
If you want more outdoor adventure, check out the North Country National Scenic Trail. A 96.7-mile section of the federal trail lies within the Allegheny National Forest. It stretches 4,600 miles from upstate New York through Pennsylvania and Ohio to North Dakota.
Another hiking option along the reservoir is the Johnnycake/Tracy Ridge Trail. It is on the east side of the reservoir at its northern end. The Tracy Ridge Trail runs 2.7 miles and the Johnnycake Trail is 2.3 miles. They are connected by a 2.4-mile segment of the North Country Trail. Two optional loops add up to a great 8.7-mile hike. The trailhead is at the Tracy Ridge Campground off state Route 321.
The forest was heavily logged from 1800 to about 1860, the white pines and hemlocks floated down the Allegheny River to mills. In 1864, the railroad came to the Allegheny Plateau and hard-to-reach trees were felled until President Calvin Coolidge established the forest in 1923.
Today the forest includes 700 miles of fishing streams, 8,000 acres of designated wilderness and the 23,000-acre Allegheny National Recreation Area on the reservoir and on the east side of the Allegheny River in the western part of the forest.
For information, contact the Bradford Ranger District, 814-362-4613, www.fs.fed.us/r9/.
For local tourist information, contact Allegheny National Forest Vacation Bureau at 800-473-9370 or http://visitanf.com.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.