Day 2 – Ferncliff Peninsula
Today’s Blog Entry
Friday was a nice day for a long hike in spite of the sometimes rainy weather with temperatures in the upper 40’s. We firmly believe that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad equipment, so we geared up and headed out mid-morning to explore the trail system around Ohiopyle.
For those that might be wondering (we were!) the name Ohiopyle is believed to be derived from the Native American Indian word ‘Ohiopehelle’ which means “white, frothy water.”
We walked down the steep connector trail from the campground to the Great Allegheny Passage and almost immediately took a right onto the much smaller, single-track Great Gorge Trail. This trail took us well away from any daytripper traffic, not that we’ve seen very much of it this trip; that said I can imagine that this place can get very busy once the weather turns warm (or the leaves start to change colors). The trail followed the Youghiogheny upstream and past a number of large rapids on the outside of a large thumb in the river formed by the Ferncliff Peninsula.
The highlight of this leg of the hike, if not the entire day, was our visit to Cucumber Falls. These classic falls aren’t all that tall (about thirty feet) but they are perfectly formed and embedded in a peaceful grotto of rock outcroppings, mountain laurel, and tall hardwoods. From there the trail follows Cucumber Run to where it meets the Youghiogheny and continues towards Ohiopyle.
We made one other side trip, or more accurately an attempted side trip, up Meadow Run, but we couldn’t safely get past an area called The Slides due to the high, turbulent water and some very slippery rock formations. After several attempts via different routes we punted and headed back to the main trail, which took us into the town of Ohiopyle.
We made a quick loop of town (not difficult as it’s quite small) to scope out our lunch options. We decided on eating at the Falls Market on Main Street. It was outdoor seating only but our table was under an overhang and we were already a bit wet so dining al fresco was fine in spite of the cooler temperatures. I had a fish sandwich fried in Yuengling beer batter on a homemade hoagie roll (welcome to Pennsylvania!) while Cindy (always the Virginia girl) tried their pulled pork sandwich, also on a homemade roll. Both lunches were quite good and the hot food hit the spot after tramping through the woods all morning.
After lunch we crossed the Low Bridge over the Yawk and picked up the Ferncliff Trail. This trail makes a circuit through a dedicated natural area and around the beautiful Ferncliff Peninsula (but on the opposite side of the river from our morning’s walk). By good fortune the terrain on this peninsula is so rugged that it was never the subject of any serious timbering or mining operations so the woodlands still hold a large number of old growth evergreen and hardwood trees.
Completing the circuit of the Ferncliff Trail brought us back to the Great Allegheny Passage where we turned west, headed across the High Bridge, and then made the grinding climb back up to our campground, this time via a different segment of the Great Gorge Trail. All told we hiked 8.4 miles today, none of it straight and very little of it flat!
Today’s Map
Today’s Photos
