Retired Nomads - Part 2 : Allegheny National Forest

Friday, August 2, 2019

Allegheny National Forest – Marienville, PA - August 1

Allegheny National Forest – Marienville, PA - August 1

We drove to Pennsylvania to hike in the Allegheny National Forest. Today’s trail was rated the same as the one yesterday. This one actually was easy. This one would have been the better choice for hiking with Tom & Cathy. It also had lots of birds. We often see more birds on trails that are wide and open vs the dense forest like yesterday. We had hoped to see an American Woodcock aka Timberdoodle since we have never seen one, but it eluded us.

We started in Timberdoodle Flats and hiked the Woodcock trail and we ate quite a few of the wild blackberries along the trail. There were lots of apple trees there as well. We also hiked the Bluebird Trail and part of another one that was unmarked. So, probably 2 or 3 miles of very easy trails.

There were areas that had a lot of mixed flock birds feeding. We saw Cedar Waxwings, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Indigo Buntings, Canada Warblers, House Wrens and a Hermit Thrush. No new birds were seen today, but it was great finding birds again since our last few hikes haven't really had many. We also came across a garter snake.

Cedar Waxwing

mating insects

Cedar Waxwing

wild blackberry

now THIS is an easy trail

Aspen Trees

Chestnut-sided Warbler

wild blackberries

Hermit Thrush

Garter Snake

Beaver Dam

Common Yellow-throat

more mating insects

Indigo Bunting

apples

Canada Warbler

We had lunch at the nearby Marina. I had a shrimp basket and Greg had a Reuben. Both were very good. We sat outside and had a great view of the marina and a Bald Eagle flew by while we ate and a few Red-winged Blackbirds were begging for food.

female Red-winged Blackbird

the restaurant

After lunch we went for a walk down to the water before driving to the Jake's Rocks area where we had some great views of the dam.

We then drove to the Rim Rock Trail and walked the short distance to the viewpoint. There were some interesting looking stairs to another viewpoint, which of course we had to find out where they went. The trail would take you all the way down to “the beach” on a long hike, but we stopped at the viewpoint.