Tag Archives: autumn leaves

Fall Hiking and Biking

As I try to do once a year during the Fall, I took a day off of work on Friday to get out into the woods with a backpack full of camera gear and a bike.  There was an overlook that I haven’t been to yet outside of Ohiopyle State Park so I started my day off at that trailhead a bit before sunrise.  2.5 miles uphill later, I arrived at a beautiful scenic overlook, albeit a bit clouded over.  Next I hopped on my bike for a 10 mile ride from the town of Confluence to the Pinkerton tunnel on the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.  Then I just wandered around Ohiopyle proper a bit.  The last pictures are some detail shots of making fresh apple cider with the family.

Laurelville in Autumn

Laurelville is a place that my family enjoys spending time at.  My wife grew up going to camp there and now we are Association Members.  Twice a year, the members go and visit the grounds and spend time together and help out with volunteer projects.  It’s always a wonderful weekend of fellowship and slowing down.  I normally try to sneak in a quick hike to revel in the nature of it all.

Near the high point of the property is Split Rock, which can be reached by following a trail to the top.  Coming back down to Jacob’s Creek, a small waterfall rushes.  This trip was preceded by an abundance of rain, so the creek was quite high.

There is also a kiln on the property which was in use for the entire weekend.  There was a crew from a local class that were stoking the fires every hour of the day and night.  I stopped down Saturday night to check it out.

The temperature was roughly 1,600 degree’s at this point, and they still wanted to take it even higher to around 2,500.  The heat output was intense and getting close was quite hot.  It seemed like the kiln’s appetite for wood never let up, every few minutes, more logs would be tossed into the inferno within.

The weekend came to an end and my family and I are back at home.  Now we have to go back to the real world.

Fall Colors at Ohiopyle

Since this is one of my favorite places to hike around, I once again schlepped a camera and tripod around the State Park.  The fall colors were fairly close to peak and I had no other times when I could get away, so I left the house before dawn and arrived just before sunrise.  As much as sleeping in an extra hour would have been nice, good light simply doesn’t last all day.