Forest Fire in PA

[1ADAM12]

Be careful out there the ground is very dry right now! Here in a small part of PA over 3500 acres have burned. These are my hiking stomping grounds here in PA. It goes right through the West Rim Trail Here is the LINK!

 

[duane]

I'm glad to hear that no one was injured and no homes were burned. I've planned a backpacking trip along the West Rim Trail for the first weekend in May. Do you suppose this fire will impact our hike?

 

[1ADAM12]

I doubt it! I have hiked the trail and the markings are pretty good on the trees. From some of the pictures I have seen it looks like more of the underbrush was burned and not the live trees.

Adam

 

[ADKdremn]

A buddy of mine lives near a spot along the AT called Bake Oven Knob. Over the weekend he saw planes dumping water on a couple of forest fires in the area. Dry out here in my part of PA as well!

 

[Rick]

Same thing here - I live over near South Mountain (Bethlehem) and the fire trucks were running until the wee hours early Saturday AM trying to put out the grass fires.

 

[1ADAM12]

What caused your fires Rick? They still do not know around here.

 

[Paradox]

What caused your fires Rick? They still do not know around here.

Do the underground coal fires still present a problem?

 

[1ADAM12]

Not up here where I am not sure about Ricks area.

 

[WinterWarlock]

Be careful out there the ground is very dry right now! Here in a small part of PA over 3500 acres have burned. These are my hiking stomping grounds here in PA. It goes right through the West Rim Trail Here is the LINK!

That's way too bad - hate to see these.


I just drove down Skyline Drive in Virginia this past weekend - lots of blowdown from the winter, and very very dry. I fear they may see the same thing....gotta be careful out there.

 

[daxs]

The underground coal fires in PA are around a town called Centrailia. Bethlehem would be further east and south of this.

BTW Rick, if you are into mountain biking there are some great trails in the Fountain Hill/Salisbury area. I was on them a few weeks ago when I was home visiting.

 

[Rick]

Sorry all, was offline a couple of days. Yes Bethlehem is about 60 miles Due East of Centralia\. Centralia is a pretty wild place to visit. While you are at it. Stop in on the AT and enjoy some sections of the trail between here and Eckville. (PM me for a shuttle in this area )
There are still huge cracks in the earth in Centralia where smoke and acrid fumes burp up from the coal fires below. Yo can walk on the old highway and see where the huge cracks go across and it drops out in sections. I started to drive down it (over the dirt barrier) but chickened out about a mile down the road, after seeing signs of smoke coming out of the ground on either side.

Anyways, I don't know if they are sure - right now "authorities" are saying they think our fires could be cigarettes, but did not rule out arson/vandalism.

Dax, thank for the thought, I only ride my road bikes now. I never caught the mountain biking craze, although I had one for a number of years to ride the old canal paths and railways around here (Up by Adam on Pine Creek between Slate Run and Ansonia being one of my most favorite rails trails)

I do want to take the baby and 7 year old and explore the R/T further south of Slate Run at some point this summer. I have heard it is nice. Course I also got one of the boats out a month ago, cleaned it up and put the racks on the truck. Boat has now been sitting in the garage for a month -I simply cannot find time to get out and do anything lately.
Cheers
Rick

 

[1ADAM12]

(Up by Adam on Pine Creek between Slate Run and Ansonia being one of my most favorite rails trails)

Rick,

Between Blackwell and Tiadaghton has the biggest concentration of Rattlesnakes in the area. Have you ever seen any? I saw one last year slither across the trail. I about ran it over with my bike!

If your ever up this way let me know. I would love to hook up with you and the fam for a hike or bike. You should come up this way when the Mountain Laurel is in bloom in June!

Adam

 

[Rick]

I keep meaning to get up there - When I do it is usually unorganized, jump in the truck on a friday night and gte up there at 2AM on Saturday and return Sunday eve.
One of my backpack trips on the STS through Cross Forks was during the Rattlensake festival around '93 or '94. It was pretty wild to see the cages full of Timber Rattlers. (They release them back into the wild).

The BFT has quite a few of in one area (I'd rather not say where to avoid rattlesnake roundups issues) and I had a young one strike me (it was sunning on the trail - about 1 foot long. I nudged it with my boot (Back when I wore heavy-duty backpacking boots and knee high crocks) and it struck the toe of my boot 2-3 times with it's tiny jaw.