Allegheny National Forest (ANF) Camping Trip

First night under the stars

There are people who walk around the world we all live in who will never know what the great outdoors has to offer outside of Tik-Tok and YouTube.  These people will just continue to do life thinking this is all life has to offer.  For me it’s rare to have a moment like I had the past four days. A good friend of mine, Rob, has asked me for the last few years to go on a camping trip to the Allegheny National Forest (ANF). This year the camping trip was scheduled before I would be swinging flies on the Great Lakes tributaries.

My chateau

I packed my two waterproof bags and headed out to the ANF.  The next few days weather report was started out at 80’s – 50’s in the day and tapering to the low 40’s at night.  Mother nature would also have her undergarments in a wad on the daily.

This bear scat was new esitmated him/her to be 2 years old and always be bear aware!

When Rob talked about this trip, he always said he had fun, and it was a good time. Rob is an avid outdoorsman and our friendship goes back almost 30 years.  The folks he went camping with were at the same level of outdoorsmanship and more.

Rob would play one of the coxswains on the trip. With the amount of gear, we brought and foodstuffs well it was a necessity to get all the forementioned gear to the camp site. The ANF has plenty of camping. Here is a link to begin your research. https://www.fs.usda.gov/allegheny and he is a link to show you the draw down of the lake for winter pool. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03012520/#parameterCode=62615&period=P7D&showMedian=true

I really fit right in with these fine distinguished gentlemen and even Lips (inside joke)!

When you plan a large outing, you sometimes have people who don’t work well with others and or who don’t pull their weight in camp.  I was the new guy, and everyone helped, and everyone went out of their way to help each other.

I did not matter the size of the task from drying Lips’s boots, cooking, gathering wood, tending the fire, or walking up the mountain for water everyone helped every day.

Water run hike

Water run hike

We also ate food o my goodness did we eat lol. If you went to bed hungry it was just your fault and no one else’s.

Again folks, Thank you I had a great time.

Rob and I took a 1.7 mile hike. The elevation at Basecamp was 1348 and we had to acsend to 1589 (max elevation reached was 1616.6) with a pitch of up to 42 % slope to climb out the lake bottom. 

Hike Data

Hike Data