Forbes State Forest – Mount Davis Natural Area

Mount Davis is in the Laurel Highlands Region of Pennsylvania. Mount Davis is the highest point in Pennsylvania at an elevation of 3,213 feet or 979 m.

In past visits to this area,  really enjoyed my time there. I chose to look at Alltrails.com to see what estimated mileage they would give me for any trails around there.

I also need to add that the Forbes State Forest is broken into a few different areas. For example the one area is Forbes Sate Forest – Mount Davis Natural Area in Elk Lick Township, Quebec Run Wild Area in Gibbon Glade, Roaring Run Natural Area in Doegal Township Pennsylvania.

The website estimated length was 5.7 miles and because I know that they are never correct unless its flat ground it would be longer with all the elevation deviation I would most likely encounter.

The trail ended up being a loop of 6.5 miles long. It was not an extreme up and down, only one long grade climb. The footing was a little techy in some areas and that’s because of loose rocks with snow and ice on them.

The beautiful mountain laurel was everywhere in some areas. They recently did some trail care and cut back the mountain laurel, so the trail is more obvious.

I did see bear tracks in the snow and a bevy of coyote scat.

When I first arrived on Tuesday the 23^rd the fog was so thick and navigating harder than it needed to be I decided not to attempt any hiking on Mount Davis.

I pulled into the little sleepy town of Meyersdale to get some breakfast. IMHO these little sleepy towns have the best food.  I found the best little breakfast place in town. It was called Donges Drive-in Motel, and they can be found here https://www.dongesdriveinmotel.com/

Everything is made from scratch, but if you want sausage gravy they only do that on Saturday.  The prices are very low and the food is delicious.

I chose to head up to Wolf Rocks and Beams Rocks instead to see if I could get a break from all this fog. The next area would be about 1300 feet lower than Mount Davis and my hope was it would be below the fog.

The conditions of the roads were not bad and they were only wet. It was not until I reached the dreaded sign that said “no winter maintenance” is where the driving conditions got bad.

My Subaru Legacy was doing well on the slick roads and that was until the road grades got steeper. I felt the back end slip a bit and thought on this narrow forest road with these deep open ditches on the side if I slipped into one, I would have to be pulled out.

I chose to do a 6 point turn to turn around and get back to the main road.

After a little bit of anxiety, I got back to the main road.  I did not get to see the two rocky ledges and will return some day.

So, I decided to head to the hotel room and beg them to allow me to check in early.

They did and I stayed in the Days Inn off the turnpike in Somerset. The Days Inn was hmm clean and the rooms over feel were below average. I know I was only paying 150.00 dollars for two nights tax included, but the finishing touches on the room left a lot to be desired.

The new pain on the walls was missing in spots. The TV console covers one of the electrical outlets. The doors to my room had a gap so big you could see the carpet in the hallway.  The lock to the door was good and substantial.

It’s been a while since I stayed at a hotel that has multiple floors. Normally when I have stayed at such hotels you need a key to get into the back door of the first floor. Well at this Days Inn its free range and anyone can come and go through the back door to get into the hotel.

I told this to the manager slash hotel owner I am guessing and his remark to me was “they can’t get into your room”. I thought well isn’t that a strange way to say you’re not concerned about the safety of the people who stay at your hotel. Yes, they have a camera inside the building in the hallway, but if a person has an altercation, it’s already too late they are in the building.

I will never stay here again and if you’re just a worker in the area in the oil and gas field I can see this being a place you would stay at. It’s cheap and it is close to the highway and to shopping. For you to minimize a person’s personal safety that’s says you don’t care and so I don’t care to stay there again.

I checked in and cleaned up and went to go find some place to eat. After a little driving I found the perfect tavern. It is called Glades Pike Taverne and you will not find a better place to eat, drink, and they have live entertainment. You will also not find a more diverse menu either!

The Stromboli I had was made from scratch and it was a medium and the large are nearly double this size see photo below.

After a few beers I headed back to the hotel.

I was in the for the night and with the thick fog, non-maintained winter roads, and high winds I was having a planning dilemma. Where do I go and what time should I get there?

I thought I could return to Mount Davis and attempt at a time lapse of the sunrise. What time should I get there, I was thinking. I will get there later than I want to make the odds in my favor that the fog has moved out.  I knew I would miss the sun breaking across the horizon, but I wanted to make sure the weather had pushed through.

Sure, enough I had missed the prime part of the sunrise, but there was still a window for some decent cloud formation time lapse photography opportunities left. 

After I got off the fire tower, I drove down the road to the trail head of the Mount Davis Highpoint Trail. It was possible to make this a longer hike but starting at noon and making it longer would not make it a great idea.

I started at roughly at noon and it took me basically 4 hours with all the stops for photo opportunities. Most of the trail I would call rolling down and up. The first takes you to the valley bottom of Tub Mill Run and in the second part you climb up out of the valley for 1.95 miles. The slopes are not tough, but they could be strenuous depending on how physically fit you are.

This video depicts the grades you will need to hike.

By the time I got to the fire tower and was on the last leg of the hike I only had about 2 hours to get to my car. With a mile left I nearly jogged to my car. At least I was going downhill and maybe 3 mph walking, but I was not going to miss this sunset.

I rolled to the car and got in as quickly as I could and drove back to the fire tower. I was a little shocked that no one else was here.

I grabbed all my gear plus a couple of extra layers because as the sun drops the temperatures would plummet.

I set up my tri pods, one for my GoPro13 and the other for my Olympus TG6.  The GoPro13 would be set up for timelapse only.  Once I started the session, I would need to not touch it until it was time to leave.

I arranged my gear to still allow others to enjoy the fire tower if anyone else had shown up. After watching the sun take its final breath I had had enough. It was cold and the wind was starting to blow harder.

I stopped the GoPro from recording and as soon as I did that a coyote let out a howl so loud I thought it was up in the fire tower with me. I flipped on my head lamp and got my gear together quickly. I have never heard of a coyote attacking a human, but I did not want to test that theory today.

I got my pack stuffed with gear and pulled my bear spray out and then I heard a few more coyote’s howl. They were not that far away, and I moved a little quicker to the car. My head lamp was on, and I was not trying to be too quick, but just quick enough lol.

Finally, I got back into the vehicle and headed back to the hotel.

This area has so much to offer everyone. It just takes time to explore so go out and enjoy it and be courteous to others.

Sonder