Falling for Fall in the PA Grand Canyon

 Vanlog, Lancaster, PA

October 4, 2020

Our journey began on Friday, October 2 after my class was kind enough to change its start time from 6:30 PM to 3:30 PM, so that I could get home by six. I had asked Jessica to have everything ready by then, and wouldn't you know it? We were in such a hurry to send off that neither one of us had remembered to unplug the shore power from the house. We made it about a mile down the street to the gas station before a man came over and said I have been beeping at you for the last mile--you're dragging your extension cord down the road and I didn't want it to hit anybody! You just can't make stuff like this up! The sagas of 3vanlife. We had a four-hour drive ahead of us in the dark, the last four miles on gravel forest roads to our campsite in Tioga State Forest. There was no cell service here of course and our satellite navigation was going in and out. All we had to rely on was an email from the state forest district office with the GPS coordinates and a description that it was just off the road. We stopped where we thought it was and set up camp. 

This was our first time taking the bikes with us, so they had to sit in the aisle of the van between the kitchen and the bed/bench (in bench mode). Jessica was unable to fold out her bed unless we left the bikes unsecured outside the van, which we did nto want to do because we were literally "just off the road." So she squeezed into the twin size bed with me, the bed that is already too short for me to lie fully straight from one side of the van to the other. Needless to say, it was not a restful night of sleep. 

October 5, 2020

We did sleep on the later side and didn't break camp (aka drive away) until about 8:30. We headed first tot he very busy Leonard Harrison SP side of the PA Grand Canyon. Because part of the canyon was still in shade at this hour, we opted for a 2.2-mile hike down tot he canyon floor and back. Along the ay we passed a fairly dried up waterfall. At the canyon bottom, we intersected with the Pine Creek rail trail, where we were going to bike later in the day. On the return ascent, 744 feet, we really booked it, not wanting a pair of fit 20-something year old girls to show up us 50-something hikers! Jessica was amazing, blazing up the trail like it was gravy without any rests at all. 

After our hike, we drove tot he other side of the canyon to Colton Point SP and parked in the lot opposite the trail to Barbour Rock. The leaves were beautiful in the sunlight and the canyon looked much nicer from the west rim. We hiked another 2.3 miles here.

We then got our bikes out of the van to go for a short ride down the road to Colton Point. However, Jessica's front tire was flat and would not hold air when we pumped it up. So we used a spoon to pry the tire away from the rim and found the pinhole leak. We repaired it with a dab of Super Glue (not sponsored!), waited five minutes for it to seal, put the innertube back in the tire, the tire back on the wheel, and the wheel back on the bike and then we were off. I was very proud of our "McGuyver moment." The views from Colton Point were also nice. 

We then drove to Darling Run down in the canyon on the Pine Creek trail and drove our bikes along the gravel rail trail along the Pine Creek to Turkey Path, the same place we had hiked down to earlier in the day. On the drive back to Darling Run, we saw a bear that had just crossed the creek to the other side. Back at Darling Run, we watched two tourist horse-drawn carriages pass by on the trail. 

We then drove back to our free campsite in the Tioga State Forest, had a steak for dinner, and watched a movie in the back of the van. 

October 6, 2020

After another restless night crowded into the twin bed in the van, we woke to dreary weather and left camp by 8:15. We stopped at Shikellamy State Park Overlook in Sunbury on the way home, had lunch at the Red Rabbit drive-in, and arrived back in Lancaster by 2:00 PM.