Sheffield, PA

From Cook Forest State Park, I headed to Sheffield, PA.  This town is “the Heart of the Allegheny National Forest”.  My campground was next door to a trail in the national forest, which was one of the reasons I decided to stay at Whispering Winds Campground.

My knee still wasn’t great, so I stuck to easy and moderate hikes. My first hike was Rimrock Trail.  I ended up not doing the entire thing because it was steep and rocky in some sections.  I found out later that the other end was not as bad, so I should have stuck it out.

Headed down to the trailhead—(for those who read my blog regularly you can see why I would really like this trail – Big rocks!)

View from Rimrock Overlook-

Start of trailhead, headed through several big rocks -

Another hike I did was Hearts Content Trail (and a bit of the cross country skiing trail in the area).  This area is known for it’s old growth trees.

Not too far from the campground was Bradford, PA.  I went there a couple of times.  I was told by a couple of people to visit the Zippo museum.  It didn’t really sound like something I would like, but one day while there I went because it was free and I needed a place to use the restroom!

The flag is made of 3393 zippo lighters.  I was only in the museum about 10 minutes.  By the way, nice clean restrooms!!!

On that same day, I went to Kinzua Bridge State Park.  This park is known for the Kinzua Sky Walk.  This bridge was built in 1900 for trains.  Since 1963, it became the centerpiece of the State Park.  In July 2003, a tornado came through and 11 of the towers holding the bridge up were twisted and fell to the valley floor.  You can make out the fallen towers to the right of the bridge below.

The walk out to the end of the bridge.

At the end of the bridge you can walk on and look through the glass floor.

The view from the bridge -

Another easy trail was Marilla Bridges trail.  The trail circled a small reservoir.

I saw Buzzard Swamp Trail on the map and knew I had to visit.  I learned that the area was a good area for bird watching.   The day I went it ended up getting stormy, so I only walked about 4 miles. 

I didn’t see any buzzards, but did see quite a few of these.  It may be a Tree Swallow, but I’m not sure Tree Swallows are this blue.  It was fun watching these birds as they were like acrobats. 

I didn’t know this area had oil.  From what I understand they still get oil, but natural gas is the big thing now.  The area I went to next is in the middle of natural gas boom.

It was funny to be on a scenic drive and see these.

During the Memorial day weekend, my campground had several events.  The only one I participated in was the Duck Race.  For a small donation, you got a duck with a number on it.  My duck was number 6.

Many ducks would get stuck on rocks or behind sticks, the people behind the ducks would get them unstuck.  Below is a duck going over the “waterfall” that was behind my RV.

Everyone lined up at the finish line.

There were about 50 ducks and I never saw duck 6 (other than when I made my contribution), who knows if he even made it to the finish line!   During the week this campground was fairly empty, but full for the long weekend. 

This was the first campground where my Electrical Management System came up with a very low power and cut the power to my RV.  I had noticed earlier in the week that the power was a bit low, but it was ok.  Once everyone got there for the weekend and were using their air conditioners (it was rather warm), my power dropped to between 108 and 105.  I cut my air off and the next day told the owners.  I went hiking and when I got back I noticed that my EMS system had cut the power to my RV.  I checked the electrical pole and saw the power was down to 98.  A little later the owner had an electrician working on it and eventually got me more power.  Fortunately for me, the electrician was at the campground for the weekend and seemed to help the owner out occasionally.  I haven’t found too many times when my EMS system found anything wrong, but the 3 or 4 times it has I was very glad that I had installed this system.  

Believe it or not, I am caught up with my blogs.  Barely, but I am.  My goal has always been to write my blog at the stop after the one I am writing about.  I am currently at Wellsboro, PA which is the stop after Sheffield.  But I am leaving today, so while caught up, I only made it by a few hours as I am leaving later this morning!!