2019-04-13 42 -78

Location

Allegany State Park, off the Bear Caves Trail

Participants

Pedalpusher
Simon the dog
Myka the dog

Expedition

This hash appeared to be pretty close to last year's hash so I decided to use the knowledge I learned on that adventure here and partially hike the Bear Caves Trail to get closer. Also being a Saturday hash, I wanted to get the timing right for an Official Saturday Meetup. However, if I started with the hash at 16:00, I wouldn't have much time to hike afterwords (or be really hungry on the drive home).

This year, I decided I wanted to hike ALL the trails of Allegany over the next 3 years (before I hit 40) and I thought this would be a great opportunity to check another trail off the list (#4 so far). I made sauce and some pizza dough in the morning so I had something to look forward to later in the evening and packed up the dogs a bit before 13:00. We got to ASP a bit after 14:00 and that seemed perfect to hike the Black Snake Mtn trail just down the road from the Bear Caves Trailhead. I should be able to get back to the Bear Caves by 15:45 or so to be slightly late for the Official Meetup (but still within acceptable parameters).

There were a few cars at the Black Snake Mtn trailhead, but we didn't see anyone on the trail until the end. There were two older guys taking a rest by a stream and we said hi as we went by. Getting back to the Bear Cave Trail, there was a couple that were hiking in just as we were. We had a quick trail chat as I went by but they distracted me and I ended up following a rocky stream off trail for a minute. Having to backtrack, I apologized to them for leading them astray, but they joked about it and all was cool. Hiking up to the Bear Caves themselves, I turned on the GPS but was having a lot of trouble getting a third signal to connect, despite having 8 or 9 available. I got above the rocks and started to walk west thinking that was the general direction of the hash, but when I finally got a location, I found it was the other way and further up the trail.

Back on track for a second time, we got to a large creek and (this time) with purpose, broke off the trail. Finding my way to the hash, I found two fallen trees that made a huge 'X' that just happened to be right there. Turns out this hash was about 200 meters further up the stream and on the other side from the previous hash.

Getting my pictures, we made our way back to the car and headed for home.