Western Pennsylvania Hiking and Waterfalls Trip - Day 1

Monday, 3 June

After all of 11 days “rest”, Darrell and Sprinty were itching to get out adventuring again.  “Rest” in that we raced our Flying Scot on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend (sailing 4-1/2 really good races, finishing third in the Steiding Cup and third in the Becker Cup), trying to race the Flying Scot last weekend (races abandoned due to light winds or thunderstorms), and doing lots of chores around the yacht club.  And playing golf almost every weekday.

Kris, feeling outnumbered, decided to plan a hiking and waterfall trip.  In 2005, when Darrell was between his Navy job and his new job at Defense Acquisition University, Kris and Darrell spent 6 weeks traveling Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York tent camping, kayaking, picture taking and attending photography seminars.  It was an amazing six weeks, and likely was the practice (and inspiration) for the RV life we are doing now.

The first waterfall to visit was located west of Pittsburgh, and the route took us by Washington, PA.  Being a larger town, they had a Starbucks.  So Darrell and Sprinty plotted a route to the Starbucks so Kris could pay up for winning the last two days we played.  Sprinty kept it a secret, so Kris was super surprised as we pulled up in front of the Starbucks store.

After enjoying our overdue Frappuccinos, we made a stop at the nearby Columbia Sportswear stores where we shopped for gear for our upcoming trips to Canada (this year) and Alaska (next year).

We continued northwest to Raccoon Creek State Park, specifically to the Frankfort Mineral Springs Falls, off Hwy 18.  It was an easy one mile hike even though the trail was pretty muddy in places from all the recent rains.  The recent rains did make for good flow over the waterfall.  

Nearby was also the remnants of the Frankfort Mineral Springs Resort, which people had taken to making cairns of the loose stones.

Finishing the hike in the early afternoon, we decided to add golf to the trip.  When we left this morning, the plan was that this was going to be a non-golf trip, in part because of rain forecast later in the week.  That idea lasted less than 5 hours into the trip.  Checking the Harvest Hosts app, we found a participating golf course in Hermitage, PA.  We called to make a tee time for tomorrow morning and to confirm Sprinty could spend the night.

We then headed northeast to Hells Hollow Falls, located on the western edge of McConnells Mill State Park, Portersville, PA.  We picked the back roads which added a few moments of anxious excitement.  As we turned off one road near Elwood City, PA, we saw the sign for a 10 feet - 0 inches clearance ahead.  The Roadtrek specs for Sprinty state that Sprinty came from the factory at 9 feet - 9 inches tall to the top of the air conditioner.  And we knew from getting weighed and measured in February 2018 in Florida, that Sprinty had grown an inch due to Darrell adding the Fantastic Fan vent cover.  Recall that Sprinty just got a new air conditioner.  And while the specs for the new air conditioner were very close to the previous air conditioner, Sprinty had not been height measured since getting the new air conditioner.  

To say that Kris was anxious would be an understatement.  Darrell had some confidence, which waned as he saw the road conditions.  The road under the overpass was potholed, and Sprinty was going to be rocking and rolling as he passed under the bridge.  The measuring last winter was on level ground, and was not rocking and rolling height.  To add to the excitement, the road under the overpass was one lane wide, and there was traffic behind Sprinty, and traffic waiting their turn on the other side.

Darrell inched Sprinty through very slowly, and we did not scrape.  Perhaps the Sumo Springs and shock replacement kept Sprinty from rocking as violently as before, which helped.  Once on the other side, Darrell, Kris and Sprinty all breathed a big sigh of relief.  BTW, this low clearance was not mentioned in the AllStays app, which usually does a pretty good job listing low clearances.

The Hells Hollow Falls hike was about 1-mile round trip.  Along the way, the creek was carving a channel in the stone which we found to be quite interesting.

We hiked down the steps to the base of the waterfall, but the flow was so much it would have been tricky to cross the stream for a really good picture angle.

We then wanted to visit the main park of McConnells Mill State Park as it was one of the places we visited in August 2005.  The state park map showed that there was a route to the mill that crossed the McConnells Mill Covered Bridge, one of two covered bridges in Lawrence County.  The state park map also said the bridge was built in 1874, which was well before RVs were considered in bridge design.  Checking the AllStays app, the covered bridge clearance was listed at 9 ft - 10 inches, with no mention of any weight restrictions.  After the previous excitement and expecting no place to turn around, we decided Sprinty was not going to cross the covered bridge.

Neither of us remembered anything about McConnells Mill State Park.  We parked at the min parking lot and took the trail to the mill and the nearby covered bridge.

Note the sign on the covered bridge shows 10 feet - 0 inches clearance.  An adjacent sign also indicated a weight limit of 7 tons (Sprinty is just a tad under 5 tons).

Being late in the afternoon, we then made our way to the Tam O'Shanter Golf Course in Hermitage, PA.  When we arrived, the parking lot was overflowing with cars parked on the grass almost onto the golf course.  Checking in at the Pro Shop, we learned there were several big events at the golf course today.  We also confirmed where Sprinty could park for the night.

After dinner, Darrell pulled up the photos we took in 2005 of McConnells Mill State Park.  The photos proved we had been there, but it was at most vaguely familiar.  Both Darrell and Kris took this to be a positive thing as we can look forward to revisiting places we have been before, knowing that we may not remember much about them.