Reverse Rumspringa
A short distance from my hometown is Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, known colloquially as “Amish Country”. Lancaster is one of the largest Amish communities in the world and draws thousands of...
View ArticleStone Valley Adventure
A few weeks ago I heard about a job on campus that sounded too good to be true: “adventure recreation guide”. My mind went wild when I thought of the possibilities. As an adventure rec guide I would be...
View ArticleRow Row Row Your Boat
Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir, known to locals as simply “Bald Eagle Lake”, is a 1,700 acre impoundment of Bald Eagle Creek 30 miles north of campus. The lake is the jewel of Bald Eagle State Park. It...
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Backpacking Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon
In the loneliest corner of the state, a place called the “Pennsylvania wilds” the frontier lifestyle is still alive and well. Isolated hamlets with odd names like “Ansonia”, “Leetonia”, and “Jersey...
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The Freedom of the Hills – The Appalachian Trail
The ancient, misty mountains of the east are iconic. They were the original frontier, the place of the fabled Indian wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, the settling place for the Scots-Irish people...
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West Virginny Road Trip
The Cliffs of North Fork Mountain, WV As the days get shorter and the night temperatures begin plummeting into the 30’s and 40’s, the deciduous forests of the eastern United States undergo an amazing...
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Black Moshannon
The petite, fragile looking redhead with a thick Mississippi accent hoisted my pack over her shoulders with an exaggerated effort, made a face as if she were Atlas, set it down and said, “Still too...
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Mountain Biking Rothrock
Weaving between the rocks on the ruddy path, I found that I had worked myself into a rhythm. As I peddled up the hill, the trail seemed less and less like a path and more like a river of stones that...
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The History of Rothrock
Those who have made the drive from State College to Philadelphia know that just east of Penn State University beyond the Nittany ridge is a beautiful forest. Much of the woodland that can be seen from...
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The solidarity of the Wilderness
Hiking Glen Onoko falls in winter with my brother There is an ad for a pickup truck, a Chevy Silverado or something like that, where some friends are driving around in the woods with cell phones held...
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The Frozen North
Mountaineering is a sport that mixes the pristine beauty of the mountains with harsh, deadly weather, and the rush of adrenaline. Every year, many climbers perish in the wilderness, attempting to...
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Mount Nittany: A Penn State Tradition
Sunset over Happy Valley Mount Nittany is a Penn State icon, its rounded figure visible from nearly every corner of campus. Legend has it that the Indian Princess Nitt-A-Nee built the mountain from a...
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Walking in the Footsteps of Folklore
In the fall of 1825 a relatively unknown landscape painter from England by the name of Thomas Cole took a steamship up the Hudson River. What he saw amazed him. The breathtaking Hudson River valley and...
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In Defense of East Coast Skiing
Although skiing originated in the frigid mountains of Scandinavia thousands of years ago as a form of both travel and hunting, it is today almost entirely associated with yuppies. Every winter,...
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Fly Fishing U
Yellow Breeches Creek, located in southcentral PA one of the most famous trout streams in the country Central Pennsylvania’s ubiquitous crystal clear mountain streams are one of the state’s natural...
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Green Mountain Roadtrip
Katie takes on the trail Between the Hudson and Connecticut River Valleys of New England exists a rugged, wild mountain range that runs from Connecticut to Quebec called the Green Mountains. These...
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Georgia on My Mind
In a campsite atop a breezy, high ridgeline in Northern Georgia, eight Penn State students are enjoying their dinner of tuna mac and cheese, playing bananagrams and taking in the colors of a sunset at...
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Dark Skies, Bright Stars
The Milky Way as seen from Cherry Springs Just North of State College is a region of PA known as the “Pennsylvania wilds” This area is mountainous and sparse, there are very few towns and huge...
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Fairmount Park, the Queen of Urban Parks
Fairmount Park in 1900 After the country has been ravaged by several industrial booms during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the cities were left in shambles. People moved from the countryside...
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The Mid-State Trail- Pennsyltucky’s Best Kept Secret
Pennsylvania has been described as “Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Kentucky in between” due to the rugged, scenic, and empty places of Central PA. Although Pennsylvania brags two of the most populous...
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