An unforeseen return to one of the most comforting places in the US
After leaving Michigan, we had hoped to get our axles replaced down in Fort Wayne, but our timing didn't line up with the axle build. Living with constant worry that our suspension will fail and force us off the road is not fun, but so far, these axles have held out during thousands of miles of travel, despite both being faulty. We have been diligently checking them as best we can, and unless something changes, we're continuing onward.
We switched some plans around in order to book an appointment at FleetPride in Fort Wayne, but now that the axles wouldn't arrive on time, we no longer needed to stay in the area. Still, we kept our planned overnight at the KOA Holiday in Angola, IN, about 45 minutes north of Fort Wayne. The initial plan was to use the KOA as a place to pack before getting displaced for a couple days. Now, it served as our regrouping stop to get on full hookups, have some packages delivered, and do a load of laundry. It turned out to be a really nice KOA with lots of fun amenities (including a pool with a lazy river!) and access to Hogback Lake.
After our overnight, we'd jump on the Ohio Turnpike and start making our way east. We were due in the Finger Lakes region of New York the following week. We looked at the map, trying to decide what location would help us turn this axle-related disappointment into a positive. We narrowed our choices to Lake Erie, Allegheny, or Niagara. We haven't spent much time along Lake Erie and thought it could be a fun new destination, but the more we thought about it, the more we decided we'd rather repeat a place we know and love. Allegheny and Niagara both fit the bill, as they were two of our favorite places in our first season of travels. Repeat destinations take the pressure off because we've already done a lot of the main excursions and activities in the area.
We also wanted to prioritize hiking. We had fallen way behind in our challenge to hike 100 miles this summer. We knew that both Allegheny and Niagara would give us ample opportunities for hiking, but we had already covered the vast majority of trails along the Niagara River, thanks to this challenge. In Allegheny, there was still more to see. It was also the less out-of-the-way destination of the two. And so, it was decided. We were returning to Allegheny National Forest!
We gave ourselves one more overnight at a Harvest Host in Ohio in order to keep our drive days short. Then we booked a site at High Pines RV Park in Kane, PA for 5 nights. The last time we were in Allegheny, we stayed at one of the National Recreation Area campgrounds on the other side of the forest. This time, we wanted to plant ourselves further east. This way we would be closer to our next stop in the Finger Lakes. We also remembered that two years ago, most of the hiking seemed to be on this side of the forest. I looked up a few of the Recreation Areas here, but none had great campsite availability. We also had lots of work to do, so cell service was important. High Pines was close enough to downtown that we had great cellular internet, and we weren't so forested that we couldn't use Starlink. It had some interruptions, but for non-streaming, it was fine.
We weren't sure what to expect staying in an RV park instead of the recreation areas, and we hoped that we would still feel the peace and serenity that we've come to appreciate about this area. We were also aware that two years ago, we visited in the fall, so summertime might be a totally different vibe. Fortunately, coming back to Allegheny felt like we were being welcomed back home. High Pines was rustic, with grass sites and trees. The campground wasn't at all crowded, and we had tons of space to spread out. Lots of our neighbors weren't around much of the time; we think they are locals who book long-term stays but then go back and forth to their houses or jobs. The nights were dark and quiet, and we got great sleep. We immediately felt the comfort that we remembered from the last time we were here. The landscape is homey, the towns are quaint and unassuming, and the people are some of the friendliest we've encountered anywhere in the country. We were happy to see that this vibe persists, no matter where we stay and what season of the year we visit.
Site 60, back-in, water & 30amp electric
Grass site, has a fire ring and picnic table
Campground recommended? Yes
Site recommended? Yes
Hiking would need to wait a bit because thunderstorms were in the forecast. We wish we could say we were surprised, but this year has been brutal. Storms are one of the big reasons we've fallen so behind in our hiking challenge! On Tuesday July 16, the day we arrived in Allegheny, a heavy storm system moved north of us, producing an EF-2 tornado just east of Syracuse, NY, not far from where we'd be camping the following week. And here we thought our days of vigilant tornado watching were behind us! Thankfully, here in Allegheny, the weather wasn't severe, and Tuesday and Wednesday only brought rain and a little thunder.
After we settled into our campsite on Tuesday, we headed into town to grab dinner at Table 105, a restaurant where we had our anniversary lunch two years ago. We had been looking forward to eating there again the next time we were in the area because we remembered the delicious boneless wings and buttery pizza crust, and the giant onion nest – all blog-worthy. This time, the food was good, but we weren't as delighted as the first time. The onion nest was smaller, the wings less tender, and the pizza crust a little less flaky. This is the risk when we revisit a favorite restaurant. Sometimes they remain up to par with their past selves and other times they fall short. Even still, we enjoyed our experience. It was fun to reminisce about our last visit to the restaurant, also a rainy Tuesday. We like coming full circle during our travels.
We chose the stormy Wednesday as our designated work day so that we could free up some time for hikes the next few days, after the weather cleared. When the storms outside aren't scary, they can be quite peaceful. The rain pattered the roof of our RV and the thunder rumbles remained distant and not too loud. We welcomed the ambience.
On Thursday, as soon as we were done with work for the day, we headed to the trails. I found a handful of what looked like viable options on All Trails, most of them short but with the options to trek a few back-to-back. We first went to the Tionesta Scenic Area, but we had trouble finding the trailhead for the trail we wanted to hike. All Trails gave written directions, so we followed those instead of Google Maps, but the directions took us to a railroad crossing that was lit up. We waited a few minutes for a train to cross, but none came.
We don't like risking crossing active tracks when they indicate that a train is coming, so even though we had every reason to believe this crossing was lying to us, we turned around. It didn't help that we were stopped on an uphill slant, and right after the crossing, the paved road turned to gravel. There was no way to easily whiz over the tracks quickly.
We had other trail options and figured we could always come back and see if we could safely cross. We went to another trailhead up the street. All Trails indicated that the start of the trail was behind a maintenance building, but when we got there, we had to drive quite a ways back and peek around the back corner of the maintenance building, into the woods. We saw what looked like a trail, but for the two of us alone, not knowing the area, it was a little too sketchy for us.
We decided to cut our losses at Tionesta and head over to the Longhouse Scenic Byway. There were a few trailheads dotted along the byway, and if nothing else, hopefully we would get some nice views of the Allegheny River. We turned to head to the west banks of the river and had about 8 miles of driving to get to our next trailhead. A few miles in, we got stopped by construction. We waited several minutes, wondering when and how they would actually let us through. There were a lot of giant machines that would need to be moved. We waited some more, fast losing any motivation to continue on to the trailhead. To make matters worse, All Trails wasn't even sure this trail we were going to was fully open! A few recent reviews stated that some parts were closed. Were we really going to wait out the construction and drive the rest of the way there, knowing it might not even be fully open? We decided to give up, turn around, and head back to camp.
It was a disappointing failed-attempt, and it made us wonder if we should have just stayed on the west side of Allegheny like we did last time. So many of our trail options were either marked as closed, partly closed, overgrown, or extremely muddy and buggy. We came all the way out here because we wanted to hike and enjoy ourselves! Even more disappointing was that we finally had nice weather – sunny, not too humid, and low 70s with a light breeze. We have been waiting all summer for weather like that! The next day would be a little warmer with temps in the high 70s, but we could still have the opportunity to get a few miles in. We would just need to figure out where we could go.
We decided to play it safe and go back to an oldie but goodie: Kinzua State Park. Because we were staying on the east side of Allegheny, we were only about 20 minutes away from the state park and we knew that the trails would be open and maintained. They aren't the longest trails, but at this point even completing a few miles would be a nice dent in our count for the challenge.
We covered Kinzua State Park in our blog post from two years ago, which you can read here:
Nicole Anderson
But let's do a quick recap on the wonder that is the Kinzua Skywalk. It used to be a railroad bridge, 2000ft long and 300ft high, made of 3.5 million pounds of iron. The bridge was the highest railroad viaduct in the world when it was built in 1882, and served as a shortcut for the Erie Railroad until 1959. In the early 1900s, the iron wasn't strong enough to hold the now heavier trains, so the bridge was rebuilt using steel. In 1963, Pennsylvania bought the now defunct bridge and surrounding land and created Kinzua State Park. Eventually, they opened the railway up for tourist excursions, calling it the Knox and Kane railroad. Parts of this railroad are now the rail trail of the same name, offering ample cycling opportunities in the area.
In 2002, the state had the bridge inspected and learned that many parts were rusted through. Train excursions stopped, and a few months later, pedestrian traffic was also barred from the bridge. They shut it down just in the nick of time, because the following year, a tornado hit and destroyed 11 towers holding up the bridge. The twisted steel parts can still be found in the Kinzua Creek Valley below.
Now, the 225ft-high Skywalk gives spectators a birds-eye view of the wreckage. The Skywalk is built on all new towers and features a railroad track to nowhere, as well as a see-through floor where brave souls can stand and look down at the metal structure below. The views are spectacular, if not a little daunting.
Given what an active year we've had for tornadoes in the US, it seemed fitting that we would return to this viaduct and see the rubble up close once again. We walked the Skywalk and then took the trail down into the valley. Afterwards, we walked a small portion of the rail trail to get over to the General Kane Trail, a hike we had never done. It wasn't anything fantastic, just a walk in the woods, but all the trails combined gave us 3.5 miles.
Getting to compare Kinzua in fall and summer was a lot of fun. Of course, we didn't have the beautiful foliage, but we had lots of flowers, butterflies, and bees.
After our hike, we ordered lunch at Little Sister's Big Rig, the staple Kinzua State Park Food Truck that offers up munchies and ice cream. We learned two years ago that the milkshakes are always a good choice.
With a successful excursion finally in the books, we headed back to the rig to plan for our final day. Ever since our visit back in 2022, we've been eyeing the Knox and Kane rail trail. We had hoped to ebike it then, but the rain came in. This time, we checked the trail conditions and saw that All Trails had marked the trail as closed.
We had driven by part of the closed trail near downtown Kane, but we also walked that small segment after our Kinzua Bridge hikes, and that segment seemed just fine. We decided to do a little more research and discovered that, even though the portion near our campground was also marked as closed, it was actually open all the way to Kinzua. That would give us plenty of miles.
The Route 219 trail crossing was only a few tenths of a mile from the entrance to High Pines, so we left right from our campsite. We biked to Kinzua State Park, about 8 miles, and then took a break to walk the Skywalk once again. We really don't think you can go to the state park without walking the skywalk. We have now done it 4 times! Then we hopped back on the ebikes and rode back to camp.
The trail is flat and made of crushed gravel. We actually prefer routes with hills, especially on the ebikes, because we can up our pedal assist on the uphills and coast on the downhills. Flat means we're constantly pedaling with no reprieve, and even with pedal assist, it's tough on the legs because the ebikes are so heavy. We chose to be leisurely, keeping ourselves on moderate gears and using pedal assists around 1 or 2. We clocked just about 16 miles total and felt like we got a good workout. In addition to challenging ourselves to hike 100 miles this summer, we also have a goal to ebike 100 miles. It's an easier feat than the hiking, but we still need to rely on good weather to do it. This day got into the 80s, but most of the rail trail is shaded, so we felt good making this 16-mile dent in our goal.
After visiting Allegheny in the fall and summer, we can safely say that we prefer the fall. Then again, we prefer to camp in the fall in most cases. However, we felt the same peace and calm as our last visit, and that's exactly what we needed after our busy voyage through the Midwest. It's hard to believe that we're already rounding our final leg of Season 3. We'll be in the Northeast for the remainder of the year, enjoying our home turf and having a much-needed regroup. We're so thankful that two years ago, we found Allegheny and it became our place of rest before our trek back to New England. This year, it served as the same. Finding these homes away from home really boosts our travel morale.