Saturday, October 4, 2008

French Creek - Six Penny Trail

I just completed a chilly morning outing of the Six Penny Trail and former recreation area. I am still amazed by the literal abandonment of the area some years ago. A small dam remains which has created a small wetlands ecosystem.

Nature is surely reclaiming it, but the hand of man remains as do the charcoal pits, huge parking lots, foundations and remains of buildings. I think an amateur archaeologist would enjoy exploring the site.

Max & I followed an unmarked path that led us to a spring house. In the woods surrounding this area were more building remains and two heavy duty stone fireplaces. The bricks in the two different hearths were labeled "WWCO" and "RIDGE". We followed the small gorge which eventually met the Six Penny Trail (orange blaze).

The trail and its numerous switchbacks lead us up a fairly challenging hill and would have taken us to the campgrounds had we stuck to it. Time and hunger got the best of me, so we headed back.

The leaves are truly starting their transition from green to the fall palette.

A first for me occurred when I was stung inside my lower lip by what I presume was a yellow jacket. It seemed completely random, for I hadn't even seen a bug the whole trip thus far. What started out as numbness within minutes turned into throbbing and swollen that lasted for a day.

The pedometer measured about 3.7 miles. Temp 47-54. Wore red due to hunting season.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I found your pics of Six Penny Lake from 2008. Very interesting. I'm hoping to find more - just early memories. From hafshel2@aol.com

    ReplyDelete