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View Full Version : Family- two nights in Michaux S.F., Penna.



Quercus
08-09-2010, 22:12
Hello WhiteBlaze forum. Nice to meet you folks.

My wife and I are headed to visit my old friend in Virginia, and have settled on an itinerary that includes few nights of camping in the Michaux State Forest as a stopover on the way down from Connecticut.

I thought I'd post here for advice from anyone familiar with the AT through there or nearby parks.

Our family: me, :-? an experienced hiker, hiked the Olympic Range solo, and have done long distance hitchhiking trips with a little frameless jansport daypack and Eureka Solitaire on several different continents. my wife, :sun who grew up in Alaska and overnighted at Wonder Lake with me next to Denali on a visit there, prefers car camping and festivals to roughing it. My Sons, :banana:bananaages 3 and 5-- definitely outdoors types who've grown up without a TV in the house, and are amenable to most things outdoors. Music Festival camping experience only, but a good amount of walking and hiking experience.

We have a few hours to hike in to set up a site, a day to enjoy the forest, and should get out at least by mid afternoon after our second night in.

Our equipment: We'll have bikes in the van for use on other parts of the trip, but could easily use them for accessing camping from any road (paved/gravel/or dirt) in the forest. Our tent choices are a huge North Face 6 person 30 Lb Treailhead 6 family camping palace, a good 7 Lb. Eureka Aspen 3 man, and a Shangri-La 4+ that I just found for cheap. Packs, sleeping bags and clothing for all, and either an ultra light cooking set up or a big old Brunton two burner.

So if anyone Familiar with the area maybe knows of an awesome place to set up car camping style that's near either good biking or good hiking, that would make my wife pretty happy. Otherwise, I'd love some advice on heading in with our 3 man and my new tarp for some hiking that's more along the lines of what this board is about.

ki0eh
08-11-2010, 23:19
PA State Forests don't allow car camping without a permit, and when they do they only allow that at certain designated sites. Call the Michaux SF office 717 352-2211 for a permit and the locations of car campsites.

There is a limited web reservation system for SOME car campsites in SOME PA State Forests. They do NOT currently have all the car camping sites listed in their online reservation system. That's why as of rignt now one needs to call, on that quaint instrument the telephone, to the District Office to inquire. (Sorry for the extra clarification, that's residuum from a similar inquiry I fielded earlier.)

If you want to hike in a couple of miles, then to the vicinity of Quarry Gap shelters, north on the A.T. from Caledonia State Park (US 30), might do. However, even out of sight of roads, camping for more than one night at any given location requires a permit in PA State Forests. See the phone number above.

If for some reason the Michaux doesn't work out, Green Ridge State Forest in MD also has a number of car campsites. Have fun!

Quercus
08-12-2010, 08:52
Thanks ki0eh!

I have been doing my homework and did find that we don't need a camping permit for nightly on-trail camping.

Primitive campers spending no more than 1 night at a campsite do not need a Camping Permit. However, a Camping Permit is required if:


you desire an emergency point-of-contact;
you stay at a campsite more than one night;
a campfire is desired during spring or fall fire seasons;
you camp using a vehicle for storage or transportation;
you are “group camping”; or,
you camp within the Pine Creek Gorge / Canyon in Tiadaghton or Tioga State Forests.

And I wasn't thinking of "stealth" car camping if we were to camp in the car, but in one of the SP campgrounds. I think I'll call that number to ask about options and their recommendations. I should find out if we can park overnight at Caledonia during our overnights on the trail up towards Pine Grove.

Since first posting this, I've found some blogs and hike reports that lead me to believe that the initial hike South of Caledonia SP towards Rocky Mtn. Shelters would be too tough to be enjoyable with the whole family, but going North to Quarry Gap would be a better bet, as near as I can figure from the Terrain map on google maps, which lacks any marking of the AT. I've always gone out with good topos in hand, but have none for the area. Still looking for a better free online source... I haven't done much hiking since becoming a father-- I'm sure that there are more resources out there than I'm aware of.

How is the hiking beyond Quarry Gap?

My 5 year old did a one day 1000' or 1500' hike up and down Overlook Mountain in the Catskills before turning 4, and I think his little brother is about at that point in stamina. Overlook is as high as anything in the Michaux, but has a wide gravel road that leads all the way up. I want to hike in to Quarry Gap to overnight, then hike in to a decent tent site somewhere further in, maybe a mile or two and do a "big" 4 or 5 mile hike back out the next day (with lots of breaks!). So does the terrain in the first few miles beyond Quarry Gap get too crazy to try this?

dzierzak
08-12-2010, 13:06
If you want an idea about the terrain and the AT, try http://fivemillionsteps.com/trailmap.php

It has an overlay of the AT and other long trails and you can zoom in and look at shelters, change to satellite view, etc. Uses Google maps as a base.

T.O.P

ki0eh
08-12-2010, 18:12
http://www.midatlantichikes.com/pa.htm has some circuit hikes listed north of Caledonia, about 25% of the way down the page. You might not want to go the full distance but the descriptions are detailed enough that you will have a good idea what shortening the hike will get you.

The PATC map 2-3 is an excellent dayhiking resource to the parts of Michaux SF north of Route 30 - yes it is 8 bucks or so, not a huge cost compared to your other travel costs though.

BigHodag
08-12-2010, 19:21
How is the hiking beyond Quarry Gap?

Great. The trail to Quarry Gap from Caledonia is steep, but good trail. From Quarry Gap north the trail is fairly straight with small rises and falls. Lots of ferns and chipmunks. There are numerous tenting areas along the trail north of Quarry Gap; however, the next water source is at Milesburn Cabin. There is a nice camp site above Milesburn Cabin that isn't too far from the water though. A road does run past Milesburn Cabin just across the creek and there was some traffic at night the evening I camped near Mileburn Cabin.

Caledonia is a great park for car camping. The camp grounds are up above the main park. A trail runs down hill from the campgrounds, past the amphitheater to the lower park. The shower's aren't much to write home about. Only two of four would latch to keep the water on.

The lower park has fairly long flat asphalt trails ideal for short bike rides. Kids like to splash and play in the creek.

Henicle's market is just a mile down the highway in Fayetteville and carries a nice selection of food and car camping supplies.

Quercus
08-13-2010, 08:57
Thanks, all.


If you want an idea about the terrain and the AT, try http://fivemillionsteps.com/trailmap.php

It has an overlay of the AT and other long trails and you can zoom in and look at shelters, change to satellite view, etc. Uses Google maps as a base.

T.O.P

Excellent. I knew there had to be a decent Google Maps based resource out there. I couldn't get regular Google maps to show Topo anymore, only "terrain," which isn't nearly as useful except when helping my spouse visualize the hike and compare to known local hills.


http://www.midatlantichikes.com/pa.htm has some circuit hikes listed north of Caledonia, about 25% of the way down the page. You might not want to go the full distance but the descriptions are detailed enough that you will have a good idea what shortening the hike will get you.

The PATC map 2-3 is an excellent dayhiking resource to the parts of Michaux SF north of Route 30 - yes it is 8 bucks or so, not a huge cost compared to your other travel costs though.

I usually go out with good topos like that. I have a great set for the Catskills. Time is a little too short to order any for this trip. I might check with my favorite camping store in NJ to see if they carry any and stop there on our way down from Connecticut.


Great. The trail to Quarry Gap from Caledonia is steep, but good trail. From Quarry Gap north the trail is fairly straight with small rises and falls. Lots of ferns and chipmunks. There are numerous tenting areas along the trail north of Quarry Gap; however, the next water source is at Milesburn Cabin. There is a nice camp site above Milesburn Cabin that isn't too far from the water though. A road does run past Milesburn Cabin just across the creek and there was some traffic at night the evening I camped near Mileburn Cabin.

Caledonia is a great park for car camping. The camp grounds are up above the main park. A trail runs down hill from the campgrounds, past the amphitheater to the lower park. The shower's aren't much to write home about. Only two of four would latch to keep the water on.

The lower park has fairly long flat asphalt trails ideal for short bike rides. Kids like to splash and play in the creek.

Henicle's market is just a mile down the highway in Fayetteville and carries a nice selection of food and car camping supplies.

Great! This is good to know. These boys are born climbers, but good trail is important at their age. I doubt I'd push the kids to get all the way to that cabin and back between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday evening. But depending on the trail, we just might... I think given the whole day and good weather, 6 or 7 miles back out from that Cabin area with *lots* of breaks might be doable. We can also just camp anywhere suitable and I can go ahead for water.

Quercus
08-22-2010, 03:08
Report: Caledonia was perfect. We arrived, picked a site up at the Hosack campground, and the kids hopped in the wonderful and very large pool while I set up the tents. Our hike up to Quarry Gap was beautiful-- none of my wife's fears about the true meaning of "steep" and "rocky" came true. The shelter was incredible-- hanging flower baskets, everything clean and pristine, and a very well built, attractive, and accommodating shelter structure. My wife's main reaction was to say that it would now be easier in the future to convince her to go camping! Our little guys hiked 4 miles on that first day on the AT. 2.6 to the shelter and a mile and a half up and back to a little view point up and down off the trail a bit. No complaints at all! They were great little hikers. Our 5 year old even carried his own sleeping bag up!