Laurel Highlands trail is a 70 mile point to point trail that starts in Laurel Ridge State Park and ends in Ohiopyle. Ohiopyle is the best trail town in Pennsylvania: Hiking, Backpacking, Biking and Rafting. You can do it all from there.
Our second backing trip: Laurel Highlands starting from Ohiopyle. The flying squirrels were dive bombing our food bag all night. My second trip to Laurel was a winter trip with the guys, we got a lot of snowOur home for the night, the shelter site had fire wood but we had to dig it out of the snow and ice. We said we were mining for wood.Hike out on day 2 was through deep snow, very tiring
For some reason I decided it would be a lot of fun to complete the entire 70 mile trail in a 4 day trip. I even got five other crazy people to join me.
Day 1: we started at the north terminus in Laurel Ridge State park and hiked 13.6 miles to the shelters south of 271.View near the top of the ridge, I sure hope the scenery improvesThe ridge gets a lot of snow due to the higher elevation and it was still hanging around in late AprilThe views are improvingNot sure we had enough firewood, you can see one of the shelters in the background.Day 2: 19.4 miles to Laurel Summit State ParkLots of rocks on this dayThe Mountain Laurel was really thick in places. This is the Pennsylvania state flower and during spring bloom white flowers cover the mountainsidesTHOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!More rocks and almost to campDay 3: 19.2 miles to the route 653 sheltersThis is the bridge over the Pennsylvania TurnpikeEntering Seven Springs Ski resort, we were the only one’s there. It was packed when we hiked through on our winter trip, we had to sprint across the runs so we would not get run over by downhill skiers, my friend said we were playing real life frogger. People in the chair lifts were talking to us and thought we were crazyBlue Hole CreekMore rocksNice view from the ridgePrevious hikers?The last night a group of friends hiked in from the nearby parking lot and joined us for the night. They brought in food and we ate like royalty. I still remember the roast pork and the apple pie.Day 4: 17.4 miles to OhiopyleSteep climb to start the dayUnnamed creek but it was prettyThere was not a ripple in this small lakeLong way to the bottomNice view of the Yougiogheny River, also know as the YOK
Here is a link to one of the local outfitters where you can learn more about the river. We have never been on it
This is not far from the Ohiopyle shelters where Leann and I went for our first trip to Laurel Highlands
Another great trip, good friends and warm dry weather. I am glad we did it but it is not a do over to complete the entire trail. I would like to go back and do a 2 day trip in one of the nicer sections.
