May 18, 2008
This is the first day of a 16 day vacation for Lynn and me. To break up the long drive down to Tennessee where we left off on the Appalachian Trail last year, we stopped in the mid-Atlantic states. We are going to visit three state highpoints today. We had beautiful weather yesterday as we drove in the car. Now that we are out and about, we get rain. So typical, for our vacations. That's OK! We are going to make the best of it. First up is Mount Davis, the highest point in Pennsylvania. There is a road that will take you to the top, but we decided to hike at least part of the mountain. Here's the track of our hike.
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We started at Mount Davis Picnic Area
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We would hike up the .8 mile High Point Trail.
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Turns out, there is little (if any) elevation gain on this trail. The top of the mountain is a large plateau.
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The rock in the picture below had a survey marker on the top. I figured that was the top.
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There is no natural view from the 3,213 foot summit of Mount Davis, but the tower would provide a beautiful 360° view - on a nice day. Despite the weather, we climbed the tower anyway.
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This marks #8 for my state highpointing. Since the trail was so wet we decided to take the road back. On the way we found a very short trail to Baughman Rocks.
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On a plaque we read the following:
Henry Baughman - an ill-tempered man - and his two sons were searching the fields for lost cows. The father became angry with his youngest son, August, who was slowing the search.
The father struck him with a stick, knocking him unconscious. Henry, thinking his son was dead, hid the body amongst what is now called Baughman Rocks. Later, returning to the site, he could not find the body. On the testimony of his eldest son, Henry was tried, convicted, and served a term for second degree murder. What happened to August remains a mystery to this day.
"Well that's not a very nice story," said Lynn.
I burst out laughing. Of course it was true what she said, but how she says things always keeps me laughing.
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