Duncannon PA - Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Duncannon OKs deal to preserve watershed lands - Perry County Times Dec 2017
Duncannon watershed deal to be sealed next month - Perry County Times Aug 2018
According to the above articles, the Nature Conservancy acquired rights to the watershed land and proposed trails in 2018. I could find no evidence of that ever happening although it appeared that the proposed trails might already be there. The connection from the Appalachian Trail to a woods road in the watershed existed on my 1998 version of the Appalachian Trail map. Would that still viable if the Nature Concervancy had not resurrected it? I had to find out.
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| AT Map from 1998 - Nature Conservancy Proposed Trails in 2018 |
DIRECTIONS:
GPS Coordinates 40.38156, -77.02925
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| Appalachian Trail Parking on Inn Road |
TRAIL MAP:
Appalachian Trail PA Sec 9-11 Map - Keystone Trails Association
HIKE DISTANCE: 15 miles
THE HIKE:
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| Heading to the far end of the parking lot to cross over Inn Road to the right ... |
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| ... and proceed up the first of many, many stone steps. |
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| Parking lot already full at 9 AM - I got the second to last spot. |
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| The trail from the Hawk Rock Overlook parking lot comes in from the right. Up to Hawk Rock there were quite a few people already but that is as far as they go. Be prepared for lack of hiker etiquette in this area - hogging views, taking breaks in the middle of the trail, no clue who has right of way, talking on cell phones... The rest of the hike after Hawk Rock would be much more peaceful. |
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| At the top at Hawk Rock. |
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| Leaving Hawk Rock I turned left on an unmarked trail that is apparently unmaintained (several downed trees to maneuver over) but still used enough to be clear the rest of the time. |
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| This comes out to views of the Susquehanna River although they would be better with the leaves down. |
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| Back on the AT and continuing south. |
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| I was thrilled to see fairly fresh blue blazes for that trail down into the watershed. The trail itself did not look that good but apparently it was there. I waymarked this spot since those blue blazes could not be seen coming from the other direction. For now on to the gas pipeline views before coming back to this spot to check out the blue trail. |
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| The last of mountain laurel for this year. |
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| Coming out at the gas pipeline ... |
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| ... views to the right ... |
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| ... then the other side of the pipeline cut a trail to ... |
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| ... views to the left. |
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| Now retracing heading north on the AT. |
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| Back at the blue trail, we turned left on blue to find that indeed the trail was very rough but it was doable so we continued on. |
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| There were a few fresher blazes early on but then old faded blazes as the trail descended very steeply. It was always distinct enough to follow, just a lot of dead fall to negotiate. All this would need is fresh blazing and a bit of cleanup. |
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| Coming out at the woods road where we turned left in search of the 1857 Duncannon Smokestack. |
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| The woods road was mostly clear ... |
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| ... with about 3 or 4 major blowdowns we had to bushwhack around. |
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| The smokestack was not on this woods road but I found it on a woods road that splits away at a fork. |
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| Duncannon Smokestack built in 1857. |
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| Heading back. |
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| To the left the faded old blue blazes for the connector trail on the right that we had been on earlier. Now continuing straight the rest of the way. There would be no more blow downs to navigate around from this point on. |
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| At the far end the woods road becomes a gravel road and follows along Sherman Creek. |
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| Passing through the Hawk Rock Overlook parking lot. |
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| A little bit of residential road walking to meet back up with the AT where to the left it enters Duncannon. The parking lot is to the right but we went left to the bridge first ... |
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| ... for a view of Sherman Creek. |
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| Sherman Creek flows into the Susquehanna River. |
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| Now back the other way on Inn Road to the parking lot. |
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