Photo by Jaclyn Wilcox

Moraine State Park/Davis Hollow Cabin

Another quick message this week with more time on the road - see below for one out-of-office experience. Thursday and Friday - as you read this - our annual board retreat is taking place at Kings Gap Environmental Education Center, with trips to Pine Grove Furnace State Park and Michaux State Forest to showcase for the board and elected officials some of the good work of Friends and PPFF donors and members. 

The Friends of the Davis Hollow Cabin have one delightful task - caring for the Davis Hollow Cabin at Moraine State Park along the North Country Trail for thru-hikers to have a warm and inviting place to stay. Well, there was just no way to get the whole picture from Jaclyn Wilcox into the masthead so give a click to it and see the whole thing. And, really, I had no choice but to make that a jigsaw puzzle, now did I?

Tuesday was a day to celebrate completion of another terrific and much-needed project! Thru-bikers on the Great Allegheny Passage through Ohiopyle will now no longer need to climb all the way to Kentuck Campground for an overnight stay in the park. A five-site primitive campground has been established on a shelf just above the trail thanks to funding from the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation. 

The GAP Conservancy has shared a cogent, easy-to-follow post on how to make your reservation. Thanks, Bryan!

Park Manager Ken Bisbee said, "The Highbridge Biking Campsites are a perfect example of the need for and benefit of partnerships. The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation is instrumental in enabling grassroots projects such as this. From concept to completion, they are there to support our park staff who cannot do what they do without funds or the work of many unsung volunteers. Whether it be helping to identify a need, receiving and holding donations for a worthy project, or coordinating the boots on the ground to help complete the project, PPFF is a great partner in the goal of keeping Pennsylvanians invested and connected to our precious natural resources."

Here, making it official, are Park Manager Ken, Senator Pat Stefano, DCNR Deputy Secretary John Norbeck, PPFF's own Marci, Linda McKenna Boxx of the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, Ann Nemanic of GO Laurel Highlands, Thursa Crouse from Representative Ryan Warner's office, and Bryan Perry of the GAP Conservancy.

How's this for a great before and after? Writes photographer Molly Lloyd:

"Some photographers wait weeks, months and even years to capture some of their images.. This set of images are ones I have waited to post for almost 2 years now! Last winter, noticed this vehicle was MIA from Caledonia State Park [at the Forest Heritage Museum] that I had captured after a snow storm back in January of 2022.

Devastated by its disappearance later that year for autumn images, I was determined to find out what had happened to it. Luckily have a pal that works for Michaux State Forest and found out that it was actually being restored and would soon be done. Fast forward to this summer and it’s finally finished and back in its spot for visitors to see again !!"

A little work, a little music!

September 9th and 10th will be "Girl Scouts Love State Parks" days so lots of programs are on tap to help them earn badges. In some cases, the public is also welcome to learn a bit and have some fun, too.

Put a bookmark on the PPFF Events calendar and DCNR Calendar of Events so you never miss an announcement.

Congratulations all those fisherfolk who knew last week that the Poe Paddy Tunnel provides access to the fantastic Penns Creek, Pennsylvania's longest limestone stream. As such it is a flyfisher's paradise. Shhh! Don't tell anyone. 

DO, however, tell someone about Healthy Lands Week, coming up next month. From National Public Lands Day to A Walk in Penn's Woods, HLW is meant to celebrate volunteerism and recreation all across Pennsylvania. It's the second year for the event and PPFF and our other partners in the initiative would love to see it grow. This week, your task is to visit the website and name one other HLW partner. 

Enter each week to increase your chances of a fabulous prize at the end of the month when I'll draw one entry from all correct answers received during the month.

Green boxes are pictures and news; blue boxes are events.

Quote: Rudolf Arnheim, Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order (1971)

Photo: Ellen Scavia, Friends of White Clay Creek
Northern Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum) on the Penndel Trail