Crow’s Nest: A visit to Pine Creek Gorge

I was very fortunate this weekend to go on a bike trip on the rail trail in Pine Creek Gorge, the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Denise and I took Owen and our dog Tillie on a leisurely bicycle ride on the 63 miles from Wellsboro Junction to Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

It’s a rail trail, so very flat and an easy ride. The trail and campgrounds are impeccably maintained (way to go, PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry!). We didn’t see any bear or rattlesnakes but we did see some fresh bear scat, and kept our food and trash in bear bags hoisted on the ends of tree limbs.

Here’s the view from Tiadaghton campground in the evening…

And the next morning…

We met lots of people enjoying the trail, though surprisingly the campgrounds were not full on this holiday weekend. We saw lots of people with kids in trailers behind their bikes (Owen rides in front of Denise in a bike child seat that lets him see everything). I was disappointed to see one child playing a video game inside a bike trailer while passing through this sublime landscape.

We used our bike trailers for our camping gear and for our dog. Time in the gorge was spent without access to cell phones, email and such, so the few days were very relaxing.

In the lower reaches of the trail you pass through small towns with general stores, inns, ice cream shops, restaurants, and bed & breakfasts, so a trip like this could easily be done without packing camping gear and all your food.

By the way, Jersey Shore, PA is only three hours drive from Crow’s Nest, and Wellsboro is perhaps another hour. A local outfitter helped us stage our car at the end of our ride.

Posted by Daniel Barringer on September 4, 2012.