Poe Paddy Tunnel highlight of Penns Creek hike

This hike includes the following highlights: early fall color; railroad history including a tunnel and bridge; natural history, including a success story with bats; human tragedy commemorated with a stone memorial; and, of course, beautiful Penns Creek. You will be hiking on a mostly easy walking surface on a combination of the Mid State Trail — Penns Creek Rail Trail section — a short section of woodland trail along a stream, and State Forest gravel road. Most of the time you will be in the Penns Creek Wild Area, one of the recent additions to PA Wild Areas.

Joe Rebar organized the group of hikers who I met on a sultry mid-summer day. Rebar organizes hikes to fill any gaps in the hiking schedule of the Otzinachson Group of the Sierra Club’s Edward Abbey Hiking Society. Rebar’s hikes are informal opportunities to get on the trail and hike with people who enjoy hiking.

Our hike began at the Fish Commission Parking lot at Cherry Run, which is near where Centre, Union and Mifflin counties meet, three miles west of Weikert. Rebar sets the pace of these hikes to that of the slowest hiker. The eight of us participating on this hike were all steady hikers. Some probably could have walked faster, one was using this hike to see how recovered they were from an injury, but everyone kept a steady pace.

We walked west on the Penns Creek Rail Trail. This is a short, scenic section of the Mid State Trail that follows Penns Creek. Penns Creek and its bottom land was to our left for the initial 2 1/2 miles. On our right was the newly designated Penns Creek Wild Area and Poe Paddy Mountain.

This should be a nice hike to begin admiring fall foliage. Trees along streams and in hollows are among the earliest to become colorful. Black gum (Nyssa Slyvatica) is one of the earliest and my favorite for fall color. Its leaves move through a rainbow of shades that culminate in a bright red spectacle. Black gum trees like moisture and the bottom lands adjacent to streams. There are numerous black gum along this trail. When I returned to bicycle this section in mid-August, I found some red black gum leaves. By mid-September, they should be easy to spot.

The Poe Paddy Tunnel, a highlight of this hike is at about the 2 1/2-mile point. The tunnel goes through West Paddy Mountain. The railroad tunnel was built in the last quarter of the 19th century in a project begun by the Lewisburg, Centre and Spruce Creek Railroad. Penn Central abandoned this section of rail in the 1970s. The abandonment cleared the way for conversion to a Rail Trail.

The tunnel is a great shortcut for many recreational users. Day hikers, as well as Mid State Trail hikers and backpackers, use it. Anglers use it while fishing what PA Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director John Arway described as “a convenient pathway for anglers to access one of the best wild brown trout fisheries in the eastern U.S.” Inner tubers use it for easy access and return while floating two miles of Penns Creek and bicyclists ride through it.

But the tunnel had deteriorated so much that the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources closed it in 2013, and the Mid State Trail was relocated up and over the mountain until repairs were completed in late 2015.

The tunnel was lined and the trail surface in the tunnel was resurfaced. The project also included improving the trestle bridge over Penns Creek which received a new deck. Three bureaus of DCNR worked with the PAFBC and the Pennsylvania Game Commission to complete this project.

In a DCNR press release, PGC biologist Greg Turner calls Poe Paddy Tunnel “one of those unique sites” because it has “two entrances; now-primitive construction and blasting that left deep fissures and rough-hewn rock; and now, a specially constructed access for the tunnel’s winged visitors.” DCNR worked closely with the PGC to protect the upper portion of the tunnel and preserve it as a bat hibernaculum. The upper portion of the tunnel is gated and cut off from the lower portion that includes the trail.

I asked PGC Endangered Mammal Specialist Mike Scafini if trail users could expect to see any bats there.

“There is a small chance they could be seen there during spring (when they start to ‘stage’ to leave to head to summer roosting areas),” he said, “and a small chance they could be seen in fall (when they ‘swarm’ and mate before hibernation), but generally no, I wouldn’t expect them to be found there except during the winter. We have found bats in caves/mines/tunnels during the summer, but for the most part these bats go to tree roosts and rock crevices during that time of year.”

Four species of bats hibernate in the tunnel.

“We rarely see that many species at one site any more,” Scafini said.

With the recent decline in the bat population, primarily due to white nose syndrome, it is encouraging that the number of bats in the Poe Paddy Tunnel is increasing. Researchers are trying to determine what is responsible for the increase.

Shortly after exiting the tunnel you come to the refurbished railroad bridge that crosses Penns Creek. Take the time to walk out on the bridge and enjoy the views up and down Penns Creek.

To complete this hike, a loop walk leads behind the camp that is on the right just before the bridge. The trail — possibly an old trail, possibly a fishermen’s path — works its way along Penns Creek. In July, the rhododendron was past its peak, but beautiful clusters of blossoms remained randomly dispersed throughout the tall, thick stand. This is as close to Penns Creek as you will come on this hike.

Just past the camp you come to a stone monument. The engraved words can still be discerned: “Bryon Foust Krumrine Died at dusk Sept. 4, 1921, while swimming in the waters of Karoondinha 250 yards west of this spot.” The engraving also includes information that the young man was a lieutenant in the then-recent World War, a 1919 graduate of Penn State, and the monument was erected in 1923 by Lillian Sheffer. Newspaper accounts at the time say that she was a friend and that she tried saving him twice and almost drowned trying.

Krumrine was a writer and had planned to build a cabin at that spot. He was from Harrisburg and had spent much time in the hemlocks and pines, and likely developed an attachment to the quiet beauty along Penns Creek.

In the 1920s, the Pennsylvania Alpine Club built what was described in different accounts as a small lean-to or a hut next to the site for hikers, hunters and fisherman.

After about 1 1/2 mile of paralleling the stream, you will come to an unnamed side stream that has an old forest road that climbs out of the hollow. This is the Old Mingle Road. It bisects part of the 2,473 acres of state forest that was added to what was the White Mountain Wild Area to form the 6,200 acres of the new Penns Creek Wild Area. In a June press release, DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said: “Our Wild Areas offer the best places in our state forest system where people can experience wilderness, pursue peace and solitude, hike, watch wildlife and camp.”

There is a grassy track — definitely the road less taken — to the right of where Old Mingle meets Lick Hollow Road. We followed the track to a picnic table where we ate lunch. After lunch, we continued following Old Mingle Road and turned right when we came to Cherry Run Road.

We followed Cherry Run Road alongside Cherry Run. At Weikert Road, we went right and back to where we had parked. Cherry Run is a beautiful stream particularly upstream from this hike. Cherry Run is in the heart of the forest acres that were protected as Wild Area when the Penns Creek Wild Area was created. Without the forest road, Cherry Run would be a superb Wild Area destination.

Along with simply getting out and enjoying a fall walk in the woods, this hike has enough to satisfy a wide range of interests. Fall is a comfortable time of the year to get out. If you need further motivation, try hiking with a group. Rebar and the Sierra Club Otzinachson Group can help you to get out, and to enjoy your time in the woods.

This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 8:47 PM with the headline "Poe Paddy Tunnel highlight of Penns Creek hike."