El Dorado of the Allegheny

The Tionesta National Scenic Area is the El Dorado of the Allegheny. You can set off in search of the place like a brave Spanish conquistador, but you'll probably never find it, and you might never be heard from again. Those happy few who do actually do find the place scratch their heads and think to themselves, "Huh, it took longer to plan this trip than the hike itself."

Not to disparage any part of the forest. I love the whole flippin' thing. But when you hear that there are 2,000 acres of 400 year old hemlock and beech forest, and that it's protected as a national natural landmark, well, you just assume that it's one of the highlights of the ANF. Maybe the Tionesta Scenic Area is nice in the summer. But on a gray November Sunday--a day that evokes the old Morrissey song--this place doesn't quite seem worthy of the considerable navigational skills that it takes you to get here.

It's tree carnage, due to the infamous tornado of 1985: twisted limbs, fallen trunks, rotting hulls of ancient trees. Some areas are scrubby from all the dense saplings that have sprung up on the once-dark forest floor. There are some very nice old hemlocks. Some of them are as grandiose as the trees you see in Cook's Forest. Twenty-four years after the tornado, many of these hemlocks still hold splintered and ragged tops high against the sky. It's almost as if Nature herself couldn't bear the thought of two ancient forests in such close proximity to each other, and so she decided to decimate one of them.

Now don't get me wrong. Jeff Mitchell--peace be upon him!--is the forest guru. My copy of his book, Hiking the Allegheny National Forest (autographed by the author himself), is as dog-eared as my copy of To the Lighthouse. Heck, my copy of Jeff's book is as well-worn as the little black book that I use at weddings, and funerals, and baptisms. When Jeff describes a hike, or gives directions, or estimates distances, his accuracy is astounding. What I sometimes find frustrating about Jeff's book is that he always withholds judgment. He never says things like, "Don't bother with this trail if you hate hiking in oil fields," or, "This trail is as dull as Food Network." But I only get Sunday afternoons to spend in the woods, and it sure is frustrating when I dedicate my precious hiking time to a place that isn't really all that great. I kind of wish he had left his readers a clue that the Tionesta National Scenic Area will be a whole lot nicer in 100 years.