Kiasutha Trails

My goal was the Campbell Mill Loop at Dewdrop, which is supposed to have some really great rock formations to explore.

Unfortunately, the Longhouse Scenic Byway is still almost impassable to the average car, and I didn't want to push Murtha too hard on the curvy, downhill road between Kiasutha Beach and old Camp Cornplanter. (I've named the ancient Toyota "Murtha" in honor of one of the greats: like her namesake, she's steady and sensible, if unglamorous.) The road was still too slick, despite all the recent sun and warmth.

So, with a glowering gray sky overhead, I made my peace with hiking the trails around Kiasutha. The "Longhouse Interpretive Trail" at the Kiasutha Recreation Area (which is closed for the
season) is one of the worst. It's hard to find, overgrown, and poorly blazed. It's also a "one way" trail because its ghetto-blazes, which are spraypainted onto trees, are only visible if you're going one direction. Otherwise, you're on your own.

So I'm not a huge fan of the trail at Kiasutha. But there's some worthwhile countryside in this area. If you can manage to locate the dull blue blazes near the Kiasutha boat ramp, you can follow them up across the paved road (The Longhouse Byway), and up the hillside that flanks the road. At a certain point, the trail turns left and follows a very old forest road. The trail follows the forest road for only a short distance, but instead of following the trail as it exits this old road, cut cross country and bushwack straight up the hill to your right. In time, you'll come into another abandoned forest road, also bushy, but much larger and more recent. Follow this road to the right as it wraps around the mountainside, passes through some hemlocks, and takes you to a fantastic pair of broad, grassy clearings at the summit of the hill. This would be a perfect
place to set up a tent.

Is that a hawk's nest or a squirrel's drey? Look closely at the light gray area in the dead center of the top photo. That's Kinzua Lake, way down in the valley below. This is a great place to summit because, unlike many peaks in the ANF, you can actually see how high you are here. The clearings provide a vista, and the lake gives it the valley floor clear visibility.