This moderately strenuous, nearly 6-mile loop hike, with > 1,000 ft of ascent in total, will take us along the Musser Gap Trail, the new Fern Winder Trail, the new Up and Over Trail, and the long-established Mid-State Trail to Hubler Gap Vista atop Tussey Mountain.
We were just at Hubler Gap Vista 2+ months ago, but this hike will utilize two of the newly-constructed trails in the Musser Gap area to reach it, something we have not done before.
We will start and finish at the Musser Gap trailhead parking lot, meeting at 11 a.m.
At Hubler Gap Vista, we will be rewarded with a pleasant view to the southeast, gazing across the expanse of Stone Valley toward Stone Mountain on the far horizon. It's a good glimpse of one portion of what geologists have designated as the Valley and Ridge and Physiographic Province of the Central Appalachian Mountains.
The erosion-resistant sedimentary rocks in these ridges exceed 400 million years in age. They were deposited in the now-vanished Iapetus Ocean -- named for the titan Iapetus (the father of Atlas) in ancient Greek mythology -- in the Silurian Period of the Paleozoic Era. The ridges themselves were formed during the so-called Alleghanian orogeny that began 325 million years ago when the North American and African tectonic plates collided.
These long-running, nearly level, parallel ridges of sandstone and quartzite are cloaked with dense deciduous (broadleaf) forests, and graced with stands of white pine and eastern hemlock. They are part of Rothrock State Forest, named for Dr. Joseph Trimball Rothrock (1839-1922). A native of Mifflin County and recognized as the “Father of Forestry” in Pennsylvania, in 1895 Rothrock was appointed the first forestry commissioner in the state’s history.
The entrance to the Musser Gap trailhead parking lot is just under a mile from the intersection of PA 26 and PA 45. When approaching it in your vehicle, drive slowly, because it’s a sharp right turn off PA 45 up a steep gravel ramp; the entrance turns sharply right and immediately you’ll see the spacious gravel parking lot. We will meet at the kiosk at 11 AM.
