I broke in a new coffee pot at Lyman Run State Park during Labor Day weekend. Anxious to relive at least a smidgen of the Bob Marshall wilderness experience, my wife and beagle and I drove up to the Pennsylvania Wilds and camped. This was our first time to Lyman Run and we were impressed with the facilities and the park. The dam has recently been repaired and there are new shower and bathroom facilities.Bowhunter had warned that water levels in Potter county were extremly low but I hoped against hope and took the flyrods anyway. Upper Lyman run was a trickle and lower Lyman was very low. I managed to hook a few micro-brookies in upper Lyman; however, the fishing was just not enjoyable with the low water levels.
So, I stowed the rods and was content to hike and simply enjoy the fine weather and beautiful surroundings. The crawdads were active and seem very healthy in Lyman run.
All in all we had a good weekend camping will certainly return next year when water levels and fishing are better.
All in all we had a good weekend camping will certainly return next year when water levels and fishing are better.
4 comments:
Yowza, this post brings back a lot of memories for me. Back when I was in my twenties I would make a couple of trips a year up there just to camp & fish. The first trout I ever caught on a dry fly (#14 Adams) was on upper Lyman Run just below Jacobs Hollow and I remember it like it was just yesterday. I had even hiked the entire Susquehannock Trail loop before my 25th birthday -this was back when the trail was in it's original configuration and still only a couple of years old. We camped by the old beaver ponds up at Splash Dam Hollow one night, which were still decent fishing back then, and listen to the beavers work at night as we drifted off to sleep. Today I'd be happy just to make it 50 yards from the trailhead parking lot and back to the car :^)
Try it again next April or May and the scenery and fishing will knock your socks off.
Thanks, Matt.
See...there's the beagle!
I too, hiked the entire Susquehannock Trail I think in 1970. A friend and I tried to set the record for the shortest hike but we hit heavy rains from Patterson to Cross Forks and we lost time carrying 40 pounds of wet US Army sleeping bags up through Ole Bull on the way back to Coudersport. Spent the night in Cross Forks sleeping on the porch of "Slim" the deer man. We completed the hike in 84 hours with blisters the size of silver dollars on our feet. Got drunk in Potato City and forgot about the whole stupid ordeal.
That beagle gets to see more quality water than I do :^(
We had a few biblical deluges on our trip too. Sheets of rain would come down all night long and just hammer our tents. We were stupid enough to pitch our tents on an island in the middle of upper Cross Fork Crick one night and in the morning the crick was lapping at the door of my tent. A few days later, after another spring freshet, we saw a fella paddling down Hammersley Fork in a birch bark canoe -I kid you not. By the time we hit the final leg of our hike waterfalls were just pouring down every ravine from Patterson to Splash Dam. The climb up Cardiac Hill to Cherry Springs Fire Tower almost put me into cardiac arrest. We even caught a few fish despite all the high water.
One thing that has probably changed since your hikes of the 70s and 80s is the ATV. There are a couple of ATV trails around the park and the noise is distracting to downright annoying at times.
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