In Pennsylvania, the Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Appalachian Plateau to the west and the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians (where you will find the weird curves distinctive to Central Pennsylvania) to the east:

Pennsylvania

As I was planning to cross Bedford County, I became determined to climb one of these weird skinny ridges. I consulted a map to find the best spot to walk up a hill, and that was how I discovered Tussey Mountain, State Game Lands 97, and the State Game Lands system in general.

When trying to plan a visit to a State Game Lands, the first thing one notices is that the maps provided by the PA Game Commission are not as useful as they could be:

map

None of the roads are labeled, so it’s difficult to plot a route to get there. Within the game lands, it’s never clear which roads will be open (and thus which parking areas will be accessible). Some parking areas appear not to be connected to any roads at all. No trails seem to be shown on this map, and on other maps I have found trails on the map which do not appear to exist in real life. Google Maps is mostly unhelpful, Open Street Map is a little better.

Tussey Mountain is a long skinny ridge that begins at the Maryland-PA border. The ridgeline is supposedly 80 miles long with the other end near State College, though it is interrupted by a few significant water gaps, and takes a couple sharp zigzags, so it’s questionable to me that it should all count as one ridge.

I entered the game lands on the east side of Tussey Mountain, just south of the turnpike. I walked up the hill and then walked south along the ridgeline on the Mid State Trail, a backpacking trail from the southern border of PA to the northern border (or vice versa, if you are that kind of person). I met a backpacker heading north–I was the first person he had seen since starting the trail the previous day.

The ascent was steep, and the last part especially steep and straight thru a rock field:

rocks

I was ill-prepared and had neither trail shoes nor hiking poles.

Even the flat part along the top of the ridge was rocky and difficult, and a rattlesnake on the trail tried to block my path, rattling to keep me away:

A snake

There were plenty of vultures and I accidentally flushed a turkey I didn’t see, very loudheavywingbeats, a contrast to the silent vultures.

My route:

route map