18 June 2013 Sand Run Falls and Cowenesque Lake

Our journey today had two major goals. We wanted to find the Legacy of Conservation cache at Sand Run Falls and to visit Cowenesque Lake. The logs to Sand Run Falls were really positive for prior finders and friends had placed a number of puzzle solutions at Cowenesque Lake. It sounded like a perfect plan. After pulling off at a roadside parking area, we started our Sand Run Falls journey. The trail quickly moved towards a quiet stream.

We stayed on the trail until we eventually came to a rope line. Rope line? It was a steep way down and previous cachers appeared to have used it so down we went.

The rope line was a bit of overkill as Ali stops part way down and uses her hiking stick to point out something she sees at the bottom.

Once we were at the bottom, the area started getting real interesting with a trail following a small stream with a series of riffles.

I'm easily impressed. I really liked the first falls we came upon. They were near enough to the cache that I just assumed we were at Sand Run Falls.

This small grotto area by the first falls was really serene. I am a little concerned though when I come upon dwellings built in the woods. There was clearly a semi-permanent, small camp shelter built to the right of the falls.

Oh, those must be the Falls...

Wow... Sand Run Falls

The falls are beautiful. The raw power at the top is awesome.

Like so many geocaching adventures, we discovered an easy trail to take us out of the area and back to the trail where we parked. Returning by the conventional path took us to a small final falls.

After leaving Sand Run Falls, we made our way to Hills Creek State Park. We're getting closer to finding geocaches in 100 state parks around the country so this was another new park to add to our list. It wasn't a bad park, but for us it wasn't exciting. It looked like a great place to go camping, but we're not the park-and-stay type. It's funny how expectations change. If this park were in Ohio, it would be above average, but since there are so many super state parks in Pennsylvania, it didn't stand out. The staff were really busy getting the place ready for the 4th of July crowds. So much so, that one employee wore out his John Deere. We thought the creative tow package with the Kubota was ingenious even if the corporate safety manager part of my brain was 'screaming don't do that.'

Cowenesque Lake is an Army Corps flood control project. As we have traveled around, we have seen a number of these places. Most have larger reservoirs and a fair amount of land surrounding the reservoir. They all appeared to be built at some point with a thought of providing recreational lands in addition to their flood control purpose. They look as though they were once great places for families to spend time together getting invaluable exercise. They have large parking lots, trails, boat ramps, and no visitors. :( Many appear to get very limited use. They all look to be partially abandoned. Cowenesque Lake is a perfect example of that. Its an attractive location with lots of trails and grass and weeds reclaiming the parking areas. We enjoyed our visit. There's a number of higher terrain caches with a few multis and handfuls of puzzles.

We ended the day back in Wellsboro with dinner, locating most of the whereigo balance, and sitting in the park near the Wynken, Blynken, and Nod statue.