Allegheny and Susquehanna

My walks today took me all around 4 towns and alongside (and over!) 2 rivers. I started the day in Warren PA, which is a historic town along the Allegheny River. We walked 2.8 miles through the historic part of town, past some grand old homes with beautiful landscaping, and over the river to a path that ran alongside. While wandering through town, I passed a pink(?!)brick building that was the local office for Habitat for Humanity, so I decided that would be my donation of the day. I would have preferred to buy actual supplies, but since I have no idea what is needed, and no one was currently in the office, I just wrote a check. It would be more fun to shop, but that wasn’t practical in this case!

I then headed through the Allegheny National Forest and soon came to Kane, which at first glance looked like a fun place to walk around – big 2-story brick buildings lining the main street. But, the town has perhaps seen better days, and I only walked 1 mile along the main streets and into the adjoining hilly neighborhood.

Further along was St. Marys, a bustling town in the Alleghenies, and it was very hilly and I felt it in my legs! It doesn’t seem to bother the dog! We covered 1.5 miles of hills, mostly on residential streets of homes that have been there for a while. The houses were fairly close together, and I could hear the clatter of pots and pans, somebody practicing the piano, kids playing ball in the street, and it seemed very timeless – what people there have been doing for generations (until a kid rode by on a bike talking on her cell phone and broke the spell!). There were lots of elk warning signs in this area, and I read later that the biggest elk herd east of the Mississippi is in these parts. I didn’t see any.

I finished the last of the walking in Clearfield along the Susquehanna River. I actually walked a little more than 8 miles because the last part of the walk was so pretty in the evening with the river on one side of me and pretty homes on the other side. The town had long straight streets so I walked up and down most of them also.

I didn’t plan to drive too much farther since it was nearly dark (it seems to be dark half an hour earlier each day, but part of it was because I was in the mountains), and I’m trying to stick to one of my “rules” about being settled somewhere by dark, but I broke that rule today…I’m still working on adjusting some of my late driving habits, and also adjusting to the fact that I probably won’t drive as much since the walking takes a bit of time!