Last month I talked about canine hiking opportunities that show up as large chunks of green space on a Google map - United States Army Corps of Engineers recreation areas. Here's another source of hidden hikes: public utilities. I have found these trails to range from land that is merely open and available for public use to full-blown recreation areas. It may be well worth your dog's while to Google your local utility and "recreation." Here are some of my favorites:
The Pennsylvania Power and Light Company
PP&L manages 5,000 acres of recreational land surrounding the Holtwood hydroelectric plant. You can camp, enjoy a picnic, play some ball, do a little fishing - or hike. There are 39 miles of marked trails along the lower Susquehanna, most on the long distance Mason-Dixon and Conestoga trails. Canine hikers will want to head for Kellys Run where the 6-mile trail system has been designated a National Recreation Trail.
Starting out on the blue-blazed Kellys Run Trail you begin routinely enough at a picnic pavilion and drop quickly into airy woods of mature maples and poplar. Nothing special as you roll along. Then the trail drops abruptly and you are introduced to Kellys Run. Soon you are squeezing through thin avenues in a Wissahickon schist canyon as you follow the roiling stream down to the Susquehanna. In places where the rocks pinch the stream tightly enough, deep pools form to lure your dog in for a swim. After you reach the end of the run the character of this outing changes again. Old access roads are used to climb relentlessly back to your car. Benches appear in the woods as if by magic in this leg of the hike. Your final steps will be through rolling farm fields and, finally, ballfields. Near the parking area, circling around Kellys Run Trail, is the 3/4-mile Oliver Patton Trail that was also named a National Recreation Trail in 1992. This lively little track, named for the original farmer on these hills, traverses a stand of Norway spruce and white pine planted by the power company.
Several routes will take you out of the Kellys Run gorge up to the Pinnacle, a grassy picnic spot on a bluff more than 507 feet above Lake Aldred. The best route is the Conestoga Trail, carved by the Lancaster Hiking Club along the river. At the Pinnacle you can fill your dog bowl with water in season.
http://www.pplweb.com/holtwood/things+to+do/overview.htm
Baltimore County Watershed Management
Robert Gilmor, son of a successful Baltimore merchant, bought 2,000 acres in the Gunpowder River valley with dreams of building a castle resembling those of his ancestral Scotland. His mansion Glen Ellen never quite accomplished his vision and the estate was sold to the city just before he died in 1883. A dam and water tunnel to funnel water into Baltimore were built in 1881 and enough property was acquired by the 1920s to raise the height of the dam and create the 10-mile long Loch Raven Reservoir - the name being a tip of the hat to Robert Gilmor’s beloved Scottish lochs.
There is enough hiking on wide fire roads at Loch Raven to require days to complete. Throw in the ubiquitous side trails and it could take a dog’s life to see the entire watershed. All the trails through the buffer zone around the “loch” are heavily wooded with mature trees that help protect the reservoir’s water quality. Many of the trails track along high ridges with commanding views of the water, especially when the trees are not in leaf. A day of hiking Loch Raven with your dog will involve many hill climbs, some that will leave both human and dog panting. There are stream crossings and rough stretches of trail, especially through ravines.
Simply having the opportunity to hike these scenic trails is the biggest bonus at Loch Raven. Most municipalities do not allow access to its reservoirs and in fact recreational use here is an on-going experiment. If any activity is judged to adversely affect the water supply (like dogwalking) for Loch Raven’s 1.8 million users, the privilege will be withdrawn.
http://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/environment/watersheds/ep_lrmain.html
FirstLight Power
FirstLight Power Resources operates and maintains recreational facilities available to the public at the Northfield Mountain Station, one of its 14 power-generating sites in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The facility at Northfield produces electricity through pumped storage. During periods of lower electrical power demand, the plant pumps water from this lower reservoir to a man-made upper reservoir. At times of high demand, water is released to flow downhill from this upper reservoir through a turbine generator, where it then collects in the lower reservoir to be stored until again pumped to the upper reservoir. When the Northfield Mountain pumped-storage hydroelectric plant went into commercial service in 1972, it was the largest facility of its kind in the world. So where is the plant? It was built entirely underground.
The Northfield Mountain trail system is one of the best maintained (the trails won’t open for hiking until they are well past the squishy stage) and well-marked trails to bring your dog in Massachusetts. With 25 miles of trails fanning out up the mountain from the parking lot, you can craft any type of canine hiking day.
For an easy sampler, try the one-mile Nature Trail. Most long-distance dogs will eventually make their way to Rose Ledge, a 60-foot high cliff with views over the undulating treetops. The dense hemlocks and hardwoods are dense enough that your dog won’t even see the massive gneiss wall until she is standing beneath it if approaching ont he Lower Ledge Trail. The round trip, including a return across the top of Rose Ledge will take about an hour.
http://www.firstlightpower.com/northfield/
RETURN TO NOVEMBER 2009 NEWSLETTER
No Dogs Allowed?
Don’t let this happen to you
Sign up for a free subscription to our ONLINE newsletter -
THE WALK AND WAG RAG
ENJOY THE CURRENT ISSUE
FREE! Subscribe today and get your copy of Regulations For Dogs at 100
of the Most Popular National Parks in the United States...FREE!
YES, SEND ME MY MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER