chestnutridge2

MOUNTAIN WANDERINGS

OCTOBER 18, 2009

PAGE TWO

Ligonier (see last October's visit to Fort Ligonier HERE) lies in the middle of the long valley between Chestnut Ridge

and its parallel counterpart, Laurel Hill, both running mile after mile after mile across western Pennsylvania. We took 271

northeast over Laurel Hill in the general direction of Johnstown. In the picture above, you can see the remnants of snow

atop the trees.

Almost at the top of Laurel Hill we pulled over and I got out to take a few shots of what was left of the

snowfall from the last couple of days in the mountains. I got rather wet here because the snow was

melting rapidly from the trees above me and plopping down upon my hair, my glasses, and my camera.

There was something kinda neat about it, though, and I liked it.

You can see how at this point the sky was not at ALL cooperative! That's looking back at Chestnut Ridge.

The red leaf backed by the stump immediately caught my eye.

...a very, very worn leaf, though still quite colorful. This was a tiny parklet atop the summit of Laurel Hill and it

was very wet, but its very wetness leant it a charm that I found lovely. A do adore sunlight through leaves, but

a damp scenario like this has its own beauty.

The one above and a goodly number below were taken on an overlook along 271 just as you're

coming down the long slope into Johnstown.

A great sharp slope to the hill!

The overlook has a long, curved stone wall that is very low...not even up to my knees...and the drop off on its

other side is QUITE steep and very long. It's much steeper than it looks in the picture above. The blue at the

end of the brown leaves is the Conemaugh River, which is NOT right at the edge of the brown, but many,

many, many yards 'n yard 'n yards on below that. Johnstown is most famous for its great flood in May of

1889, which killed 2,209 people when a 60 foot high wall of water crashed through the town. It was so

full of debris it had collected in its 14 mile trip from the burst dam that it was described as looking like a

hill rolling over and over as it came. It was also full of barbed wire it had picked up from a factory it had

destroyed. It was the biggest American flood of the 19th century.

I walked through the archway then took a couple of shots looking back.

An incline railway like we have in Pittsburgh, just across the Conemaugh.

We had lunch in Johnstown then headed northwest on 56, which runs on the western bank of the

Conemaugh. The sunlight was just...gone...sigh...or this would be a most colorful picture. The lace

vines were all golden and there was red sumac. The river is in a gorge between me and the hill beyond.

This was in the same place at the same time. I love sumac in the fall...but...alas...

56 with the Conemaugh on our right, waaay down. This is the deepest river gorge in the eastern USA.

A lookover stop but with the Conemaugh unseen because of trees. Again, how lovely the colors would have

been...

Another part of the same lookover

The colors actually showing a bit!!

There was a place to pull over further along and I was, at last, actually able to see the Conemaugh

through the trees.

I was heading back to our car after taken that shot where I could see the river and liked how the golden-

colored lace vines came down the hill and somehow I thought the car (with Carl patiently waiting in it,

music on) and the vines and the trees and the road was a fitting end to today's photography.

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