BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Laurel Ridge hiking trail has "lean to" type shelters with fireplaces. Keeps you off the ground and dry in the summer, and pretty damn warm in the winter. At most there is a well for drinking water and lavatories with lots of spiders. If you can, then bring some vegetable oil spray, pumping squeaky wells at dawn tends to wake everyone earlier than anticipated.

Be sure to make a reservation, because after a day of hiking it will be awkward when another party asks you to leave.

For a weekend shakedown trip, Raccoon Creek State Park is great. There are hiking trails, some non-challenging mtn biking, and you can rent a canoe on the lake, or swim. You'll want to get away from the "modern" camp sites and back into the "primitive" camping sites. If you want to go light (no tent), there are some NICE 3 sided lean-to shelters scattered around the hiking trails, those are a nice way to intro someone to camping, and it'll be more likely she will want to try something again.

Plus, it's a short drive, you can get to the fun quickly and not spend all day driving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McConnells_Mill_State_Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coopers_Rock

both of these are highly recommended... m.mill is by far one of the most interesting areas around

Coopers Rock is gorgeous.

If you want to do an easy all-bike trip, the drovo campground on the GAP is an easy 25 miles from the point.

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I'm having too much fun with the google tonight...

a href="http://dianhasan.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/camper-bike-6.jpg">link

try again

there's lots of great camping in the Allegheny National Forest, as well as the Monogahela National Forest. the Mon Forest is very very beautiful. lots of great hiking in both

I went up to cedar creek the weekend before last. There and dravo both had piles of wood that had been cleaned up off of the trail. A ranger that came by said burn what we can it helps clean up the park. Also we stayed in the log shelter and it was great. Never even set up the tent.

Nice!!! one of my favorite spots around pittsburgh

http://nevertellmetheodds.org/t.php?id=102350&r=22

this thread!

Decided on Raccoon Creek and headed there tomorrow. Is there a decent wood supply there or should I try to pick something up curb-side on my way?

Don't know about wood, call the park office and ask. 724-899-2200

But if you go into one of the "primitive" areas I would guess there is going to be as much downed wood as you can scavenge.

The "Sioux" or "Pioneer" primitive areas are the ones you want, they are not the typical clear-cut car camping areas you find a lot. Obviously from either of those sites you can hike the whole park. Have fun.

Cooper's Rock is awesome. The campground is pretty nice, though the sites are kinda close. They do have fire pits, though, and sell wood there (you can also gather). There's tons of hiking and mountain biking there, too (and climbing, if you're into that sort of thing).

We recently stayed the night at Laurel Ridge State Park, and that was quite nice. The camping was a bit more spread out than Coop's, with lots of trees between the sites.

@ Edmunds

I'm thinling of biking to Raccoon and walking the bike along the hiking trails to a lean-to. Is that practical? Like a mile or two of walking would be OK, anything over 4 not OK, unless I could ride the trail.

That should be do-able. Some of the lean-tos seem to be on a trail marked for mtn biking, plus the place is crossed with dirt fire roads that you could definitely ride. That would be a good trip.