US 6: Trip 5: Day 8 (Endless Mountains)

NOTE: I have more pictures! The internet connection is currently too slow to upload them though (it took over an hour to do my smaller pics that are here), so I'm going to catch up in a week.

Morning started relatively warm and windy. I drove back to Tunkhannock, where I had been the night before. US 11 is multi-plexed with US 6 between Clarks Summit, where I stayed, and Factoryville.

Factoryville is the home of Keystone College. Keystone College was founded in 1868 as Keystone Academy, a high school. It only became a junior college in 1934, and began offering bachelor's degrees in 1998. The campus backs up to the Susquehanna River. There are several 19th century houses that serve as classroom and office buildings for the college, though there are also a number of newer buildings as well.

Factoryville is cuter than it sounds. Here, a section of old US 6 goes through the town on a residential street while the current US 6 bypasses the town completely, and you see nothing of it if you stay on the main road. At the west end of town, you go under US 6 and have to make an unsigned left turn to get back on the road. Continuing straight takes you onto former US 11, which eventually joins with that highway to the north.

Road to Vosburg from US 6

I took a side trip to Endless Mountains Nature Center. This turned out to be mostly a nature education program for the adjacent presbyterian youth camp, Camp Lackawanna. It sprawls over several hundred acres along the Susquehanna River, with 100+ miles of trails, and a former West Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal which is now mostly dry, and only evident in its deep bed and occasional stone retaining wall.
The nature center lodge was closed that day and no one was around. I know this because the phone rang inside the house while I was standing there and the answering machine eventually picked up. I signed in to the trail registry, as instructed. I was the first one to be there since Saturday.
I have a habit of not writing my full name on guestbooks, especially when they don't fully require it. I mean, if there had been a real problem, they could have easily figured out who I was through the car I was driving. And why should several hundred people after me be able to see my full name and zip code?
I started on the "Road to Bethlehem," which took you south to the river, then back north to the banks of the canal. Here, I had intended to follow the "Trail of Blessings" (remember that this is a religious camp) to a spot right on the river, but I found it flooded, completely covered by what I assume to be a section of river. This section of river created a small island that I reached the end of as I continued on the former trail. That trail followed the canal until it just sort of disappeared, then hooked back and went straight to the lodge via a few cabins.
The second part of the trail followed a steep escarpment, where water dripped from the stones onto the leaves and moss below, making it sound as though it was raining. It actually looked like it wanted to snow more than anything. It was peaceful. There was no one around, no noise, and no bugs (too early). I believe, however, that it's hunting season, unfortunately. There were a number of temporary signs posted along the road indicating no-shoot zones, parking zones, safety zones, etc. This made me a bit nervous about wearing my jeans and brown sweatshirt. I was already nervous in walking back because it seemed like a great place to encounter a bear.
I got back to the lodge and found that I had been gone about 45 minutes. I got in the car and went back to US 6.


Vosburg Road, crossing over an active railroad just before it goes into a tunnel visible just to the right	Entrance sign

Laceyville

Meshoppen consists of a few houses, a gas station and a few old and some abandoned buildings, shoved up against the river and a mountain. It's a cute town.
But I kept driving. I had mistakenly passed the Vosburg Road turn-off and did not realize it until I had reached Meshoppen and checked the map. I had to go back up the hill, so I went through Meshoppen twice.
After Meshoppen is Laceyville which, like Factoryville, is set back from the highway on an older routing. There's no mystery about where the old route is, as it takes a left fork then goes right through the center of town. Laceyville had a lumber supplier and a small downtown area. The lumber supplier had a group of men outside, leaning against a truck and talking. They all glanced at me as I drove by, curious what the unknown car and person was doing in their town. That's the funny about these stretches of old US 6, where traffic has been routed away from the town: they become local roads where only the local population drives. So you lose that anonymity of driving on the larger routes.

This old route of US 6 continues out of Laceyville as Cornell Road. As far as I can tell, there's no place nearby named Cornell. The old route intersects the current route where Cornell Road meets Diner Road, though I didn't continue on Diner Road, which just makes a small loop of US 6.

Just before Wyalusing, I came across Grovedale Winery and River Barge Brewing. I came for the beer. I had found it in a guidebook I had picked up at Endless Mountains Nature Center. It's not on any brewery maps I had seen, but it's only been open since September 2013.

I had a flight of six beers and chatted with the tasting room manager, who poured the beers. The brewery is a completely separate operation from the winery, with different people who happen to be local friends. The beer was about as good as you'd think it would be, probably. I politely downed them. I really should have eaten before I came in. I had a little bit of a motivation in talking to the woman there. I had started seeing the water trucks indicative of fracking in Tunkhannock, and I was curious what was happening here and how the local population perceived it.
I brought it up by mentioning the fact that I had had trouble finding lodging because of the petroleum boom. I first found a positive attitude about the invading mineral exploiters, but also found that the winery rents out its second floor to one of the companies involved. In fact, office space is virtually unavailable locally, as are rental properties. She told me an apartment in town could not be found for less than $1000. She wouldn't say anything bad, but she also told me she had owned a used car business before. Even the question about the water was met with, "No, I think that's a minority; maybe 5%."
I don't like to get too political with people when I'm on the road, so I didn't press it too much, though I did keep it as a subject as I talked to her.

A viewpoint on US 6 just past Wyalusing.
I believe you can see Azilum somewhere
in this picture

Just to the west of Wyalusing, but across the river is French Azilum. This was an attempt at a French settlement after the French Revolution, where the aristocratic exiles from there would be able to settle in relative peace. Marie Antoinette was supposed to have come here had she not been executed. Peace did not follow these people though, as this particular settlement failed, while another settlement in Haiti was just prior to a major slave revolt. I was told that many of the settlers stayed and inner-married, but few are still living in the region.

I got lunch down the road in Towanda at an overpriced cafe that shared a dining room with a bar. Pot roast on a bagel for $7.50. It could have been worse. But I blamed fracking. As I saw more water trucks, and more signs for furnished rentals, it's all I could think about, and it started to bother me. I took a few pictures of Towanda, but quickly continued down the road to Mansfield.


River access point near Towanda The phone was still attached	Towanda from the bridge over the Susquehanna River	Towanda

One of many, many fracking businesses along US 6

The majority of the landscape on this section of US 6 was rolling countryside. "Endless Mountains" is a bit of a misnomer as they aren't really mountains. However, it is quite pretty and quite dramatic. It's unfortunate that this spring is starting late and that I'm missing pieces of it.

Mansfield is a college town, anchored by Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, one of fourteen state colleges in the state. The school began as a female-only teachers college. Most of the buildings are newer and shoved against the hillsides. There are a number of very new (the past year) dorms at the upper reaches of campus.
Mansfield was much smaller than I thought it would be. Its position where US 6 and the well-traveled US 15 meet brought up expectations in me. But the downtown area is just a 2-3 block strip, and you're quickly out of town as you drive in both directions on US 6. There may be more development near US 15.
I specifically came to Mansfield to visit my first on-road brewpub: Yorkholo Brewing (pronounced like "York Hollow"). I inadvertently came in close after the place opened at 4pm, but found a couple there eating in the corner. The rest of the bar was empty, but I was welcomed in by Mike and told to sit anywhere.
Mike was an excellent bartender. I also probed the fracking thing by asking if any of them came in there, but he diverted the question into a commentary on domestic beers. I had actually heard good things about the food also from two different people, so I ordered a veggie burger with a side salad and a flight of 8 samples.
The beer was actually excellent. They had some very interesting varieties, including a vanilla apricot saison, a cinnamon plum saison, and a rye amber lager. All the beers I tried were good. I can't name a favorite, but it may have been that last one. He made a big deal of the vanilla porter. I have a soft spot for this variety because it was one of the two beers on tap at my wedding reception. This was good. Not the best I've had though. I guess it's their best-selling beer.
The food was excellent. They used local greens for the salad and made their own blue cheese dressing. The veggie burger consisted of sundried tomatoes, among other things, was fried in an interesting way that made it especially crispy on the outside, and topped with pico de gallo. This was only $7, plus an extra $1 for the salad. The sampler of 8 beers was only $8.
I could have stuck around. It was group trivia night starting at 6:30, and 16oz beers went to $1 at that time. However, from asking questions, I determined it was one of the "smarty pants" trivias, as opposed to the "excuse to drink" trivias, and I had probably had enough beer.
I made a sort of pledge that I wasn't going to just hang out in bars on this trip. Not just to keep my time outside, but also to save money. I spent enough money here.


Mansfield University	Yorkholo Brewing in Mansfield The man pictured is the grandfather of the owner, who ran Yorkholo Dairy Farm

Endless Mountains

After Mansfield, I continued down the road to Wellsboro. I had made the decision to stay at the Canyon Motel because my other choice, the similarly-priced Colton Point Motel, was well outside of town. I walked around a bit, peering into the shops and restaurants, and considered getting a beer. I resisted. I went into Tops, a supermarket chain, and looked there, but they didn't sell it. So, instead, I went to Rite-Aid next door to my motel, bought some cheap jelly beans, and fell asleep ridiculously early. I was tired.


Wellsboro	Penn-Yann Hotel in Wellsboro	Wellsboro

Map of today's progress:

Update: added higher-quality pictures from Day 8 below. I'll get back to these in a week.
Update (4-14): Added captions

Tunkahannock

The historic Dietrich Theater in Tunkahannock, where I had watched "Kids for Cash" the previous night

Educational sign at Endless Mountain Nature Center

They had several birds housed in the shed in the picture. I didn't get too close, because I could hear the owl screech when I came within sight, so I didn't want to stress him out. The fenced-in section is a garden.