Shingletown Gap

The Lower Trail in the upper reaches of the Shingletown Gap area is an old jeep trail. The trail is quite wet and muddy with springs appearing in the middle of the trail and along side. A new trail has been cleared to get traffic off this trail and allow it to be absorbed back into the forest. This new trail will be the Lower Trail, but for now since the original Lower Trail still exists, it has gotten the nick name of the Upper Lower. This was the destination of our latest outing in the Shingletown Gap area.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: A Stroll on the Upper Lower Trail

Last year a reroute of the Maguire Trail was put in place to alleviate erosion problems and dangerous conditions. After investigating this new reroute, I found it to be a little over engineered, or more specifically, it had way too many switchbacks on such a short and not so steep section of trail. With the mild winter, trail crews from the Nittany Mountain Biking Association headed out into the woods and created a reroute of the Maguire Trail reroute. For my first after work hike of the season, myself and a fellow coworker headed off to check out this second Maguire Trail reroute.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: The "New" Maguire Trail

I was informed of a new trail reroute in Shingletown Gap and decided to check it out. On the way to the newly rerouted Maguire Trail I viewed a trail on the left just a short distance past the trailhead. I knew of others that had hiked up the rocky outcroppings as the ridge climbed away from the gap but I was never able to see blazes for this trail. With a bit of investigation and a sharp eye I was soon climbing over the rocks as I hiked up an old, abandoned trail in Shingletown Gap.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Discovering an Old Trail

An unblazed trail on the southern side of Bald Knob caught my attention a year ago. I decided to investigate this unblazed trail to see what new areas of Shingletown Gap it opened up. I soon learned that this unblazed trail had a name: Green Shoots Trail. So on a Saturday morning, while the mid-atlantic region awaited the arrival of hurricane Irene, my friend Happy Head and I went up to the trails in Shingletown Gap to check out this Green Shoots trail.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Checking Out Green Shoots Trail

With a change in employment, it looked like my convenient after work hikes were soon going to be coming to an end. As our last official after work hike, Tim, Tom and I decided to hike the Bald Knob Ridge at Shingletown Gap. Tom had never hiked this trail and this was the last trail in Shingletown Gap that Tim had yet to hike. So on a muggy, late July afternoon we headed to the trailhead to begin our hike.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Climbing the Front Ridge

Looking to take advantage of after work daylight before we turned the clocks back, Tim and I decided to do a hike in the Shingletown Gap area. This would be our last after-work hike of the season and we wanted to do something close by so that we had enough time to put in a little bit of mileage. I suggested this particular hike, which I had done over 2 years ago, as it explored trails that Tim had not yet hiked.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Charcoal Flat and Lower Shingletown Trails

The Shingletown Gap area is a popular place for hiking, biking, or just going for a stroll. Most users of this trail system access the trailhead located off of route PA45, just south of the town of Shingletown. There is an alternate trailhead for access to this area, and it is located off of Laurel Run Road, accessed via Galbraith Gap and the Rothrock State Forest. Tim and I decided to use this trailhead for an after work hike to the top of Bald Knob.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: From Bald Knob to the Mid State Trail

I had done this same hike over 2 and a half years ago, but this time I was doing it in the fall and not the spring. Just like the last hike, this hike was also being done with a fellow coworker, but this time I was employed by someone else and not the same company. I had been talking about the Shingletown Gap area and how nice it is to hike there. When Tim, the coworker who hike Mount Nittany with me about a month ago, expressed interest in doing a hike in Shingletown Gap, this hike immediately came to mind. Offering a good work out with the pintail climb to the top of Tussey Mountain, this hike also offered some nice vistas, including that at the "Roman Tower" and at Skyline Vista.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Revisting the Skyline Vista

The Ridge and Valley Outings Club is a local hiking club that organizes and leads hikes on local trails every week from April till October. Typically hikes are done on Tuesday evenings, but this hike was done on a Thursday evening. Being early in the year, and the fact that the hikes don't start till 6:00PM, this was a shorter hike so that we could finish before dark. The hike was in the Shingletown Gap area. This is a very popular place for hikes because of the many trails and the close proximity to State College and is a favorite of mine as well. Last year I didn't do a single hike in Shingletown Gap and I didn't want to make the same mistake this year. When I heard that the RVOC was going to be doing a short but strenuous hike at Shingletown, I signed up for the outing.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: To the Top of Tussey Mountain and Back

The Shingletown Gap area is a popular place for hiking, biking, or just going for a stroll. Most users of this trail system access the trailhead located off of route PA45, just south of the town of Shingletown. There is an alternate trailhead for access to this area, and it is located off of Laurel Run Road, accessed via Galbraith Gap and the Rothrock State Forest. I used this trailhead for my latest hike of the Shingletown Gap area. There were a few trails left that I needed to hike to get GPS tracks of, and there was a new addition to the trail system. This new trail extended the Bald Knob Ridge Trail from the top of Bald Knob to Laurel Run Road. This new trail descended one of the steeper sides of Bald Knob and offered some nice views toward Tussey Mountain and Little Flat.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Exploring the Bald Knob Ridge Trail

The Ridge and Valley Outings Club is a local hiking club that organizes and leads hikes on local trails every Tuesday night from April till October. All last year I had been planning on participating in one of these Tuesday night hikes but I never got around to it. So, when I saw that the first Tuesday night hike of the season was scheduled for April 18th, I made the time to finally make it onto the trail with the RVOC.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Hiking with the Ridge and Valley Outings Club

Another nice spring day prompted me to get back out on the trail and do this hike in Shingletown Gap. A work associate was visiting our site on this day and she mentioned that she would enjoy doing a hike in central Pennsylvania. I had asked what she would like in a hike, and she mentioned a hike with a little bit of a challenge and one that offered nice views. We decided on this short, 3.8 mile hike in Shingletown Gap. The scenery along Roaring Run is nice to behold, and the steep climb to the top of Tussey would hopefully being challenging enough, not to mention the great vista at the Roman Tower.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Visiting the Roman Tower

There are many springs on the mountain sides of Tussey Mountain and Bald Knob. Within a distance of 2 miles the runoff from these mountain springs form Roaring Run which makes it's way out of this mountain valley by passing through Shingletown Gap. During the late summer and early fall months, Roaring Run is more like a Whispering Trickle. However Roaring Run lived up to it's namesake during my most recent hike of Shingletown Gap.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: Enjoying the Warm Temperatures of a January Thaw

I had previously hiked in the Shingletown Gap area earlier in the year. I only did a short 4 mile out and back hike, but I was impressed with the beauty of this area. I put on my list of hikes-to-do another hike in Shingletown Gap, but one that climbed to the top of Bald Knob. So, on a dreary, overcast weekend towards the end of September, Shari and I decided we wanted to get out of the house and go for a hike. The hike to Bald Knob immediately came to mind and we were soon headed to Shingletown Gap.

Read more: Shingletown Gap: A Visit to Bald Knob

There are many trails in the Shingletown Gap area. These trails are used for hiking and also for mountain biking. Some of the trails will lead you up the mountain and connect to the Mid State Trail. If you venture off of the trail that I describe in this hike you should take a more detailed map with you as there are numerous side and connecting trails.

Read more: My First Adventure Into Shigletown Gap Area