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Jackson Trail
Distance: 10.1 km (6.3 miles)
Time: 4¾ hours
Vertical Rise: 280 meters (920ft)
Highlights: Views
Maps: USGS 7.5 McAlevys Fort, Pine
Grove Mills; MSTA Map 202.1
Click for larger image
A=Jo hays Vista
B=end of Jackson Trail / junction w/MST
The Jackson Trail is named for Evelyn Jackson, a former president of the Hiking
Division of the Penn State Outing Club, under whose leadership many records of
participation in PSOC activities were set-records that stand to this day. The
Jackson Trail follows Tussey Ridge and is one of the most scenic trails near
State College; however, the footway on Tussey Ridge varies from unusually rocky
to nothing but rocks, rocks, and more rocks. Hiking boots are in order for this
circuit hike, but the trailhead is on a paved highway so it is available
year-round. This hike should be reserved for clear weather so the many views
will not be wasted.
Tussey Ridge is formed by a hard layer of sandstone called the Tuscarora.
Here it forms one side of an anticline or upfold formed when North America
collided with Africa several hundred million years ago. The other side of this
fold is Bald Eagle Mountain, visible to the north and west along this hike. In
between these ridges the Tuscarora arched high over what is now Nittany Valley.
Other rocks, which can now be seen in the Allegheny Front beyond Bald Eagle,
covered the Tuscarora. In all, a thickness of 10 km of rock has been removed by
erosion from Nittany Valley.
The trailhead is the same one used for the Indian Steps Trail. It is the
parking area on PA 26, 2 miles uphill from the intersection with PA 45 in Pine
Grove Mills.
On this hike you mast cross the paved highway and bear left on the gated jeep
road along the top of Tussey Ridge. Be sure that you are following a blue-blazed
trail. A sign identifies the Jackson Trail. Soon you pass the last antenna with
which hikers share the ridgetops. Despite the inevitable access road, the
antennas are preferable to the far more invasive power-producing windmills that
will line these ridges in the future.
Now your route becomes a real trail that follows a survey swath to a USGS
triangulation marker reached at 1.1 km. A few steps farther brings you to an
over-look to the south. The view from this side of the ridge is a wild one, with
heavily wooded Rudy Ridge on the far side of Pine Swamp Valley. A view to the
north quickly follows, angled away from State College; you can see Bald Eagle
Ridge and the Allegheny Front beyond the wooded barrens.
At 1.6 km you reach Lone Pine-a single white pine growing out of the rocky
crest of Tussey Mountain. You come to a rare stretch of good footway at 1.9 km.
Treasure it as it is all too short. Soon the footway reverts to rocks and you
reach more views to the south and over Rudy Ridge. You hike several more
sections of good footway before reaching a corner of private land at 3.4 km. The
border of state forest land is marked by the white paint blazes and the trail
endeavors to stay on the public side of the line. Extensive views to the south
soon follow but at places all traces of footway vanish and you must make your
war over the rocks as best you can. Hubler Gap, between Kocher Mountain and Ruth
Ridge, has now come into view. Since this ridge is also formed by the Tuscarora
sandstone, faulting is indicated with a vertical displacement of the Tuscarora.
At 4.5 km you reach a junction with the orange-blazed Mid State Trail (MST).
Turn right and descend steeply over rocks. Caution-in wet weather these rocks
can be very slippery. The trail then picks up some log skids, presumably used by
the Linden Hall Lumber Company around the turn of the century. At the bottom of
the slope, the trail turns right along the base of the ridge and at one point
passes through a recent logging Operation.
After passing a pair of springs, bear right on an old charcoal road at 6.5
km. This road can be traced all the way to Monroe Furnace on PA 26. Monroe
Furnace operated from the 1830s until after the Civil War, but its charcoal
roads have been used in logging operations since then.
At 6.8 km, you pass the first of three sawmill sites used in the mid 1960s,
and at 8.3 km, you pass in front of a hunting camp. Just beyond the camp there
is a spring to the left of the trail. The Mid State Trail then traverses the
former Beaver Pond Recreation Area, passing a side trail to Garbage Bag Spring.
A major trail junction is reached at 8.9 km. Ahead, the blue-blazed Ironstone
Loop leads to Stone Valley Recreation Area, but you turn light on the Pine Grove
Trail for the climb back up Tussey Mountain to the parking lot on PA 26.
Other hiking opportunities in the area include the Indian Steps and the
Ironstone Loop Trail. The latter makes an all-day bootbuster of 23 km length.
50 hikes in Central Pennsylvania 3rd Edition, Tom Thwaites
Back Country Publications Woodstock, Vermont
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