Skookum Traveler: Mount Davis (PA)

Argghh. Don't trust the blue signs.

Okay, this is not a peak easily bagged. If it wasn’t for the view tower and a sign, you would never know you were higher than anything else in your sightlines. It seems if you can’t see the forest for the trees, then you also can’t see the highpoint for the forest. Nevertheless, it is the surveyor’s official highpoint amid a wide, forested plateau. I suppose it might be more accurate to call this one plateau-bagging.

I began my journey on July 27 with an aimless drive from my tent site at Colonel Denning State Park. I had not yet picked up a road map of Pennsylvania, but I knew I needed to go a good distance west and a bit less south. So I drove west on a couple winding, east-west country highways and south on a couple north-south highways, and lo and behold, I found the historic towns of Meyersdale and Salisbury. Supposedly, one could start at either town and “just follow the signs” to Mount Davis. So I started at Salisbury. Cross the river, turn right at a T and follow the signs, someone had posted on a website. But at the T, a bright blue highway sign said go left for the Mount Davis highpoint. I trusted the bright blue sign and went left. Never again. Do not trust bright blue signs in Pennsylvania, especially ones with arrows that say ‘Mount Davis’ on them. After a good hour of driving around in circles, which gave me some quality time to follow Amish horses and black buggies along the backroads, which truly was a nice bonus, I passed a sign that said “Welcome to Maryland.” This was a cue that I might want to turn around, which I did.

I then ended up back in Meyersdale. The directions there said to find the Sheetz gas station downtown, then head north and turn left at the Army tank. After several miles and no Army tank, I thought I’d better go back and regroup. On the return, I found the tank, slightly hidden (assuming it’s possible to hide an Army tank) in somebody’s front yard. Cool! I finally had the right road and twenty minutes later I was at the Mount Davis picnic area, which is a short mile from the summit tower.

15. Mount Davis: The High Point Trail leads to the steel summit tower with an arduous elevation gain of possibly 50 feet. Add that to the 50-foot tower, give or take, and we’re talking triple digits. So I called it an even 100-foot gain. I was almost back at the car when thunder began to boom to the north—and content to be off the tower. All in all, for what the “mountain” lacked in arduosity, the circuitous drive up there did tap my routefinding skills; therefore, I proudly enter it in my ledger as Peak #15--a quarter of the way toward my goal.

Miles (RT): 2.0 miles; elevation gain: 100 feet
Cumulative mileage and gain: 70.3 miles / 19,820 feet