PA Weekend with Jeffie - Saturday Edition (Morning) - Funnel at the Tunnel!

Our first stop of the day was Tunnel Funnel by HolyCowboys. One of the benefits of Pennsylvania’s extremely hilly terrain, is that during the rail-road era, many tunnels were bored through the mountainsides. As the age of railroads began to die off, many of these tunnels were left abandoned and in disrepair. The State of Pennsylvania does a phenomenal job in highlighting natural and “unnatural” areas - so as they developed trail systems, they had the foresight to highlight these tunnels for people to visit and explore. Go PA, Go PA!

Anyway, this was our first stop on the day. It was actually supposed to be our second, but Jeff accidentally took us down the wrong dirt road, which in turn landed us on the wrong side of a ridge. Which for those familiar with PA, know that going in a north-south direction is not easy. To go 3 miles north, you might have to do about 15 miles of driving because the roads usually go around the mountains - not through them! Since Tunnel Funnel was on our agenda anyway, we knew there was no harm in making it our first play-date of the day.

After tripping the dirtroads fantastic, Jeff, Galen (token dog) and I arrived at the parking coordinates in Poe Paddy State Park and the majestic Bald Eagle State Forest. We headed out on our short quarter-mile hike along the Mid State Trail.  I'm pretty sure I'll mention this at least a few more times in the next few blogs...but the Mid State Trail is EPIC.  Clocking in at a grand 320+ miles, and slicing the state in two from north to south...it provided me with one unbelievable experience after another.  So if you ever get the chance, make sweet hiking love to this trail.  You'll adore every step!  Anyway, while the hike was indeed a short one, there were plenty of sights!


The view crossing the bridge over Penns Creek!

Probably one of my favorite hiking experiences, is when I get to hike through open woods along a creek. Add the hills and beautiful landscape behind it all into the mix, and you have yourself an exceptionally scenic spot. I love it.

We crossed over Penns Creek, and no sooner did we finish crossing the bridge - there stood the tunnel in all it's glory!

I was pretty dang impressed, because the tunnel was rather hidden by the low hanging vegetation - but as I approached I had to stop about a hundred times to snap pictures. I felt bad for Jeff, as he probably had to mind all the drool I was leaving in my wake. Haha.

The name of this cache wasn't immediately obvious to me as I didn't quite understand what the heck a funnel would be doing in a tunnel. Eventually it dawned on me (it took probably longer than I’m willing to admit…haha).

At the exit of the tunnel, the State had reinforced it with a smaller tunnel taking you the last 100 feet or so before you made it all the way through. It wasn’t very large either as for the last 30 feet or so I had to duck a little just so I wouldn’t smack my head. Ahhh, the luxuries of being freakishly tall.


Jeff and the entrace to the Tunnel of Funnel.

Once on the other side of the tunnel we entered into a beautiful scene, with Penns Creek in the background and a hillside full of….rocks?!? Yes folks…a hillside full of rocks. It’s pretty standard fare in PA, but it makes finding caches a whole hell of a lot more complicated. Imagine if you will, trying to find a needle in a haystack, but potentially hiding under each and every reed of hay was a poisonous rattlesnake. Sounds like fun right? Luckily for us, it couldn’t have been much more than 40 degrees this sunny morning, so the danger of us actually running into one of those beasties was at a minimum…thankfully! Unfortunately, the rocks would do us in because after a little searching, we came up empty.

I will say we made a valiant effort, but seeing as we were the first reported seekers following a long winter, the cache could be super duper buried. We were a little discouraged, but it was quick to dissipate once we refamiliarized ourselves with the stupendous scenery we were basking in.


The other side of the tunnel!

For being such a short hike in, spending an hour or so climbing all over unstable boulders sure can wear a dude out. Every once in a while I’d prop myself up on a rock and enjoy the sound of Penns Creek gurgling at the bottom of the hill and the sounds you can only get from being in a removed spot out in nature. From time to time I’d also have to figure out where Galen went to! He was a pretty good boy, as he found a great deal of entertainment in running around with his Frisbee. My ultimate complaint is that Jeff has done a piss-poor job in training Galen to find caches. This would have made our job much easier!



 Eventually we had enough of searching and decided to pack it up and slowly make our way back to the car. Of course this meant playing in the tunnel again!

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeel! Deep down I’m a nerdy little girl at heart. Hehehe. With our gear all bundled up, we hit the trail and again I was able to enjoy the peace and quiet of my beloved tunnel on our way back to the car and many more PA adventures!

Silly Szuchie Trivia: according to the Mid State Trail Association of Pennsylvania, this is the only tunnel on the MST.

Mid State Trail!