Visitor affirms Laurel Highlands鈥� outdoor allure
I鈥檓 always proud to host a friend or professional acquaintance visiting our area to enjoy its outdoor opportunities. John Plowman of Harrisburg is both, and before his visit here last weekend, I informed him that few places, east of the Rocky Mountains anyway, offer such diverse recreational options packed together in a relatively small space.
Plowman is executive director of Hunters Sharing the Harvest, the non-profit group through which Pennsylvania hunters provide about 100,000 pounds of venison to community food banks for distribution to families in need of nutritious, but otherwise costly, red meat. He often visits participating butchers and program sponsors around the state, but this brief trip was not one that mixed business with pleasure; it was all about the latter.
Wild edible plants are one of John鈥檚 sharpest interests. He鈥檚 taught me how to find pawpaw trees, which I didn鈥檛 even know grew in our forests, and how to savor their sweet banana-like fruit. On this visit he was keen to glean ramps and morels, plus he鈥檇 pressured me to locate some gobbling turkeys for an opening morning hunt. As if that weren鈥檛 enough for one harried day, he hoped to do some trout fishing.
Considering our available time, I had to trim the agenda. I opined to John that, due to the late spring, morels would not yet be sprouting (which may or may not have been accurate), and that my favorite ramp patch required a long hike to reach (which definitely is accurate). That left turkey hunting and trout fishing, easily manageable on a cool but beautiful spring day.
I knew a place not far off where a gobbler had been sounding off at dawn. Plowman and I snuck near there the evening before the hunt, hoping to pinpoint the tom when he gobbled from his roost somewhere in the woods below. As all turkey hunters know, a sudden loud noise will often induce a turkey to gobble, but even the thunder claps that rolled across the ridges that evening could not prompt that gobbler to betray his location, so next morning we hunted him more on hope than fact.
True to habit, he gobbled lustily as the sun crested Laurel Ridge and lit up the woods. Our hopes buoyed, I showed my friend a big tree and suggested he station himself at its base for the hunt, then slipped farther uphill behind John鈥檚 location so he could have the first chance should the turkey approach.
As often happens, after his initial serenade, the gobbler stayed silent for hours. But suddenly, around 9:30, a gobble rattled the woods from about 60 yards beyond John鈥檚 location. I could see the gobbler and several hens approaching John鈥檚 tree where I鈥檇 suggested he remain. I waited, tuned for John鈥檚 shotgun blast that I expected at any moment. Inexplicably, the woods remained silent 鈥� no shot came. Then a cacophony of alarm putts and hen yelps erupted from the woods below. Plowman related it this way: 鈥淭hat big gobbler went behind a tree and I was going to shoot when his head cleared the other side, but the sun was shining on me in that spot you picked out, which allowed the hens to see me, thank you. They made such a ruckus that the gobbler flushed and flew toward the river.鈥�
Translation? My friend blamed me (good-naturedly) for his botched opportunity.
We鈥檇 had one likely location to call a turkey gobbler, but the trout fishing options for the afternoon were not so limited. With dozens of streams, lakes and miles of the Youghiogheny and Casselman rivers to choose from, we could have struck out in any direction to a promising spot. Our time constraint, though, dictated a stream section we could access easily without a long hike.
We made our selection 鈥� actually, two places close together 鈥� and the fish were fairly cooperative. The bite wasn鈥檛 exactly hot, but there was never a long period without some form of action. John has fished in a lot of places around the country and he acknowledged the beauty and allure of Laurel Highlands streams.
鈥淭his is a part of the state that鈥檚 sometimes overlooked, and that鈥檚 to the over-lookers鈥� loss,鈥� Plowman observed as we dismantled our gear. 鈥淲ith regard to the great range of opportunities, in attractive landscapes, the outdoors in the Laurel Highlands are among the consistently best I鈥檝e experienced.鈥�
Next time John visits I鈥檒l plan a different itinerary. It鈥檚 not hard to do outdoors around here.
Ben Moyer is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America.