The Pennsylvania Wilds

Before I resume posting on the topic of Canada relating to the United States, I felt that I should post a picture or two I took on a recent trip across the length of Pennsylvania on I-80.

I-80 Westbound, mostly between Milton and Bellefonte, PA.

This was taken in an area known by the locals as the "Pennsylvania Wilds".  The wilds are exactly as their name seems to suggest, a bit undeveloped and rather "great outdoors" when compared to the rest of even the most mountainous parts of the state.  Whereas most valleys in Pennsylvania are extensively farmed and contain sizable cities and towns, the Wilds region remains largely as a settler or migrant would have found it, albeit with second-growth forests.  Part of the reason for this is because the land is a bit more rugged, even by Pennsylvania standards.  The parallel ridges that constitute much of the eastern half of the state converge here, and even where they are replaced by the Allegheny Plateau to the north, the land is a bit too vertical to accommodate the plow or city street.

The Appalachian indicator species that one encounters in eastern Pennsylvania are less prevalent here; I do not recall seeing as high a diversity among the pines as I did even dozens of miles back east.  Likewise, the rhododendrons seemed to be a bit stubbier and infrequent, but they were still there.  Botanically speaking, the northern extremes of the humid subtropical world closer to the Atlantic were being edged out in favor of the harsher climate of the continental interior, or perhaps even something a bit more northern than interior.  While I would hardly consider the area to be passably boreal, spruce bogs do continue to grow even south of here at the higher elevations where damp and cool conditions might persist in a soggy depression.  I know for a fact that I came across some Red Spruce (Picea Rubens), but the 70 mph missile I was driving was going just a bit too fast for a side shot off of I-80.  There were definitely a lot of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis), the ubiquitous Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus, which are just about everywhere in all three photos above), as well as some Tamaracks (Larix Laricina) in the soggier places.  Happiest of all finds, however, were the abundant Black Spruce (Picea Mariana) in those soggy spots, and indicator of actual boreal remnants if there ever was one.

This being winter, I did not have much of a chance to see any of the herbaceous plant life, and time constraints prevented me from listening for the local bird life, but this only serves to entice me to make a return trip.  The central Appalachians, even here in the heart of mountainous Pennsylvania, never really struck me as a place to see primeval Appalachia and wild eastern North America.  For one, they are a bit low around here, topping out over 2,000 feet only on the higher crests and peaks.  They always used to strike me as interesting marks of relief on the way between smoother Western New York and the coastal plains, but otherwise just some more mixed-hardwood forest punctuated by the odd tall pine.  After seeing them from the east-west axis, I have discovered them in a more intriguing light, perhaps as early settlers did.

Pennsylvania is a bit different from the other eastern states.  She is a large state and bears the same scale as the first tier of western states beyond the Missouri.  She was the only of the thirteen colonies to not have ocean front property, and compared to other western-reaching colonies like Virginia and the Carolinas or even New York, she did not have a lot of gentle relief.  The keystone state found a frontier at the doorstep of its capital, full of daunting ridges.  Much of her western portion was not settled until well into the nineteenth century, held back by easier terrain to the east and west.  Perhaps even more of an object of amazement and wonder than the mountains, however, would have been the forests that took on a much darker and northern appearance in contrast to the gentler woods of the eastern seaboard.  The early British and Irish colonists might have looked upon such woods as more akin to where the French were running around with the natives and going after beaver and big game.  The Germans and other immigrants who came generations later might have passed over the borderline boreal forests in favor of the lighter woods and savannas of Ohio and points westward.

I tend to imagine Daniel Boone escorting settlers toward the Ohio Valley, with everyone in the party absolutely enthralled and at the same time slightly scared of the immense forests around them, bound in by rather imposing ridges.  Today I-80 plows through a few road cuts but otherwise looks for natural gaps between the ridges as it charges westward, and the forest is a bit less dramatic to modern passersby more enamored of man-made wonders, but the Wilds and central Appalachians in general still tend to be a scenic and natural backdrop to the hustle and bustle of both the eastern cities and the rustbelt and agricultural breadbasket beyond the other side of the mountains.