Charlestown Reserve

Charlestown Reserve (2/1/2014)

Today we visited another very pretty reserve in Huntderon County (for the first time), 269 acres of land, the vast majority of which was once owned by Charles Hovies who, in planted a Christmas tree farm here (and it's still there), additionally farming the area with apple and peach orchards and corn and wheat fields.

Using this map, we parked at the lot on Charlestown Road and headed west into the preseve. The trail network is like a barbell lollipop: two loops connected by other paths. We took the counter-clockwise route trekking the northern parts of each loop first. The first loop is along the perimeter of the aforementioned Christmas tree farm and is the prettiest spot in the reserve. A sense of peace achieved inside this grove, at least when there are no hunters, and there were none today (though we could hear gunshots from surrounding areas a distance away). The second loop partially traveses the perimeter of a field which was once open, according to a friendly local we met named Rick. He also took us on a spur to see the stone foundation ruins of two structures south of the western loop. These were probably buildings associated with one of the three farms which comprised this property before it was purchased by Hovies. Though there are no great views and no bodies of water to see, it's a very nice, quiet reserve.

Total distance hiked today was 3.6 miles in 2.5 hours.

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