Mason-Dixon Trail - Otter Creek

The Mason-Dixon Trail is a 195.9-mile, blue-blazed footpath that connects the Appalachian Trail, to the west, with the Brandywine Trail, to the east.  It passes through Gifford Pinchot State Park and White Clay Creek Preserve in Pennsylvania and White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware.  Today we decided to hike a short section of the Mason-Dixon Trail that includes the Urey Overlook and runs through Susquehannock State Park and Otter Creek Nature Preserve:

This short section runs along the western shore of the Susquehanna River (the far end of the red-lined trail to the right in the map below) between Shenks Ferry and York Furnace:

Susquehannock State Park is a 224-acre Pennsylvania state park Lancaster County. The park is on a scenic plateau overlooking the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Reservoir. The park is named for the Susquehannock people, who lived in the area.

From our trailhead parking, we climbed an old farm road (to the right in the photo below) --

-- and followed the road through neat lines of young trees that probably fill a former farmfield:

Within a half mile, we reached the Urey Overlook --

-- where we got a panoramic view of the Susquehanna River near its transformation into Chesapeake Bay.  For a video from the Urey Overlook, click here.

The Susquehanna River is a major river located in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. At 444 miles long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the United States. It drains into the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, about 30 river miles south of where we hiked.

Having taken in the beautiful view of the Susquehanna, we continued south along the Mason-Dixon Trail as it wound along the cliffs above the river:

While the Pennsylvania landscape still looks wintry, it is starting to green up with the Spring weather.  We spotted dozens of types of forest wildflowers, of which this Great White Trillium was but one:

For reasons we couldn't discover, parts of the tracts we hiked through boasted remarkably large, old trees.  Here, Kathy inspects one fallen giant that has acquired its own green patina:

Entering Otter Creek Nature Preserve, we descended to Otter Creek itself:

Otter Creek, over 11 miles long, empties into the Susquehanna River, and much of its length is protected by the Otter Creek Nature Preserve.  We soon found a spot that showed off the beauty of the creek --

-- and agreed that this would make a perfect lunch spot.  Below, Kathy enjoys one of two log seats that some Nature Preserve trailhand was kind enough to leave in a strategic position overlooking the stream:

After a quiet lunch appreciating the beauty of Otter Creek, we continued along the Mason-Dixon Trail toward the confluence of the creek and river:

This huge fallen tree, cut to accommodate hikers, glows an irridescent green which the recent rains and warm weather have bedecked it:

Three miles out, we reached the mouth of Otter Creek.  Kathy ventured out onto the bridge above it to look about:

We had hoped to make a loop hike by connecting with another section of the Mason-Dixon Trail by climbing a campground road above the highway bridge, but "No Trespassing" signs at the campground entrance gave us pause.  We decided, instead, to retrace our route and take some variant side trails as we worked our way back to our trailhead.  Hiking back along Otter Creek, we spotted this bucolic view of the stream and trail that we had missed on the way out:

As we crossed back into the State Park, David remarked that, curiously, he hadn't seen any mushrooms or other fungi today, despite the dampness of the woods here.  Not more than ten steps later, we encountered this gorgeous butterscotch-colored colony of fungi on a dead trunk:

On a side trail we had not taken coming out, we found this modest little wooden bridge over a small creek --

-- and, much more memorably, this immense field of violet flowers, tinged with pink, that had practically swallowed the trail in their Spring excitement:

Here is a close-up of the flowers themselves, which we thought might be a species of beardtongue:

Back up at Urey Overlook, we spotted a couple paddling their canoe along the shore of Weise Island across from us.  Kathy shouted a hello and, once they spotted us, they shouted back.

We soon reached our trailhead and finished the 6-mile hike, just as the sky clouded up and the temperature began to drop.  Unfortunately, we had an hour's drive to get back to our campground, which resulted in "some stiffness" as we climbed out of the Jeep.  A little run outside with Ruby (for David) and a little sit outside with Baxter (for Kathy - she took advantage of the time to do a little stretching) soon cured the stiffness.

Another hike well hiked!  Stay safe.