Day 1: Where is the river?!

The first day of our journey started early. James and I had a 4 hour drive from my house in Ohio to the headwaters in Raymond, Pennsylvania. Thankfully my best friend was able to drive us. Before we hit the river we dropped off our gear at the Coudersport Police Station, losing at least 50 pounds of weight. We put together a simple pack with the aim to walk the first 14 miles from the headwaters to Coudersport that day.

Before the trip we decided we wanted to travel the entire river although the first 25 miles or so of the 350 miles river is walking only. Once we arrived we in Raymond we had the challenge of just finding the river! The Allegheny starts in a framers field as a spring, trickling under a rock. After trekking through tall grass and thick brush we found the river.

During the first day we were able to see the river constantly change going through open farmland to deep forest with lush ferns and moss coating the rocks and trees. We managed to hike 9.5 hours, basically crawling through thick brush and wobbling over rocks. We forged our way along the river without a clear path. We managed to crawl over some beaver dams too. At times the river would branch, not entirely certain what way to go. We spotted a bit of wildlife. Two blue herons, frogs, fish, crayfish, ducks, and deer. We only saw one other person that day, man fishing.

My favorite part of the day was our encounter with some angry cows and bulls. On the river we crawled under an electrical fence later to find out what it was for. Walking became more challenging and we realized we were trekking in cow patties! We spotted a large group of cows but didn't think much of it until they started following us and moo-ed loudly accompanied by a couple bulls. We decided to take a detour from the river and I managed to rip my pants hopping a barbed-wire fence (I only brought 2 pairs!).

Finished out first day at about 9pm and waited to retrieve our gear from the police. We were directed to a campsite on a hill overlooking a cemetery. A bit creepy. Even more creepy was walking through it alone in the middle of the night when I realized I was dehydrated and went on a quest for water.