The Mountain House

I was unfamiliar with Tioga County before this summer, althoughI knew where it was. I could find it on a map in the north central part of Pennsylvania, bordering New York State. Early this year I learned it would be our vacation spot for the summer, rather than our usual shore spot on Long Beach Island. The basic idea i had was that Tioga County was all mountains and farmland and that we would be vacationing in a remote rural area rather than the crowded Jersey Shore. It was fine with me if my brothers felt they could get more for their money there. I could see what they meant by that when I saw the picture of the house we would be staying in and the vast amount of farmland and mountains around it.

As our vacation week approached in late July, the weather forecast wasn’t looking too good. Rain was predicted for most of the week, and was expected to arrive on the day we traveled there. That Saturday started sunny and humid, and remained that way as we were making our way up the turnpike. The clouds were taking over by the time we reached the Poconos, and the rain started as we were making our way west on I-80. It continued on and off after we exited and made our way up US 15. It seemed to get steadier, but still light as we passed Williamsport and went through north Lycoming and Tioga Counties on a steadily uphill incline. After cutting through some rural roads, we were on US 6 for a small stretch before arriving at the house late in the afternoon. 

We turned in and came down the long driveway through the cornfield until we arrived at the hexagonal shaped house that would be our home for the next week. We were surrounded by mountain ridges. It seemed peaceful and relaxing except for the sound of the trucks making their way up and down nearby Route 6. The long gravel driveway curved through the property leading to a farmhouse and silo. Right behind the house was the Pine Creek, about 10-15 miles upstream from the Pine Creek Gorge, known as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. That is probably the main attraction of Tioga County, aside from the hunting. The quaint small town of Wellsboro, another popular spot, was about 15-20 miles away. But there was still plenty that could be done right on the property, which was good since most attractions were at least a half an hour away. The gravel driveway was great for biking and taking walks, and the Pine Creek was a good spot for fishing.

This was not roughing it in the woods by any means, but we dealt with some inconveniences that would not have existed 25 years ago. There were apparently no towers around, so phone communication was painfully slow, at least by text. Any message I texted out was still sending a half hour later. There was no Wi-Fi in the house, so any connection to the internet was an equally slow process. Fortunately my brother brought his MiFi along. That helped, but timely texting and internet connections were limited to when it was on. I brought my radio, but I only remember being able to pull in 2 stations, one an FM country station known as Bigfoot Country, and the other WOGA AM, which called itself “Woga in Tioga”.

The one television provided was a large late model CRT sitting on the kitchen counter, carrying stations on basic cable from Elmira, New York. I thought we were a little closer to Williamsport, but it looks like that part of Tioga County is in the Elmira media market. This was one place where a land line could actually work better than cell phones. I don’t remember having any problems receiving the few calls I got, but the advantage to a land line is that the signal is carried by wires and doesn’t depend on being bounced off of towers.

We spent most of the evening hours sitting around the fire pit in the yard on the side of the house. The air was slightly chilly and sweatshirts and jackets were needed. That was a welcome relief from the humidity of the Philadelphia area. A slight disappointment was the fact that there was almost always a cloud cover and the star scape was visible only one night. And that was only for about an hour, after which the clouds rolled back over.

I don’t know what the plan is for next year. I’m ok with whatever the family decides to do. Wherever we go I hope to get more sunny days and clear nights. If we go back to Tioga County I would like to see a few more sights I didn’t get to see this year. But even without that the thought of just being in the mountains for a week is appealing to me.