The cold makes your bones ache, but you have to do it.
You have to plunge your hand into the clear, powerful water coming off the mountain over big stones still with the winter in them.
Isler's Run charges under the Great Allegheny Passage near Markleton (MP 50) not long before it empties into the Casselman River. You can see it from the bridge where the hard road crosses next to the post office.The Casselman empties into the Youghiogheny River at Confluence (MP 62). The Youghiogheny empties into the Monongahela River at McKeesport (MP 132). And the Monongahela joins the Allegheny to form the Ohio River at Point State Park (MP149) in Pittsburgh. When the last few miles of the GAP are finished, you'll be able to hike or ride your bike the whole way, usually with the water in sight. For now, the continuous trail ends in Duquesne (MP 135) in the heart of the Mon Valley, once world famous as the Valley of Steel.
A footpath through native hemlocks leads from the Markleton trailhead parking lot to Isler's Run. At the end of March it stampedes through the rhododendron like wild horses, muscular, shaking the ground, manes flying.
In any month, it takes your breath away.
copyright 2010 J. O'Brien, all rights reserved
