DOING THE ‘LOOP’: The February edition of Snow Goer magazine
hits the newsstand soon, just in time to kick off the winter
snowmobiling season. Featured, a lengthy article (and many
photographs) of riding in the Allegheny National Forest.
We began telling readers about this article yesterday and today
we pick up the third day of riding for a group of visitors.
Author David Wells talks about heading toward Marienville,
riding through nearly a foot of freshly fallen snow. While most of
the riding on the three days on “the loop” was relatively easy, he
also describes some “rough sledding” along the trail.
“By the time we returned to the motel, I had more than 300 miles
for the three-day tour and there was still a ton of side trails
that we hadn’t touched,” he adds.
“The Allegheny National Forest may not have all the amenities of
the well-manicured tourist areas in some other states, but we like
it the way it is. It’s part of the allure of the Alleghenies. They
don’t refer to this part of the Keystone State as the Pennsylvania
Wilds for nothing.”
POST SCRIPT: We learned about this magazine article from Linda
Devlin, director of the Allegheny National Forest Vacation Bureau.
The flattering article was the result of a “familiarization tour”
organized by her agency with the assistance of the Pennsylvania
State Snowmobile Association, Allegany State Park and Allegheny
National Forest staff.
Linda tells us such tours are the staple of her line of work.
Such tours are arranged to show writers and photographers what the
region has to offer and are tailored around the interests of the
magazine, newspaper, etc.
The Vacation Bureau works in cooperation with motels and
restaurants in the region – all of which were named in the Snow
Goer article.
Linda adds, her agency also did a tour last year for a writer
from the U.K. working on a ‘green’ book, and for an Italian
group.
We’ve included these couple paragraphs for all the people who
wonder how our tourist dollars are spent. This is one example of
the expenditure – and the return, for the region and the businesses
trying to survive in this “wild” area.
