Tompkins Campground at Cowansque Lake
Lawrenceville, PA

Just outside of town, the Army Corp of Engineers constructed a beautiful mountain lake by damming up the Cowanesque River thus forming the facility known as Cowanesque Lake & Tompkins Campground. Never being here before hurt us just a bit because we didn’t know we could have had a site right on the Lake itself. We chose site #9 which was isolated in one of the most heavily wooded areas of the facility. However, this allowed us the ability to gather all the firewood we needed for our 7 day stay. I'm beginning to feel like DAVEY CROCKETT

Our first morning had us scouting out a delightful little breakfast hut named Dana’s. How can breakfast taste better when you’re not at home? Both of us have the habit of ordering crazy new things when not at home and Dana’s did not disappoint.

We chose this area because of the “Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania”. You read that right. Pennsylvania has a Grand Canyon with awesome mountains, a river (Pine Creek) flowing thru it, and a ‘Rails to Trails’ bike path, second to none. We took in the Canyon one day and followed that up with a bike ride thru it the next. It was then that I stopped for a drink of water just off the path, looked up and spotted a Bald Eagle only 15 feet above my head sitting in a tree. Never seen anything like it and managed to take a few pics before he flew away. It must have been my deodorant.

A trip to the famous city of Corning NY was a must. We caught up with food markets to replenish our supplies and a friendly drug store that arranged to renew some prescriptions. A stop at a very small winery at the edge of town resulted in a few bottles of local wines. I personally have never seen a town or city this size so clean. No trash, papers, bottles, or graffiti anywhere. So now I know it can be accomplished!

With the advice of many travelers we found ourselves in Wellsboro, Pa. for breakfast. I had sausage & eggs but you should see the sausage. It comes in patty form and almost takes up half the plate. It does not resemble our sausage at home in taste either. Delicious!! Oh, BTW, their sweet buns can’t be duplicated either.

We finished up our Wellsboro visit by staying into the evening hours and getting a chance to see their famous streets lined with old fashioned gas lights. It really is quite a site. .