Raystown Lake, PA (Seven Points COE Rec. Area)

Just a quick note about the success of our 17 day trip. I will post more details later. We had a great time. TV performed marvelously (11.8 mpg when towing over 2000 miles, set cruise at 63-64 and just go!). Our WC was great, especially during the first few days which were cool, wet and windy.

Please see full report in post below. Thank you!

Hi Glen,

Glad you had a good time. Cant wait to see your pictures, Raystown Lake is beautiful.

My apologies for the delay, but here is more on our trip to PA.

We pulled out of our driveway just before 1 PM CDST on May 16th. I was apprehensive about how the 29rlbs, TV and I would handle the trip. As it turned out, either I worried for naught or prepared well enough. No problems with the 5er, truck or my driving. The first night was 12 hours which took us to Richmond, IN and the back lot of a Cracker Barrel. We got up at 6 AM local time for a CB breakfast and were back on the road by 7 AM arriving at our destination by 4 PM. Averaged 12 mpg on the tow out with cruise set at 63-64, tranny in Tow Haul mode and Banks on 2 or three in the hills and mountains. Total driving time was 19 hours. I noted no stability or towing problems. This truck just wants to pull; I was usually passing 18 wheelers on the upgrades and only a few passed me on long down grades as she maintained speed with no problems.

7 Points Recreation Area is a really nice place with many opportunities for recreations beyond camping. Since it is a COE project there is a lake with boating, swimming and fishing, lots of hiking trails, birding, and much more in the surrounding area. The scenery is beautiful. If you like lakesides sites, there are quite a few, but they are very popular. None were left when we made reservations in mid January.

There are no full hook up sites that I am aware of, we dumped after the first week and made it to departure before dumping again. This in spite of having two daughters spend a bunch of days with us. Most sites were occupied by TTs with a few 5ers, a scattering of MHs and some tents thrown in. Our campground only had 24 sites. Most of the time we were nearly alone except over Memorial Day weekend. Campers who were there seemed well behaved and noise was not an issue. Locals started putting units on first come first serve sites as early as Wed. for the holiday weekend. There was LOTS of patrolling by COE Rangers and other staff. It seemed there was a severe problem with Gypsy Moths; their worms were all over the place. I inspected as much as I could when packing up to try and make sure we were not bringing any back home.

We had cool, wet and windy weather the first five days but then it turned nice. It was great to have the WC for the bad weather; I know we would not have been nearly as comfortable in our former PUP or in the tents I used for nearly 30 years.

The trip back was as uneventful as the trip out. MPG fell off to 11.7 and averaged 11.8 for all the towing on the trip. We did take a slightly different route which did a better job of avoiding the Chicago metro area. We used I-74 west from Indianapolis, IN and then I-39 north from Bloomington, IL and stayed overnight at Moraine View State Park a little ways short of Bloomington. This park may well make a good stop over for us on the last night of any return trip from the mid Atlantic or southern states in the future.

A very successful first long trip. We were both very pleased and looking forward to many more outings.

PHOTOS

Sounds GREAT and looks just as well...
I have relitives in the area of Raystown lake and have never been there. that is going to be a stop as soon as i can get the DW to stop booking seasonal....Happy Camping...

Hi Glen,

Glad you had a great time, thanks for sharing your pictures with us.

Glad you made the trip to Pennsylvania! Raystown is less than 2 hours away from us, and we had some friends stay there for the Holiday week-end also. The Pa scenery can be beautiful, but the mountains can be long and hard. Hopefully, you will make it back to Raystown and we can catch a visit with you.

lr16661 wrote: Hopefully, you will make it back to Raystown and we can catch a visit with you.

No plans for now, but since I have daughters in the Baltimore/D.C. corridor we will certainly be heading in that direction again at some point. Watch this website for details. I noticed the Penn State Country (and I know State College is just north of Raystown Lake), you should know that when not bleeding Green and Gold (for the Packers) I bleed Cardinal and White for my Badgers (Class of '72).