Sink and Run

In Three Springs, PA there is a road that winds up Jack’s Mountain to the very top of the Appalachian peak.

If a hiker or hunter can climb that long steep winding road to the top, they will stumble upon a mountain spring which feeds the town’s resevour. The water is ice cold, year around, and is the freshest source of H2O this side of Poland Springs.

The water trickles down from the sides of two mountains and seeps its way through sand stone bedrock into a stream. The filtration offered by the sandstone is unsurpassed and helps to produce water so fresh that a drinker can drink a gallon of it without having to urinate.

The valley from which that stream flows is known as “Sink and Run” to residents of the rural farming village. Townsfolk have never permitted logging, mining or other forms of industry to disrupt the virgin land from which they take their water. The landscape is simply beautiful.

Many hunters tales originate from hunting expeditions in Sink and Run. It's like hunting in a fairy land. Old-timers say the place is haunted by Indians.

I once shot at an albino deer in Sink and Run but missed the mystical creature. The deer with fur like snow reminded me of a unicorn as it smiled at me when I missed it through the cross hairs in scope of my thirty-thirty rifle.

I chased after the deer hoping to shot it and drag it out of the woods. Hunting is a sport and I wanted to win. Albino deer are very rare and very few hunters ever bag one. Some say it’s bad luck to shoot an Albino deer, but I’m not superstitious.

I got lost in Sink and Run chasing after the white deer.

There is nothing more frightening than getting lost in Sink and Run.

Paranoia is an understatement when a hunter in florescent orange finds himself wondering in circles in the woodland of Jack's Mountain and can't find the little stream which will lead one out of Sink and Run and back to the modern world.

I started to believe I was cursed for shooting at such a beautiful animal and for a moment thought I may just die on those hills.

When I finally emerged from the confusing wilderness I was dumbfounded.

I somehow managed to get out of Sink and Run without crossing the stream that all hunters must cross when entering and leaving the sacred ground.

I stumbled upon the overflow pipe from the town's reservoir, located at least a half mile south of Sink and Run. I knew the metal pipe with water cascading abundantly very well-- it's where townsfolk in Three Springs go to fill bottles with mountain spring water.

When I saw that metal pipe with sparking water pouring out I was relieved. The sight that over-flow water pipe was mesmorizing. Ice had formed all around the pipe on the wooded ground yet the water was still flowing from the end of the metal tube.

I was quite thirsty from running in circles while lost in Sink and Run.

I fell to my knees upon the ice and I drank a lot of the water flowing out of the pipe in my thirst for finding myself again.

I still can't figure out how I found my way out of Sink and Run without crossing that stream

But I will never shoot at another albino deer, nor will I put my lips on that cold metal pipe when I'm thirsty for Three Springs water.