While the Ghost Town Trail in Ebensburg is recognized as a great place for outdoor recreational opportunities like walking, running and cycling, it’s also good for catching Pokemon.

The daily adventure incense is an item first released in Pokemon Go on July 25, 2022. It allows trainers to attract Pokemon that are not usually seen in the wild, like Galarian birds, to their location for 15 minutes as long as they’re moving.

Since trainers who move in a straight direction between spawns are likely to get more encounters off the incense, the Ghost Town Trail is a great location to find rare Pokemon because the main stem from Black Lick to Ebensburg spans over 30 miles long.

The Galarian birds — Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres — are only available through the daily adventure incense and their shiny versions, which were released during the Galarian Expedition event last October, are some of the rarest Pokemon currently in the game.

I still don’t have a shiny Galarian bird, but I have friends who have all three. The key to finding shiny Galarian birds is to use the daily adventure incense consistently. Since they have a one in 20 chance of being shiny, you’re more likely to encounter them if you use the item regularly. For some, like myself, the real challenge is finding the time and motivation to use incenses effectively.

Last Saturday, I used my daily adventure incense on the Ghost Town Trail and encountered a Galarian Articuno, a shiny Lickitung — a bipedal amphibian Pokemon with a round body, a large tongue and a thick, powerful tail — and many others.

Galarian birds are rare spawns and have a 0.3% catch rate and a flee rate of 90%, which make them difficult to catch — if you’re lucky enough to find one. Although I didn’t catch Articuno on the Ghost Town Trail, I caught a Galarian Zapdos on the trail walking from Ebensburg to Nanty Glo and back last year. While spending my birthday with friends, Grant and Alex, last year in New Jersey, I encountered (and caught) a Galarian Articuno in the Raritan Mall parking lot.

Over the years of playing Pokemon Go, I’ve been lucky enough to catch several memorable Pokemon.

The game was released July 6, 2016, which is the start date for my account. On July 12, 2016, the Mirror published a front-page story about the augmented reality mobile game “taking the area by storm.”

I was in Altoona on that day and caught a Pidgey, a small, plump-bodied avian Pokemon, sitting on top of a Mirror newspaper with the Pokemon Go article. I still have the AR photo I took of that encounter and the Pidgey itself, now evolved into a Pidgeot.

The evolution is fitting because I have grown from an aspiring student journalist to now working full-time for the Mirror and writing about Pokemon Go.

There are hundreds of Pokemon on my account with similar stories.

As a student at Pitt-Johnstown, I read Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, “Fun Home” for a Words and Images course taught by one of my favorite multimedia and digital culture professors, Jeremy Justus.

We were required to read the text for class, but we also had to produce a self-tracking presentation all semester long for the final project. I chose to track the number of Pokemon I caught in the game, the location where they were caught and the number of kilometers I walked each day.

For that project, I drove to Beech Creek — the setting of the novel — and caught a Purrloin, a purple feline Pokemon, outside of the actual funeral home Bechdel and her siblings grew up in.

When Wiglett was introduced into the game, I drove all the way to Presque Isle State Park to catch one since it only spawns near coastlines or beaches.

Some of my favorite locations to play the game include Penn State Altoona and Patton Park because they have so many gyms and Pokestops to attract more wild spawns, more chances to catch a Pokemon with perfect individual values.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520 and mchurella@altoonamirror.com