World's End State Park

Two months ago, October 5-7, we made the drive to World's End State Park. We were excited to camp with a handful of friends, but everyone slowly bailed the over the two days before we were leaving. We'd been wanting to see World's End, and it was prime foliage time, so we decided to go even without our friends. We're definitely glad we went, because it ended up being a great weekend with some enjoyable hiking.

It was late when we got there Friday night, so we donned headlamps before setting up the tent, then got a fire going and made some burgers and had a couple of beers. When we woke up Saturday morning, it was drizzly and grey, but never ones to be deterred or let anything keep us from cooking quality food, we got a fire going and cooked up a delicious bacon, potato and corn has topped with fried eggs. YUM! We took our time getting moving, hoping things would clear up, and it was barely spitting by the time we decided to start hiking.

We combined a bunch of loops and trails to create a longer hike that would take us to a few vistas. I waited too long to post this blog, so I forget exactly what hike we took, but there was a lot of climbing, and between all of the recent rain and all of the falling leaves, most of the time we were walking on wet rocks covered by wet leaves! It was enough to keep your heart racing and we had to stay cautious and move slowly, but we were rewarded with some great views.

We walked from our campsite to the Canyon Vista Trail, which led us to a gorgeous view of the Loyalsock Canyon and a rock garden.

Loyalsock Canyon

After the view of the canyon, we took a long loop back to the campsite, then drove a few miles to the main area of the park to check out the World's End Trail. We climbed up the World's End Trail to meet the Loyalsock Trail, which then took us all the way back down via the Link Trail to Loyalsock Creek, and we walked a couple of miles along the creek. By this point, the sky had completely cleared, and it turned out to be a gorgeous day.

After our hike, we went to a nearby village to find some firewood, then headed back to camp to relax... and play with the camera!

Interloken Trail, Ithaca, NY

We are really lucky to live in an area where there are so many amazing places to explore within just a few hours' drive from our home. Over Labor Day weekend, we met two of our favorite friends, Kate & Tom (who recently relocated to Boston), in the Ithaca area for some backpacking, exploring, and (as always) eating and drinking. 

An ideal vacation or getaway for me and Eric involves hiking and camping along with a cool new town to explore -- especially if that town has breweries and a great beer scene. Of course, it's even better when we can do it with friends. We met up with Kate & Tom in Ithaca Saturday in time for lunch. We walked around the downtown area before settling on Hal's Deli to get a good meal in before heading to the trail. 

We decided on the Interloken Trail, a north-south trail running in and out of the Finger Lakes National Forest and loaded up our backpacks for a night on the trail. We decided we wanted to end with a short spur trail called the Gorge Trail, so we dropped one car there, near the southern end of the trail, then shuttled back to the north end. By the time we got all geared up and got moving, it was going on 3:00. 

The Interloken is a fairly flat, mostly easy trail. Sometimes (usually before I am on the trail with my bedroom and kitchen strapped to my back) I think we have to find the toughest (and thereby most rewarding) trail we can, but it was really nice to enjoy a nice leisurely pace here -- especially since we only see Kate & Tom a couple of times a year and had plenty of catching up to do. We were treated to toads and a black snake before we made it a quarter of a mile, hooray for wildlife! 

The trail was mostly woodsy, with a few open, meadowy breaks as we crossed a couple of ridges. We enjoyed the scenery and the gorgeous day -- perfect blue skies, not too hot, no mosquitos -- perfect hiking conditions!

One of the flat, meadowy sections of the trail. 

Within three hours, we stumbled upon a clearing with a picnic table and a fire ring. We peeked a little farther behind some brush and saw a lovely pond and wondered if we were near the Blueberry Patch Campground. We felt like we hadn't hiked long at all, and it wasn't exactly back-country, but the sweet little campsite was too good to pass up, so we decided to claim it (no good picture--oops!). 

We pitched our tents and walked through the brush to the pond, where we could see a few swimmers on the opposite bank -- and dozens of frogs sprang out from every step near the edge of the pond! It was a perfect spot to relax and enjoy nature. 

How could we have passed this up? 

Blues so blue! Greens so green!

Two happy hikers!

The best vacation buddies ever. 

After unwinding on the bank of the pond for a while, the boys started a fire, we cracked our trail beers (pounders of Sierra Nevada Torpedo! perfect!), and we dined on some world class freeze-dried meals and waited for the stars to come out. 

OH! And, there was an apple tree! Tom made himself a carmelized apple. Yum.

We were treated to a perfectly clear night with lots of stars and the moon rising over the pond. It was the night after a full moon (a blue moon, actually!), so we had plenty of night light. 

When we woke up, we enjoyed the morning sun over the pond and made coffee and oatmeal over the camping stoves before getting an early start on walking. We had not been anywhere near the Blueberry Patch Campground, which we ended up passing after a couple more miles. Again, the weather was flawless. The trail is really clearly marked and easy to follow and crosses over a couple of paved county roads as well as some service roads, so it was easy to keep track of where we were. We passed a couple of spur trails before getting to the Gorge Trail, which took us downhill quickly -- and back to the car before noon! 

It worked out well that we ended up choosing such an easy trail and finished early, because there was plenty else to see in the area. We ended fairly close to Watkin's Glen and a private park called Eagle Cliff Falls, where Eric had identified a waterfall and swimming hole. We crammed (and I mean crammed -- four people, four stuffed packs, plus coolers and the rest of Eric's and my gear for the weekend) into the car and headed straight there for a swim to wash the trail off. 

The waterfall was gorgeous and the water was frigid -- steals-your-breath away frigid. It was a perfect way to cap off a night on the trail! 

From there, we were looking forward to exploring some Ithaca wineries, but decided it was time for some serious food, first. We found a delightful diamond-in-the-rough called Mr. Chicken in Watkins Glen, and we filled up on chicken, baked beans, and coleslaw. Refreshed and with full bellies, it was time to start drinking. We had passed a slew of wineries on a stretch along one of the lakes when we did the first car drop, so we headed back that way so we'd end up near the other car. We stopped first at Damiani Winery, which sits up on a hill to overlook the lake. We got to taste six wines ($3!) and they had some really tasty stuff (we bought a few bottles), and a sweet employee who told us about everything we were drinking. We also asked her if she would recommend a couple other wineries we should focus on in the limited amount of time we had, and she pointed us toward Shale Stone. 

From there, we went right next door to the Finger Lakes Distillery, where we got even more delicious tastings of their vodkas, whiskeys and liquors -- and bought a couple of bottles of whiskey. Then it was on to Shale Stone Winery, which was much smaller than Damiani with a totally different vibe, but also had the gorgeous view of the lake. So much fun!

By the time we finished up there, it was near 5:00, when the wineries were all closing for the day (Sunday), so we headed to the other car, made a stop for groceries and beer, then headed to Robert Tremann State Park, where we had reservations for a campsite. The campsites there were kind of awful -- all out in an open field, instead of in little tree-covered alcoves like so many campsites I'm used to. But, not the end of the world, so we again got a fire going, played some frisbee, enjoyed some local beers, and made a fantastic campfire dinner: corn on the cob in the husks, veggie packets, hot dogs, and mac and cheese -- and of course marshmallows for dessert -- again, under a crystal clear sky full of stars. 

The morning was a bit grey and dreary, but we had a pretty solid mission of visiting the swimming hole  and waterfall complete with a diving board. This was an absolute blast. The water was freezing, but it was so beautiful and thrilling (can't be many places out there with a springboard next to a waterfall!) and we had an absolute blast. 

After swimming, we wanted to have some lunch before hitting the road. Oh -- I have to interject here. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that we love checking out breweries and local beer on our vacations, so Ithaca Beer Co. was high on our to-do list. While gathering up addresses and hours for our various stops, I realized that the tasting room had shut down the week before our trip in preparation for Ithaca's move to a bigger and better brewpub. Yup -- closed for about a two-week window, and of course it was while we were there. Bummer! So, we decided to try the Scale House Brew Pub, instead. It was closed, despite the "Open!" sign in the doorway. Labor Day... d'oh! We had noticed a place called The Piggery on the drive, though, so we decided to go there, instead, and we were not disappointed by their delicious pulled pork sandwiches. Definitely make The Piggery part of your plan if you find yourself in Ithaca! 

It was really a perfect Labor Day weekend and a great way to wrap up the summer. I was surprised to learn that Ithaca is only three hours from the area where Eric's parents live (not sure why I thought it was so much farther), and I can definitely see doing another weekend up there. And we're already talking about doing Acadia National Park with Kate & Tom next summer! 

Horse-Shoe Trail, Part IV

On 6/17 we decided to pick back up at Welkinweir and walk to St. Peter's Village, a quaint little community/tourist trap we'd never visited before. When we got to Welkinweir, all of the gates to the parking areas were locked, so we ended up parking on the shoulder a bit farther down Prizer Road--causing us to skip a mile of the trail! Oh well.

We took the new camera with us, and took our time, stopping to take plenty of pictures. We're still having fun learning the camera. This was a nice, mostly woodsy portion of the trail, with plenty of wildflowers to photograph. We came across a lot of wild raspberry bushes, but most of them weren't quite ready to be plucked. There were a few in full sun, however, and we helped ourselves to a couple of handfuls of red, juicy, delicious berries from the vine. The section of the trail ran along (and back and forth over) French Creek.

I guess if I was really interested in photography, I'd photoshop the electric tower out of this photo.

Raspberries!

So many lovely little wildflowers!

This part of the trail goes through Warwick County Park--a really nice park with trails and playgrounds and picnic areas.

Tiger lilies, leaving Warwick County Park (that's the park to the left).

We always sign the register!

Using a short spur trail, we emerged into St. Peter's Village to retrieve the car we'd left behind. It was Father's Day, so there were a lot of people wandering around town. We didn't make any stops (since we were stinky and sweaty), but there was a cute restaurant with a large patio over the creek and a couple of little shops. Cute!

Distance: 5.5 miles
All-in-all: Perhaps the best segment of the HST we've seen so far; loved the flowers, berries, and park!
Links: www.hstrail.org; http://www.chesco.org/ccparks/cwp/

Pacific Northwest--Portland, the Gorge Amphitheatre, Seattle, Olympic National Park

At the end of May, we took an awesome 10-day vacation out to the Pacific Northwest. It was beautiful, refreshing, exciting, and everything a vacation should be. We explored Portland, went to a music festival at The Gorge Amphitheater, visited Seattle, and hung out at Olympic National Park. It's a beautiful region and somewhere I'd be happy to visit again!

We landed in Portland early afternoon on Wednesday, 5/23, which happened to be my best friend's last day in Portland on business. It was really cool to get to hang out with her--we went to Hair of the Dog Brewery and sampled LOTS of beers, then had a delicious dinner at Portland City Grill, up 30 floors with great views of the city and all of its bridges--plus snowcapped Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helen and Mt. Adam. We watched the sun set while the city slowly lit up. Really cool!

View from Portland City Grill

Thursday in Portland, we had a lazy morning, then went to a tasty breakfast spot called Jam On Hawthorne for a crazy good breakfast, and the perfect bloody mary I needed to nip my mild hangover! We did some wandering and shopping along Hawthorne, and in the evening, stopped at Bridgeport Brew Pub for a beer before heading to the Green Dragon, one of Rogue's beer halls. They have 50 taps and a cool vibe. 

Friday morning we were off to the middle of Washington state for the Sasquatch Music Festival. Definitely the coolest music venue I've ever visited. A few of my musical highlights for the weekend include Of Monsters and Men, Santigold, Jack White, The Head and the Heart, and Beck. We had perfect weather the whole time, the scenery was gorgeous, and we had awesome neighbors to hang out with. Pure bliss!

From Sasquatch it was on to Seattle. We stayed at one of the circular Westin towers, which was really cool with some views of the city and the water. We were pretty exhausted, but did some strolling around, visited the Klondike Gold Rush NHS, had a little happy hour at the Tap House, then dinner at Gordon Biersch before making it an early night! 

Wednesday morning we enjoyed putzing around Pike Place Public Market for a while. It was really cool! We had breakfast (including piroshkies from Piroshky, Piroshky, which was recommended to us by friends at Sasquatch), bought an ornament to commemorate the trip, bought some fancy pasta and oils for ourselves and my father-in-law for Father's Day, and just enjoyed the vibe. 

Finally, it was on to Olympic National Park. It was late afternoon when we got to Port Angeles and stopped at the main visitor's center. From there, it was another 45 minutes or so along Lake Crescent to get to the Fairholme campground, where we planned to stay. We were running low on daylight, so we stopped for a couple of very short little walks. First up was Marymere Falls. It was so nice to finally get into the park, and the old growth Douglas firs draped with mosses were a real treat. The 90-foot waterfall was lovely, and we ended up chatting for 20 minutes with a couple we met at top--the man was from Bucks County and was wearing a Phillies hat! Small world.

We explored the shore of Lake Crescent for a bit and did some more wandering, where we saw lots of black-tail deer, Douglas squirrels, wildflowers, and beautiful, mossy, old trees. We headed back to the campsite and had the whole area to ourselves--which was nice, because it was raining pretty hard, so we used the overhang of the bathrooms for shelter to cook dinner! The mossy campsite was gorgeous and the rain on the tent all night was really relaxing. I woke up early to the distant, long, one-tone whistle of what I later learned was the varied thrush. It was so relaxing to just lay there listening to the raindrops and the birds!

When we finally rolled out of the tent on Thursday morning, we whipped up some breakfast (before this trip, I'd forgotten how much I love oatmeal) before packing up and heading to the Hoh Rain Forest area of the park. We did a bunch of small loops here--Spruce Nature Trail and Hall of Mosses--to check out a different area of the park. The Spruce Nature Trail meets the bank of the Hoh River, and includes parts of incredible old growth forest, and also some new growth carved out where the Hoh used to flow or has flooded in the past. I wish we had more time to do some serious hiking, but alas, there was too much we wanted to see and do in the region!

But, at any rate, this area of the park was just gorgeous. There weren't a lot of people, and the massive trees, mossy growth, nurse logs, birds (that varied thrush again!) and rain drops (it didn't rain while we were walking, but the previous night's rain was still dripping from the trees) combined for the most mystical, fairytale walk ever. Since Eric and I were taking turns with our fancypants new camera, we weren't always walking immediately together, and wandering "alone" in this area was definitely one of my favorite (and most relaxing) memories from the trip!

Low clouds over the Hoh River

Nurse log! So cool. 

Uprooted.

From the Hoh Rain Forest, we headed west... to the beach! We made a few stops along the way, enjoying the "Big Sitka spruce" and "Big Douglas fir tree" signs and pushing through a few short overgrown trails to see what else we could find. It was grey and dreary, but we thoroughly enjoyed scenery and growth unlike what we're used to back east.

I don't think I realized before planning this trip that Olympic National Park included miles of Pacific Coast. We did the Kalaloch area, which includes Ruby Beach and a handful of other beaches several miles apart. We hit Ruby, the northernmost of these beaches, first, for Eric's first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. It was rocky and I was stunned by the driftwood--hundreds of big tree trunks. Ruby Beach is just south of where the Hoh River dumps into the ocean, and if I understood the interpretive signs correctly, all those trees are brought down from the forests by the rivers, spend their time at sea, and then eventually wash up. They were all smooth from being battered by the sea and salt air... it was pretty cool. Here we were treated to TONS of mussels, barnacles, anemones, and other delightful and weird marine creatures. We spent some time at each beach, making our way slowly south down the coast, taking tons of pictures, and absorbing as much as we could about the plants, animals and scenery we were seeing. At one beach, we even saw a bald eagle, sitting regally high above in a tree. I was thrilled--this was basically my main goal for the trip! We watched the bird for quite some time, hoping to see it take flight, but no luck. And since we didn't yet buy a nice zoom lens for the new camera, we didn't get good pictures, either, but we have the memory!

Mussels and barnacles at Ruby Beach. Fun fact: Mussels sound like Rice Krispies. Snap, crackle, pop!

Piddock clams rock back and forth to create these holes in rocks. 

Anemone!

Eventually we made our way to the Kalaloch campsites and scored a perfect site on a bluff just over the ocean. I was literally giddy and was tempted to just lay down, listen to the ocean, and read a book, but Eric was still in the mood to walk, so we spent more time exploring the beach and an interesting forest area just off the beach. Cameraless this time, we had another bald eagle sighting, and also a great view of some other badass bird of prey (raptor? a different kind of eagle?). We headed back to camp to cook up yet another freeze-dried dinner and watch the sun set slowly into the ocean--that's right, the clouds parted for a few hours to give us this very special treat! But, not surprisingly, before the sun had completely set, the clouds returned and it started raining. No worries--we took plenty of reading material into the tent and got settled in. It poured all night, but I certainly can't complain about laying in a tent listening to the ocean and the rain all night.

If you ask me how I define "perfect," this will be my response.

Friday morning--our last day of vacation before leaving--it was still pouring, so we packed up as best we could and headed out. We weren't quite ready to leave the park, though, so we made a stop at the Quinault Rain Forest to squeeze in one last (very rainy) stroll through the park. This walk led us to the old Kestner homestead, which was pretty cool. Apparently the Kestner family built a little life for themselves here in the late 1800s. I'm not sure how long it's been abandoned, but it was pretty funny to see all of the deer appreciating the shelter left by the abandoned buildings.

From there we said goodbye to Olympic National Park and started south, planning to check out Astoria (Lewis and Clark National Historic Park) on the way back to Portland, where our flight would leave early Saturday morning. It was a nice drive, and we stopped at a few different portions of the interpretive trail and different landmarks about Lewis & Clark's journey. Sidenote--the main thing that led us to include this on our trip? We recently watched Ken Burns' documentary about the expedition. It was so fantastic and gave us a new appreciation for that particular story of the country's history.

It was evening by the time we got back to Portland, so we got a hotel near the airport, had dinner at a nearby pub, and called it an early night, with that sort of satisfied exhaustion that only comes from an excellent vacation. Every single section of the trip was better than expected--Portland, Sasquatch at the Gorge, Seattle, Olympic National Park--and this is a region we will definitely want to explore again! 

Mt. Minsi, 4/11/10

I just found this in my drafts section--apparently the last effort before my two-year unintentional hiatus!

Although we had Bushkill Falls on the menu for today, Eric decided at the last minute to try to avoid the crowds and find something else. The Delaware Water Gap has been on our list, so we found a couple of maps and identified a short loop on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, which runs as the border between PA and NJ. The Delaware Water Gap is home to a great variety of trails, and the Appalachian Trail cuts through here as well. A trailhead to climb Mt. Minsi looked easy to find, so we loaded up the CamelBacks, made a couple of sandwiches and headed out.

We parked on Rt. 611, just past Mountain Rd. in the (adorable) village of Delaware Water Gap, at the Resort Point Parking Area and a short spur trail took us to the AT. We went left on the AT to head south toward the top of Mt. Minsi. The first mile or so was easy going and there was a steady amount of traffic. There are a handful of spur trails--all unblazed--that lead to different views, areas and loops maintained (or not) by the Delaware Water Gap. One overlook mid-way to the Mt. Minsi overlook checks out a little beach on the river at Kittatinny Point in NJ. We caught some great views of hawks at this point. From here, the climb to the top of the ridge intensifies and certainly had me panting. We didn't have a great map, so at the next clearing we thought maybe we had reached the summit.

We knew we wanted to take the unmarked Mt. Minsi Fire Rd. back down the ridge, but knowing that you're looking for something that isn't marked can have you envisioning paths through the smallest of clearings. But it looked like the trail was still gaining elevation, so we kept going--and panting--up the AT. The AT and the Mt. Minsi Fire Road cross awkwardly and form a figure 8 just before the peak overlook, but despite our earlier confusion, when we finally got to the trail we were looking for, it was clear. We stuck to the AT for another couple of hundred yards to get to the peak, which was a fantastic treat.

The peak of Mt. Minsi, at 1,463 feet, stares directly across to the slightly-higher Mt. Tammany (1,527') in NJ. There was only one other couple there when we got there, and they were looking skyward at the hawks circling above. I took in some of the incredible vistas--we could see for miles and miles into New Jersey. I pulled out my camera to check out the hawks and was thrilled to see that one of those "hawks" was an EAGLE! It's the first "in the wild" sighting I can recall, so I was excited. I was even more excited that Eric had his binoculars so we could really get a great view of its white head and tail. It curved around the mountain before long, but I was so glad to see it. What a great reward for at the top of the mountain!
We ate at the summit and headed back out to take the Mt. Minsi Fire Road north, back down the mountain. The road is wide and clear and is a gentle descent, compared to the sudden rise that is the last half-mile of the AT. The loop we did--including a couple of spurs we wandered off to looking for vistas--was about five miles, and we took about two-and-a-half hours, including a leisurely lunch. The only thing that really detracted from the enjoyment of the trail was the traffic noise rising up from I-80 while moving south up the mountain on the AT. The Delaware River and the AT cut through the Delaware Water Gap, with peaks on both sides, so the noise from the interstate really carried. However, the more gentle Mt. Minsi Fire Road was blocked from much of that noise.

Distance: 5 miles
Wildlife: Hawks, bald eagle
All-in-all: A great hike when it comes to time and effort versus the payoff of the views. The vistas at the very top of Mt. Minsi really were stunning--of course, the bald eagle at the top was the real payoff--but this is certainly a hike I'd recommend to anyone near the Delaware Water Gap.

Horse-Shoe Trail, Part III

Two weeks ago we did a nice 12 mile stretch of the trail, picking up at Brightside Farm and emerging at Welkinweir Nature Preserve. It was a gorgeous day and a really nice stretch. We were on the edge of several horse pastures to start, which was nice--who doesn't enjoy looking at grazing horses? Right at the start, we stumbled upon a scattered skeleton, including the jawbone pictured. I have no idea what kind of animal it was, but it was kind of neat to see the skull, jawbone and all of the bones scattered--they were dry bones that had been there for a while.

We startled (and in turn were startled by) three white-tail deer, and there was no shortage of chatter from birds. Flowers are blooming all over and the trees are getting greener and fuller by the day.

As we're learning is the normal on this trail, there were quite a few miles on roads--and at some points, on windy, narrow roads with car flying past. Yikes. But there were certainly some great woodsy sections, too, and one section even included some nice elevation to get the blood flowing. When we emerged at Welkinweir--tired after walking 12 miles--we were unsure how to find where we'd left the car. We walked around the lake where we emerged (there's definitely an active beaver population there!)  and had to wander around a bit to figure out where we were going, but it's a gorgeous area, so despite achy feet, it was nice to see. Add it to the list of things to explore further in the future!

Distance: 11.7 miles
All-in-all: A few awful section on a road with speeding cars, but plenty of nice walks through woods and around pastures to balance it out.
Links: www.hstrail.org

Horse-Shoe Trail, Part II

The mild winter seems to be seamlessly blending into spring--I don't want to jinx anything because March blizzards are not unheard of, but it's in the 70s all week and things are starting to bloom. HOORAY!

We had a productive weekend between me catching up on graduate work and Husband working on his pottery before the spring/summer selling season, but we took a break on Sunday to knock off another few miles on the Horse-Shoe Trail. We picked up where we left off at the Rees Road access point and did six miles to where we left the second car at Brightside Farm. It was an easy walk, again on a good deal of paved roads (with fast moving traffic, yikes).

It's neat on these walks to see how these routes that I drive so often connect through the woods. I have a TERRIBLE sense of direction so it's hard for me to make sense of how places connect sometimes. We passed an alpaca farm, saw some massive hawks and definitely heard a little more chatter from the birds than the last time. We also passed the Great Valley Nature Preserve, which has been on my list to check out for a while.

We may end up going last-minute backpacking this weekend--looks like it's supposed to be nice. If not, I think we'll try to do a nice long portion of trail.

Distance: 6 miles (Rees Road to Brightside Farm)

All-in-all: Another pleasant and easy (relatively unexciting) portion of the HST.

Links: www.hstrail.org

Horse-Shoe Trail, Pt. I

Oh! That's right! I started a blog two years ago! I do wish I had kept up with this, because we’ve explored some pretty great trails over the past two years: Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, a gorgeous loop on the Tongue Mountain Range on our honeymoon, Mt. Mansfield/The Chin—Vermont’s highest point (although in the interest of full disclosure, we did not climb that one—we drove up the mountain and hiked across the ridge due to time constraints and an injury), plenty of great spots close to us in Pennsylvania, plus, our first overnighter after getting fully outfitted with backpacking gear thanks to our wedding registry.

Here’s to hoping I stay a little more dedicated to the blog this time around. I need an outlet for writing that isn’t technical/scientific (as at my day job) or formulaic and research-based (as for grad school).

What prompted my return to the blog? We’ve started our first long-term hiking project! We’re going to complete the Horse-Shoe Trail in 2012. It’s a 140ish-mile connector trail that goes from the Appalachian Trail on Stony Mountain (Dauphin County, PA) east to Valley Forge National Historical Park, which happens to be in our backyard. We got the complete map set for Christmas (two, actually—Eric bought it for me, and my mom bought it for Eric) and started with the first five (okay, 4.9) miles on Saturday, February 4.

The map set is really complete, with detailed descriptions and directions to parking areas at various access points. We parked at Washington’s Headquarters in Valley Forge NHP and started there. It really is a sin that we haven’t explored Valley Forge and our nearby walking trails more in the nearly two years we’ve been in Phoenixville.

The first bit of the HST is in Valley Forge NHP and we passed forks in the trail that would lead to the Upper and Lower Forges and a historic covered bridge, which was the original starting point of the HST. We have to get back and check out those spur trails. There are some neat ruins of an old bottling plant early on (see photo of my husband as Sasquatch) before just enough of an incline to get the blood pumping.

The thing about the HST—at least this first leg of it—is that much of it cuts literally through people’s backyards, sometimes it’s on a street, and it certainly doesn’t always feel like “real hiking.” Nonetheless, it was nice to spend a couple of hours outside, and we had fun picking out houses where we’d love to live.

I think this project/goal will be great to have as a go-to hike when we don’t have time to plan something out or go too far, and since it cuts through Chester, Lancaster and Lebanon counties, where we have friends scattered all throughout, hopefully some of the day-hikes will include friends. Our next two weekends are pretty busy, so it’ll probably be a while before we get out again, but I’m glad we started.

Distance: 4.9 miles (Valley Forge to Rees Rd. access point)

All-in-all: In itself, not a great stretch, but the HST is pretty impressive and we’re looking forward to completing it this year.

Links: www.hstrail.org

www.nps.gov/vafo/

Nescopeck State Park, 3/28/10

After spending the weekend relaxing at our friends' cabin at the Eagle Rock Resort near Hazleton, PA, in the Poconos, we made a stop at Nescopeck State Park to get some walking in, although it was a cold, dreary day with a chance of rain--at the beginning of the season, we're just desperate to be outside!

Nescopeck isn't particularly hilly or mountainous, so we grabbed some trail maps at the closed Education Center and started for the only trail that was marked as "Difficult"--the three-mile Mountain Loop that nears the top of Nescopeck Mountain. This was a pretty easy walk for most of the time, except for the 100 yards or so leading to the trail's summit. There's no spectacular view at the top, just a few sudden sharp turns and then a sudden descent. Maybe it was because it was the last weekend in March and the weather was chilly and drab, but this was a sad, lifeless hike! There wasn't a leaf, shrub, weed, squirrel or bird to be seen (or heard) and we didn't see anyone else on this section of the trail. There were, however, plenty of misguided brooks and streams--after an incredibly snowy winter, the spring melt was still carving out the trails, and we did a lot of rock scrambling over brooks (always fun, as far as we're concerned).

When we hit Honey Hole Road, we decided to continue on to the Creekside trail and head towards Nescopeck Creek and see what sights we could find. We came upon the creek, which was slightly more lively than the rest of the hike. However, we quickly lost track of the Creekside Trail and thought maybe it had been grown over or drowned out during an incredibly wet winter, so we cut up the Fern Trail towards the Nescopeck Trail, a wide, well-defined road that slowly headed back towards Lake Francis and the Education Center where we were parked.

The area around Lake Frances was poorly marked and we missed a turn at some point, so we ended up walking half a mile on Honey Hole Road to get back to where we were parked. It started to rain just before we got to the car. We ended up doing around five miles; there wasn't much elevation so we it only took two hours (and with the dreary weather, we didn't even stop to eat).

Distance: 5 miles
All-in-all: Nescopeck didn't have much to offer, but with the informal goal of exploring as many state (and national, of course) parks and forests as we can, I'm still glad we made the stop.
Links: Nescopeck State Park

Pulpit Rock/Pinnacle Loop, 3/21/10

After a frigid winter with record-setting snowfall in Philadelphia, we were chomping at the bit to get out for a nice, long hike that didn't involve me sliding down hills on my butt (we haven't really advanced to winter hiking yet--maybe next year). We found the perfect loop, part of the Appalachian Trail and with a trail head just 45 minutes from Eric's apartment. The Pulpit Rock/Pinnacle Loop in Hamburg, PA, is an 8.7 mile circuit with some incredible views. We couldn't have picked a better spot for the first springtime adventure.

We parked at a water treatment plant and walked about half a mile up a gravel road to the trail. After crossing a small bridge over Furnace Creek, we stayed to the right to stay on the AT. The first mile or so was easy going with little elevation gain. There are a few spur trails and there were quite a few people on the trail. The woods were positively alive, though, with chipmunks scattering in every direction and the wildly loud song of the wood frogs ringing out, much to my delight. For the last quarter-mile or so before the Pulpit Rock overlook, the trail quickly gained elevation and required a great deal of rock scrambling.We sat at the rocky overlook to take in the views of the Lehigh Valley and its many ridges and tried to identify the other mountains. Hawks were enjoying the gorgeous day just as much; we saw dozens circling between the ridges. It's always in situations like these that I wish I had a better camera. I tried to get some good photos of the hawks, but my camera just doesn't do them justice.
After leaving Pulpit Rock, we came upon an observatory with a sign for the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society, which excited me--I've always been fascinated with the night sky and I can't imagine a better weekend than an evening hike followed by stargazing with real equipment and people who know what they're talking about. Add it to my never-ending list of things to check out.
The next mile or so of the trail was more rock hopping and often stopping at every blaze to seek the next. There were far fewer people on this section of the trail and we enjoyed the slightly more challenging terrain to reach the short spur trail off of the AT to reach the Pinnacle. You certainly can't miss the Pinnacle with the enormous rock cairn marking your arrival, and at the overlook, the rocks jut out to allow panoramic views of the valley--absolutely gorgeous. I was shocked and disappointed at the amount of trash left behind by previous hikers, and we packed what I could to carry out after taking in the views.
The Loop continues on the AT for another 1.82 miles on an old woods road before meeting up with a blue-blazed trail that would lead back to the trailhead where we started. We came across a few swampy bogs where dozens of wood frogs sang loudly and incessantly--I loved it! Much of the remainder of the loop follows along Furnace Creek and is all easy terrain. The trail passes by the Hamburg Reservoir before leading back to the road that takes you to the parking area.

Distance: 8.7 miles
All-in-all: Enjoyable loop with some fantastic vistas; mostly easy terrain with a few areas of more moderate climbing.
Links: Map