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