Snowshoe Day! at Tobyhanna Lake

 Snowshoe Day!  The Snowmaggedon brought over 18 inches of snow to our area in the Pocono Mountains, and we were prepared.  We had the snowshoes out and fitted to our new winter snow boots.  We shoveled our driveway yesterday, and we were ready to hit the snow this morning:

The last time we snowshoed was about 18 months ago -- March 2019 when we snowshoed in to Lexington Arch in Great Basin National Park in Nevada.  If you're curious about that adventure, you can read about it here.

We weren't the first ones through the snow.  We could see evidence of one cross-country skier who had navigated the trail clockwise (opposite to our direction) -- probably yesterday when the snow was fresh -- and one hiker who barebooted it, taking care to use the skier's tracks to minimize postholing, as the wind off the lake created some drifts as deep as 30 inches.  We wore orange as a precaution against hunters, although deer season has ended.

Ruthie Puppy's bench is always a favorite stop when we hike around Tobyhanna Lake.  We like to compare views as the seasons progress.  Last time we hiked around the lake -- in the snow -- the surface of the lake was already frozen, except where springs fed up and revealed themselves through the ice; this time, the snow, ice and cold were too much, even for the springs, and everything was frozen -- although the springs still revealed themselves with thinner, dirty ice which contrasted with the snow-covered thicker ice that dominated on the lake:

The trees here are mainly bare -- having died and dried and fallen some weeks ago.  Still, some leaves hung on desperately to some smaller trees and bushes.  One leaf must even have given up its grip late in the snowfall.  It lay, expired under the slightest dusting of snow:

Another favorite place around the lake is the wetland formed by Tobyhanna Creek as it feeds into the lake.  We looked upstream, marvelling at the dirty ice marking the channel of the stream --

-- and awestruck by the melted channel formed by the current of the creek as it flowed past us and on into the lake:

Our total trek was 5.5 miles.  We decided to split our lunch into two shorter food stops, at the two- and four-mile marks, thinking that we would digest our meal better if it were in two smaller portions -- and thinking, too, that we could use a couple of longer stops.  We had hot Jasmine Green Tea (Kathy's with honey) to warm us at our meals.  We were ready for Lunch No. 1 when we reached the 2-mile mark:

The trail stretching behind us, where we lunched, was representative of what we saw through the entire hike:

Very subtle splashes of color appear in unlikely places, but they stand out against the India ink sketch that is the forest in snow:

Miles 3 and 4 were hard.  Lunch No. 2 came just about when we would have needed to stop anyway to give our backs, hips, feet and cold fingers and toes a break.  Kathy grinned with excitement as she contemplated putting toe warmers in her boots.

But we only had a mile left to hike, so our second meal energized us, and we hopped off down the trail, feeling a little more spring in our step.  It wasn't long before we arrived at the spillway, where, halfway through our last mile, we paused to hydrate (we had to hydrate every half mile because the snowshoeing was so aerobic and generated enormous heat and perspiration):

Our walk along the spillway dam gave us one final panorama of Tobyhanna Lake before we headed down the woodsy backstretch to the boat ramp parking lot where we had left the Jeep:

That last shot of peanut butter and tea perked up our senses, and David spotted another small detail to record for blogging posterity:

Reaching the boat ramp parking lot, we looked past the lonely, snow-laden rental boats toward the fishing dock where -- surprisingly -- we found no one fishing:

We would like to say that we paused to enjoy the lake one last minute or two before sadly turning to our Jeep to drive home.  But the truth is that we were exhausted and ready to sit down and couldn't wait to jump back in the car.  This was four hours of very intense exercise, and we were ready to embrace our recliners and spend the rest of the day deciding what to say about the hike as we wrote this blog.

Hiking the Lehigh Gorge Trail South from Rockport, PA

Friday, December 11, 2020 

Hi Blog!

After the snow storm on Wednesday, it took the better part of Thursday to get the roads cleared. With warmer temperatures on the way Friday, we decided to get out and explore part of the Lehigh Gorge State Park. This 6,107 acres park follows the Lehigh River from the Francis E. Walter Dam near White Haven in the north to Jim Thorpe in the south. The Lehigh Gorge Trail follows over 20 miles of abandoned railroad grade. We started our hike at the Rockport Access Area.

Rockport Road follows Indian Run down to the Lehigh River.

This is a very popular raft launch for the white water raft companies that ply the Lehigh River. The stairs make it easy for customers to walk down to the river's edge. It also makes it easy for the fisherman. We couldn't help but notice all the great fishing spots we hiked past.

Sections of the park and the adjacent State Game Lands are open to deer hunting. The hunters are allowed to drive this portion of the rail trail during hunting season. That said, we only saw two pickup trucks with hunters. There were three other cars, but they appeared to be tourists taking advantage of the open gates.

The rail bed was carved into the side of the Bald Mountain. The spring water that leaked from the rock layers made for amazing ice sculptures.

The recent snow melt has supercharged Luke's Falls.

The Lehigh Gorge Trail is managed by The Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor which aims to preserve and interpret the nationally significant history of the 165-mile transportation route between Wilkes-Barre and Bristol encompassing both the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers. The pretty trail markers made it easy to check our mileage.

This nameless waterfall started high on the hill and slowly stair-stepped down to the river.

We encountered only four bike riders all day. The icy road bed made peddling exciting.

After a little over three miles, we turned and headed back to the traihead. Picnic tables were scattered about a mile apart. We enjoyed our sandwiches while watching Drakes Creek work its way down to the river.

After lunch, we walked down to the river bank so we could get a better view of the railroad bridge over Drakes Creek.

The arrival of the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1850s prompted the formation of the company that eventually became the Bethlehem Steel. Remnants of the old rail line can still be see along the trail.

Large culverts with massive stone walls were constructed to funnel stream water under the rail bed.

While we hiked 6.5 miles, we only covered a little over three miles of the 20 mile trail. We have 17 more miles of adventure ahead of us.

We leave you with this video of the Lehigh River as it tumbles through the Gorge. 

Enjoy!

Making a Snow Angel at Tobyhanna Lake

No, that's not a dead or injured Kathy.  That's a snow angel in the making.  Our day today inspired her to do it, and you'll see the result further down in this blog entry.

This was the second snowfall for little Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, where we are hunkering down against Covid-19.  It wasn't supposed to be much.  The weather forecaster said, "Perhaps the higher elevations will get some snow...a dusting...maybe an inch."

You know the rest of the story.  We got almost 2 inches of very light, powdery stuff!  We wanted to be the first to scuff through it at Tobyhanna Lake, so, around 1:00 pm, we went out to get in the Jeep.  ...Wait...oh, yeah...we have to shovel before we can take the Jeep out of the driveway.

So shovel we did.  David led the way, but Kathy quickly joined in after snapping this action photo:

Perhaps a half hour of shoveling later, and we were on our way.  We put the Jeep in 4WD because the roads had not yet been plowed to any real extent.  To demonstrate how slippery the roads were, Providence put in our way, at the main intersection near our cottage, an SUV who must have been overconfident in making the turn onto the main road from our side road.  It was down in the ditch across the main road, slammed into a row of small trees.  Okay, warning noted.  We drove a prudent 25 mph in 4WD up to Tobyhanna Lake.

Even knowing how much snow had fallen, we were not prepared for what we saw at the lake.  The last week or two resulted in a light freeze on the surface of Tobyhanna Lake -- enough to hold all of this light snowfall and make the lake look ready for any ice skaters who might be brave enough to test the frozen surface:

We were not here to skate -- or to fall through the ice.  We sought out the loop trail around the lake.  Our glance at the trail sign told us we had about 1.5 inches of snow to shuffle through as we set out on our 2.5 mile walk:

We did not dare hope that we would be the first ones on this new snow...but we were!  The trail lay before us in all its pristine glory.  The only tracks that preceded us were several bunny trails across the path:

In the snow, with the dark, bare winter trees, any color stands out.  Our hunter-orange garments were nearly blinding.  But there were other splashes of color along our path, such as these beautiful blue blazes:

We couldn't resist pausing at Ruthy Puppy's favorite bench.  It was hard to tell where the shoreline ended and the lake began:

Just in case you were thinking of fishing, take note of this sign.  We couldn't determine if this also prohibits ice fishing further out.

The lake is fed by Tobyhanna Creek, to which we hiked; but it is also spring-fed, and it was easy to spot the springs because each was like a reverse black hole, creating its own galaxy of liquid water in a space of snow and ice:

We reached the turnaround point of our walk -- the bridge over Tobyhanna Creek where it lets into Tobyhanna Lake.  The stream was dressed in a seasonally appropriate garment of snow:

After pausing at these woods on this snowy afternoon and thinking of snow poetry, we turned back from where we had come.  

All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

"Winter Trees," by William Carlos Williams

The only tracks we encountered were our own from our walk out:

Reaching the Tobyhanna Lake beach, Kathy volunteered to make a snow angel.  David, being the braver and more fun-loving of the two, volunteered to be the photographer.  So Kathy lay down on the snow and spread her snow-jacket wings.  She sprang from the snow and this is the result of her work:

Pretty good for the year's first snow angel, we'd say.

Hiking Little Falls Trail in Promised Land State Park

Monday, December 7, 2020

Hi Blog!

It's been two weeks since we posted a blog. We had a wonderful, albeit small, Thanksgiving weekend. We managed to get a tiny Christmas tree. So far, Ruby hasn't knocked it down. The Christmas presents have mostly arrived and are now wrapped and ready for delivery. The weather has turned frigid with high temperature only reaching a high today of 27 degrees. Despite the cold, we felt the need to get out and stretch our legs. 

We picked a short hike in Promised Land State Park. It is hunting season and while portions of our trail are designated "no hunting zones," we were still close enough to the State Game Lands and State Forests that we felt the need to wear our orange. 

Our hike today was along the Little Falls Trail.

We parked at the west end of the Lower Lake. The lake is an approved trout waters and is stocked with brook, brown and rainbow trout. We may need to come back in the spring and try our luck

The dam at the west end of Lower Lake empties into the East Branch of Wallenpaupack Creek. The Little Falls Trail is a loop trail which travels down one side of the creek and back up the other. There are plenty of opportunities to extend the hike by following the numerous snowmobile trails than criss-cross the State Game Lands and Delaware State Forest. However, daylight is in short supply this time of year, so we decided to stick with the loop trail. 

As we started our hike, a sturdy bridge beckoned us to cross to the far side of the creek.

The land that became Promised Land State Park was once hunting grounds for the Minsi Tribe of the Wolf Clan of the Lenni Lenape American Indians (Delaware). The Shakers, a religious group, purchased land in the area. They tried to farm and build a life on the rocky land. Their attempt to build a partnership to log the land was unsuccessful. After finally contracting the forests out to be timbered, the Shakers left the area. According to legend, the Shakers sarcastically named the area “the Promised Land.”

As we hiked along the creek, we traversed a number of flat stone paths. We commented that it sure looked like CCC work. Turns out, The Civilian Conservation Corp had a camp at Promised Land from 1933 to 1941. They built campgrounds, roads, trail and planted over 1,000,000 trees.

The frosty temperatures created some beautiful ice sculptures.

Kathy just had to take a closer look.

We followed the creek as it tumbled over a series of small waterfalls. The main attraction of the Little Falls Trail is this section of the creek.

To see and hear what we saw, click the link below to experience the Little Falls.

Here is a video of Little Falls at the bridge at the far end of our loop hike. 

Here is our videographer:

Kathy got a little too close to this old Ent and it tried to trap her. She barely escaped! The woods can be a dangerous place.

We were hoping to follow the creek all the way to Lake Paupack, but we ran out of daylight, so we turned and crossed the creek and headed back upstream to the trailhead.

We stopped one last time to admire the Little Falls.

We will definitely be back to Promised Land State Park in the future. Until then, stay thirsty my friends!