Bloggin’ The Trek

A Gallery of the trip
A little vacation trip and we still managed to visit 5 parks, Leigh Plummer, Collier-Seminole, Loudermilk, Big Cypress and Caxambas, all in and around Marco Island.

A Gallery of the trip

A Gallery of this day
Barb & I came here earlier this year when Big Pocono was closed. At that time it was a lot of snow-and-ice shots. Today it was stumps. Barb was driving and would just drop me off when I found “something down there” to shoot. Most often it was stumps in the water.
A Gallery of this day

A Gallery of the day
Barb & I took a  ride to this park earlier in the year, but it was closed due to icey conditions.  On this day we also had our daughter Celeste with us.  You can see three states (NY, NJ, & PA) from the top of this park.  As we drove in, we saw the ranger decending the fire tower.  “Busy day here today,” he said.  “We’ve got two going.  150 acres over here and another one just started over there.”  Most of the rangers and DCNR employees are very friendly and very knowledgable, and I talk with them whenever possible.  It was surprising that he had so much time to chat when the fires were blazing, but he already did hiw part by calling it in and indicating direction. 

The three of us then proceeded to the Henry S. Cattrell cabin at the summit.  This cabin was built by Mr. Cattrell in 1908, and he left in unlock for any travelers who needed a shelter.  

After we got the easy shots, the three of us took our cameras to the trails.  A good day was had by all.  My favorite shot from the day was the “eyes” in a white birch tree.
A Gallery of the day

A Gallery of this day.
A beautiful day with the first real sense of Spring.  Stopped by to visit old friends, Adams Falls and the Evergreen Trail.  Frolicking through that part of the park were 3 couples from the Catskills in New York.   They had just arrived.  They were staying the night at the Ricketts Glen Hotel, which is conveniently located in the middle of nowhere.  I mentioned the food there was unexpectedly great.  They planned on walking the Falls Trail the next day, and drove all this way to do it.  Many people do just that, drive for hours just to visit this beautiful spot, and I am so fortunate to live only 20 minutes away. 

They were all middle-aged, though younger than I, and we all shared the same awe and respect for the marvels of nature.  I particularly enjoyed the one in the red shirt who kept running around and climbing every rock he encountered.  He was like a little kid enjoying an amusement park.  It made me think that this is our touch of heaven on earth, and he certainly has the right approach, become as a little child to enter.
A Gallery of this day.

A Gallery of this day

A beautiful day, and Spring, although officially here, is truely coming soon.  Last week I found a dandelion.  Today the trees are showing red buds in gratitude of the warmer weather. 

Today I once again promised a light 2+ mile walk with pleasent conversation and an occasional photo op on the bike trail from the tannery.  This time Dave Cohen was my victim.  What I said was mostly true, but there was that one diversion.  Let that be a lesson for anyone who wanders through these parks with me.  If I ever say, I’m going down here for just a bit, let me go.  You may be the one left to call for help.

It really wasn’t a terrible diversion, certainly not as bad as the ride I took Jim on on April 6th.  I wanted to get behind the light to show the blue of the water, get a couple boulders in the water, and then get a fly fisherman in the water down by Hayes Crossing.  The danger was in the climb, or more specifically where I chose to do it.  Well, we made it and came out with some nice photos.

Dave is a film guy, but today was using one of my camers.  Still, he has a hard time wasting shots.  I was trying to keep my exposures to a minimum and was doing fine until Dave says, “Hawks!”  Man, do they do that on purpose.  They are like bluejays in their ability to say, “Here I am.  Get this,” and then be gone before you can bring your camera to your face.  They were so adept at staying close enough to almost touch, all the while managing to keep all of the pesky little branches between us, spoiling every attempt to capture them.  Then, when I eventually give up, and start to walk on, they come back into plain view and start over.  I almost doubled my number of exposures and totally destroyed my keeper-to-taken ratio. 

After actually giving up and not falling for that trick again, I passed by a dove perched over the path.  I swear she had a knowing smile.  Probably feeling sorry for me she stayed and posed until I smiled back and left with a bunch more.  Peace, dove.

We finally get back in the car and start driving home.  Suddenly a hawk swoops down and peers in the windshield and I’ll swear he winked.  See ya next time, Hawk.

A Gallery of this day

A Gallery of this day

“We’ll park at the tannery and walk south.  It’s a nice flat walk; we’ll take it easy today.”  That’s what I said to Jim before we left.  It was one of those day-after situations.  The last time we were at this park we observed railroad tracks and an apparent trail on the other side of the river.  This day we decided to park there and walk THAT flat walk instead.  Not far down the tracks I noticed them bending away from the river and said, “You can continue down the tracks, Jim, but I want to stay closer to the water.  Yell if you see something.”  He pretty much ignored me and followed. 

Still not much to photograph, but it was a nice walk.  That is, until we got a bit further downstream.  The brush along the river got so thick we had to almost belly through it follwoing the beavers path of trunk carnage.  Once, we scared a rabbit who darted from us.  I decided to follow him and we eventually came out of the thick of things.  We thought we might have some cleaner path back to the tracks up ahead at Hayes Crossing, but we were wrong.  Just passed it, however is a stream flowing into the river.  We followed it back up the hill and walked the tracks back, getting some of the best shots of the day.  It was a very overcast day, but the moss stuff that clung to the cliffs seemed to have its won illumination.  Some of the rocks, trains and railroad ties also provided opportunity.  We found a rock face that Jim dubbed Rushmore East, seeing George Washington’s bust.  To me, with the large forehead, it more resembled Mozart.

After all that exhileration we forgot about the night-before effects and drove the 4 miles to Hickory Run.  Finally the sun started to peak through.  We walked to a spot where we enjoyed photographing reeds last fall.  Of course, they were not back yet, but there was an unusual stump glistening in the shallow water.  I made several photos of it.  Even though it was a very old stump, we both knew it wasn’t there last fall.  Someone apparently threw it in since then, but it made a nice shot.
A Gallery of this day

A Gallery of this day. 
Actually this was a trip that started March 21st when we had to take some furniture to Jim’s daughter Cindy in Pittsburgh.  After a joyous night, Jim and I awoke fairly early and headed home.  On the way we hit Moraine & McConnell’s Mill State Parks in Region 4, then SB Elliot and Parker Dam in Region 2. 

In addition to SB Elliot and Parker Dam, there are 4 state parks close enough to Interstate 80 to be included in any cross-state trek.  Bald Eagle, Black Moshannon, Clear Creek and Cook Forest are each within 10 miles of Route 80.  Pennsylvania does a fine job with their interstate rest areas, but stopping for a rest and stretching your legs from a long trip is always a good idea in one of these parks.

A Gallery of this day.

Hmm.  Looks like DCNR changed what parks are in which region, but we’ll continue to match the maps we made rather than update to their whim or reason.  So yesterday Jim and I took another 7-hour Sunday ride in the country –or, rather, our state.  We visited 5 parks in “our” Region 5, Milton, Sand Bridge, R.B. Winter, Ravensburg and Susquehanna.  McCall’s Dam was on the itinerary, but once we had to turn back on McCall’s Dam road because of conditions we couldn’t find it from Route 880 as the brochure assured us we would.  Reminds me of a time I was looking for a place and had to stop in a gas station to see if they could help.  They did, but when the attendant added, “You can’t miss it,”  I thought, “I already did several times.”

Milton State Park in actually an island in the Susquhanna River, and it was quite flooded from all of the recent rain and snow we’ve had.  But we got some good shots of trees in water, and there were 2 ducks and a robin enjoying the new expanse.  Sand Bridge is “just up the road a bit” and we enjoyed being alone to investigate it.  Raymond B. Winter is another short distance up Route 192.  There were a few more visitors to that park on this sunny day.  You could smell spring in the air, although we still had to wear our spikes to walk around the lake.  After (probably) driving passed McCall’s Dam State Park at least twice, we gave up and followed the signs to Ravensburg.  The state is usually very good at putting up litlle brown signs with white writing to inform us where to find the naturally out-of-the-way parks, but where we were hoping to find mention of McCall’s there was only Ravensburg.  After our consolation visit there we had enough daylight (since Saturday we turned the clocks ahead) to visit Susquehanna State Park in Williamsport.  I’ve played in bands on the Hiawatha there many times.  This park is right along the Susquehanna and it too had more water than usual.  Again we got some water fowl and trees in water.

There was just enough daylight left for us to stop at Rickett’s Glen to see how Adams Falls progressed with the new rain and snow.  This is a park I’ve played around in since I was a kid, and Adams Falls is so close to the road that I try to stop for a dose of its beauty on every pass.

A Gallery of this day. 

Today Jim & I visited 4 parks in DCNR’s Region 6, Philadelphia Countryside.  We visited Jacobsburg, Nockamixon, Ralph Stover and Delaware Canal.  All-in-all about 6 hours driving.  There was some extra driving because I lost our SPOT Satellite Messenger ~probably in Ralph Stover.  I’ve emailed the 4 parks about the loss; we’ll see.

It was a great day, and we had a lot of fun.  Each park was very limited in where we could explore, and I didn’t really get much to look at in the way of photos.  We are definately going to have to duplicate this trip when the parks are better dressed. 
A Gallery of this day.

 2 Galleries from this day: Locust Lake and Tuscarora

 A beautiful day, and we hit #15, Locust Lake.  It’s only the 2nd park we have from Region 5; all of the others are closer to home in Region 3.  The night before I played with the band I’m in, Rub Yer Soul, so we anticipated a later start.  Jim was also with us that night, and since I drove he was free to drink the free beer.  That night, since he was the only one agreeing to take advantage of the morrow, I was fully prepared to go on the hour’s drive a bit later and get what we could at Locust Lake, then drive the 6 miles to catch a sunset at Tuscarora.  He surprisesd me being able to wake up at 12:30 after getting home around 3am, the bewitching blues hour.

There were quite a few cross-country skiers and folks with their dogs. It’s amazing how nice the people that frequent parks are. We started at the east end of the lake, then basically walked around it out to the trails that wind upstream and into old forest. The park is filled with education with signs describing all kinds of life there. There is even what appeared to be a lecture area in the trees along the lake shore with a large projection screne. This park is a great place for family camping.

Sometimes while playing bass, for whatever reason, things just don’t click.  Oh, it probably sounds fine to those in the audience, but it’s different.   And, of course, there are other times where everythng works and it’s just better.  The average person usually isn’t aware of the difference, but the joy of playing is much enhanced.  Well, the night before was one of those times where it was different toward the negative.  Ignoring the reasons why, I wonder if it had a carry-over effect to the photos this day because I seemed quite off.  [No, I wasn't drinking the night before... Well, just two beers, officer.]  I kept saying, “I know I’m going to regret not using the tripod more.”  With the Sigma 18-50 I can usually handhold 1/15th of a second or at least 1/20th.  Maybe the photos ops I was seeing weren’t enough to make me take my time, but I felt we’d get some shots of a “new” park and enjoy the day.
2 Galleries from this day: Locust Lake and Tuscarora