Into the woods, part 3
Saturday we woke to find that rain overnight had caused our tarp to fall down; the guy who put up the tarp forgot to slope it properly for runoff, so water pooled in the middle until the weight of the water snapped one of the lines. We're going to see if we can find a replacement for that tarp-hanging bum before our next trip.
Anyway, we made things right soon enough, and with another day of surprisingly decent weather we decided to go for another big hike. Our destination for the day: Sunfish Pond, a glacial pond sitting on the mountain ridge to the east of the Water Gap. We would be making a vertical ascent of 1,000ft/340m over 2.5mi/4km - slightly less steep than our hike the day before. In theory.
The foot of the hiking trail featured a beautiful waterfall:
This trail followed an old mining road up the side of the mountain. The scenery is beautiful, and it was hard to imagine driving any sort of vehicle up the road, though we did indeed see old road tracks throughout the hike:
We discovered during this hike that if we joined up Nick with Anna, they moderated each other's pace - Nick slowed down to stay with the group, and Anna kept up more easily:
We got plenty of chances to get up close and personal with nature - Maria in particular enjoyed catching centipedes and frogs:
When we reached the ridgeline, we met up with the Appalachian Trail, a bit north of where we had found it the day before. We crossed through a backpacker campsite on the ridge, complete with bear-proof food storage boxes. Before long we had found the pond:
As usual, heading back downhill was easier than heading up:
Back at ground level, we went hunting for ice cream to celebrate our hard work:
And at the campground, we found that quite a few more people had shown up since we left Saturday morning. The kids spent some time playing on the playground while we fixed dinner, and then Nick tended the campfire for us:
After dinner, we went down to the pond. The kids went looking for frogs, and I took some pictures of the farm:
Nick was the only one to catch a frog down by the pond, but when everybody was cleaning up for the night, Anna managed to catch one outside the bath house - the first one she'd ever caught on her own!
With the frog safely released by the creek, and everyone freshly scrubbed, we crashed once again for a long springtime nap.
Anyway, we made things right soon enough, and with another day of surprisingly decent weather we decided to go for another big hike. Our destination for the day: Sunfish Pond, a glacial pond sitting on the mountain ridge to the east of the Water Gap. We would be making a vertical ascent of 1,000ft/340m over 2.5mi/4km - slightly less steep than our hike the day before. In theory.
The foot of the hiking trail featured a beautiful waterfall:
This trail followed an old mining road up the side of the mountain. The scenery is beautiful, and it was hard to imagine driving any sort of vehicle up the road, though we did indeed see old road tracks throughout the hike:
We discovered during this hike that if we joined up Nick with Anna, they moderated each other's pace - Nick slowed down to stay with the group, and Anna kept up more easily:
We got plenty of chances to get up close and personal with nature - Maria in particular enjoyed catching centipedes and frogs:
When we reached the ridgeline, we met up with the Appalachian Trail, a bit north of where we had found it the day before. We crossed through a backpacker campsite on the ridge, complete with bear-proof food storage boxes. Before long we had found the pond:
As usual, heading back downhill was easier than heading up:
Back at ground level, we went hunting for ice cream to celebrate our hard work:
And at the campground, we found that quite a few more people had shown up since we left Saturday morning. The kids spent some time playing on the playground while we fixed dinner, and then Nick tended the campfire for us:
After dinner, we went down to the pond. The kids went looking for frogs, and I took some pictures of the farm:
Nick was the only one to catch a frog down by the pond, but when everybody was cleaning up for the night, Anna managed to catch one outside the bath house - the first one she'd ever caught on her own!
With the frog safely released by the creek, and everyone freshly scrubbed, we crashed once again for a long springtime nap.
