Christmas Hike 2008
Sunday, December 28th, 2008Last year, Sarah and I hiked at McCormick’s Creek State Park, in southern Indiana, with my family. That day was unusually warm, at 47 degrees — I wore a sweater, for a hike on Christmas day!
Well, it looks like the Christmas hike is becoming a tradition. This year was a lot different, as it was just Sarah and me, and here in NE Pennsylvania, we had snow and ice to contend with. We both were (and still are) sick, but it was great to get out anyway.
We went down to Nescopeck State Park, where mom and I hiked when she came to help us move in. Sarah and I had never been there together. We decided to hike the Creekside Trail, and now that we have done a little snowshoeing, we felt confident enough to bring the dog with us.
Rob, running alongside the creek
The trail was wide and easy for a while. It had snowed, warmed up, and then re-froze, so there was a fairly thick layer of ice on top of the remaining snow. It was very slick, but no real problem with our snowshoes. The crampons dig into the ice and have a very strong grip.
There was one thing we hadn’t counted on, though, that caused us some problems: with all the melting snow came some flooding. Parts of the trail were underwater, and we had to find a way to cross the water where it wasn’t too wide.
A thin layer of ice hovered above the water
Sarah found a good way to cross flooding in a couple of different places. She was a really good sport about it. We managed to step over/through the water without getting wet.
We reached a point where we were ostensibly supposed to continue in the direction we had been heading. However, the arrow pointing to the Creek Side Loop in that direction had been painted over, and there was no trail visible. We had to instead head back on the Fern Trail.
What happened to the trail on the left?
The icy/muddy/slushy Fern Trail
At one point as we hiked, Rob was clearly watching some kind of animal. Eventually a rabbit jumped up and Rob took chase. He didn’t catch it, but it was good to see Rob acting like more of a dog (he normally just lays on the couch).
Shortly thereafter, we saw some tracks that I can only assume were bear tracks, unless there was some kind of bow-legged guy with weird boots hiking there previously. Can anyone confirm this?
After a while, the Fern Trail reconnected with the Creekside Trail, and we headed back toward the car.
We really enjoyed our hike, despite the flooding problems and disappearing trail. I hope we can keep the Christmas hike tradition alive, as it’s a great way to celebrate the holiday and spend some quality time together.
December 28th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Great tradition you have there. I say keep it up. I got out for a walk at the in-laws b/c I was sans bike. I didn’t have a good pair of sox on and now have a tremendous blood blister on my left foot . Ouch, but it’s all good.
December 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Snowshoeing looks like fun, of course it’s not something you can do here in Texas.
According to my old Boyscout Handbook those appear to be bear tracks.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Nice photos of the Nescopeck Creek area. I’ve been back there frequently this spring. Not sure what the tracks were but you could be right. It is a beautiful area.