View Ganoga View trail at Ricketts Glen 07/04/2009 in a larger map

The park was quite busy. I’ve only been there a few times before, but this was the busiest I’ve seen it. Not surprising, I suppose, given the holiday. Fortunately, the trails we chose had relatively few people on them.

We started out on the Old Beaver Dam Road Trail, which as its name suggests is an old fire road. The scenery was maily ferns, various hardwoods and pine trees, and the wide trail. There was a fair amount of mud, as well, but hiking was mostly easy.

After a while, we saw a side trail with a sign saying 0.3 miles to the Falls Trail, and a view of Ganoga Falls. Despite the fact that we were largely avoiding the Falls Trail, we decided it couldn’t hurt to go check it out. The trail dropped a couple hundred feet rather steeply. The Falls Trail was very busy, as we expected, but the waterfall was impressive. My photos don’t really do it justice, apparently Ganoga Falls is the highest waterfall there, at 94 feet. We did not make the trek down to the bottom of the falls. We’ll go back sometime and hike the Falls Trail in its entirety.

We made our way back up and got on the Ganoga View trail. The trail was grassy and a bit overgrown in places. I wore shorts, but that might not have been the best choice, given all the brush we had to walk through. We crossed a few streams and saw lots of mountain laurel, much of it in bloom.

Sarah asked me to sit on a rock so she could take my picture. As I sat there, on a rock, surrounded by ferns, I noticed wild blueberries growing all around. Only some of them were ripe, but those that were ripe were quite delicious. A great find.

This trail was a little more difficult than the old fire road; it was a bit rocky and was somewhat overgrown. And we were climbing for quite a while. But overall, it wasn’t terribly strenuous. There weren’t really any mountain views, but there might be during the winter. Still, it was a very beautiful hike through the woods. Some even denser ferns nearly enveloped the trail.

We hiked about 4.6 miles. It was a great way to celebrate the holiday, and we managed to avoid the crowds that were on the Falls Trail. I look forward to going back and hiking that sometime. It’s long and difficult, so that will be a different experience altogether. But with 22 waterfalls, it should be worth it.

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

Sarah

Snowshoes

Wide trail, mountains

Creek

Another view of the creek

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.

Flooding

A thin layer of ice hovered above the water

Wide creek

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?

Another view of the creek

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).

Rob, stalking a rabbit

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?

Bear tracks, maybe?

Fern Trail

After a while, the Fern Trail reconnected with the Creekside Trail, and we headed back toward the car.

Creek

Sarah and Rob

Another creek

Back at 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.

Riding under 309

Road/topo map on the GPS

Looking back at the valley below

Power lines

Mountains by Carverton Road

As I rode, I found the Frances Slocum State Park mountain bike trailhead on Carverton Road and stopped to look at the trail map. I found a curious sticker, pictured below. After I got home I found the Wyoming Valley Mountain Bike Association’s site, which seems to be related. With a slogan like “Your Fortune Is Pain,” I am understandably intrigued.

Sticker found by the Frances Slocum State Park mountain bike trailhead

Dire warning

The Trucker by Frances Slocum Lake

Frances Slocum Lake

Panoramic shot showing the horseshoe shape of the lake

Me, by Frances Slocum Lake

Descending on Carverton Road

Industrial building

Once I got back in the valley, things got a little interesting. I sometimes ride on Shoemaker Ave, which becomes Main Street in Swoyersville. This is a two-lane, low-traffic road that seems like it should be a good place to ride. Cars can see far ahead so they know when it’s safe to pass. Speed limits are only 35 mph.

But this is where I always seem to encounter the most aggressive drivers. It makes no sense: there’s plenty of room for them to pass me, but often someone will honk at me as they pass. For no apparent reason. It was worse than usual on Thanksgiving, for some reason, as 4 or 5 people honked at me, one motioning toward the shoulder, as if to say I should ride there. Well, the shoulder is chock-full of debris, potholes, and puddles, and sometimes suddenly disappears. It’s not a safe place to ride.

I don’t know what it is about holidays, but I always seem to encounter aggressive drivers. Easter Sunday in 2007 comes to mind, and now this. It’s really frustrating; I’d think people would be laid back, having the day off and no time crunch to get to wherever they’re going. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to play out that way.

Typical stretch of Shoemaker Road

Heading home

After my test ride, Sarah and I went for a hike. More on that in a minute.

On Sunday, I rode the Water Works route, and it went really well. I wasn’t sure if my finger could handle 20+ miles of riding, but it really didn’t bother me too much. It’s funny, I still can’t open a bottle of soda, but now I can ride 20 miles without too much trouble. Then again, if given the choice, I’d rather ride. I did feel some pain when I went over big bumps, but otherwise I was fine. Riding in the hoods or drops works better for me than sitting more upright and using the flat, middle part of the bars.

Anyway, it felt great to ride. I put forth a medium amount of effort, enough to feel I was getting a good workout, but I didn’t go all out. Even though I rode early in the afternoon, I saw two deer and had to slow down to let a wild turkey cross the road in front of me. I’m not sure who was more startled: the turkey crossing the road, or turkey on the bicycle. I was surprised to see so much wildlife, normally I would only expect to see those animals in the early morning or late evening.

Back to Saturday’s hike, Sarah and I took Rob (the dog) to hike the Pate Hollow trail near Lake Monroe.  We’ve hiked there before, but that was back in January. Everything looks so much different now, very green and lush. I forgot how cool this trail is — it has a lot of switchbacks, some fairly long climbs and a few creek crossings. We did a shortened version of the trail again this time; sometime we’ll have to go back and do the full 7+ miles. I’ve heard the other half of the trail is even better. It felt great to be outdoors together and get some exercise without aggravating my finger. Here are some photos from our hike.

Creek

The trail. If you look closely you can see the dog in the distance

One of many switchbacks

Rob

Shadows

Climbing

Wild raspberries

Sarah

The trails were in great shape, although there were a few sections that were a little soft. There was a thin layer of snow covering everything, which made for some beautiful scenery. I rode the North Tower Loop forwards and backwards, and rode the connector to the Aynes Loop for a couple extra easy miles.

It took most of the way through the North Tower Loop for me to adjust to the trail conditions. It had been a long time since my last snowy mountain bike ride. Traction was decent but a bit unpredictable at times, with a few soft spots and slick rocks. I took my time and stayed vertical.  The only real problem I had was that my cleats and clipless pedals tend to collect snow, ice and debris in cold weather. I had forgotten this, and continually had to try to knock the ice out of my shoes and off my pedals. I wonder if some other kind of pedal would work better in the winter — I like my SPD clipless pedals overall, but they are really bad in these conditions.

I was surprisingly warm wearing just my long-sleeved merino wool shirt and my Descente Element jacket on top and knee warmers, shorts, and tights on my legs. The shoe covers Sarah got me work great for keeping my feet warm.

By the time I started heading back, doing the loop backwards, I felt a lot more confident and rode faster on the way back. The descent back to the parking lot was, as always, a lot of fun. It didn’t actually snow much during my ride until the last 20 minutes or so, when the wind picked up and it started snowing. It got worse during the drive home, resulting in near whiteout conditions at times.

Here are some photos from my ride.

And a few from the drive home:

They are incredibly compact and lightweight, the sleeping bag weighing exactly 1 kilogram. I’ve been talking about doing a bicycle tour for a while now and I’m feeling more and more confident that I’ll be able to do one sometime in 2008. Last year, fitness would have been the biggest concern but hopefully I can stay in some semblance of shape over the winter and be in better shape next year. And now I have a lot of the gear I’ll need to do some sub 24-hour overnight trips and/or a longer tour. Thanks, hot stuff!

Christmas morning, we went over to mom’s house to exchange gifts with my family. We had a great time. Mom made lasagna for dinner as is becoming a tradition, and after dinner, I proposed a hike. The high was 47 degrees, and it was sunny — an incredibly beautiful day and surprisingly warm. After some discussion, everyone decided to come. We decided to hike the Wolf Cave trail (trail #5) at McCormick’s Creek State Park. It’s an easy two-mile trail.

Everyone really seemed to enjoy the hike, including my sister Becky, who hasn’t gone on the past few family hikes. I was really glad that everyone went and had a good time. In fact, it had been a long time since Sarah and I went hiking, and I think I had forgotten just how much I enjoy it. Here are some photos from the hike. Sarah took some of these.

Shadows

Sarah and me

Avery (my nephew) showing me a hiding place in Wolf Cave

Avery, mom, and me

Rock bridge with icicles

Avery and mom crossing the creek

Becky (my sister) and me

Becky, looking aloof

Avery, hiding in a tree

Hiking into the sun

The real problem, though, was that the leaves were wet and destroyed our traction. We rode pretty conservatively so our wheels wouldn’t slip out from under us and got through the whole North Tower Loop without incident. The Aynes climb was tougher than usual with the leaves slowing us down and making the steeper parts of the climb very difficult as our rear wheels kept spinning as we rode. But we got to the top and as usual took a breather.

It was the kind of day I’d often just want to sit inside, overcast and cold and drizzling. A great day to stay in bed all day. But it felt so good to be outside and enjoying the fresh air and a quiet ride through the woods.

Dave asked if I wanted to take the lead on the descent, which sounded fine to me. The first part of the descent is the hardest, with a lot of big rocks and eroded trail right on the edge of a ravine. We made it through this section but it required intense concentration and a bit more care than usual. At this point, I thought we were pretty much home free and let loose on some fast flowing sections. I went through an off-camber turn and felt my wheels starting to slip out from under me. I dabbed and managed to keep myself upright. A few minutes later another off-camber turn got me. My wheels washed out and I wiped out, laying my bike and my self down to the uphill side of the turn. I wasn’t hurt but I got a little frustrated with my mistakes.  The same exact thing happened yet again a few minutes later, really taking me by surprise as I was riding pretty slowly at this point. Dave said it looked to him like I pedaled too hard coming out of the turn and while I’ll bet he’s right, I was surprised by just how little traction I had. I didn’t have any more problems after that and I wasn’t hurt, but some damage was done to my pride.

Tomorrow morning Dave and I are planning on mountain biking at Brown County; I’ll spend Thanksgiving afternoon/evening at mom’s with mom, my sister and my nephew. Friday will be a day of mountain biking with Dave a couple of hours south of here in either Hoosier National Forest or Ferdinand State Forest. On Saturday I plan to do a road ride with Dan on Bike. And interspersed with all the riding and family time will probably be a lot more work. I have two side projects to work on at the moment so I am keeping very busy.

My commute was really weird this morning. First of all, something just isn’t right about riding to work in a short-sleeved shirt in late November. It’s pleasant, but strange. Secondly, Bloomington feels like a ghost town right now as apparently almost all of the IU students have already left for the holiday. I was expecting to see fewer students, but technically IU has classes today and I figured at least a few people would stick around and go to class. Apparently, I was wrong.

The maintenance people have already taken advantage of the lack of students to put up some wreaths in a few places, and there are some lampposts that I swear weren’t there before. The fountain by the auditorium has been turned off so that area looked particularly dead, with no students and the now-inanimate fountain.

When we got to Yellowwood, we drove through all three campgrounds to find the best spot. We settled on a camping spot in the Red Pine Campground. There were a few spots from which you could see Yellowwood Lake through the trees a little bit, but those were already taken. We found a site with a good place for our tent a bit back from the road, so it felt a little more secluded.

After setting up the tent, I suggested to Sarah that we hike down the trail that lead down into a ravine from our campsite. It looked a little boggy at the bottom, and I thought we might be able to see the lake from down there. Sure enough, we didn’t have to hike far at all before we were treated with a stunning view of Yellowwood Lake. I had brought my old film SLR camera, the Pentax K1000 I got when I was in high school to learn about photography.

Yellowwood Lake from near our campsite

When I snapped a few photos, this old camera that I hadn’t used for quite some time put a big grin on my face. It felt so comfortable, and it’s about as simple a camera as you can get. No auto focus, no auto exposure, and the light meter is just a needle that moves up and down to tell you whether you’re under- or overexposing from the metered reading. The camera feels solid in your hands, and even the clicking of the shutter is loud and confident. You can feel it shake a little when the shutter releases. So it’s probably not ideal for the most crisp photos, but you *know* you’ve taken a photo — with authority.

Sarah seemed a little antsy, worried about the dog, who was still in the car, and getting the rest of our stuff set up. I kissed away her worries and we enjoyed the beautiful scene a little bit longer.

All in all, this was very similar to our last camping trip. Once again, we made bratwurst. I did a better job of cooking them this time, waiting for the fire to burn down a bit more, and putting the grill a little higher off the fire. The brats were hotter throughout and took on more of the smoke flavor from the fire.

Some fellow campers were playing some music loudly early in the evening, but they turned it off before long, and most people went to bed pretty early. The rest of the world just melted away and it was just Sarah and me, and our dog, Rob. All you could hear were insects and bullfrogs, and the crackle of the fire; all you could see was our fire and the light given off by the nearly-full moon. There weren’t any lamp posts in the area, and I was very glad.

Before we went to bed, I managed to convince Sarah to go for a walk around the campground with me, despite the fact that we were both tired and drunk. It was just a small loop. We took a flashlight, but really didn’t even need it because there was so much moonlight. After our walk, I got my tripod out of the trunk and took some long exposure photos with my old camera, not sure how they’d turn out.

Moonlit pine trees

It felt funny setting up the tripod and fooling with my camera’s very rudimentary cable release. It’s a button you push, but not an electronic one — it just pushes a wire down that opens the camera’s shutter, and it stays open as long as you hold the button down. It feels like having a direct, physical connection with the shutter.

We went to bed, hearing some kind of howling sound that may have been coyotes, but I’m really not sure. Maybe that’s wishful thinking. We woke up a couple of times during the night and felt cold, so we held each other close and tried to keep warm. I had the love of my life, my dog, and the forest to wake up to. It was great to wake up in the morning and see a line of trees leading into a ravine. We would have been warmer if we had closed the tent door, but it sure was great to be able to see out as soon as we woke up.

It was a fantastic camping trip. I really love being out in the middle of nowhere with Sarah and Rob and no distractions at all. No TV, no e-mail to check, no laundry to do or dishwasher to load — just us.

Update: I submitted two of my photos to StateParks.com’s page about Yellowwood. They accepted them; I’ll have to submit some more, both for Yellowwood and some other state parks.

Hiking the Sycamore Loop
Sarah and I hiked the Sycamore Loop trail at Hoosier National Forest on Saturday. We intended to get up early so we could get an early start, but ended up sleeping later than we expected, and then eating a pretty big breakfast. This trail is pretty remote, about a 20-minute drive out of town, and then another 6-7 miles down a gravel road. We didn’t start hiking until probably around 1:00 pm. Scroll down to see a video with some photos I took; this one is a little different from the Photobucket Remixes.

There were more cars than I expected (10 or so) in the parking lot by the fire tower where the hike starts. Still, we only saw one couple as we started our hike, and aside from a few people camping along the trail, those were the only people we encountered during the whole hike. The Sycamore Loop is in the Charles Deam Wilderness area of Hoosier National Forest, and camping is allowed near the trail, in marked camping sites or wherever you see fit to pitch a tent, with a few restrictions. The Sycamore Loop trail is also one of few hiking-only trails in Hoosier National Forest — most are multi-use.

We really enjoyed the Sycamore Loop. It starts with a brief hike down a fire road on Terrill Ridge, and then you turn onto the Sycamore Loop trail. Almost immediately after we turned onto the trail, we saw a box turtle. We had been hoping to see a turtle on our last hike, but we never did, so we were glad to have seen one. The trail winds its way across some ridgetops for a while before descending into a valley. The trail felt pretty different from some of the other ones we’ve hiked because it’s more remote. We couldn’t hear any road noise or other signs of human life — only the singing and chattering of what must have been thousands of birds. Strangely, we couldn’t see very many birds; I suppose the forest canopy was just too dense.

My favorite thing about this trail was the variety of the terrain and wildlife. As we hiked along, we suddenly realized we were in a pine forest. I’ve seen this happen on the Nebo Ridge trail, where I sometimes go mountain biking, but it always surprises me. The pine forest has a completely different feel from the rest of it, and even different hiking challenges since the trail surface is covered in pine needles and has a lot of roots. And given the windiness of this trail, it weaves in and out of pine forests, so the surroundings are constantly changing. It also follows and crosses some creekbeds, which I always enjoy.

Creek by the Sycamore Loop trail

If there’s anything I didn’t like about this trail, it’s the fact that it descends into a valley, winds through it for a while, and then begins a two-mile climb out of the valley. There really isn’t much in the way of ups and downs, just one long descent and one long climb. I generally like rolling terrain, but this was still very cool.

Once we got back to the fire road, we followed it down to Terrill Cemetery, a rather small cemetery with some recent and some very old graves. Some of the headstones were so eroded that there was no longer any writing on them. I hope someone has records of who’s buried there. There are also quite a few gravestones from children who didn’t live very long, particularly in one family. Life must have been a lot more difficult back then.

After that, we hiked a little more to a lake. It was bigger than I expected and covered in lilly pads. We rested by the lake and talked about our hike. On our way back up the fire road, Sarah saw a snake, which I believe must have been the same kind as the one we saw last weekend, a black rat snake (thanks, Marty!)

The lake by Terrill Ridge

The hike back on the fire road was, as I put it then, non-trivial. It was longer than I expected, and it was all uphill. It was only steep in a couple of spots, but we were pretty tired by this time and were getting anxious to get back to the car.

Here’s the video with my photos:

Mother’s day

Sarah has a great post on her blog about how we spent Mother’s Day.

Mountain Biking at Brown County State Park

Later Sunday afternoon, I went mountain biking at Brown County State Park. I hadn’t gone mountain biking for some time, instead opting for road riding most of the time. Sometimes I forget just how much I love mountain biking. I was also riding really well, better than ever. It seems like every time I do hit the trails, I am able to ride more and more of it in the middle chainring. My climbing abilities have improved a lot, and I can just go faster in general. I pretty much flew through the North Tower and Aynes loops, and then debated whether I should ride Hesitation Point.

Pond on the Aynes Loop

I don’t ride the Hesitation Point trail all that often, mostly because I’m intimidated by it. In the past, I’ve had a lot of trouble with it, mostly because it’s a lot of climbing, some of it fairly steep. This time, I had relatively little trouble with the climbing. In fact, I was riding better than ever. Some parts I had labored up in the past weren’t that hard because I was able to keep my speed up and use momentum to get over them.

However, the last mile or so of Hesitation Point has a lot of “features” — technical obstacles such as rocks, logs, tight switchbacks, and rock gardens. I’ve never been able to clear most of them, and in some cases, I’m not sure I ever will. I did better than I expected on some parts, but I didn’t wheelie enough, or at the right time, to get over one set of rocks, and my front wheel got stuck. I went over the handlebars, but didn’t really get hurt. When you are going uphill and fall on the uphill side, you don’t have very far to go. I brushed myself off and kept riding, but I had to walk some more of the “features.” I did make it around a particularly tight switchback and clear some sections I’ve had trouble with in the past.

Finally, I reached the top. There’s an amazing view that I’ve photographed before, but I feel compelled to take a picture every time, if I have a camera with me.

The rewarding view once you reach the top of Hesitation Point

I rested for a few minutes and then headed back down. I attempted to hop this weird log/rock obstacle on my way down, but I messed up and — you guessed it — went flying over the handlebars. This time, it seemed to happen in slow motion, and I remember thinking through the entire process. “Noo! …. shift your weight back … not enough! you’re going over … kick the bike out from under you, don’t let it land on you. That looks like a soft spot, try to land there. Splat.”

I wasn’t hurt badly, but I did fall further this time, and scraped my knees a little bit. I was covered in dirt, mostly on my knees and my right forearm and shoulder. My left knee was bleeding a little bit, but not much. I took a few minutes to calm down and continued riding. Later, I considered taking a photo which I would call What it looks like when you fall and scrape your knee and you don’t have anything to clean it with and you start bleeding right into the dirt and then the blood dries and you have a mixture of dirt and dried blood — but I decided that some things are better left unphotographed. I had to walk over a few more “features” on my way down, but I rode well the rest of the way back.

I stopped a couple of times because my saddle felt weird, so I checked the height and made sure it was straight. It never felt quite right. Once I got back to my car, I realized that I had bent the seat and it was on an angle. If you look a my bike from behind, you can clearly see that one side of the saddle is higher than the other. I laughed pretty hard when I saw that … no wonder adjusting the height wasn’t helping. I also tore up my gloves a bit, which were getting pretty worn anyway. I’m doing fine now, I just have a skinned left knee, a few scratches, and my right arm is sore for some reason.

One day last week, my friend Dave told me that he had ridden Hesitation Point and he didn’t know why he was always so scared of it. I was hoping I’d have the same experience, and in terms of climbing, I did. However, I got some pretty good reminders of why I find the Hesitation Point trail intimidating. These “features” give me something to work toward, I guess, but I really doubt I’ll ever think they’re fun. It’s a shame, because the rest of that trail is incredible, fun riding with great flow. I get enough challenge from the terrain itself that I don’t see why they felt the need to make it more difficult by throwing rocks in the way.

Anyway, it was an incredible and full weekend. I feel like we didn’t waste any of it. I am still pretty tired from all the crazy stuff we did, but it’s a great feeling. Best of all, I got to spend most of it with Sarah and spend some quality time with my mom and my nephew. I’m looking forward to doing more of the same.