Pennsylvania has a good number of nature preserves to explore. Today we headed back up to the Pocono Mountains to the Maple Tract Preserve located near the 115 in Long Pond. The preserve is part of the Wildlands Conservancy Land Trust, and there are about 8 miles of hiking trails within its 680 acres. The area is made up of glacial wetlands, forest, mountain laurel and rhododendron which is so commonly found along the creekside trails of Pennsylvania. We started on the red trail heading southwest which took us past a frozen pond and along a carpet of soft pine needles. The day was mostly cloudy, which I’m learning is pretty typical of a Pennsylvania winter. As we continued we came up on another frozen pond. It seemed pretty solid so I got brave and ventured out onto it. It’s been years since I stood on a natural, frozen body of water. I remember ice skating on them as a kid many moons ago. We then continued along the trail through more forest of hemlock, spruce, larch, rhododendron and mountain laurel. I’m finally starting to be able to identify some of the trees and plants here on the east coast. It’s still very foreign to me since being out west all these years. As we hiked, we came upon some sections of trail that were on boardwalks to get across the wet marshes that were mostly frozen over. At about 2.5 miles we found Tunkhannock Creek. We walked down to the banks to get a better view and take some pictures. From here we followed the red trail west a bit further to enjoy more views of the creek before backtracking and heading north to explore the blue trail. I was really impressed with the scenery at this preserve. I loved the hilly ups and downs of the trail and the varying terrain. We hiked about 6 miles and didn’t see another person the entire day. This preserve is located close to the 80 and also the Pocono Raceway. I would imagine it might get a little noisy in the summer when the raceway is open. Nonetheless it is an incredibly beautiful area to explore.

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