spruce

Enjoying Conifers and Glacial Wetlands at the Thomas Darling Preserve, 2.5 Mile Walk, January 18, 2021

Enjoying Conifers and Glacial Wetlands at the Thomas Darling Preserve, 2.5 Mile Walk, January 18, 2021

We were back at it again today exploring another nature preserve. This time we drove back to the Pocono Mountains. There are so many great places to see in this area that aren’t too far off the 115. The Thomas Darling Preserve is another preserve that’s part of the Wildlands Conservancy Land Trust. It was named after conservationist Thomas Darling Jr. This area has one of Pennsylvania’s largest spruce forests, and boy was I excited about that! I love me some conifers! The preserve is made up of 2,500 acres with glacial wetlands, meadows, bogs, and forest. Two Mile Run traverses the preserve before spilling into Tobyhanna Creek. The hike around the preserve is a short 2.5 mile loop, but it really packs in the scenery! After leaving the trailhead just off Burger Road/T551, the trail takes you along a boardwalk and through the wetlands. You are then transported into a beautiful evergreen forest. It was about 30 degrees in the morning today and being we were walking through wetlands, the trail was icy under the light dusting of snow that was covering the ground. I couldn’t get over how pretty it was walking through the snow covered conifers. At about .7 miles we reached Two Mile Run. We took a moment here to enjoy the beauty of the cascading pools. Next we headed on a long section of boardwalk that traversed an expansive wet meadow. There were more evergreens and also birch trees with their white bark. I’m not sure which part of the trail was my favorite, this section or the spruce forest. The boardwalk going through the meadow made us feel like we were transported into some other land… and really, if you think about it, we were. After this section of trail we headed into a hardwood forest and it began to flurry with some light snow. It was such a beautiful scene. As we arrived back at the trailhead, the snow flurries picked up and we were soon on our way headed out for a hot cup of coffee after a really wonderful day.

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Wildlands Conservancy Maple Tract Preserve, 6 Miles RT, January 17, 2021

Wildlands Conservancy Maple Tract Preserve, 6 Miles RT, January 17, 2021

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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New Year's Day Hike, Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area, January 1, 2021

New Year's Day Hike, Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area, January 1, 2021

We started out the year with a hike to Tobyhanna Falls in the Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area. Pennsylvania has so many waterfalls, I haven’t even scratched the surface of what there is to discover. The weather reports were calling for freezing rain later in the day, so we got up and out early so as not to risk it.

The Austin T. Blakeslee Natural Area was once home to Harrison Amusement Park which entertained the community along the Tobyhanna Creek. What was then known as Toby Park had a carousel, skating rink, swimming pool, dining hall, penny arcade, sporting fields and a creekside beach. It was destroyed in a flood in 1955.

Today the area is open to hikers with a small network of trails that take the hiker along Tobyhanna Creek to the scenic Tobyhanna Falls.

We started at the trailhead off the 115 heading west along the Creek Trail. The first section of the hike takes you through a beautiful stand of tall spruce trees. A short half a mile walk then leads to the waterfall. The falls aren’t very tall, but they are mighty. It’s quite a spectacle to see. The fast moving water was tinted with an amber color which is caused by the tannic acid produced by hemlock and spruce along the banks of the creek. It was a beautiful site to start off the new year. After taking it all in, we continued west. At about .9 miles Tunkhannock Creek flows into Tobyhanna. We looped around north heading away from the creek on the Highland Trail and into a beautiful coniferous forest.

It was a wonderful morning and this is a beautiful area to explore in just a few short miles. We got back in plenty of time to beat the weather.

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