Applachian Trail Hike; Port Clinton to Windsor Furnace

For this hike, I met Tootsie at the Hamburg Reservoir. This is the same place we met with Julius for our Pinnacle Hike two weeks ago. We car pooled to an AT parking area on Route 61 just south of Port Clinton and then hiked North back to Windsor Furnace and our cars. The AT maps and guidebook say this is 6.1 miles.

Our hike begins with the 'blue trail' from the parking lot to the AT. The guidebook simply says (the parking lot) "connects to the A.T via a blue blazed trail" and "blue blazed trail on west leads 100 yards to parking area." Notably absent is the word that best describes this trail STEEP.

Looking back up the
blue blazed trail after
descending from the parking lot. 

The blue blazes are scarce and at first we were not going to descend the hill until we realized the stones formed steps of a sort into the side of the hill. Once we began to trek down we saw more blue markings freshly painted on them.

At the bottom we turned left on to the AT. The trail climbs slowly back to Route 61 and passes under the road. Once on the other side we crossed Blue Mountain Road and a big wooden AT sing that I should have taken a photo of but didn't. From here the trail climbs steeply 900-1000 feet in the first 1.5 miles. I was disappointed in my inability to speak smoothly on the way up but my breathing returned to normal pretty quickly after we reached the ridge and I felt better.

As is typical for PA we did a lot of rock and boulder balancing across the ridge. The breezes were nice up there. There were some intermittent views of the town and the river below but the humidity and dense leaf cover did not make for great photos. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Unfortunately as we started to descend off the ridge and and the vegetation got thicker the humidity rose and the bugs were almost unbearable. I alternated between glasses on and off. For awhile it seemed the glasses were keeping the bugs out of my eyes but then they got smart and went around and got caught between the glasses and my face. Then one went up my nose and set the left side of my face into contortions. My nose itched and my eye watered. As annoying as all that was, it was still a great hike even though I still feel like bugs are trying to get in my ears.

We say two springs - Pocohontas and Minnehaha - both were flowing although the guidebook said Minnehaha is unreliable. (By the way I read the guidebook last night not while hiking). A deer darted across our path down the mountainside. Its buddy watched us walk by with some suspicion.

And we saw a snake. My first hiking snake. To be clear WE were hiking IT was slithering.

And of course we did exactly what you are not supposed to do. Stop and take a photo of it. We heard it first as it tried to slither away from us. Then it stopped and had just started to turn around when we left. Not sure what kind it is. I tried to look at photos on the Internet but it's too hard to tell what kind of markings this one has. It did not appear to be any of the venomous ones. :)

Shortly after the snake sighting we stopped to snack a bit and then finished the hike down into Windsor Furnace.

It was a hot, humid, mostly cloudy day and a great hike. I failed in hydration though and I'm still trying to recover. The headache is starting to get to me. :( I used my trekking poles today which helped on the climbs and the rocky sections, And on one of the descents they kept me upright when my foot slipped out from under me. The poles also kept my hands from swelling. Not having my hands free though made it awkward to reach for the hydration tube. I must fight the awkwardness and do it anyway. Lessons learned. :)

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving
- Paula

What is Mediation

One in a series. To read others click here.

Thank you very much to those who publicly "liked" and/or commented on my previous post. Your support encourages me to keep going. I look forward to more conversation, give & take on this.

I've been contemplating where to start the conversation. In my previous post, I proposed that the skills used by a mediator or learned by the parties in a mediation are useful in our everyday interactions. So maybe the best place to start is with an understanding of what mediation is.

Mediation is a type of negotiation. In a way we've all been dong it all our lives. If you are a parent, child, sibling, aunt, uncle, husband, wife, employer, employee - if you are a person who interacts with others in more than a casual acquaintance kind of way - I can all but guarantee you have been involved in mediation of some sort at least once in your lifetime.

Often when I bring up mediation as a resolution alternative for disputing parties one or the other will say things like:

"Look, I know I'm right. I do not want to compromise" or
"The other party is stubborn. There is no way they will compromise"

The thing is mediation is not necessarily compromise. Many situations result in compromise because through the process the parties come to see each other as fellow human beings. By separating people from problems we tend to be more inclined to want to compromise. By the same process - separating people from problems - many mediations result in the parties each keeping what the brought to the table because they realize that allowing that doesn't take away from who they are.

Mediation is magic. I've seen people start out barely speaking to each other, leave side by side smiling!

Keep smiling and keep moving
-Paula

High Hopes

" If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't spent a night with a mosquito." - African Proverb.

This appeared on the Facebook page of "Grok Nation"** on Wednesday of this past week. Seeing it - combined with the current events that prompted it - has prompted me to finally do something I've been thinking about for awhile.

I'm expanding the scope of my blog to include to include talk about mediation and conflict resolution. It's an area of study that I've become passionate about. Mediation is about resolving conflict by finding common ground and creating space for honest communication.

Sometimes people need a neutral third party - the mediator- to help find the common ground and create the space. However, the strategies a mediator uses can be used by anyone every day. It takes practice and varying degrees of conscious effort and I think it's worth it.

Talking about mediation and conflict resolution won't make everything better. We, the people, have to take action to do that. But maybe I can move people to create the space needed to communicate better. Whether it's about politics, guns, race relations, transgender rights or whose turn it is to take out the trash - we could all practice better communication.

And maybe I can't. I'm only one small person. I'm not sure I can say anything that anyone will care about. But I've decided to be a mosquito .........or maybe an ant. Moving rubber tree plants seems less painful.

Stay tuned. (To see related posts click here)

And for those that prefer reading about hikes and road trips, I'm still gonna do that too.

Keep Smiling and Keep Moving
- Paula

**Grok Nation is an online community founded by actress-neuroscientist-mom Mayim Bialik. For more about this site, read this letter from site founder.

Freedom Walk 2016

This year's walk (#4) combined the best of year 1 and year 2.

In year 1, I left from my house and walked straight down Baltimore Pike/Avenue; took a left at University City and a right down Chestnut Street.

In year 2, we left from the Media train station and followed the Leiper Smedley Trail along the blue route into Nether Providence; through Swarthmore and Morton on to Providence Road and through Cobbs Creek Park and eventually connecting to Baltimore Avenue. the Leiper Smedley Trail is nice but it added more hilly miles to the walk. Cobbs Creek Park was boring and added miles as well. Seeing the Aldan Borough Parade setting up was a highlight however.

This year we started at the Swarthmore Train Station. Septa Regional Rail is not running between Swarthmore and Media for the summer due to construction related to the Crum Creek Viaduct work.

Sara, Mike and I left Swarthmore Station at 8 a.m. 

A bathroom break at The Coffee Station in Morton.
No idea who this is but the sign said take a selfie so I did. 

Sara found a fork in the road
(but no Muppets)

Having cut out the distance on the Leiper Smedley Trail
We arrived in Aldan around 9:15 a.m. so no parade the year.

Still miles to go...

After lunch at Mix Brick Oven Pizza we arrived.
It was super crowded and the man who took the
photo couldn't get back far enough to include
the tower. Trust us it's still there.

Note the guy in the background. Perched precariously on top of the Declaration of Independence. I guess he drew the short straw this morning.

Once again we had a nice walk. Humid and overcast but not terribly hot. All three of us were quiet this year. We walked for blocks on end without saying a word. And that was just fine. I liked that we didn't feel the need to fill the air with conversation just because.

If you are interested here is a link to our route. https://goo.gl/hGTzNX

Save the date for next year (July 4, 2017 in case you are not paying attention). Barring any road or train issues we'll be leaving from Prospect Park Train station; walking through the Heinz Wildlife Refuge and on through Essington over the Passuyunk Ave Bridge and through Southwest Philadelphia to Independence Hall. It's just under 13 miles and includes a walk through the Italian Market area.

2017 will be year 5!! I think we should do t-shirts. :)

Pulpit-Pinnacle Hike - Berks County, PA

With a little help from friends anything is possible.

A little over a year ago I tried to do this hike and ended up turning around before the first view. I reached a rock scramble that was over my head and not being able to see over it scared me. I had visions of having to balance on a narrow ridge once I got up there and I freaked out.

Today, in the company of friends I made it over the scramble and on to some awesome views.

Here is me being determined not to fail this time. 

And victorious

This hike is loop out of Hamburg Reservoir. Julius, Tootsie and I had plans to meet at 8:00 a.m. I made two wrong turns on the way there and then got stuck behind the clean up of an accident at the last stop sign before the parking area. So we didn't set off until about 8:15.

The hike begins with a long slow and steady climb along the Appalachian Trail. As you near the first view point called Pulpit Rock the terrain gets rockier and rockier. Climbing and boulder hopping are way to the top. But it's so worth it. I think it'd be worth it in any weather but today was PERFECT!

More rocks and a meandering walk along the ridge brought us to the Pinnacle.

Just beyond this rock pile is the view from Pinnacle
(We added our own rocks to the pile before leaving.) 

Out of the woods and rocks to this. WOW! 

The hike down is wider and less rocky.
Less being a relative term. 

Here is a video of the hike we did. It's someone else's video but if you want to see moving pictures of the hike. You can start about 1:40 into the video to start the hike. About 11:10 is the start of the scramble that I bailed on last time. :)

I had such a great time today. Can't wait to do another one soon.