Forbidden Drive

Today, 4 of us and Freya walked along Forbidden Drive and the Wissahickon Creek. The sunshine was a welcome reprieve from the rain and gloom that fell yesterday.

Today's walk/hike was about time. The plan was 1.5 hours out and back for a total of 3. I over estimated our willingness to get started right away so my alarm had us turning around after 1 hour and 35 minutes. Our total time on our feet ended up being 3 hours and 20 minutes. Do the math and you see that it took us 10 minutes longer in the return distance. Considering the natural tendency to slow down as the miles grow, and a much needed restroom break at Valley Green on the way back, we did well.

Our pace on the hills of the Horse-Shoe Trail will be slower and we will tire faster as a result. We were also bolstered by the I think we are on a good path to do well and have fun on our June 23rd adventure. 

On today's hike, I learned more about Sara's summer time trip to Alaska; that Martiza's daughter works for NASA (how cool is that!); how Martiza and her husband met (if you know her, ask her sometime it's a cute story) and that Freya has two speeds (Giddyup and saunter and not much in between).

Keep smiling and keep moving.
-Paula

Misery and Joy in the SNOW .....

The snow in this photo is newly fallen.
on the 4th day of SPRING!!!  

..... on March 25th!! With 4 Nor'easters in Pennsylvania - all in the month of March - snow was to be expected on the trail today. What was not expected was hiking in a steady more than a flurry of snowfall. I felt stuck in a roller coaster of emotions from "Wow! This is so pretty.? to "Um, this is nuts. It's SPRING. Enough already." I would have been caught in more of the former if it hadn't been for the wind in places.

This was hike #2 in preparation of our long hike on June 23rd. Our hike lasted just under 2 hours and covered approximately 4.5 miles. We started going up and over Mount Joy from the Knox HQ Parking lot. Then crossed over route 252 to return via Mount Misery. The story of Mount Misery and Mount Joy names is allegedly (emphasis on allegedly)

"William Penn went with some associates to negotiate with the Indians near the Susquehanna. Returning they took a short cut, got lost, and had to spend a miserable night lost on a mountain. The next morning they went off the mountain and up another mountain where they recognized where they were. The first mountain was thereby named Mount Misery and the second one Mount Joy." For the source of this quote and some history of Valley Forge Mountain, click here. 

Today's group included Sara, Mike and his dog Freya, Julius, Kathy, and Maritza. Kathy and Maritza.

Next week we will go out and back on Forbidden Drive for a total of 3 hours. 

Keep smiling and keep moving
-Paula

 

Long Hike Training Week 1

My friends and I have set our sights on a (roughly) 18 mile hike for June 23rd. Ok, I set our sights on it and they are just crazy  fun loving enough to go along with the idea.

June 23rd is the longest weekend day of the year. So, I suggested we celebrate with an all day hike on a portion of the Horse-Shoe Trail that has been designated a National Recreation Trail (NRT). It's a section I've hiked before (parts of it more than once) It's beautiful. It's also hilly and rocky. The Appalachian Trail thru hikers don't refer to PA as Rocksylvania for nothing.

I've determined we should prepare for a 12 hour day on our feet. I go back and forth on this quite a bit. We could plow through much faster than that. But that's kinda the point, I don't want to plow through. I want to explore and enjoy the beauty of the trail; take photos; stop for an extended refueling break about halfway and through it all not feel like we have to race the sun to finish, The rocks, the hills and the tendency for June to throw us a heat wave all support the 12 hour guesstimate. Better to be prepared for longer and go shorter than the other way around, right? And if nothing else, we will have fun getting back in moving and smiling shape.

A Truth about Blogging

I deleted this blog's Facebook Page today. I got tired of Facebook constantly reminding me that I did not post to the page enough. Enough for their liking that is and therein lies the basis for the delete. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. I think the truth about pages is that although FB allows pages for things other than businesses that's really why the feature exists. If you don't post enough or buy leads you aren't satisfying Facebook's budget needs so Facebook feels the need to remind you of that. Ok that sounds like a rant on Facebook. But it isn't really. I like the platform for what I like it for. It has been a great way to stay in touch with friends and family near and far; to organize hikes and other activities with friends; and to follow things I want to follow. If I don't like a feature (in this case the page feature for my blog) then I don't have to use it. So I won't.

I created the separate page for my blog so as not to bother non blog readers with my posts. However, since most of my page followers were Facebook friends (past tense because the page doesn't exist anymore not because they are no longer friends) the reason for keeping a separate page doesn't make sense.

I think I had this delusion at one point that a page for my blog would increase its readership and by association increase interaction with people of like mind. Blogging is a wonderful outlet for the introverts with extrovert tendencies of the world. Of course, that delusion WAS silly because if one does not blog regularly one cannot expect readership and interaction to increase. DUH!

I won't make a new year's resolution to blog more. I've never found resolutions to be a source of motivation for me. I enjoy blogging though so I hope that I will blog more --- or more importantly perhaps have more experience and thoughts worth blogging about as well as the time to do so.

So if you are reading this - THANK YOU - and Happy New Year!! May it be filled with all the things you love and the patience to manage the things you don't.

Keep smiling keep moving
-Paula

The Springfield Trail

I first heard about this trail through a share by the Smedley Park Facebook page to the Springfield Trail page. The trail goes through Smedley Park. Information about it was sketchy at best. I finally posted to the page asking if the trail was blazed and where the best access points might be. I was told there are no official trail-heads (yet) and that the trail blazes should be yellow although someone had gone through and painted blue on top of them. A little more Internet searching found some references to the trail in various online forums. These posts were a few years old but this gave me hope that it was in fact a trail I could follow.

Whatever happened it was going to be impossible to get lost. Well (spoiler alert) it actually was easy to lose the trail but being in the middle of an urban area I was very familiar with I would not be stranded. All I had to do was walk out to the road and walk back that way.

Some Google Mapping revealed that the trail crossed Paper Mill road in Smedley Park at the Trolley parking lot (not a stop just a parking area for the park). I decided to start there. Sure enough I found the first marker right away. For reference the trolley tracks are behind me here.

I decided to go clockwise. This decision was not very scientific. It amounted to doing a 360 circle to see where I could see another marker. 

Straight ahead on the tree about equidistant between the slides and the swings. So off I went. I spent the next 45 minutes or so tracking and backtracking through the trails in Smedley Park. I had to yield to two different groups of mountain bikers who were very polite and appropriately noisy so that they wouldn't sneak up on me. I followed blue/yellow blazes as best could. They weren't very consistent. Hence the backtracking. I ended up doing more or less a very wide 180 degree circle back to my car. Not a waste of time by any means. The park's trails are fun and enjoyable.  

Not ready to give up, I pulled out a photo of a map that I downloaded from the Springfield Trail's FB page to see if I could figure out where the trail went in a counter clockwise direction. The map showed the trail hugging the trolley tracks and with that I was able to locate the trail. 

The tracks are to the right of this photo; the previous marker is to the left and behind me; and the path goes up the hill. First a blue blaze and then a yellow on. Off I went. The trail had a few more blazes here although more blue than yellow and extremely overgrown most of the way making me wonder if I had wandered off course. I knew from my photo map that I would end up crossing the tracks and 320 at some point so I forged ahead with the tracks and the sound of the 320 traffic as my secondary guides. 

Finally I came the this ..... 

At the top is route 320. The close up photo makes the climb look crazier than it was. Before ascending though I backtracked several times to see if I had missed a marker but all markers -- blue and yellow appeared to go here. To the right I could have gone under 320 --- and perhaps that's where I was supposed to go --- but the blazes stopped and the drop off to the trolley tracks deterred me from trying it. 

At the top though there was no sign of any more blazes. I walked south on 320 crossing over the trolley tracks and took the station stairs to the bottom. I knew the trail crossed the tracks so at least now I was on the proper side. But no indication where the trail would go from here. 

Up ahead along the tracks - in the direction the trail should go - I saw a road crossing. I decided to head for it and if I couldn't find the trail I'd follow the road out to Baltimore Pike and head back to my car that way. Walking along the trolley track bed is likely illegal and I was forcefully honked at by the Trolley that passed but the shoulder was wide so I was in no danger of being hurt (although I wasn't sure about being arrested). As I got closer to the road crossing I noticed a park to my right and recognized it from photos others had taken of this trail. It was Thompson Park and several accounts I read about the trail mentioned a new bridge for the trail there to  cross the creek. 

Crossing the bridge on the trail here would take me back to the Springfield Mall Trolley station. I decided to go that way so I could see where I missed and to plan on another day to start the trail from this park and try to find the trail continuing counterclockwise. The trail was brightly marked here.... 

If you are able to magnify this photo you'll see half a dozen brilliant yellow blazes showing the way between the trees. Great, except that after that they died off again. I found a few faded ones and those along with the knowledge that the trail should follow the tracks back to the station I made my way back. However, once at the tracks and the station I turned back and saw no indication that where I had come from was in fact the way to go. 

From here I walked through the Springfield Mall backside parking lot and down into Smedley Park to my car. 

All and all I spent about 2 hours wandering around. It was a nice day to be out. And except for coming out with sticker bush buds all over me -- I mean ALL OVER --- it was a fun excursion. 

Keep smiling and keep moving 

-Paula