A hike at sunset

It’s great to be home.  M and I were not gone long, but it still feels good to relax in our own home and sleep in our own bed.  The trip was successful, for lack of a better word.

The trip took us east, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the turquoise waters of the Susquehanna River.  That looks and sounds funny as the Susquehanna is not known for its turquoise waters.   It’s usually gray or green or blue.  But yesterday, as we crossed again on our way home, turquoise was the color of the river.

After a weekend of blustery winds and snow squalls, Sunday was a warmer, much more beautiful, turquoise day.  Friday’s winds and snow squalls brought more wind and snow squalls on Saturday, and a portion of the highway we normally travel between here and State College, Pennsylvania was shut down for over 21 hours due to an accident that involved 20 cars and killed 3 people.

Because of the snow and wind, we took the southern route on our way east, paying out the big bucks to use the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Although we encountered two accidents along that route, both involving tractor trailers on bridges, we arrived at our destination safe and sound, hours later than expected/planned, but grateful to be off the road and out of harm’s way.

The reason for the trip was somewhat sad.  Family business, so to speak, helping M’s father go through and get rid of some of his wife’s things.  You may or may not recall that she died last October.  We have been waiting for M’s father to be ready and well enough to take care of this chore.

It wasn’t all sadness, of course.  It was nice to spend time with family and get caught up on each other’s lives.

We pass quite a few state parks on our trips back east.  M and I often talk about stopping and hiking, but we don’t do it because we usually want to make good time getting wherever we’re going.  Because it was such a beautiful day yesterday and because we had spent so much time sitting (in the car and with family), we decided this was a good time to finally check out one of the state parks we have passed so many times and never visited.  We decided on Reeds Gap State Park where we could hike a trail in a hemlock and white pine forest, alongside Honey Creek.

The park is 8 miles off the highway we took home (the northern route that we avoided on the way out).  I am so very glad we stopped even if we didn’t have much time to explore as much as we would have liked.  It was getting close to sunset by the time we arrived so we were only able to hike for about a half hour.

I would love to go back and hike that trail again when we have more time.  M set a pretty good pace, and I ended up jogging some of it to make up for the time I took stopping to take photographs (and to catch up with M).

Here in the Bogs, it is warm (50s) and blustery once again.  There are still a few patches of snow from the weekend’s snow squalls in the shady spots.  The geese must have been gathering and partying at the pond while we were away (and nobody was here to harass them).  They left behind lots of goose poop so you will want to watch where you step when going for a walk close to the pond.

Honey Creek

Thanks so much for dropping by for a visit.  I’ll have more photos from the Reeds Gap hike tomorrow.

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