#pennsylvania trails

[geopsych]

On the 23rd of September in 2019 I walked along the Delaware River near Portland Pennsylvania at sunrise and I’ll never forget the extraordinary light.

[ives57]

dynamite

[thebohemianloner]

📍 Appalachian Trail, Delaware Water Gap

[raplele]

a trek through the woods

[randadrives]

A resilient little frog in a puddle near Volant, Pennsylvania - September 2024

[slappappy]

I love this shit

[appalachiansearching]

Hi folks! I'm an undergraduate student in Kentucky, and I'm doing a research project on Appalachian identity through intergenerational storytelling. If you have a few spare minutes to fill out this survey, your perspectives would be so valuable to my project.

The QR Code will lead you directly to the survey, but I've also included the link to the form. Feel free to circulate this survey to folks that you think would offer helpful insights. Thank you for your time!

[alex51324]

Trip Report, part Deux!

Part 1 covered the cabin and hiking along the river on the first day. On the second day, I went into the Forest Cathedral of Cook Forest State Park, which is a section of old-growth forest with a lot of trails.

One of the neat things about the geology of this area is that the rocks tend to split along straight lines, so sometimes it takes a minute to tell whether you're looking at a house-sized boulder or the remains of something human-built out of the local stone.

Like this.

Or this:

There's a nice picnic area on the edge of the Forest Cathedral area, where several of the trails begin/end:

It features this bridge, which has been closed for repairs since the first time I visited, in 2017, but has now reopened:

This is very good news because the last time I was here, in fall of 2022, I had a hell of a time getting Sophie across this creek. There are spots where you can wade or rock-hop across fairly easily, but she Did Not Want To.

Here's a Sophie:

She likes to go for walks!

Here is a tree that also likes to go for walks:

Trees get creepy-crawly leggies like this when they sprout out of a fallen "nurse log," which provides nutrients to the seedling. The seedling's roots grow down along the sides of the log, and if it's already pretty big by the time the nurse log decays, it stays like that.

Close-up of leggies:

Another neat thing they have at Cook Forest is the paved trail, which is a short trail designed to be accessible to people with mobility impairments. It does a really good job of giving the sense of being properly in the woods, and they recently upgraded it with accessibility features for visual impairments. They have signs, in both print and braille, discussing points of interest that can be appreciated without sight:

And this cable that can be used as a guideline. The red square signals the non-sighed user that the next post has an informational sign.

And a different shape that signals that there's a bench opposite:

Also there are two trees with a love that transcends species:

Here they are again:

This guy is taking a big steppy:

[geopsych]

The path to the sun.

[ives57]

rail trail

[thebohemianloner]

summer hiking in Jim Thorpe, PA 🌞🌲

[raplele]

rainy day hike

[randadrives]

North Country Trail

Tionesta, PA - May 2024

[dopescissorscashwagon]

Another of the two dozen waterfalls along the main trail at Ricketts Glen in Pennsylvania

📸 by Sean Bagshaw

This one was taken right at the end of the day and I can't quite get the photo to fully translate the golden hour glow that was happening but hopefully, you can get a sense of it.

[wanderinghippie]

all things green 💚

[istandonsnowpiles]

Philly, Baby!