Front Nine Trail

 

Last Friday's walk was a 1.7 mile fairly easy hike on a paved trail (former golf cart track), although it was a bit hilly. The Front Nine Trail is one of two trails in the former Cherry Valley Golf Course Tract of the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The wildlife refuge has other sections as well in the Cherry Creek Watershed. As the name suggests this was a golf course, purchased by the Nature Conservancy about five years ago and then deeded over to the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. 

The signage along the trail discusses some of the steps taken to transition the golf course into a more natural landscape appropriate for a wildlife refuge. Over five hundred shrubs were planted along the creek as well as other restoration techniques to provide habitat for native fish as seen in the photo above. Controlled burns and seeding with native plants were both used to jumpstart the transition from golf course to meadow. The area surrounding and interspersing the golf course had many trees, but young trees continue to be planted; we noticed both tulip poplar and American sycamore saplings. 

Very close to the start of the trail, we passed a large patch of what we think are false sunflowers or Heliopsis helianthoides, one of the native perennials that we have in our pollinator garden at home. Along the trail we identified crows, bluebirds, blue jays, and a bald eagle circling above. We came across a tree filled with a group of small birds that we didn't know. They flew away just as Renee opened her Merlin app to try to identify their calls. 

We noticed another pollinator plant in a different field, boneset, probably late boneset or Eupatorium serotinum.  Bees covered it, harvesting pollen. Boneset is not a plant we have in our garden yet, but we were both impressed with the bee activity for this time of year. 

The next time we visit, we will try the Back Nine Trail, the other golf cart trail. 

Woodland Trail

 

Yesterday's walk was another one in the Mt Airy Trail Network, the Woodland Trail. It is a pleasant 1.1 mile "lollipop" trail (out and back with a loop at the end) that starts just across the road from the casino/resort. The trail runs along the Forest Hills Run, but upon starting the loop section it traverses some mixed logging areas. Reading "reviews" of the trail, I am uncertain whether this was commercial logging or cutting out severe Emerald Ash Borer damage. Some locals writing comments have now referred to it as "Wasteland Trail," due to the logging. None of it was true clear cut, but the stumps suggest that some rather large trees were cut. 

At any rate, it was good to get out for a walk before today's deluge started. We have had a lot of activity with workers coming in to work on our bathroom, so we haven't kept up with our exercise program, but we are both enjoying the walks once we get out there. 

Red Rock Trail

 

Yesterday's walk was a hike in the Mount Airy Trail Network. The Red Rock Trail, a joint effort of the the Mount Airy Resort, a Paradise Township Conservation Easement, and Monroe County, is a well-marked, forested, 1.6 mile trail with some ups and downs including a few rock steps and switchbacks. For us, just building some walking stamina, this trail was a definite step up from "easy" to "moderate." We just walked the main loop, but for later visits various spurs, including an out and back extension to Mount Sophia, would provide longer hikes and views in the fall as the trees lose their leaves.

Besides working a little harder on this hike, we also had a chance to use my iNaturalist app to identify some of the interesting forest features not identified by the trailside signage, reproduced in the brochure in the link. Seen in this photo, the app identified what we thought was a weird acorn as a gall formed by a gall wasp, specifically of the genus Amphibolips. 

The app also helped us identify a chestnut oak, Quercus montana, a native of eastern United States that grows along ridge tops. In addition to the distinctive leaves, with shallow lobes, this white oak has large acorns and dark, deep bark that appears almost block like. 

Cedar Creek Parkway

Yesterday's walk was a walk, not a hike, in Allentown's Cedar Creek Parkway, a very pleasant city park along the tributary of the Lehigh River. We walked a leisurely 1.2 mile loop from a parking area near the basketball courts and swimming pool to the Malcolm Gross Rose Garden and back. Aside from a short section of sidewalk along the entrance to the parking area, most of the rest of the walk was on brick pathways weaving amongst waterways amid an arboretum like setting. 

A clear highlight of this park and walk was the Malcolm Gross Rose Garden with dozens of pergolas installed for displaying a climbing rose on each side and examples of different roses planted in a triangular or L shaped plot on each side. While the climbers did not have identifying labels, most of the smaller roses did. Allentown offers this rose garden as a first come, first served location for wedding photographs and even small marriage ceremonies. For us, we may use their pergola and rose planting design as inspiration for our front sidewalk.

Tobyhanna State Park

View from inlet into the lake with kayakers and beach in the distance

Today's walk was along a portion of the Lakeside Trail in Tobyhanna State Park, just a ten or fifteen minute drive from home. If you notice on the "Calendar" page here we have skipped a few days, but we are staying on the order of activities suggested in the TODAY 31-day plan.

We hiked a mile in and then back along the five mile loop trail, making today's fourth walk the longest at two miles and just over an hour. The Lakeside trail, a well kept up gravel trail, travels mainly through second-growth woods with occasional views to the lake. We saw a few birds, a couple of big old hemlocks, a few black cherry trees and young beeches, and lots of maple trees. Not only a lot of maple trees, but a lot of different kinds of maple trees. Maples are like sparrows for me, I can tell it is a maple, but not which maple. We brought binoculars today, and while we didn't see a lot of birds, the binoculars were helpful in identifying leaf shapes high up in trees. 

Since we seem to be transitioning from "walks" to hikes, it might be time to start making sure we are prepared with water and others of the "ten essentials." 

 

Wiley Preserve

 

Today's third walk of the challenge was also close to home. The Wiley Preserve trail starts out near the Coolbaugh Township Public Works Department. Today was one of the free drop off days this summer, and we dropped off our old carpet scraps and completed our walk while we were there. Another benefit for township residents is free mulch, so we may be combining a short walk with picking up mulch in the future. 

The trail, a boy scout project, is about a half a mile long, so our walk was .92 miles according to my MapMyWalk app. For about two-thirds of the way the trail is fine gravel, and we walked that part at a much brisker pace today than the first couple of walks. The trail transitions to a rocky path through the woods at a grove of Russian Spruce trees and a view of the swamp or pond seen in the photo. The plan we are following suggests alternating the walks between a moderate and a faster pace in twenty minute walks. I think we will also be working towards longer hike/walks. 

Hemlock Sanctuary

Today was the second walk of the challenge. Along with some pesky mosquitoes, we saw a patch of milkweed with several monarchs flying about and a caterpillar hanging out.

Today's walk was very close to home, in fact we walked to the walk. The Hemlock Sanctuary is just up the road from us. Our one mile, forty-five minute, walk included the ten minute walk to the Coolbaugh Township open space. Despite its name, the Hemlock Sanctuary is not a sanctuary for Hemlock trees, but rather it is named for the nearby road. The park doesn't really have a formal trail, but it does have a path through second growth trees. Other than the mosquitoes, the woods were quite comfortable to walk through on this 89 degree afternoon. Finding the monarch sanctuary so close to home was another pleasant surprise. Having a woods walk this close to home may enable us to not always drive for our walking destination. Plus, we don't have to feel guilty that we haven't provided neighborhood habitat for the monarchs yet.