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.

Henry's Woods

Today was our first walk of the challenge, an easy hike along the Bushkill Creek in the Jacobsburg State Park. We were already in the area to visit a bathroom showroom in Nazareth. 

Our walk was about 35 minutes in and back along the Henry's Woods trail, traveling through really pleasant woods with lots of large trees and following the creek. Among others, we saw several kinds of oaks, tulip poplars, and hickories. The trail we were on continued and crossed the creek to loop back to the parking area, but as we were just starting out with the plan we turned around after about 15 minutes and returned the way we had walked in. We noticed on the map that a different trail heads to a native flower garden. Definitely a park worth visiting again, only about 45 minutes from home. We met a gentleman and his dog, Silver, on the way out who commented that the park can get crowded on weekends, but it was fine on a Tuesday.

Introduction

D & R are starting a one month strength and walking plan that we saw online. Basically it will mean that we are walking every other day(ish). I am starting this blog to keep a record or diary of the different walks that we explore.