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."