Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Camelback Mountain

As usual, Richard left the daily planning to me. I read about Camelback Mountain. There's an auto road that loops around the summit and a restaurant. We went. And as usual I wanted to do a little bit of hiking.

Now, I have this tendancy for choosing nearly vertical or extensive hikes. And considering that neither of us is in good shape, it normally results in a lot of moaning. Yesterday I did well with the waterfalls. Some stairs and climbing, but no backwoods adventures. I ran out of luck today.

The hike on the state park map indicated it was a 1.3 mile loop suitable for biking. It didn't say anything about ups and downs, except not to take the RED trail. This was the orange trail. I figured it couldn't be too bad. However, as the descent continued downward for more than fifteen minutes, I started to worry. Then there were the rocks, large boulders really. And the moss covered, leaf covered slopes. We weren't complaining until we reached the bottom of the loop and started back up.... I suppose I've never mountain biked, so I just don't understand how that was a bike path.

Besides all that, the view was well worth it, if hazy. The Pocono Mountains lay beneath us in all directions in a dense green carpet. White fluffy clouds slowly crossed the sky, earning our forgiveness for the intense thunderstorms of last night. Birds and chipmunks skittered nearby. Fairly bucolic.

And finally. The mountain laurel is nearly blooming everywhere. Next week it will be a bright infusion of pink and white amidst the green scrub oaks.

Ants- everywhere there were ants. We stopped at one anthill to watch the army trying to shove a thick white grub down the hill. The grub didn't want to go. A tortuous death for sure.

After the hike, we were ready for lunch. Except the summit restaurant was closed...we ended up getting some pizza in town. Great Stuff. Look for Amici's Pizza when in Tannersville.
Mountain Laurel on top of Camelback Mountain 06/07/05 Posted by Hello

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