Together in the Wilderness

It's been a while...

I was fortunate enough to spend an awesome weekend in nature with an awesome girl this weekend, which started with an omen near the end of a 4-hour drive:

As I was exiting the PA Turnpike, I swerved to avoid a piece of debris on the off-ramp. As I passed it, I swore I saw a turtle and thought I saw movement. I slammed on the brakes to go back and look. Sure enough, the little fella was alive but far from well, trying to cross the road from marsh to marsh. He never would have made it over the jersey barrier. I picked him up and carried him across the road to safety, only to get peed on for my troubles. I can't blame the poor little guy. I've been told it's actually a sign of good luck to come, and in hindsight, I'd say that was the case.

I met up with my girlfriend at a grocery store not far from our destination to pick up some supplies before arriving at camp in Laurel Hill State Park:

It was at this point we realized we had no cell service, which was completely alright with both of us. I've often said I belong in a simpler time and place, and it can't get much simpler than this in modern times. The title of this blog being what it is, there was also no better place to appreciate the present moment.

Of course, we did bring some modern conveniences (if you want to call it that). I mean, I couldn't cook dinner unless I had a gas stove (or two):

Alright, so I guess I could have used wood fire (we eventually did later in the weekend), but nonetheless. I love cooking outside. I also love campfires:

After that burned out, we got some rest and set out for the first of several hikes the next morning, none of which were really planned other than by looking at the park map. Our first half of the adventure wasn't particularly noteworthy, but we did stumble upon this neat little spot, Hemlock Natural Area:

It's much more peaceful than my shitty phone camera makes it out to be. It's also associated with this:

That's a pretty interesting find. The only time I remember being in an old-growth forest was on the West Coast (click the link to learn more), and they are becoming fewer and further between. Perhaps on a related note, I was pleasantly surprised to see very few instances of trash in the entirety of the park, so Western PA peeps have their shit together at least sometimes...

We ventured on to the more intense Lake section of the trail (I don't have any pics but I think my girlfriend took a few) and we did pretty darn good despite the park classifying it as its most difficult trail. As we hiked on, it became clearer that this was a classic old-growth forest, as fallen trees are left to decay naturally. We encountered several of these in this section, including one that took out the bridge near the end of the hike:

We weren't about to turn back, as we were starting to get hungry and traversing back about 2 miles over that terrain would have been far too long to go without real food (face it, a ClifBar can only hold you for so long). We decided to cross and hope for the best (obviously we survived). After completing our sojourn across the broken bridge, we were understandably excited:

But ultimately, we were starting to feel like this:

So we headed back to camp for lunch:

Did I mention that I love cooking outdoors? All told, we logged more than 6 miles over some pretty intense terrain. Not too bad for two people who don't hike regularly:

My legs were definitely feeling the burn afterward, and it was kinda nice to be sore for a change. I realize I bike every day, but I'm sure I don't need to remind you that it's really not the same as hiking.

Speaking of bikes, you know it wouldn't be a Steve adventure if a bike wasn't involved at SOME point. I actually brought my mountain bike for the weekend, but pulled it out of the car and realized I'd somehow blown a tire, so that wasn't going to be an option. Luckily, my forward-thinking girlfriend decided to bring BOTH of her bikes, so we ate lunch and sneaked in a few miles of riding before hitting another hiking trail:

This trail happened to be my favorite of the weekend. It was a leisurely walk next to and over a winding creek:

When I say over, I mean OVER:

It was only a foot or two deep at that point, so falling probably wouldn't have been the end of the world. Also makes for a great photo op:

The trail continued on. Our particular journey ended at the Jones Mill Run Dam, a beautiful old stone dam built more than a hundred years ago out of all natural dry-stacked stone "imported" from Pottsville PA:

I had to get one Eastern PA plug in there. Also makes for a great photo op, don'tcha think?

On a shallower water day, we probably would have crossed the top of the dam (which you ARE allowed to do), but it had rained pretty intensely the night before, so that really wasn't a great idea. We hopped on the bikes and headed back to camp:

One more time, did I mention that I love to cook outdoors?

Side note, this was also the first weekend I'd actually cooked for my girlfriend. Kudos to her for leaving her livelihood in the hands of this strange macrobiotic dude. She actually enjoyed it, but I had little doubt she would. I mean it's not like we were cooking giant millipedes, of which we saw plenty:

Not a whole lot of interesting wildlife to be seen otherwise this weekend, but plenty of flora, though:

And this neat little guy hiding in the rough:

Speaking of rough, Sunday morning came and we had already accomplished everything we wanted to in the park, one of the many perks of having zero expectations or set plans. The only natural thing to do was to find another trail. The one we chose first had a climb, and then curved back towards camp along the same creek that leads to the dam, but from the other direction. It's not well-marked or traveled, and I think it was more difficult than any trail we hiked all weekend. Some sections are extremely marshy and muddy due to recent snow melt, and there's no bridge to cross the creek at several places. As such, we got into some true wilderness hiking:

The water was cold but refreshing, and let me tell ya, my feet felt great after I eventually put my socks back on. It's been over a year since I walked in non-beach water or on natural dirt (which I didn't realize until just now) and I need to try to do that more often. It's tough to do in a city. Anyway...

We forged ahead and stopped back at the dam to eat a light lunch. By the time we got back to the car, we had put in nearly 4 more miles through some pretty intense terrain:

For those of you keeping track, we were near 1,000 feet of elevation gained on the weekend (via hiking alone, not including biking). Only 28,000 feet more to climb Everest!

But we weren't through yet. We'd seen just about all this park had to offer, so after breaking camp, we headed up the road to the much smaller Kooser State Park. It literally had two trails and we hiked both of them, the first of which had a neat name:

Imagine an army of trees. Maybe like the Ents in Lord of the Rings? I dunno. I'm just glad we weren't there at night. We finished that one in rather short order and set our sights on the much more challenging Kincora Trail:

Challenging in the name of a 300-foot incline at approximately 60 degrees:

You know it's real when they build the steps into the mountain. Guess what? We made it!

We headed back down the hill, which was actually more difficult. Unbelievable to me, we finished the entire park in about an hour:

The bittersweet moment that followed was having to say goodbye (for now). I wanna say I hated it, but it's all part of the experience. As I drove away from the weekend, passing through the tunnels and mountains of Western Pennsylvania while the sun faded away, I had plenty of reasons to feel lucky, even though we'd done little more than spend a couple days walking (and biking) through the woods. That turtle knew what he was doing.

Safe to say, I'll miss her when I'm alone in Canada next week...