SheldonTimes

We’re back from backpacking on the Quehanna Trail in the Moshannon State Forest and a restorative week at our historic CCC cabin at Elliott State Park. The Quehanna Trail was a simple four day loop originating at Parker Dam State Park and returning there four days later. We started hiking the same day that we drove from Philadelphia, so we actually set out at 4 pm and did five miles before finding a site about 6:30 pm.

We spent most of the first week of August (six days, five nights, to be exact) on a backpacking trip through the Green Mountains of Vermont. We officially began our hike at the Lye Brook Wilderness Area and later joined up with Vermont’s famous Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail.

As soon as we got the news that Villanova would be closed the next day in anticipation of a blizzard, we were on our way out the door with our backpacks on.  We hiked from our house into some nearby woods to our destination squat that is inaccessible to all but the stalwart or/and foolhardy We arrived at our site after a hike through untrodden snow and drifts and streams, just in time to set up our t

After returning from the Forest Trail with several specimens, I set them up on the cook stand at our Pocomoke River State Park campsite where I could take some photos and collect spore prints. Lesson learned: rain and wind are not ideal conditions for making spore prints.

We hadn't completed even half of the Forest Trail on the first day of our Eastern Shore trip, so on the last day we went back to see if we could finish the job. Not a chance. We were far too busy feasting our eyes on a dozen or so more new-to-us mushrooms species to make any time hiking.

Bald Cypress Trail at Pocomoke River State Park offers three different types of forest, a bald cypress swamp, loblolly pine grove, and a mixed hardwood forest, all in just one easy-to-hike mile. Of course the warm rainy weather had brought out lots of mushrooms we had to stop to see, and it was pouring rain, so it took us two hours to make the loop.

When Alex and his housemate were both going to be away for the weekend and needed someone

Well, the five-night backpacking trip circumnavigating the trio of Adirondack lakes, Murphy, Middle and Bennett, was not to be. We lost a couple of days trying to wait out the worst of the rain, and we knew our pace would be slower even in a light rain, so we opted to go to Murphy Lake for just a two-night hike.

The rain stayed with us all the way from Binghamton to Northville, NY, on the northern shore of Great Sacandaga Lake. Our original plan had been to camp for two nights at the state campsites on Route 30, just north of Pumpkin Hollow, but vacation should be about fun, not drenched misery, so we decided to try and find a B&B.