back to mount bethel

Bonnie and Dawn couldn't walk today, so Lydia and I stuck with the plan and went back to the Mount Bethel trail today. Lydia needed it for her Passport To Fitness. Bonnie and I did ours back on June 2.

This time I knew where I was going. I didn't follow 611, I just made sure the cooling towers and the river were in my sight. We arrived in about 35 minutes.

After parking, I waited for Lyd while she used the 24-hour indoor facilities. (Gosh I love this place!) I took pictures of bees and butterflies doing what comes naturally.

We headed up the welcome center trail, and down to the blue trail. We quickly found the post, about a half mile in, and continued on. When we crossed the bridge I said to Lyd it was near where we came back. It wasn't open. Today it was. There were patches that are clearly unused and narrow, but it was all passable.

We knew we were close to the end when we saw the cooling towers. But even from the viewing platfom another half mile down the trail we couldn't see the towers any better.

At the viewing platform, someone wrote Peace, Tranquility, Harmony and something about love forever (that one we couldn't see w/the sun beating on it.) I thought, teenagers didn't hike all the way in here. A) the trail would be better. B) they aren't that ambitious. We must be near a parking lot. We continued on. And the road forked. So we turned around and went back.

We turned correctly at the red/blue split, but somehow missed the blue/welcome split. We ended up at the other parking lot! So we walked down the road to get to our car. Total miles—about 4.5.
We hopped into the car and headed for Jacobsburg to get her next stamp.

We arrived, took the picture in front of the sign and headed toward the bridge. On our way I saw my colleague, her husband, and Vivian the dog. Small world.

We headed down the Henry's Wood trail and encountered a family taking formal portraits. In the woods. In the heat. In dress-up clothes. Bizarre. If I was taking a family picture int he woods, we'd be outfitted like an LL Beam catalog!

We found the post, and headed back. Another mile and a half, making today's total six.

Tomorrow we're doing the Bethlehem Volkssport walk with some people from out-of-town. I've been asked to be the Bethlehem contact, and will be helping plan some additional Lehigh Valley walks.

This week it's supposed to be hazy, hot and humid. They'll be no walks at lunch time.

Saturday is the Electric Run. It's a 5K, but I hope to get additional walking in, in the morning. Sunday, we'll just do a short 4-5 mile walk. The next two weekends we'll have to do ten miles. The half marathon is quickly approaching.