night walk

I joined the Allentown Hiking club around Easter time. They mostly walk on the AT. It will help me finish my Volkssport AT special program book. Maybe.

Anyway, tonight they hosted a night walk in Quakertown starting at a brew pub. We were to meet in the back by the police station. I pulled in and saw two people. At 6, it was still the three of us. We were about to leave when two more showed up.

The five of us walked to the "solar park".  It's an area that floods a lot and is often marshy, so instead of building on it they made a park. Smart move. They made it solar so there would be no increased costs. Even cooler. But none of the lights were on! So much for solar. Thank goodness the moon was about 7/8 full.

Then we walked around the library to Memorial Park, but it was very dark there, so we continued out to Broad Street and returned that way.

The tree on the traingle is set to be lit Friday night.

Miles/Steps:   About 3 miles. The group leader, Cindy, was tracking it, but I forgot to get the total.
Bathrooms:     None used  
Weather:        Low 40s maybe? It was warm all day.
Wildlife:          geese on the pond.
Extras:           I didn't stay at the brewpub for drinks.

#optoutside

Normally the Volkssport group doesn't have Friday walks. But the national organization, AVA, asked clubs to participate in REI's #optoutsideinitiative. The president sent an email out for someone to volunteer, and of course, I was the only one to respond. Shocked, right? I picked Easton because both Bethlehem walks went thru shopping areas.

Only two people came. Sisters. Angel and her family were hoping to come, but she worked till midnight and went to sleep at 3. Not conducive to early rising.

It was a good walk.

 We boxed with Larry Holmes in Scott Park.

We checked out the new sculptures in Scott Park.

The sisters read everything. All that history Angel wrote was used. When we reached 1st UCC Church (c. 1745) there was a note about a Star of David window in the rear. The gate was locked. I wanted to go around back via the alley. But one of the sisters tried the front door and it was open!

After initially being turned away, they decided to leave us in, showed us the window and gave us a little history. The woman went to get a brochure, and came back with the pastor. Then we got a tour and a complete history. I know no more about the oldest church in Easton then I cared to.

When he was done he invited us to the History Room. Relics that they found in the basement or steeple or what not when they've fixed things. The ladies were about to say no, but the pastor mentioned the handpainted “Schlatter Bible” (c. 1747). There was no way I was missing that! I know, that's an odd thing for an atheist to say. But look at it ... it is in German, if you can't tell, and was painted by and Easton fracturer.

I should have also taken a picture of the parchment that was the deed to the property. It was signed by William Penn's sons. The penmanship. Be still my heart.

We only did the 5K. So when we reached the corner of Bushkill and Bushkill, we found another new sculpture, and then headed back toward town.

Of course we passed the Peace Candle twice. No trip to Easton in the winter is complete without it.

Miles/Steps:   About 3 miles. Still no tracker  
Bathrooms:     I-4.5 McDonalds. It's brand new.  
Weather:        Cold, breezy ... high 40s maybe
Wildlife:          none
Extras:           Did I mention that beautiful bible?

my swag came from montco

The patch is for the initial level, I think it was Explorer. That was 5 walks. The medal is for the Adventurer level. That was 10 walks. Sadly, they came over a week ago. I just found the picture.

doesn't everyone take their flags for a walk

My neice Lydia is staying with me again, so now I'm back on dog walking duty. It's okay, it motivates me to get out.

After walking the dog, I went for a walk today alone. I decided to do the Fountain Hill walk, it's been a while. A lot has changed. They are putting a new building up where the fire was a couple months ago. There is a trail from one park to the other, thru the compost center. And I saw a young man walking his flags. Doesn't everyone?

I was headed down Sioux and had passed St. Ursula's school.  Coming toward me I see flags but no parade. As we got closer to each other I saw it was a young man. Jokingly I asked if he was walking his flags. He said yes. I asked him if he was practicing for color guard. He said no. He just likes to go out with his flags and walk them around. I told him he should see my brother Dave's place. You don't know how much I wanted to take a picture of the young man and his flags. I didn't want him to think I was weird.

I went up the path thru the woods to Dotson and went out the alley parallel to Graham.  I heard a noice. It was about 6 deer including two bucks. They ran like hell when they saw me. It's hard to see them in the pic. They blend in.

It's Thanksgiving and there was not a single turkey in the cemetery. Normally there are a lot. Maybe they were all on someone's table. I was disappointed.

Coming down Graham I was almost hit by a car. I think the asshole was playing chicken. I was walking facing traffic and he was coming up the hill. I was as far over as possible. He came up the hill and was hugging the "curb". I was thinking about taking a dive into the forsythia but thankfully he swerved out into the road.

I didn't go to free yoga this morning. I was about to head out the door when my sister called. By the time I hung up it was too late.

Last night I went to the Sand's Outlet Mall with Lydia. This is their Christmas decorations. I think it's cool. It's in the front window. Oh, they have Santa land (at a casino!) and a big tree too.

Miles/Steps:   About 3 miles. Still no tracker  
Bathrooms:     At the Dotson Street park was locked. I really needed it.  
Weather:        Cold, breezy ... about 42, maybe
Wildlife:          4 doe, 2 buck
Extras:           I had pizza for Thanksgiving dinner. Lydia brought a lot of leftovers home. I'll be having something more traditional, probably on Saturday.

i won my division!

I won my division today at the Girl Scout Thanks-A-Lot Trot 5k. My guess is I was the only one in the 60+ category. It's the only thing that makes sense. It was a cross country race nd the clock said 1:02 when I crossed. Of course, that's what the runners time was. The walkers started later. But my time had to be over 55 minutes.

This is the 2nd race in the Trefoil Challenge Series. It was supposed to be the teen, my neice and nephew. Angel couldn't sign up ahead of time since you can't request off during November and December at Target. But alas the teen is recovering from bronchitis and it was supposed to be cold and wet. She had to sit this one out.

It was cold when we arrived. 37 when we left. Thankfully the garage doors were down on the pavillion and a little heat was on, so waiting wasn't horrible. I think the weather kept many people away. There were a lot of bibs and t-shirts left.

We saw the entire camp. The teen would have been excited about the horseback riding area. It's really nice, but far away from the beaten path. There's a lovely bridge that I didn't see the last time I was there. Oh ... the water stops had Girl Scout cookies!

I didn't take many pics because my phone died. Again. When I pulled in the lot I had 75% power, at the finsih it was 1%. I took 4 pictures.

The kids ran, I walked. They were far ahead of me. I thought I was doing well when I saw my nephew walking alone. Apparently, he fell and twisted his ankle, so he stopped running. We ended up walking together. My niece crossed the finish line first, then me, then my nephew. He didn't even make a break for the finish.

After the race, there was s'mores! The corporate sponsor was Whole Foods, so the chocolate was organic. I didn't read the graham cracker box. The marshmallow must have come from some food service--they were in a large carton! At the finish line there was fruit, Honest Teas, water, and some sort of organic granola bars. It was so cold that the beverages were actually cold for a change!

 The final race in the series is in April in Fairmont Park.


 Miles/Steps:   A minimum of 5K. Since it was a 5K. Still no tracker
Bathrooms:     Didn't use.
Weather:        Cold, damp, breezy ... about 42, maybe
Wildlife:          Leaving camp we saw 3 turkeys
Extras:           I didn't sign up for the Thin Mint Sprint because it said "runners". I asked the race director today and I can walk it. Gotta sign up this weekend.

golv--woodland hills preserve.

This is the third time I've been to this preserve. It looks less and less like a golf course each time.

I first went in May of 2016. It still had signs from it's former life as a golf course. The second time I went it was hotter than Hell. Everything was dead and it still looked like an overgrown golf course.

Not so much this time. And there was probably only a dozen people. I guess the cold kept them away.

This nature preserve is the former Woodland Hills golf course. The preserve was pretty much created by letting everything go fallow, and letting nature reclaim it. It's going to be cool in 10 years. Yesterday, you could not tell the rough from the fairway or the turf. Heck, you'd be hard pressed to find the hole. (Someone found a ball!) But some old signs remain. Ones I had seen before are gone, or mostly gone.

Some of the men in the group played golf here when you could, and they explained why there were rows of pine trees.  That shows the old fairways. It basically divided off the golf course in a serpentine fashion. Many, of course, have fallen.

There are two paths—blue trail at 1.1 miles, and green trail at 2.4 miles. So together one can do a bit more than a 5K.  The old plastic tie trail markers have been replaced with 4x4s with blue or green tops. The weeds have filled in a lot, small trees are growing, and the trails are much easier to see. No getting lost this time.

I always thought golf course were relatively flat. No. There was some serious hill happening. We started at the small gravel parking lot and headed left on the trail. (I've always gone right, which I guess means downhill.) Fairly quickly we spotted some trees that the male deers had been using for rutting rubs, and some invasive grasses.

When we reached the former club house we were told that it is now the Baps Swaminarayan Hindu Temple. I didn't know that the Lehigh Valley had two Hindu Temples. Learn something new each day.

As seen in my only picture (phone dead), the trail takes you to all the water hazards from the golf course. They were frozen over. So was the grass at many places was frozen. If you look closely, you can see a huge hornets nest in the center, right above the water.

Today I'll be making Pakistani food with my international students. My brother Dave and his wife are coming to learn to cook it too. I fear it will be hot.

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PS -- Still haven't bought a FitBit. Do I miss it because I'm addicted to it? I don't think so. I think I just like to know how much I did, or didn't do. If I find a "One" for sale somewhere, I will probably buy it.

kind-of scary walk

Yesterday the Montco Challenge card fell out of the visor and into my lap. I counted up my walks and saw that I had to do two more walks to do before reaching the next level. And there's about a month left to complete all three stages. Since I had no plans today, I decided to try to complete level two.

I chose the Powerline Trail, and the Chester Valley Trail. The Powerline Trail was right off County Line Road near Rt. 202. The Chester Valley Trail was off 202 in King of Prussia. The two walks were maybe a half-hour apart.

Or so I thought. As with the other times I've done these Montco trails, the trail heads are hard to find. At least for me. Maybe not if you know the area. Which I don't.

Today was no different.

I wrote a long, extended post about trying to find the trail head, but frankly, it sounded like whining. So I just deleted it. I did find the trail four times, but did not find the parking. I was about to give up.

On my way back to Rt. 202, I saw the trail again on the left. It looks like it pauses and then continues on the other side of County Line Rd.! I turned at the next corner, which was a McMansion housing development. An odd place I thought for a trail head. But I figured I could park on the street and pick up the trail. No need. There was a parking lot and a port-o-potty. The lot and trail were not marked. Nor was their a symbol marker for the walk.

Walking under a power line is a little disconcerting. Especially when the first thing you see is a caution size. But the trail was fairly busy with dog walkers. 

It was breezy and the power lines were moving.  I went maybe a half mile and another trail joined it in a Y.  Now which one was the power line and which was the new trail? I didn't know. The new one was all kinds of marked. It even had signs telling you about plants and creeks and such. Even one about dog poop. Of which there was plenty. Even rich people don't clean up after their dogs.

Clearly the powerline was headed straight ahead, but I wanted to see what was to the right. So into the woods I went, and followed the trail up a hill, past a bird blind, and to a parking lot. This was a huge park and it had bathrooms that were open.

The Bradford Dam trail and if you followed itinto the woods for 1.2 miles you'd get to the dam. I decided that exploring, alone, in the woods was not a good idea. I turned around and came back to the original trail. The dam trail split off to the right and back into the woods in about a 1.4 miles.

 I followed the Powerline Trail for about a mile until it came to a cross street.  This bridge looked like part of the trail but it went nowhere. If you followed the powerline, it wasn't apparent where it went next, so I turned around and came back. There were power lines as far as I could see.

I'd be interested in doing the dam trail another time. Not so much this one. In the summer this would be a hot walk. There was no shade anywhere.

I hopped in the car and headed to King of Prussia on 202. I've forgotten how congested this portion is.. Arriving in KOP was obvious—202 turned into a giant strip mall. I missed my turn. I had to go about 10 miles to turn around. Coming back I saw the trail, but again there was no parking. I was concentrating so hard on looking for a turnoff, that I missed the 202 split on the left and ended up on the Schuylkill. I decided the cosmos was giving me a sign and I should just go home. Finishing pt. 2 of the challenge was not important. I wasn't doing all three. But then fate stepped in again. Originally, I was looking for Gulph Rd. The first exit said Gulph Rd.  So I took it, and headed back to KPO  on Gulph Rd. I could see the malls a half mile ahead of me. Then the train station and I thought, damn, I must have missed it, and then there it was—in the Park and Ride Lot. The sign was faded, but it was there.

This trail is only about 2 miles long, but it uses bridges to cross all the highways. It was so cool.

Miles/Steps:   No idea
Bathrooms:     I-4.5 the bathroom at the park was wonderful. Didn't check the port-o-potty
Weather:        Perfect. 70s, sunny, breezy
Wildlife:          None
Extras:           2 weeks now without my fitbit. I started looking and they no longer make mine. I either need to go back to the little one that's like a pedometer, or get a bracelet one. I'll never wear the bracelet. So that's either the little one which doesn't count stairs, or none at all. Don't know.