fitness challenge—making believe you are still 10.

Yesterday was the 75th Anniversary celebration at Camp Mosey Wood. The oldest Girl Scout there was 92. Yep, it's true. Our blood is green.

I picked up my friend Mary Liz first. Her mom was instrumental in the creation of Mosey Wood. Her father designed some of the buildings. They courted there. It's so romantic. Have her tell you the story of the trees.

Then I picked up Angel and Little Miss at the Rt. 33 Park and Ride and we were off. You should have heard us driving down 80 singing girl scout songs. You just knew it was going to be a good day. And it was.

We arrived in an hour—there is no traffic at that hour in the morning. Mary Liz immediately started her reunion. Because of her walker she spent the bulk of the time visiting and talking with old and new staff members and scouts. I missed a great picture. The vintage girl scouts sitting on the dining hall porch talking. I ran in for my camera, but the moment was gone.

There was a lot to pack into a small amount of time.

First stop—archery. On my second round I hit the target four times. One is even in blue.

Second stop—hiking. We started on the lake trail and then branched off to Harvey's Hike. HH was part of one of the Ranger's Gold Award projects. It's in fairly good shape. The back end of the lake trail, not so much. Bug is looking for a Silver project. This just might be it.

The back side of the Lake Trail, and Harvey's Hike are great places to pick blueberries. It's no coincidence that they call it blueberry hill. In addition to having a nice snack, we carried some back for Mary Liz.

 After lunch we went to the waterfront. We had about 20 minutes to kill before it opened so we ran up and down the steps. The real 10-year-old is still a bundle of energy.

The waterfront opened and Angel and I chose the row boat. It was cool, we had no interest in getting wet. The child chose stand up board paddling (SUP). She actually dove in a couple times. I had a mommy moment and yelled that she was too far away from the other people, and the lifeguard boat. She had to come back. The real mommy didn't whack me for overstepping my bounds.

We were trying to get back to shore and the child is giving lessons on the waterfront. She has an incredible memory (except when mom requests something) and was doing pretty well. The waterfront staff didn't stop her. Somehow she convinced mom to SUP. Mom did stand up, but fell off the board. The child didn't have her adjust her paddle or use it as a third leg. They probably don't teach children that. Balance comes naturally to them.

Next stop—climbing wall. The child was a monkey and did all the walls at least twice. Angel did two. I could not get past the first row. She wanted to go again, but then there would be no high ropes course (HRC).

We hiked back up the hill to the HRC. When we arrived there was a backload of people. Someone was stuck on the swing. She couldn't jump. It took at least 15 minutes. Waiting is not good. I was no longer feeling confident after the rock wall, and now I get to watch someone sweat it out. The child, on the other hand, took to it like a fish in water. She kept saying she was terrified. That she couldn't do it. Does she look terrified? No. Did she come down and say can I do it again? Yes. I gave her my spot if she gave up a swim. Angel also completed the course successfully.

That was the end of the adventure portion of the day. We headed back to DJs Place for dinner. On the way back we stopped for our t-shirts and or "cookies" for the wishing ceremony.

First in the water was 1939-1959. Little Miss took Mary Liz's and placed it in the water. (She also created it.) I get a little bored at a Scouts Own so mine is sitting on top of the sandbiodome I made. As you can see I picked some gnarly wood and doodled on it.

 It floated well.

The night is nearly over. It was 9 when the ceremony was over and the campfire was yet to begin. We all agreed we could skip the fire. The child—and the adults—were fading fast and the child slept all the way home.

I arrived home at 10:30 and went straight to bed with a realization. I am no longer 10.

this time we were on the delaware canal!

Today we went to Wy-Hit-Tuk Park in Williams Township to hike the on the D&L. We've hiked a lot of Lehigh Sections from Bethlehem north, but this is the first time south of Easton,  on the Delaware.

It's quite different than the Lehigh sections that we have been doing. It's narrow, rustic, and has minimal signs. One place was all grass. At one point early on, Lydia asked what trail we were on because not of the D&Ls "signage" was there. Not even the mile markers.


We started in the park. There were beautiful comfort stations. And walked down the parks nature path crossed a bridge and connected to the D&L.

This trail runs adjacent to 611. It is very noisy. There are no buffers. The motorcycles screamed down the street. There were many pedestrian bridges crossing the canal. But we saw no parking. There weren't many houses, but clearly access was being provided.

We did see a family of ducks. All the kids. No mama or papa.

And a blue heron or two. Hard to tell if it was the same one, twice.

We only crossed one street. We found a few cabins and a foot bridge but are clueless where one would park if they lived there.

Ground Hog Lock was supposed to be 3.4 miles away. Lydia's phone measured just over four. Bonnie's fancy watched measured just under 4. So total we walked about 8 miles.

At the Ground Hog lock, the D&L signage returned, plus a couple of state markers. The bathrooms were inside and nice from what i hear.

After we finished, we took the BOGO coupons that we earned doing the Passport to Fitness, and rode the Josiah White II at Hugh Moore Park. It takes about 40 minutes to go less than two miles. We learned a lot about life on a river boat, how the canals were built, and the identity of some of the ruins we've been looking at over the past couple weeks.

The tickets included the museum and the lock tenders house. We didn't have time to do  either of those things. We'll take the tickets and go back another day.

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saturday morning

Bonnie and I picked up Lydia and headed to the D&L. We did the section heading north from Northampton. It went past a camp ground, and the canal full of algae.  What was cool was the remnants of a canal barge at the side of the canal.

Since we're doing the Electric Run tonight, we only did three miles. It was humid and buggy.

sunset cruise

As part of our trip we took a sunset cruise on the Patuxent River aboard the Wm. B Tennison. He was in the Drum Point lighthouse.

The group photo was taken by our bus driver. The boat only held 40, so there is 14 people missing from the picture.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see the Cove Point lighthouse.

After the cruise we went to a local pub for Nachos with crab, black olives, cheese, and tomatoes. It was that good and then some. We also had margaritas!