Happy almost official Spring everyone! With the Vernal Equinox only a few days away and going from a Winter storm that brought 3-5 inches of snow and a blustering wind producing chills into single digits, if not negatives, this past weekend in PA to being melted and gone, and I mean a good 95% gone, by late day Tuesday with some solid 60 degree sun, I’m sure beginning to feel Spring Fever a bit! Must be March??! ;-)
In honor of the transition, I thought this would be a fun weekend read for you to enjoy, over some coffee perhaps, as you may notice a pattern that I tend to write in my journal while sipping my coffee at camp in the mornings haha!
You may also realize that this takes place on the same stretch of the Loyalsock Trail that I have been backpacking in January and February. Some people might tend to feel that re-visiting a place is a waste of time or that you’ll never see as much if you keep going back to the same places. Well, I’ll tell you - I fully realize I am not going to get to see everything I want to in my lifetime. There’s just no way! But, I aim to try and see as much as is within my ability to do so and there are several places I am going to return over and over again. Those really special places that speak to you in some way, for whatever reason, deserve the attention. In fact, I find that the first time I am somewhere new, I feel like I am just beginning to scratch the surface of what it has to offer.
It is in this theory of repetition that one can truly get to know a place, witness its moods and changes, how it “feels” in different light, different seasons. Explore a place enough in close intervals, and you can begin to pick up the tiny subtleties that differentiate January from February from March and so on and so forth. It is a practice I highly recommend to anyone who fancies themselves a lover of Nature - pick a place and make it a point to visit, explore, observe in monthly intervals and I think you’d be amazed at the subtle shifts of light and all the little nuances that separate Nature’s dance throughout the seasons, especially during the less obviously drastic times of the year.
With that in mind, I bid you farewell Winter - I thank you for your majestic beauty these past 3 months, and welcome Spring - I feel your jubilance rising.
Beautifully revealed moss and ferns from the forest floor
March 2nd and 3rd, Loyalsock State Forest -
“Coffee once again, camping off of the Loyalsock Trail in the same location actually as I had camped in January. Talk of theory of repetition, haha!
I just read a few pages of my “A Year in the Woods” book by Torbjørn Ekelund and it is wonderfully intriguing some of his comments - the comparisons that can be drawn between here and Norway, albeit not quite as extreme, but nonetheless.
Yesterday’s hike was exhilarating, to say the least, haha! The mid-afternoon temperatures were quite mild feeling in the low 40’s. Despite trekking on a thin layer of crunchy, slushy snow, the feeling of Spring was certainly in the air and oh did it smell deliciously of Hemlock!
Compared to my January and February outings I felt like I was cruising in the micro-spikes. Also cruising right along is the water flow! The icy encasing has pretty much melted off the waterways and streams are gushing, what a peaceful sound. Waterfalls are flowing heavily indeed. However, this is where you will still find remains of ice build up, making for a spectacular scene!
Streams gush as ice recedes
Where the trail delicately winds around the ridge slope along Ketchum Run, the sloping sheet of ice also remains - and it got the better of me! One moment walking confidently along (too confidently, obviously!), the next sliding down the slope to get tangled in a baby Hemlock. Once freeing myself of that mess, I continued to slip down on to the icy, snow packed stream edge. And now I found myself laying face down on a boulder with my 80 pound backpack smashing my chest flatly upon it… after a few moments to gather myself and what had happened, and a bit of a pep talk, I managed to get some footing and a frozen hand grip and push myself to a vertical position once again. A bit exasperated and a nice scrape on my right shin, but otherwise fine and thankfully still dry! Another foot or two of slide and into the icy stream I would have been!
A precarious bend
After several minutes to check my pack and compose myself, on I went up the trail to Lower Alpine View. As I went further along, less and less snow and more and more barren forest and mud. Once reaching Lower Alpine View and being less than thrilled with the conditions - not to mention a ton of tree debris down, most likely from some of those winds we have had the past few weeks - I took a brief respite to enjoy the sunset and decided with the incoming rain overnight it was smartest and with better ambience to head back the trail a ways. And so I found myself nestled quietly and contently back where I camped in January. A little ice and skiff of snow, some Hemlock protection and beauty, and the sounds of the gushing Ketchum Run below have made for a lovely night and morning. I even had a little rain/sleet hitting the tent last night to fall asleep to.
The forest floor becoming exposed
Look familiar from January???
Waking up today, I could immediately feel the colder temperature. It is hovering right around freezing and the air is quite brisk! It is sunny and lovely though. The ever increasing angle of the sun and daylight let one know that it is March and Spring is around the corner. There is a feeling one can sense in the light.
The presence of the sun being felt more and more
Not a bad home for a day, or more…
On the hike out, I was immediately tested, having to descend that steep ridge and then the “ice-curve” with Ketchum Run frigidly flowing below me. I do recall a close mishap, or two, but I successfully made it down and around, with a water re-fill to show for it as well. And from there it was a relatively peaceful, relaxed hike out with a good pause for the photograph I most hoped to capture…
Yikes!
With a soft late-day light leaving a kind of afterglow to the towering Hemlocks and a touch of blue glow emanating from the ice in this falls chasm, I think I may have caught a pretty nice photograph. The combination of the steps of the waterfalls, half frozen and half flowing along with the touch of green from exposed moss and Hemlock forest made for a uniquely impressive scene, one that certainly spoke to me! And standing there for near an hour in this icy amphitheater, feeling the chilly air mixed with the deafening flow of water almost puts one in a sort of enchantment, a disillusionment of over run senses.
Icy amphitheater
And then you pull away, back into the forest where the quiet engulfs again and you feel the calm return, but still a little high from the rush.
Twilight was setting in as I hiked the last mile or so out and the faint twinkle of stars added a little extra magic. ‘Yeah, this is a good feeling of contentedness and state of mind to be in,’ I remember thinking, feeling. If I do not get to hear the crunch of spikes on ice or the swoosh of snow shoes again until next Winter, this season has been fulfilling in many ways. What it may have lacked in the occurrances of heavy snowfalls, there was some solid cold spells, which helped to keep the snows around for a time, at least in the more northern mountains. And I have been able to take advantage of timing and weather patterns for these three good Winter backpacks, all of which have been a wonderfully true experience of the progression of the Season!
But then again, who knows what the turning Spring shall bring… Snow or blooms or a little bit of both??! One way or the other, I look forward to getting out and rejoicing in it!”
All my best until next time,
Brandon
P.S. - The art festival buzz is sounding pretty good for this year and a few jury acceptances have come in recently! More to come on this as well as some other exciting news soon…
Orion and the crystal clear, cold Winter sky as I got back to my vehicle to head home
Wishing I hadn’t trimmed my beard two weekends before this, lol!