Hiking to Sunfish Pond - Part 1

We finally made it to Delaware Water Gap, to hike to Sunfish Pond! It was a balmy day, temperatures were around 75-80 degrees F, and the humidity was around 70%. Warm, but not brutal. We decided to go for it.


The drive to Delaware Water Gap only took us about an hour, which is great! The other place we hiked, Hawk Mountain, takes a little longer to get to. This was a surprise for us. Also, not a lot of traffic. (It's still strange for this California transplant to drive places and NOT be stuck in traffic for a while.)
Anyway, we had our veggie sammies in a pack, along with some plums, yogurt covered raisins, salted almonds, and a couple of energy bars, since we didn't have a big breakfast beforehand. We were ready!

We decided to take the Appalachian Trail only as far as Dunnfield Hollow Trail, then take that up to Sunfish Pond. Due to the heat, it seemed a good idea because we'd follow Dunnfield Creek almost all the way up. The entire trail was pretty much under the cover of trees, so we didn't get too hot or sunburned, even! Also, there was a strange phenomena going on that we still don't understand... there were these glistening rocks all embedded in the trail... when you touch them, you can feel that they're cold with condensate dew on their surfaces. Why are they cold, though? Other rocks were normal, dry, about the temp of the surrounding air, even in the same area of the trail. Specific rocks were COLD, though; so cold that they were condensing in the heated air. Weird.

Cold rock in the trail... sorry it's blurry

The trail was intensely green, with fields of ferns off to the sides, and towering birch trees, oaks, tulip trees and other deciduous trees... it was stunning! The creek that burbled alongside the trail was over mostly smoothed rock, with moss growing all around.
I loved when the sun would shine through, lighting up the undergrowth and making the treetops glow.

K near the creek bed

There were small waterfalls and chilly pools along the creek, which beckoned us in. We didn't stop to play, though. Maybe next time...

Lovely waterfall!

You could tell that people would stop and swim in some of the pools, because there were piles of rocks here and there (and some random initials carved into a tree.) There wasn't too much litter, although there were bits of broken glass along the trail.


There were blackberry, raspberry and wild blueberry bushes all along the forest, which we indulged in. Delicious, too.

We found bear scat in a few places, which made us nervous, ha ha. Never did see any bears, though. I'm not sure if I'm glad, or a little sad, about that. 


We were attacked by bugs along the trail... for anyone thinking of doing a summer hike, best to have a bandanna to tie around your head to cover your ears. They like to try to enter your ear canals. Freaks me OUT. Also, I had several bugs go into my eyes, so even though it was shaded under the canopy of trees, I had to wear my sunglasses to prevent anymore of the little buggers from going in my eyes. That was pretty annoying! Luckily, it wasn't for the entire trail, just through some stretches of it. Here are some views along the trail... there were a couple places where we had to ford the creek, but since it hasn't rained too much lately, that wasn't difficult, as you can see.

Fording area

Mossy rock being hugged by a tree 

The sun peeking through the canopy

Rocky steps along the trail

We walked four miles up trails like that (above) as well as less ordered rocky areas like this...

It wasn't easy! My legs are so sore today! Here are some of the goodies that we saw along the trail... so many mushrooms and fungi! It was amazing!

There were even more than this, but after a while, you get tired of squatting to take photos, especially when you've been walking straight up for a few hours.

These plants were especially intriguing to me, as I've never seen them before... they were very white, almost translucent, but with golden designs inside of them... I have them in the collage above, but wanted to share these closer shots with you.

Ghostly plants

Tomorrow, I'll share Part 2: Sunfish Pond and Back. I think you've had enough of this hike for today! I hope you enjoyed your trail walk with me!

Hike Turned into a Walk

First off, let me say that we didn't go where we'd intended to go. We woke up too late, took too long for breakfast, and lost half the day before we were ready to leave town. THAT being said, we still went on a hike, just not to Sunfish Pond, where we had planned to go. We will do that hike next week.


Today, we took the path that runs along the river, then the creek, here in Bethlehem. I'm glad we did, too! We saw lots of neat wild animals. Some we got photos of, others we didn't, but it was a lot of fun. And we got to put our feet into some nice, cool water for a bit, too... and skipped some rocks, and had a generally good time!


I picked some wild berries, and ate them. They were more tart than the berries we get at the store, but I love them just the same.

A few that I picked were actually riper than the ones in the photo, and were even a bit sweet.... yum! They're beautiful, aren't they? 

There were lots of dragonflies, damsel flies, and butterflies all flying around the little marsh on the other side of the trail... I just love watching the glittery wings in motion. And that's also where we saw all the turtles! We saw two baby turtles, which were about the size of a silver dollar. We saw a couple larger turtles sunning themselves on a log, too. The smaller of the two was probably about six months old. The larger was about a year and a half, or so. I used to have a red-eared slider, so I'm basing my judgement off of her size at those ages. They're lovely creatures. Click on the photos for a larger picture to see the turtles better. The babies were tiny! The first image is blown up a bit because it was on the far side of the marsh. The others were closer.

We saw a deer in the woods across from the marsh, but she took off before I could snap a photo of her. A baby bunny was munching on clover ahead of us on the side of the trail, but the photos didn't show much. I got a better photo, marginally, when the bunny hopped away.

It was a beautiful day for a woodsy walk... the sun was out and blazing, but there was a breeze that helped to cool us off most of the time. When that breeze stopped, whoo-boy, it was HOT. This is where we stopped for a time to cool off our feet and skip rocks. I only had one or two really good times where I skipped the rocks out real far, and did over five hops. Keith had more that were good, but he kept finding the really GOOD rocks. ;-)

If we had a canoe, we'd have been gliding across that river in it! It was still nice to walk along side of it, since we wouldn't have seen all the animals, otherwise. We are really lucky to live so close to a wonderful area like this. We didn't even drive there. We walked there. We used an app to determine that we walked around 4-1/2 miles in total. The hike to Sunfish Pond is approximately 6 miles in total, so we know we can do it. (Well, I hope I can, anyway...)

Fresh water clam shells

Mossy rock

I hope you had a nice day today, and took advantage of what nature is around you... and if not, then maybe my post will nudge you out the door to experience your own version of communing with Mother Nature soon. Enjoy summer while you can! Each day is a blessing. 


xox 

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