A Sunny November Hike Out To The Penrose Reservoir

It was a cold and sunny Fall day here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  Mushroom season is now over and most of the wildlife left the PPL Wetlands,  my favorite Sunday hiking area,  so I decided to head into Carbon County, about 10 miles south of my home and hike the railroad tracks up to the always picturesque Penrose reservoir. 

I left the quaint town of Weatherly  and hiked up the historic railroad right of way which has been in use for over 150 years now. I have posted blogs on the history before and you can read about it in my blog  archives. 

Most of the leaves have fallen from the trees now, except some of the oaks, always the last to shed them, and adding some late color to the scenery. 

The tracks run along the Black Creek or Hazle Creek , which was at the lowest level I have seen it since I started hiking out here about seven years ago. We have had little rain this Summer and Fall and  the streams are all very low. 

There was some frost in the colder pockets along the creek but it was rapidly disappearing as the sun warmed the cold morning air. It was all gone on my return hike. 

I crossed the bridge over the Black or Hazle Creek , know by railroad buffs as Hazle Creek Junction. This was a major railroad intersection at one time, where the Buck Mountain, Beaver Meadows and Lehigh railroads met. 

I continued upward, and northward,  to the Penrose Reservoir. This reservoir is also over a 100 years old and once supplied  Weatherly with it’s drinking water. 

I have seen a lot of wildlife on this reservoir over the year, including ducks, geese, ospreys, herons, otters, and the rare American bittern, but not today, in fact I only saw a few chickadees, a grouse and one very large buck on my hike, although I wasn’t able to photograph any of them. 

The growing season is over, and all that remains of the summer’s growth are the dead and decaying leaves. 

However I did find this interesting shrub in bloom. It is the witch  hazel tree. It is the only tree or shrub that blooms in the Fall in Pennsylvania. 

I also came across another oddity, a lot growing mushroom. 

There wasn’t as much wildlife as in the Summer or Spring, but it was still a great day to be outdoors in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it always, is Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike today. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-page-2/nggallery/photographs-page-two-blog/Penrose-Reservoir-hike-November-13-2016-

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. ~Aldous Huxley