A Windy Walk On The Rails To Trails But, It Is December And It Could Be A Whole Lot Worse.

It is December now, and  in many years that means snow and cold temperatures here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.  Not yet this year. We have had only one snowfall of about three inches and it melted weeks ago. It was blustery this morning but a seasonable 34 degrees.  Since it is deer  hunting season I decided to play it safe and hike out the Rails to Trails, where hunting is prohibited. 

As you may know from my previous posts, the trail begins on Broad Street  or Route 93 near the border between the City of Hazleton and Hazle Township. It follows the right of way of an an abandoned railroad track. 

This was the extant of the snow cover this year, a dusting on some of the logs along the trail. That is fine with me since it gets harder to walk in the snow every year.

I walked east, through a  grove of pine trees, along a ridge.

I came across this fellow,

right before I crossed a   highway as I followed the trail toward the Dreck Creek Reservoir..

The trees have now lost their leaves, except a few brown ones clinging to the oak trees. It is such a different look this time of year .

I only saw a few birds, chickadees and juncos and one squirrel on my walk but I did run into quite a few folks, biking, hiking, running and walking their dogs. I am always glad to see people taking advantage of this beautiful trail. 

All of the plants and flowers are now dead and the trail is scattered with their remains. 

I walked past the picnic area overlooking the reservoir and again noticed how low the water is from our lack of rain these past few months. 

I found a plentiful supply of the refreshing tea berries growing along the trail past the reservoir. 

I hiked out to the three mile marker and decided it was time to head back. Although the trail is  well maintained and seems fairly flat, the trail actually has a slight downhill grade walking east from Hazleton. Which means ii has a slight upgrade going back, which after three mile does get noticed..

It was still a nice late Fall day to be out in the woods of Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially without any snow covering the  ground. But I am sure that will not be for very much longer. Here is a link to some more photographs from my hike today. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-page-2/nggallery/photographs-page-two-blog/Rails-to-trails-hike-December-3-2016-

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” 

― John Muir