No Bears But Another Great Hike In State Game Lands 119 And To Moosehead Lake.

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Early Saturday morning I decided to hike in State Game Lands 119 in Dennison Township, Luzerne County.  I  saw a bear in my backyard for the first time in 4 years on Wednesday evening. I love seeing these beautiful creatures and wanted to try and see another one. I have seen many bears on my hike in these game lands.  The access  road to the Game Lands is a continuation of  Hollenback Road. it is a 1 1/2 mile  rutted and rocky dirt road  that begins  in Penn Lake Township.

I often see deer on the drive in but not on Saturday. It was sunny and  a cool 50 degrees  when I arrived at the parking area near the gate to the  trail into the game lands.  I believe he trail is an access  and fire road used by the Game Commission.

I started my hike around 7:30 a.m. The early morning sun filtered through the trees in the mostly oak and maple second growth woodland.  Hay-scented,

and broken ferns grew along the trail, which was parietally covered in grass.

There are not many wildflowers blooming in mid Summer but I saw a few invasive oxeye daisy flowers,

and a few native prairie fleabane.

pearly everlasting,

and yarrow flowers.

I also found this chantrelle mushroom , it is choice edible.

Nearby were some blusher mushrooms, a species of Amanita I believe are edible but I am not sure. There are many deadly species of  Amanita mushrooms so I don’t harvest any of them. I taught it may be a good day for finding mushrooms when I saw these. I was wrong. I only found a few more on my 7 mile hike.

I continued on the trail and finally heard and saw some  bird activity, first seeing a flock of black and white warblers. I usually only see one or two  of these common warblers. There were a dozen of them along the trail ,  including juveniles. I believe now that the young birds had fledged they may already be slowly migrating south.

I also saw  a pair of eastern towhees ,

a few tufted titmice,

an ovenbird,

and this gray catbird that seemed to be posing for my camera. It seems birds of different species like to flock together and form foraging groups as a protection from predators.

After I had walked about 3/4 mile I came  an abandoned railroad right-of -way.  Some of the woods along  the right of way was cut down  since my last hike here last year in June. There was still some high grass growing  on the trail. There were a lot of ticks last year. I was prepared for thm  and had applied  a lot of insect repellent. I’m not sure if it as the repellent that worked or whether there were no ticks this year. I didn’t see a single tick on my hike.

I walked along the trail,  which had been widened. There was still high grass on the trail but after fter about a 1/4 mile it became more  open and grass free. It is still overgrown and rutted in many areas, although some folks appear to have rode their mountain bikes on the trail.  Many of the high bush blueberry bushes along the trail were cut down. I had seen many bears on previous hikes feeding on the berries. 

Lush patches of cinnamon ferns still grew along the trail.

I saw a lot of common yellowthroats, as I had in previous years, 

I also saw this eastern phoebe.

Above it, on a tree top was a great crested flycatcher,

and a Canada warbler.

 This northern house wren was singing along the trial, I rarely see these in the woodlands on my hikes. Once  again it appeared a number of different species of birds were feeding together.

There were no bears so far on this hike and the only critters I saw with fur were eastern chipmunks scurrying in the woods along the trail.

After about a mile the trail follows one of the feeder streams of the Nescopeck Creek.

Here a few large white pines grow along the trail They may be over 100 years old. The trial is on the northern side of a ridge so there is a lot of shade here . I have seen a mother bear and here cubs here on a previous hike.

The trail took me to the Black Diamond Trail. This 9 mile  trail is  a segment of  the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Trail. This is a popular biking trail and I saw a few bicyclists as soon as I started walking on the wider and much better maintained trail.   In fact, I don’t think I ever encountered a person on the trail I had just hiked down from the game lands and I don’t think I ever saw anyone else walking on the Black Diamond Trail. I  did see a lot more folks on bicycles as I hiked up the trail to Moosehead Lake. Over a dozen friendly folks  cycled past me. 

Along beautiful Moosehead Lake there were a lot of Summer wildflowers in bloom. Most of the milkweed was down flowering, and had already produced their seed pods,

but a few still had flowers.

There were also native daisy fleabane flowers,

and, invasive spotted knapweed

and many wild carrot or Queen Ann’s lace.

Common mullein flowers were blooming along the lake.

And flowers attract butterflies and insects, I saw  a few monarch butterflies,  3 of them on my hike, almost as many as I had seen all  Summer. They migrate to Mexico in the Winter and their habitat here and in Mexico is being destroyed. I used to see dozens on my hikes in the Summer. This year less than 10. They, like many native species of plants and animals, are endangered.

There were also a few  spice bush swallowtail butterflies

and common wood nymph butterflies visiting the flowers.

I met a few fishermen on the lake and they told me there are a lot of blue gills and bass in the scenic lake. There was once a town  located here and A. Mitchell Palmer,  an Attorney General of the United States was born on a nearby farm in . 1872

There is a bog across the trail from the lake ,

here I often saw red winged black birds, belted kingfisher, green and great blue herons and , occasionally, an osprey. I didn’t see a single birds on the big, just a lot of painted turtles, and ,

a few dragonflies darting along the shore of the big, and landing on the plants along the trail this is. I believe, a  widow skimmer dragonfly and thus,

a calico  pennant dragonfly.

I continued my hike on the trail for about 2 miles, through a mostly hardwood forest with some large oak.

I walked past the old Palmer homestead. There are a few residence near  the trail here..

There are many wildflowers blooming here on my hikes  in the Spring,  but not now, just the oxeye daisy, fleabane daisy and spotted knapweed flowers  I saw earlier on my hike. I did see  these  invasive viper’s  bluegrass flowers.

Many grasses  replaced the Spring wildflowers including Canada wildrye and

eastern bottle brush grass.

Yellow salsify flowers along the trail have gone to seed.

A steady stream  of bicyclists continued to pass me in both directions as I walked in the morning sun on the trail, It was good to see so many folks enjoying the trail. Once again, I didn’t see a single hiker. The trail passed a small water lily covered pond,

and took me to an old concrete telephone both used by the  railroads in the early 1900’s,

Here I followed another abandoned railroad right of way back up the ridge that lead to the Hollenback Road  access  to the game lands.

It passes the water lily covered pond I had walked past earlier. I walked down to the pond, which is on private property, and watched dozens of frogs  jump into the water. I saw a great blue heroin fly off before I could get a photos.

I enjoyed the peaceful view and admired the beauty of the water lilies before following the trail up the ridge.  Here is a link to a gallery on my blog website with some more photos of the plants and mushrooms I saw on my hike in the game lands.  State Game Lands 119 plants and mushrooms August 2 2025.

 

The trail is not on State Game Land property and has become overgrown since my last hike.

The trail continues through a portion of the 390 acre  Harry and Mary Goringer Preserve. 

I have seen scarlet tanagers and many wood thrushes here on my previous hikes but on Saturday I only saw a mourning dove,

a red eyed vireo. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog website with some more phots of the birds  I saw on my hike in the game lands.  State Game Lands 119 birds  August 2 2025.

The overgrown trail follows a small stream before intersecting with Hollenback Road.

It is about a 1/2 mile walk up the ridge on  Hoolenback Road to the parking lot. On the way I saw a few white tail deer including this buck.  I was disappointed I didn’t see  any bears on my 7 mile hike.  But I was satisfied  with the beautiful birds, insects , plants and mushroom I observed and, of course, seeing  scenic  Moosehead Lake. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog website with some more phots from  my  7 mile hike in the game lands.  State Game Lands 119  August 2 2025.

Go out, go out I beg of you and taste the beauty of the wild. Behold the miracle of the earth with all the wonder of a child.” – Edna Jaques