The first section of the Northwest River Trail is now open. It’s only 2.3 miles at the moment, but eventually, it’s going to be part of a 14 mile long trail along the east shore of the Susquehanna in Northern Lancaster County.
There’s a nice writeup on the Lancaster newspaper’s webpage.
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
There is going to be a meeting about the Northern Extension of the LVRT at Jonestown United Methodist Church next Thursday night.
My Grandma passed away last week. We had her funeral today. After the service, the ladies from the Lutheran Church had sandwiches and casserole dishes of macaroni-&-cheese and crock pots full of baked beans for everyone.
It was a very Lake Wobegone kind of scene, and it made me homesick.
Grandma was a very nice lady, and it’s sad to see her go. I will do my best to honor her memory by continuing to enjoy some of the things that she enjoyed:
Bye, Grandma!
I love R.B. Winter State Park. When I was a kid, my whole family would car camp there for at least one whole week every summer.
If you are going to go there, it is important to note that nobody actually calls it R. B. Winter state park. Everyone calls it “Half Way Dam.” If you ask someone for directions to R. B. Winter, they probably won’t know what you’re talking about.
Anyhow, last weekend, I went out with my friends to hike around it in the cold and snow. There was about 8″ of snow and ice on the ground, and it was just a hair above zero degrees outside. Perfect hiking weather.
We started out on the Mid-state trail, turned onto the west boundary trail, then walked on a road / snowmachine trail and then used the Old Boundary Trail to loop back to the Mid-State.
One of the nice things about winter hiking is being in the quiet of the woods, and breathing in cold, fresh air.
Nothing is more antithetical to these ends than the noise and stench of two-stroke snowmachine engines. The snowmachiners were generally friendly, though, and waved to us before blasting past us at incredible speeds.
I got to test out some new gear on this hike. There was ice under the first inch of snow, so I used stabilicers over my trail running shoes for extra traction. I had used yaktrax on winter hikes last year, but had a catastrophic failure on a steep descent. The stabilicers seem much more sturdy, but the penalty is increased weight.
Anyhow, it was a lovely day in the woods. If you’re ever in the area, you should go to R.B. Winter State Park. In the summertime, there is a nice beach by the lake, and no matter how hot it is outside, the water is always too cold for grown ups to swim in. Kids can swim in it with no problems, though.
It’s also right along BikePA route V, so it’s a convenient camping place if you’re bike touring.
Inspired by the delightful goofiness of a certain youtube personality, I’ve been spending some time reading about hammock camping over on hammockforums.net, and I decided to get the definitive book on the subject.
It’s pretty much a straight, to the point, screed on the hows and whys of hammock camping.
The idea is that you sleep in a hammock instead of on the ground. The benefits are:
It is a convincing argument, though I haven’t yet tried to sleep in one. I have found online instructions for constructing a hammock of my very own, but I have not yet sourced all the requisite materials for this project.
I think this strategy would work very nicely for stealth camping on s240s, because the number of possible campsites increases dramatically when all you need are 2 trees to tie up to.
I am eagerly awaiting warmer weather, so I can ride out into the hinterlands with a hammock, a few books, and perhaps a flask of spirits to conduct my leisure in style and comfort.
I give Hammock Camping 3 jihadis out of 5.
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