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Well the "Nothing Before Ten" gang was at it again with our latest adventure in the wonderful woods of Pennsylvania Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. This is the first real adventure with my new Wrangler and it was a fun first trip out. We left a little later Saturday morning due to a gathering with friend's at a local park, which was nice, as usual trying to fit everything in the weekend as possible. We headed up to the Loyalsock Trail and specifically, Sone's Pond.
Our son has been backpacking with us before, my wife and I took him when he was one to the Pinchot Trail. It was hotter than hot and probably not the best hike to take with a little one in tow. But it worked out and he was happy for the most part. For some reason a trip with our daughter took more time to schedule, she's an October baby and it never felt like the right time to haul her out without the weather and schedules getting in the way. Well my wife decided that we've been waiting long enough and scheduled it so that it'd be on the calendar and we'd have little choice to change it.
So the weekend was upon us, the weather perfect and we threw as little as we could into our packs and got on the road after the park. It was a beautiful drive with the Freedom panels off of the Jeep and blue skies above. The kids we're happily chatting away, which eventually lead to napping and reminding me about how long a road trip to where we were going really felt. It was a lot longer than I remembered.
We turned off the pavement and headed down the forest road towards the Sone's Pond parking area. Stephanie was more than happy that her side of the Jeep wasn't on the edge where the drop off was, down into the ravine. Few things compare with driving through the woods with the top off and the trees going past overhead. The feeling is freedom in a sense, you're almost part of nature when you can look up, as opposed to just side to side and front to back. We didn't see any neat bird life this trip, but the trees were enough.
We arrived at our location, let the dogs out of their confines from the Jeep and let the kids explore. Which brings up an interesting point. I love the kids exploring, it's one of the things I want most for my kids. I want them to get out, get dirty, explore the grasses and the woods, look under the rocks and swim in the lakes. However this also brings me great frustration and concern. I find myself NOT being happy that they're exploring, cause it's careless, sometimes dangerous and often I feel as though they're destroying more as opposed to exploring. Stephanie reminds me often, to just let them be... something which is almost impossible for me to comprehend. However, I'll keep trying to get them out and maybe, with time, I'll be more comfortable with their level of exploring and they'll come around as well to where they're exploring more with the intent of learning, as opposed to rock throwing, etc.
While they played and had a snack, I divided and conquered the gear mess in the back of the Jeep and got us ready for our short walk. Steven and the dogs lead the way, which we thought was the way, which turned out to be the way after a few doubtful map checks. Steven happily pointed out the path off the forest road was "here", and down we went. It was only about a mile, maybe less, but the smell of the pines and the feeling of being unplugged and in the woods was quickly taking over and IT FELT GOOD.
Now came the most stressful moments of camping for me, the setup. I find myself trying to keep an eye out for ever moment of the kids ways and try, TRY , to keep calm while they go through bring nice to each other, minding their own business and fighting like siblings. I try to get the kids involved in setting up the tent, I try. They want to, all for about 30 seconds, then it
becomes a fight as to who's doing what and then standing on the tent, to the point of almost damaging our only shelter. When it comes time to cache firewood, no one is around... it seems routine every time firewood needs to be collected, my kids vanish.
My wife was soaking up the pond and the sun's rays coming off of it, the kids were doing their best to make me concerned in my mind as to what they're doing, how they're going to break something and that they've secretly plotted against me to make this as stressful as possible. I made the mistake of setting up my beloved hammock and they climb in, both promise me that they'll behave, which they don't. Being fearful that it'll be destroyed, I threw them out and put it away. Which only turned them more on me, mutiny was right around the corner.
With things in place and sun heading towards the horizon, Rowdy found his spot in the pine needles and we got a small campfire going. We had a small dinner, Lucy huddled as close to the fire as possible while I'm concerned about the fire getting into the nearly tinder dry leaves all around.
While you'd think the kids would be worn out some, from the walk and the exploring, you'd be wrong... well or Amanda anyway. You know it's bad when Steven says, "Amanda it's time to go to sleep, I'm trying to sleep." We all curled into our sleeping bags, had to hold Amanda down while the last of her energy burned out with the remaining embers of the campfire and with the stars above and the cool night setting in, we were off to sleep.
We awoke to more sunshine and plenty of warmth. We got up, packed up and headed towards the Loyalsock trailhead and the waterfalls at the trailhead parking lot. A very nice, and steep, hike down the trail with the rushing creek to our side, we came to the top of the falls and the creepy tunnel the water ran through. We had a wonderful snack and did some fun exploring and took plenty of photos, headed back up to the trail, marched our way through the muck and the mire of the railroad grade trail for about a mile and then made our way back to the trailhead up a very steep trail back to the Jeep. Stephanie and I took turns carrying Amanda because her legs were "too tired". Steven marched his way along, sometimes running, sometimes complaining, but moving in the right direction.
We headed on our way home, only to stop and do a brief detour at another dirt road that had a large sign outside saying 60 acre lake for sale. We went down the trail with no big tada at the end, there was another huge sign which we called without an answer. Left a message without ever hearing back from them.
Off to dinner we went at one of our favorites, PJ Whelahan's.
With a tired crew we headed home. The kids and Stephanie were asleep fast enough. It was a fun little experience, but as usual, there's things I should learn from for the future trips.
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