Almost Raccoon Ridge

The bf and I started on a long outing to Raccoon Ridge and then onto the Lakota Wolf Walk in Warrentucky this past weekend. I was more excited to see the wolves (aka "woofs" per a comical guy from an Alaska reality show). I had been to Raccoon Ridge the year before. The walk is long (2.5 miles one way) along the Appalachian Trail, but I enjoy seeing the striped maples and the different colorful scenary. I am also always hoping to see bears. Plus I get a workout that's far more visually interesting then any dvd of mine. We made it to a nice vista which was about 2/3 the way to Racoon Ridge. Actually the last time I was there I saw more interesting birds at a closer distance at this vista then the actual Racoon Ridge. Raccoon Ridge itself is a great 360 degree vista of NJ and PA, but being in such a great spot means it's totally freezing with wicked winds. I think we had spent like 15 windswept minutes up there last time before retreating the warmth of the woods. Plus the hawks were so far it was difficult to determine if it even was a bird. So after deciding not to go all the way to Raccoon Ridge, we spotted an immature bald eagle at a close distance at this vista. It even came around a couple times (did we look that bad off????) so we could correctly identify it.

Here's the striped maple. I managed to harvest some seeds. Hopefully I can some to sprout this year.

Here's typical woods with a nice red lowbush blueberry understory.

Fall into the gap

My cousin, her BF, and I went hiking along a portion of the Appalachian Trail within the Delaware Water Gap and Worthington State Forest. Our destination was this vantage point where you can see 360 degrees. This spot is also a popular birding and hawk watch. It was an almost 2 hour hike in and it was mostly walking over rocks of course. On the way there, we rested on a nice boulder and some birds flew pretty close. I was hoping that our final destination would be non-stop close bird flying action so we continued onward. Well not so much. Most of these birds at this final desitnation were flying so far away I couldn't see them at all. Just barely a dark spec in the sky. And it sure was blusterly up there. It was like the NJ Mt. Everest complete with a large pile of rocks and a plastic owl, of course. I will say the leaves were gorgeous.