March 06,2016 --Hiked the Bald Mountain Trail with the Susquehanna Trailers Hiking Club.  They are a great group very friendly and welcoming.  In total there were about 23 hikers, not everyone was a member of the club.  We meet at the parking lot of Sears at the Wyoming Valley Mall and proceeded to the Seven Tubs parking area.  The gates were locked so we had to park outside the gate which got very crowed because it was such a nice day.  Not sure why they keep the gates locked? By the way I'm about a week late posting this for reasons I will explain later.  Upon arrival we walked down the old concrete road continued past the kiosk another hundred yards or so then took a path to the left that went pretty much straight up the mountain.  It was kind of hard for me because  of my knees.  The trekking pole were useless because it was so steep.  after about a 25 yard climb the path reached an old railroad bed.  We walked on that for several miles before making a right at the power lines and went straight up the mountain for what seemed like forever. After reaching the top a short break was in order.  Very nice views of the Wyoming Valley for the top of the power lines.  Continued along the top of the mountain for several more  miles catching great views of the Wyoming Valley along the way.  Making a gradual decent a few real steep spots going down the trekking pole helped.  reached the concert road again on the decent then walked back to the parking area. All toll about 7 miles hikes.  Now later the next week I experienced a sciatica attack in my lower left back and left hip which landed me in the ER.  Not sure if its hiking related.  Right now resting and taking meds. Going to rest all week and see how I feel next week end March 19-20.   I really want to get back out there.

February 27, 2016 Saturday--- Hiked the Boulder Field Trial in Hickory Run State Park today.  The trail is listed as 3.5 out and the same back for a total of 7 miles.  Doesn't seem like much but it will be the longest hike we have done so far.  The trail description in their brochure lists the tail as more difficult blazed with yellow trail markers.  The trail is very rocky and large portions of the trail this time of year is under water causing us to have to walk along side of the trail.  The were actual two small stream crossing.  The trail runs through sections of hemlock, spruce, beech trees and large rhododendron bushes.  The rocky nature of the trail makes the 3.5 miles seem longer in distance.  Being novice hikers the hike took us about 5 hours and 20 minutes total out and back.
These day hikes that my wife and I are doing are essentially training for a backpacking trip that I will take when I retire in a few months.  The idea is to gradually increase the length of the hike also gradually increasing the weight I carry.  This hike being 7 difficult miles is the farther that we've gone.  I felt okay after the hike but later that night I got pretty severe cramps in both legs in my ham string muscles.  Looking back on the day I didn't drink enough water, heck I didn't take enough water with me. Next hike I'm taking two water bottles.
Also I don't remember if I mentioned this in a earl;y post.  I do go to the gym 4-5 day a week and walk on a treadmill and do some weight training.  
Feel free to comment with suggestions.  
  

                                            Boulder Field Hickory Run St. Park

                                               Start of Boulder Field Trail.

                                                    Very wet rail in spots.

                                                           That's the trail

                                         One of the largest hemlocks we seen along the trail

                                                      Boulder Field, Hickory Run St. Park

                                           Roots, ice and a leaf makes for nice art.

February 21, 2016   Frances Slocum State Park - Since our plans yesterday didn't work out and only logged a little over 2 miles albeit all uphill.  I felt that I needed to get back out there so we picked a trail close to the house where we knew there would be no ice or at the very least very little ice.  We have hiked Frances Slocum State Park several times but never did more that one trail.  Today we decided to do the Frances Slocum Trail, The Lakeshore Trail and the Larch Tree Trail a total of about 4 miles.  Not as many as I would of liked but there was a time constraint.  The Frances Slocum Trail begins near the boat rentals. The highlight is the rock shelter where legend has it when the local Indians raided a settlers village they kidnapped a small child named Frances Slocum  and the rock ledges is where they camped for the night.  Lakeshore Trial as its name state runs along the shore of the man made lake.  The Larch Tree Trail has some hilly sections, nothing very difficult

.  The highlight of this trail is the stand of larch trees. Very quiet and serene walk through the trees.  Well worth the hills. 

February 20 2016, Saturday, started out to hike the Mill Creek Fall Loop outside of Hillsgrove PA. .  It sounded like a a great trail 5.2 miles with a skill level as moderate with a elevation change at 800 feet.  Just the length I need for our next adventure.  Little did we know what an adventure it would be. The trail head is located along Mill Creek Road which is dirt leading up the mountain.  All was good at the start then the road stated to see ice patches in sports but nothing too major.  The higher we went the more ice covered the road became until it was nothing but ice and snow covered with a major drop off on the drivers side.  We crept along until found the trail head.  At that point the only tracks on the ice looked to be logging trucks that were using chains.  We crept to a stop looked at the trail map again a relived that a good portion of the trail came back out to the road and we would have to travel back up the ice covered road to the car.  Not having crampons I was not will to walk that far on ice and chance twisting a knee or falling.  So do we turn around or continue on hoping that the road came out to a paved or less ice covered road. We went on for another mile or so and the road seemed to get more snow covered and more desolate.  We decided to turn around and go back down the mountain the way we came up.  We made it with no problem, thank God!  We would learn later in the day after looking a a more detailed map that we made the decision turning around.  Had we not the road was twice as long as we traveled going up the mountain.  I suppose looking back I should of taken a photo of the road conditions.  I could honestly say that was the last thing on my mind a we traveled over the ice covered roads.  We will come back to this trail in a month or so, maybe 2.
So plan B, we decided to stop at Ricketts Glen St Park on Rt 118 and see what was going on there.  We knew that the Falls Trial would still be closed to hikes with out the proper gear.  But the Old Bulldozer Trail was open.  We have hiked the Falls Trail many times but have never done the OBT and we did not have a map of the trail with us.  I added a bit of weight to my pack this week carrying about 13.5 lbs.  Word to the wise....it is steep and difficult and oh did I mention steep and difficult.  We had planned to hike to the dry lake but not knowing the difficultly and time was not on our side (getting a late start)  we only  made it to the top at about 2000 feet and .9 of a mile in about a hour and a half.  Did another .3 and decided to head back to the car.  I was a bit discouraged not having completed what we set out to do, but it is what is is.   I look at it this was we got a great cardio workout.