Spring Alightment ...

“Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring.”

                   ~ author unknown

A Red Admiral butterfly alights on a late spring afternoon in early June along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, the Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware and the D&L Trail.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

The Sugared Trail ...

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees …”

                ~ John Muir

                      ~ 1838-1914

The peace of a beautiful winter afternoon is palpable on a January day along the snow sugared trail of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) that hugs the Kittatinny Ridge at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Shoot The Moon ...

“The summer days are gone too soon

You shoot the moon

And miss completely

And now you’re left to face the gloom

The empty room that once smelled sweetly

Of all the flowers you plucked if only

You knew the reason

Why you had to each be lonely

Was it just the season?

Now the fall is here again

You can’t begin to give in

It’s all over

When the snows come rolling through

You’re rolling too with some new lover

Will you think of times you’ve told me

That you knew the reason

Why we had to each be lonely

It was just the season”

   ~ “Shoot The Moon”

  ~ written by Jesse Harris

 ~recorded by Norah Jones

            ~ 2002

~ The track was part of “Come Away With Me,” Jones’ first full-length album that received Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, and reached the top of the Billboard 200 chart and several jazz charts.

The moon rises over the Kittatinny Ridge on a warm and beautiful last full weekend of summer, my most favorite of seasons, on a September evening along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

Yes, the summer days are gone too soon!

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, the Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails – the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware and the D&L Trail.

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.