Into The Snowy Woods ...

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

             ~Robert Frost

               ~ 1884-1963

         ~ Four Time Pulitzer Prize Winner

         ~ “Stopping by Woods

                  on a Snowy Evening”

                ~ 1923

A mid-March snowfall blankets the trail with late winter beauty in Henry’s Woods at Jacobsburg State Park, which spans between Wind Gap and Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Henry’s Woods offers very scenic hikes and the rest of the center grounds have multi-use trails.

Jacobsburg State Park offers environmental education programs from the preschool environmental awareness programs to high school level environmental problem solving programs, historical programs, teacher workshops and public interpretive programs.

The park surrounds the Bushkill Creek.

The original land for the center was purchased by the Department of Forests and Waters from the City of Easton in 1959. In 1969, additional land was purchased using funds from Project 70. This brought the total land area of the center to its present size of 1,168 acres.

Only The Summer Knows ...

“The summer smiles, the summer knows

And unashamed, she sheds her clothes

The summer smooths the restless sky

And lovingly she warms the sand on which you lie

The summer knows, the summer’s wise

She sees the doubts within your eyes

And so she takes her summer time

Tells the moon to wait and the sun to linger

Twists the world ‘round her summer finger

Lets you see the wonder of her arm?

And if you’ve learned your lesson well

There’s little more for her to tell

One last caress, it’s time to dress for fall …”

              ~ “The Summer Knows”

               ~ Michel Legrand

                     ~ 1932-2019

     ~ theme from the 1971 film “Summer of '42”

            

Only the summer knows what the hot and humid breeze is whispering through the trees and summer grasses in this sepia capture of the Bobolink Trail, just off the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), I shot in the early evening in late July 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 D&L Trail.

The Bobolink Trail connects the D&L Trail with the Lehigh and New England (LNE) Trail about 1.2 miles north and west of the Osprey House at Lehigh Gap Nature Center. It is named for the Bobolink, a representative of the migrant grassland bird species that Lehigh Gap Nature Center hopes to attract to the refuge’s re-vegetated prairie grasslands. 

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.

Trailing The Delaware In Winter ...

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

               ~ Charles Dickens

                       ~ 1812-1870

With the Delaware River to the left and the Delaware Canal to the right, walking the snowy trail along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L) on a day filled with spring’s warmth in the waning days of winter paints a beautiful scene on an early March afternoon.

I captured this image after starting out from the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead at Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania.

The trail is positioned between the Delaware River and Delaware Canal, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.