Ricketts Glen State Park

I stayed at Ricketts Glen State Park this past weekend. I had said I’d drive, so of course it snowed again. I love snowy rush hours on Friday nights when driving far. Most of the ride was okay, although I did about half the speed limit after Hickory Run again, especially after leaving the turnpike. The last 5 miles were the worst though. My car couldn’t make it up the steep hill. The two people with me had to get out and push, I was pretty much not getting any traction with tires spinning constantly as I fish tailed across the road. A couple of pickup trucks blew by but otherwise the road was empty. Finally a plow came and cleared a path that I was able to roll into backwards and try to make it up the hill some more. There was still an icy coat on the road so I didn’t make much more progress than I had been without the plow. It came by again going down the hill and dropped salt this time. The driver told us to give it a few minutes for the salt to start working and then try again. This time I was able to get some traction, although I still managed to lose it every ten feet or so. We did make it to the park entrance and although the park roads were covered in snow and hadn’t been plowed, my car was able to get through the powdery, non-icy stuff there to the one cabin where we were meeting people. It was late but we were only the second car there so we still had to wait for everyone else to arrive before turning in. The original plan was to split between cabins and tents but it was so late that no one felt like driving over to the tent sites to see how they looked since they’d probably not be in good shape any way. There was room in the cabins due to people backing out last minute though so all the tent campers just stayed there. Ricketts Glen has modern cabins and they were very nice inside – two bedrooms, living room, bathroom with shower, full kitchen (including microwave), and, most importantly, heat.

Saturday we did about a 4.5 mile hike through most of the Falls Trail. It was gorgeous, although I’d like to see what the trail actually looks like some time when it’s not covered by a foot of snow. We were guided by Quest, who also provided crampons and ice axes in case we would need them. We actually didn’t need the crampons for most of the trail, although the axes came in handy on the really steep parts where we either had to climb up or basically do a controlled slide down. The only part we did need the crampons for was at the last waterfall we saw, where there was a spiral staircase built into the rock, but without any support on the outside edge and with a straight drop down from there. The guides managed to chop away some of the ice before we climbed up but some people had trouble with crampons coming off halfway there. It was a great hike though, lots of fun to get through the tough parts. I realized I should invest in some waterproof pants, or at least gaiters, if I’m going to plan on doing any more really snowy winter hikes.

Sunday we did another hike to see the falls we had missed the previous day, this time with snowshoes. I’ve heard that some people don’t like snowshoes but I thought they were a blast. Maybe they were a little tricky going over difficult / narrow spots, but they made walking over the rest of the snow so much easier that it was worth it. We did a shorter hike this day, probably a little less than 4 miles, but we still had to drive home so I’m glad we finished early.

The whole weekend was a great time. Quest seems like a great program. They offer outdoor courses and trips, specific outings for groups, and also provide outdoor leadership training through Bloomsburg University. I would have loved to do a program like that in school.