Report by Norma Lee Havens – What a Day for a Hike! Wow! The prospects for the perfect day greeted us on Tuesday December 4th, 2012. We started out at the first parking lot after the gate. All thoughts of cross country skiing were a lost cause. It was to be a sunny, very sunny temperate day. How about the forties and fifties to build your spirits??? We hiked the road for a brief time then took the forest Trail to the left up to Hilltop Camping Area; then taking Hill Top Road left ran into Twin Fawns Trail and Spring Pond Loop, then Spring Pond and Ice Pond and the Ice Pond Trail back along Gilbert Lake from the Beach Park to the parking lot. Whew. Excitement at the perfect weather gave all 17 hikers the energy to stay with it to the end. No one wanted to leave. We were enjoying the sun, the camaraderie. It was a terrific hiking day and fabulous fun. We started with 19 hikers and ended with 17. We did require quite a quantity of gorp and frequent stops. Scott and Doug Fielder were along and took photos which will be featured on the www.susqadk.com website. Check them out. Doug Fielder and Jim Austin gave us a pedometer reading total of 5.4 miles. It is so nice to have our own GPS techs along to keep track of the details. Along the trail we saw some strange sights: imagine a sweet little decorated Christmas tree; how about folks on December 4th peeled down to sleeveless shirts/jeans; or what about a huge old pine tree getting hugged by two tree huggers. The ADK Tuesday Hike on December 4th, 2012 was not the usual. As we left the Park my car registered 62 F. Good news from Gilbert Lake State Park; a ‘new’ more helpful map of the trails. Stop for it at the Office. It is printed in green ink on white paper. We are so fortunate to have four NYS Parks in our neighborhood. See you at the next ADK Susquehanna Chapter event.
Susquehanna Chapter 