Report by Aleda Koehn. Fourteen brave ADKer’s met at the south end of Gilbert Lake State Park on a morning of about 25 degrees with a good breeze tossing about bits of snow.
On Sunday I had walked the entire route, from the parking lot, west side of lake, across the road, around the two ponds, back through the cabin colony, and returned on the west side road. A glorious day – blue sky and temperatures in the 60’s. What followed, however, was two days of heavy rain, strong gusty winds that left many without power, and finally a sudden drop in temperature accompanied by snow. After all this weather, we were unsure of the condition of the trails, and decided to walk the roads going toward and around the east side of the lake.
As we walked the winds continued, but the sky began to clear and soon we were in sunshine. The road had a snowy cover and we had to watch for hidden patches of ice. At the beach end of the lake, eleven of the group decided to walk the trail to Ice Pond and return the same way. Three continued on the unplowed west side road to the cars. As we were starting on the trail, a park employee driving a four-wheeler went past us. The tire tracks helped us to see whether there was ice or ground beneath the snow. At one place sawdust was sprinkled on the trail and logs rolled to the side. Obviously he was checking the trails for fall down. Both groups said that the most problematic section of the hike was coming down the snowy/icy road close to the parking lot. All made it safely back to the cars with the exception of the hike leader who slipped on the ice about 20 feet from the beginning of clear asphalt road and took a gentle fall – Much embarrassed!!
Group photo and lake-road photo by Janice Downie.
Aleda Koehn took the photo of the pumpkins on the stone wall by Lake of the Twin Fawns on Sunday, March 6th. The pumpkins had apparently been here since the fall, and looking closely, you can see that each pumpkin has a letter painted on it, spelling out “GILBERT”.
Susquehanna Chapter 