Winters in Pennsylvania can be hard, and its not always easy for me to get outside and enjoy nature. Roads are closed or dangerous, its cold out, a storm is raging – and that can be just one day.
But when the storm ends, the roads are plowed, and you are dressed for the cold, the day can be magical. I often find the magic of nature at the Crow’s Nest Preserve, but visiting in the snow transformed it. I was armed with my usual cold weather gear – boots, microspikes, winter weight clothing, poles, and determination.
One of my goals for 2015 is to utilize our YouTube channel, and so the bulk of this narrative is narrated. I took two videos, one at the first bridge on the Creek Trail, and then one at the high point on the Chief’s Grove Trail. Both trails are in the western end of the preserve.
The second video is from my turn around point, at the hill in the meadow on the western end of the preserve. The view is attractive but the snow wasn’t supporting me. As I explain, I was “postholeing like mad.” I turned around here and finished with two miles for the hike. Aside from the postholes, the only other seasonal problem was that I almost didn’t get the car out of the parking lot, so slick was the surface.