Water Is Wide: Spring Reflections, Quehanna

My husband and I spent a night backpacking in the Quehanna Wild Area - our first backpack of the year. And of course, it was colder than they said it would be. The overnight low where we were, out in the Valley of the Elk, was around 26 degrees F.

My husband had brought his best sleeping bag, so he was toasty, but I was under-dressed, and I awoke with cold feet in the middle of the night; heard the high, lonely bugle of a faraway elk; watched the moon rise. My husband reported hearing a few yips from the local coyotes.

I walked out to the rock overlooking the valley at 7:15. The ground was white; covered in a hard frost. It was cold and no animals were moving, so I headed back to my tent, climbed back into my sleeping bag, and went back to sleep. I hung out inside my tent till mid-morning, playing house, as one does. Shortly after noon, we packed up all of our gear and we walked out. It was about a six-mile round trip backpack.

We wanted to take a look at some other parts of Quehanna too, so once we had all of our gear stowed in the car instead of wearing it on our backs (taking it off = such a happy moment!), we drove over to the parking area for the  north jet test cell bunker for another hike. More details about the abandoned bunkers can be found here.

There are actually two bunkers, a northern one and a southern one. They were created and used from about 1955 to 1960. The northern one is a longer walk (about a mile in) and has a structure on it, as well as a small containment pond nearby, which is the subject of this photo.

What can I say? We spent an extraordinarily peaceful and quiet hour or two there, just hanging out, looking at things, walking around. For additional entertainment, the newts in this little pond were engaging in some pretty impressive spring flings in the warm shallow part of the waters. Yep, hello and welcome to spring!

My soundtrack song for this water shot is this really gorgeous number, featuring the Indigo Girls, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan, Water Is Wide.

P.S. In order to catch up, I had to post two blips today. Please be sure to check out the other one too: T. Tiger's amazing gift box!