A weekend of forest wandering, moon watching, sleeping, and reading dragon stories, I'm starting to unwind and reflect.
I have been kicking myself since Friday night that I didn't bring my camera. I still took a ton of shots with my phone anyway. I skimmed it down to this set - some are pretty awful shots but I wanted to illustrate the story.
Friday night, A and I went to Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County, PA. Map. What a gorgeous night. It was a blue moon and right after the death of Neil Armstrong, so they played a discovery channel video of the Apollo 11 mission. I can't find a link to it. All those white men smoking cigarettes in the control room. The incredible bravery to have your life depending on the equivalent computing power of the phone in your pocket. Actually my phone might be able to calculate trajectories on the fly and their computer couldn't. Neil Armstrong had 17 seconds of fuel left when he landed the Eagle. The astronauts had instruction manuals that they read while performing tasks.
The park educator had three telescopes set up, he guided at one, and volunteers worked the others. There were only about 25 people there, so we got to ask him good questions and learn neat stuff and look at the moon as much as we wanted. I definitely want to go back on a weeknight new moon with my camera. I want to take shots like these.
Saturday afternoon we traveled down the Pine Creek Gorge, one of my favorite routes. As cranky as I was from being in the truck so long and not having eaten, it actually made the whole trip worth it to see that moonrise from the top of a mountain.
Sunday we went to Loyalsock State Forest. Of course gas drilling threatens or has harmed all these places. This Saturday there's a protest at Rock Run by the Responsible Drilling Alliance's Keep It Wild campaign. The river cuts through the bedrock and has made fantastic sculptures. There are few small stones or pebbles. (I have a lovely chapter from the Tao Te Ching in mind but my Ursula K. LeGuin version is in Buffalo.)
I love this keyhole.
Looking upstream
Looking downstream from same spot.
We then traveled the road up to the McIntyre Wild Area and on the direction of a pair of old men who gave us some history of the town that had been there, we walked to the Bandstand Rock, where you can see for miles across and down the valley. The old men told us that a brass band would play up there for holidays and could be heard down in the valley. We just missed seeing the sunset - clouds rolled in during the 10 minute walk. As we were driving back down the mountain, we saw the men pulled over so we thanked them for the directions and they told us more history about the cemetery and one of the other creeks. And then they handed us Christian literature. :-p
Cloudy sunset with windmills - across the valley
Valley views - looking southish down PA Route 14
I got on my stomach and wiggled out to the edge of the cliff to take a shot directly down. It's far and kept making my tummy flip. I couldn't get anything for perspective unfortunately.
Big foot little foot
I spent Monday reading dragon stories and cuddling with Nisha.
My camera is moving to Tioga County.
I love the valley views!
Wow - awesome pics! :)