A Salute To National Trails Day
Happy trails to you! In celebration of the upcoming National Trails Day, pick from a host of guided walks – or go for a solo run — this week along some of the area’s newest or oldest and most beloved pathways, such as the Back Mountain Trail in Luzerne.
Maybe your ideal hike is a leisurely stroll down a nature trail, where you can introduce your children to rhododendrons and passing butterflies.
Maybe it’s a heart-pounding climb to a cliff with a gorgeous view or a ramble through the woods to find a field of boulders.
Maybe it’s a bike hike that would take you from Carverton to Wilkes-Barre – or Pittston — burning calories instead of gasoline all the way.
Whatever kind of hike appeals to you, you’ll have a chance to participate tomorrow when, in honor of National Trails Day, scores of walking and cycling events have been planned across Pennsylvania.
Among the closest to home are:
• A two-hour hike of the Mocanaqua Loop with the Earth Conservancy. The group will meet at 9:45 a.m. at the trailhead and start hiking by 10. To reach the trailhead, take Route 11 to Shickshinny, cross the Shickshinny Bridge (Route 239) to Mocanaqua and take the first left. The trailhead is at the end of this short, dead-end street. For info, call 823-3445.
•A 1.5-mile (one way) West Side Trail Walk from Sabatini’s Pizza, 1925 Wyoming Ave., Exeter, to the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming. Meet at Sabatini’s at 2:30 p.m. and tour the Swetland Homestead for $2. If you need transportation back to Sabatini’s call 654-0933 in advance.
• A day of hikes at Hickory Run State Park, starting every half hour between 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. The easiest one, environmental education specialist Carly Hitzfeld said, is a half-mile family hike along the nature trail in the Sand Springs Day Use Area parking lot. That begins at 1:30 p.m.
One of the more challenging hikes, she said, is a 7-mile round trip from the Boulder Field Trail head on Route 534 to the field and back. That trek leaves the trailhead parking lot at 9:30 a.m. and will include an educational talk about the field, which is a reminder of the vast ice sheet that once covered the region.
“Then you can return down the trail at your own pace,” she said. For Hickory Run info, call 443-0400.
• A hike will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday (also today and Sunday, in honor of National Trails Week) at the Pinchot Trailhead in the Lackawanna State Forest in Thornhurst. Each Pinchot Trail hike will be five to eight miles, and easy to moderate. For info, call 655-4979.
• If you’d prefer a bike trek, an “easy, 9-mile downhill ride (one way) will begin at the Frances Slocum State Park Boat Launch on Carverton Road at 9 a.m. on Saturday (meet at 8:30) and follow the Back Mountain Trail to Nesbitt Park in Wilkes-Barre. Each person is responsible for his or her own shuttle/ride back. For info, call 430-0912.
But, perhaps nine miles will just whet your appetite. In that case, Michele Schasberger invites you to pedal an additional eight miles or so to Pittston, in time for the 11 a.m. dedication of the Luzerne County National Recreation Trail.
“I’m planning to link two events,” said Schasberger, who is project manager of the Wyoming Valley Wellness Trails Partnership. “I’m hoping to illustrate the connectivity in our trails that people have been working on for 15 years. I’m planning to go down the Back Mountain Trail, go through Luzerne, take the levee trail north to Wyoming Avenue, then Wyoming Avenue up to the Eighth Street Bridge and, hopefully, I’ll be able to get on the new Pittston trail there.”
“People have been working on little pieces of trail and, finally we can start stringing together these little segments,” she said.
Getting exercise and reducing fossil-fuel consumption are two benefits of cycling or walking the trails instead of driving in the streets, Schasberger said. “I would say they’re equally important.”
If it rains, she said, she has slickers for the first 20 participants, who, she hopes, will decide to be more than “fair-weather warriors.”
Rain or shine, she’s determined to make the trail connection. “If nobody else will do it with me, I’ll do it myself,” she said. “It’s mostly downhill and flat.”