Back Oven Knob, PA

I went to a local Hawk and other migratory bird watching spot along the Kittattiny ridge approx. 10 miles from my house in Palmerton called Bake Oven Knob.

The most well known Hawk watching spot is called Hawk Mountain which is near Hamburg, PA., and is 30 miles from my house and has big crowds.

When I arrived I spoke with a birder who was sitting with binoculars in hand and camera ready. He told me the conditions were near perfect, with semi high elevation clouds that would force birds lower bringing them closer for viewing purposes. The other condition was the NW wind which was consistent and I'm guessing around 10-20 miles an hour.

We didn't have many sightings though. We saw a couple flocks of Canadian Geese, 1 Flock of Cormorants,Wrens, Flickers, 1 Osprey, 1 Red Tail Hawk, 1 Sharp Shined.

It was a good time though and some more birders showed up and I learned a lot. I learned that Cormorants don't make a V shape like Canadian Geese. Flickers are type of Wood Pecker, but peck at the ground for insects, instead of trees. Osprey can be identified at a distance by the curve in their wings when flying, and when they get closer you can see their light color and white head.

I learned that not all the Hawks in the area will migrate if they have enough food, which they do.

The coolest thing that we saw was a sail plane and I didn't know this, but they are different than gliders. Apparently Sail Planes are much lighter and either the longest or one of the longest flights was from somewhere north of the Delaware Water Gap to Tennessee and back. That's amazing! They only weigh around 300 lbs., which is crazy to me. I'd like to try it!

Netting Monarch's

While on my weekly mountain hike, I meet a woman working for an agency (whose name I will have to look up) that tags Monarchs while on their migration to Mexico. She told me that it is not as easy as one might think, to catch a Monarch. If they see you coming, many times they will fly away before you have a chance to be in catching range.



So, we started chatting and she let me give the net a try and like she said, no luck, not even close. Then my son tried and he did a little better, but again no luck. Apparently, the Monarchs won't come out when it's chilly, so we were fortunate that the weather was warming, just as we were hunting. Yes, I said hunting, and no we weren't shooting them, just catching them. It feels like a hunt though. My adrenaline was pumping when we would spot a new victim or should I say participant in the data collection program.



We spotted some more and pointed the Monarchs out to the woman with the huge butterfly net, and with her skill and stealth like movements she was able to get within striking distance, or should I say catching distance. My children and I were watching with pause and excitement when she caught the Monarch in her net. We cheered and she basked in the glory, something she was not accustomed to experiencing, since most of her hunts are done alone. You could see in her eyes the pleasure of sharing this moment with us, especially the children, who may one day be Monarch taggers.



She then proceeded to explain to us the proper technique in getting the Monarch and or other butterfly that you may catch. At this stage you slowly gather the net toward the butterfly until the area of net is small, at the same time large enough to not damage the butterfly. At this point you can put the butterfly in a glass jar for inspection, in order to tell if it is a Monarch, and if it is a Monarch, whether or not it's a male or female. If it is a Monarch, then the tagger must gently hold the wings back with two fingers and a

Thirst and Backpacking

I recently went Backpacking in Shenendoah with my son and some friends. Before the trip started I had some trepidations, one of which was the large numbers of Timber Rattlesnakes that frequent this particular section of the Park. Not only is it one of the most isolated areas it also has a large population of these beautiful snakes.

I recently had read an article in Backpacker Magazine about phobias and a snake phobia article was included. It was very helpful, but many of the facts, I had already known, it was just reassuring. I believe the most common accident is falling, not necesarily from dizzying heights but many falls can paralyze or seriously injure a backpacker.

So, although I did walk right by a Timber Rattlesnake at night in my flip flops walking down the path to the stream, I had the most difficulty with thirst.
We started are trip hiking along a rocky ridge that was exposed to heat. My huge mistake was that I left one of my Nalgene back at the car. I discoved my mistake fairly soon but we were about a mile into the hike. When I discussed leaving the water bottle with the group, we decided that the first day would be hard for me, but that I could share other peoples water which would get me to camp without too much discomfort.

So, off we went. Me being the slowest in the group, I ended up by myself. After about 3 miles was down to 2 sips of water that I was hourding like gold. Finally I took the last sip and thought that one of the people in the party may wait for me. But no one in sight. I was thinking about watching Bear Grilis and Survivor Man (Les), and remember them talking about the dangers of drinking bad water. I remember watching their show's thinking "I would never drink that nasty stuff", or that I would not drink stream water unfiltered or treated. Well, I was starting to realize that it would be real hard, especially if you weren't well versed, to not drink bad water.

I was having all kinds of thoughts, like, wheter I would rather die of thirst or falling (Falling is actually a more common way to injure yourself in the woods "Backpacker Magazine"). I just started thinking about how far I had in me and how far there was to go, knowing that we had aprox. two more miles. I knew I could do this, however I wasn't happy about how thirsty I was, but I looked at it like a trial rite of passage.

My other thought was that if I didn't have a filter, that I would do like Les, and Bear, and dig a hole by the stream and let the water filter into the hole from the ground, naturally filtering the water. I also knew that I could make a still with the plastic I had and or tie the plasic around a pine branch like a big trash bag and collect the water at much later time. I definately didn't want to put forth that effort and as I looked up there was my son Dominic, with plenty of water! I was proud of my son for worrying about his old man. He has always come for me on the trail. It's funny how the simple things are the most gratifying.

Feeling Stressed...Go For a Hike!

Life's stresses for all of us human beings can tend to build up and manifest as disease. One of the ways I like to ground my mind and spirit is to go for a hike. Fortunately I live minutes away from the AT and other really cool trails that make for a great one to five hour hike. If you have a wilderness area or nice wooded park, start slowly and observe the plants and wildlife, such as birds, chipmunks and deer. What I like about a hilly area is that your heart rate increases quite fast while hiking uphill and it makes for a great alternative to running.

Sometimes I like to combine exercise with a naturalists mentality and investigate a boulder, or a tree and take close up pictures of a flower, or a leaf and become part of a world within a world. Watch an Ant drag a carcass of another insect or a piece of organic material to use for building purposes. Walk slowly along the Lehigh River and listen to the water flow. Then pick up the pace for 20 minutes, and end the hike walking slowly soaking in the experience with a walking meditation. Try it and see if it helps with the stresses of modern day life!

The Lehigh Gap area was once home to the Lenni Lenape, so I imagine people walking about...............maybe using a lookout for scouting or hunting purposes. Geologists come to the Lehigh Gap to study the rocks, which are extremely old... and I appologise, but I need to look up the exact age, and don't want to guess. If also heard that the appalachin mountains were once very tall...like the Himalayas. The Lehigh Gap is a gap along what is now known as Blue Mountain, but was know by the Lenni Lenape as the Kittittany mountains. It's elavation isn't high, about 1500' around the Lehigh Gap, but the vertical is around 700', and in the Gap you have great cliff type views. There are many spots for hand over hand rock climbs and he AT has a couple approved campsites. The other really cool thing about this particular area is the Lehigh Gap Nature Center and Wildlife Refuge who maintain much of the west side of the mountain, and I believe the other group is the Allentown Trail Club, who are also very cool , dedicated folks who volunteer their time to maintain the AT. The Lehigh Gap Nature Center is run by Dan Kunkle who is extremely hospitable, and knowledgable. You can get most Naturalist questions answered by Dan and the Center has an extensive library.

So if you don't have a mountain in your backyard check out the Lehigh Gap get an amazing workout and combine it with some bird watching and maybe spot a Bald Eagle or Red Tail Hawk.

If your really lucky and you hike to the top of the Mountain you may see some deer, a fox or like me a Coyote. Happy trails!

Rattlesnake Love

Always wanted to see a Rattlesnake and live to tell about the experience. Well, I saw a Rattlesnake this weekend while hiking a trail that follows a ridge line for 6 miles then drops another mile to the floor of the Forrest along Big Run Stream. It is one of the most remote areas of the Park.

We were about 3 miles into our trip when Dominic comes scurrying back to me ( I am usually the last person in my group and sometimes I'm an 1/8 to 1/2 mile behind. Since we just started I was more like 1/16 mile back.) saying, "Dad! Dad!, Peter and I walked up on a Timber Rattler!" "Peter's taking pictures of it now, and it's in the middle of the trail Dad!" I said "Really?" Then we both hurried back to the scene were I was to see my first timber Rattlesnake, and it was huge and beautiful. When it vibrated it's rattle my adrenaline spiked, and it was surprisingly loud almost like Cicada. They are very timid, and just want to be left alone.

So, I'm thinking....great.... no one was hurt and we had a cool life experience. I was also thinking that we wouldn't see anymore, but within a half and hour we stopped on a boulder field to eat lunch and we heard a rattling trio. Hearing these snakes rattle was even more scary, because we weren't sure which dark hole was the location of their nest . I think Peter or Ben found the hole and we ate lunch 5 ft. from there nest. It was neat. Now, I'm on my toes though, feeling like me and my son are surrounded by Timber Rattlers, and it was Dominic I was most worried about. I gave him a short "stay alert" talk, and we were on our way.

On the way to the stream we ate a lot of blueberries and saw a lizard ( Peter knows the name of the lizard). When we get down to the stream and we turned rocks over looking for Crawdads and salamanders, which we caught and then saw yet another snake in the water ( Peter told me the name, but I can't remember, the name).It was eating the really small trout in the stream.While we were relaxing our sore feet in the stream, Peter did some recon work on finding the best location for a site and low and behold! Another Rattler! In the middle of the trail. Peter moved this snake and we made camp.

After we ate and by now it's dark,and with the help of our headlamps Ben and I walked to the stream to catch some Crawdads, and I hear Ben say "Holy Mackerel" and I look back and see a black Timber Rattler. Ben says" You walked right by it in your flip flops" . My heart is in my throat, but I don't focus on the what if too much, but don't plan on making that mistake again. Now I'm really looking for Timber Rattlers and I'm really feeling like I'm surrounded. The first thing I do is have a talk with Dominic to walk slow and stay on the trail were it's easier to see a snake.

It's amazing how they blend in with the vegetation. Just when you think we won't see anymore snakes, a Black Rat snake comes speeding out of the vegetation traveling down the mountain right at Ben when he was hiking, and he said it looked like it was going to attack him. After that Ben saw another water snake and that night we ate Brook Trout, which was the best tasting trout I've eaten.


On the last day I was thinking we'd see more snakes, but we didn't, but Ben and I hung out with a Deer within 15 ft. for 15 minutes .The coolest sight was seen by Peter, Dominic, Eric, and Cliff who saw a Black Bear and her cub only 15 yards away. The mother Bear was being a decoy so the cub could get out of the tree. This situation could be very dangerous if not handled properly, but the guys realized what was going on and didn't move closer. The cub climbed out of the tree and ran off past the Mother and all were happy, including Dominic and the fellas, who were ecstatic talking about it for hours. We're still talking about all the wildlife!

Ahhhhhh. Thermarest is the Best!

Still a bit of a novice at backpacking. I've been at least partially outfitted by my friend Peter at http://www.peterhikes.blogspot.com/ , and just recently almost entirely outfitted by Peter. I'm still wearing boots he wore while completing the AT. With that said I'm extremely appreciative to have a friend put so much effort in educating me and my son on the finer points of backpacking.

One area I will change next time I go on a backpacking trip will be my sleeping pad. I've found that sleeping is my biggest issue when in the outback and I know that many other folks feel the same way. It seems to get overlooked by novices though, with the thought that it's only for a couple days to a week. Or that they'll be so tired that it won't matter that the ground is hard cold and lumpy. Which is the case sometimes especially if you are forced to set up camp quickly because of a storm. I actually slept OK on my last trip. But that's it...just OK. That means that I tossed and turned a bit and woke up about 4 times tossed and turned for 5 minutes each time then went back to sleep again.

The group of us had been up for about 20 minutes sitting and talking and Cliff started talking about how cool the Black Diamond 3 person tent is, because when you pull back the rain tarp there is a clear screen above the area where you place your head and you can look up at the stars at night. It's like sleeping outside without the bugs. So I took that opportunity to check it out to see what all the talk was about. When I laid down on the Thermarest Pad I said "Wow, this is reeeeaaaallllly nice" " This is reeeaaaalllly nice""Oh, man I need one of these". Then Peter said that Thermarest came up with an even better pad called the Neo Air, which is thicker and lighter. I was thinking, why did it take this long for me to figure this out! I've been tossing and turning, when I could be possible more comfortable on the Thermarest than my mattress at home.

A good night sleep is sooooooo important always, but even more so when backpacking. I'm sold, and if you are a beginner or novice take heed and get a nice sleeping pad. I priced the neo air and it runs from 115.00 to 169.00. Not bad if you go on a couple trips a year. I plan to up the number of times I backpack now that is to be had.