January 10, 2002 — I went home for the holidays again this year. Bloomsburg, Pa., hadn’t changed much. It never does.
The town was just a year older. And, as I was often reminded during my stay, so was I.
Annual tackle football games with old friends take longer and longer to recover from. So do late-night outings at old haunts with my dear friend Yuengling Lager.
But a walk in the woods during winter has a way of enlivening the soul.
The thermometer on my mom’s back porch read 18 degrees on the morning of Dec. 27, and the Weather Channel was reporting that 6 feet of snow fell on someplace called Cheektowaga, N.Y.
The ground in Bloomsburg, however, was bare. Sometimes if you want a white Christmas, you have to search it out. I found mine in the Appalachian Mountains of Central Pennsylvania.
Granted, I did this two days after Christmas Day. And snow-wise, all I found in Bald Eagle State Forest was a light dusting — nothing like the 6 inches that awaited me upon my return to the Deep South. But, at the time, I was willing to take what I could get.
So was my high school friend Justin Gage, now a resident of Bozeman, Mont., who has become acclimatized to deep snow and tall mountains. Although the “mountains” of middle Pennsylvania don’t compare much to the Rockies.
I had a little trouble figuring out what to wear for our hike. I have lived in the South for more than three years now. Here, temperature readings of 18 are unheard of, unless you happen to be talking in degrees Celsius, and I’ve never heard a Southerner do that.
So I just piled on layer after layer. After five miles of hiking — some on steep slopes of slippery rock — I started peeling them off. Despite the weather, I remained rather warm.
As we drove west away from Bloomsburg, everything got whiter — even the usually black roof of an Amish horse-and-buggy that we passed along the way.
The roads we traveled to our destination — The Hook Natural Area, a 5,119-acre tract in Bald Eagle State Forest — set the old-timey tone for our trip. They were roads of gravel and dirt with names like Stony Run, Buffalo Flat and Old Shingle.
Bald Eagle State Forest — named after an American Indian chief, not the bird — encompasses nearly 200,000 acres and has more than 200 miles of hiking trails. The land, the last refuge of the mountain buffalo in Pennsylvania, was settled in the late 1700s when Revolutionary War soldiers received their land grants.
Logging companies purchased the acreage in the late 1800s and, after ridding the forest of many of its trees, sold it to the state.
The Hook Natural Area now houses plenty of trees, and a preserved watershed. When we got there, the North Branch of Buffalo Creek was babbling despite the freezing temperatures.
Molasses Gap Trail is steep and rocky as it heads toward Buffalo Creek from Old Shingle Road. Blue blazes mark the path, but Justin and I still managed to wander off course a time or two.
We couldn’t blame poor visibility for our wrong turns, either. Leaves had left the trees long ago. There were, though, some signs of the unseasonably warm winter the North had been experiencing for much of December.
In odd contrast to all the brown and white, rhododendron and fern leaves were bright green, but recently wilted. Winter’s surprise attack seemed to have caught them off guard.
No leaves. No color. No people, either. Winter hiking allows for stark solitude. Everything is crisp and clear … and cold.
But for hikers, the cold can actually be comfortable. The refrigeration can be rather refreshing. Winter hiking can be invigorating.
“Unless you stop,” Justin warned. So we didn’t do that often.
We trudged on along our route of rocks: Molasses Gap Trail to Jones Mountain Road to Mule Shanty Trail.
Buffalo Creek was frozen in spots. Snow fell off and on. And temperatures never left the teens.
Oddly, I never felt more alive.
Winter Hiking Tips
- Clothing: Wear layers of synthetic fabrics. Do not wear cotton. First layer, longjohns that wick moisture from your body. Second layer, wool or fleece for insulating. Third layer, a wind- and water-repellent outer shell. Top off with hat and gloves.
- Food and drink: Drink plenty of water and eat plenty of carbohydrates — even if you don’t think you are thirsty or hungry. Human appetites diminish in the cold, despite the fact that winter activities require the body to burn more fuel. Keep water bottles from freezing by storing them in a wool sock or insulated cover.
- Use caution: Be overly careful around bodies of water. Water conducts heat away from the body 25 times faster than air. It’s a good idea to carry at least an extra pair of socks.
- Plan ahead: In winter, everything takes longer. Be conservative when planning hikes. And check the weather forecast before you go.