#Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails

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A Cold And Quiet Walk On A Sunny Last Day Of November On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trail.

November, usually a dark and dreary month, ended with bright sunshine  this year. November is one of my least favorite months. Each day it gets colder and we see less sunlight. Although December will be colder and darker, the shortest day of the year arrives on the solstice and on December 21 the days start getting longer. I always look forward to this day. Well, November ended with the start  of…

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A Couple Of Sunny Spring Hikes On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails, Ending With A Drenching Rain

This past month I was able to get a couple of Friday afternoon hikes on  another one of my my favorite trails, the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails  in Luzerne County. This 6 mile trail has trailheads on Route 93 and  the Hazle Brook Road.  Three weeks ago it was a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon when I began my hike on the Hazle Brook road trailhead at  the north east end of the trail . The …

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Trudging Through Deep Snow On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trail

After a mild December and January, with little snow or ice,  Winter finally showed up this past week here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. . We got a  Valentines’ Day  present from Mother Nature, over a foot of snow.  And, when I awoke Saturday morning it was snowing again. There  was over three inches of new snow on the ground.  I didn’t want to drive far on the snow covered roads so I decided to…

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Trudging Through The Snow On the Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

December and early January  were mild here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. There was little snow and almost no ice on our ponds, lakes and rivers. I missed the snow storm last week when I was away in Costa Rica. However when I returned it had already melted. This is very unusual and I knew we would still get more of the white stuff and cold before the  Winter ended. Well we got some more this past…

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A Foggy And Rainy Year End Hike On The Snow Covered Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails.

Rain was in the forecast Saturday here in Northeastern Pennsylvania so I decided to stay close to home and hike on the Greater Hazleton Rail to Trails. It is located about 3 miles from  my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. It is a wonderful trail and a great place to hike throughout the year. If it weren’t fro my desire to explore new places I’d be hiking here a lot more.  I decided to…

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Another Reflective Winter Walk, This Time On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails.

 For those of you who follow my  blogs, you would know my previous blog  was about a hike on Saturday, and the reasons for my dislike of Winter. Well , I experienced a few of those reasons when I awoke Sunday morning. About two inches of snow and some freezing rain fell overnight at my home in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation had ended when I left my house for my morning walk in Hazle…

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Fall Colors On The Scenic Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

I hiked on the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails near my home in Hazle Township, Luzerne County this past Sunday.  I was surprised to see the leaves and foliage along the were almost at their peak.  I believe   it has been over two months since I last hiked on the scenic and well maintained trail. I have been doing a lot of traveling on weekends this Summer. I have visited Cooperstown New York, ,…

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Looking For The Mountain Laurel On A Hike To The Tank Hollow Overlook In Carbon County

I was disappointed last Friday when I found very few of the mountain laurel shrubs blooming  along the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails near my home in Luzerne County. Last year’s display of our State Flower was spectacular there.  However, I remembered last year there wasn’t a great display of the mountain laurel flowers  on the trail to the Tank Hollow Overlook  in State Game Lands 141 in…

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A Leafless, Lifeless, Quiet But Pleasant November Walk On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails.

I returned to another one of my  favorite hiking trails,  close to home,   last Sunday, the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails located in Hazle Township in L:uzerne County.  I began my hike on the eastern trailhead, near the village of Hazle Brook in Foster Township.  I  always hope  to encounter one of the bears that are occasionally seen in this more remote part of the 6 mile trail. There were no…

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The First Hint Of Fall Color At the Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

The first colors of Fall appeared here in Northeastern Pennsylvania this  past week. The red maple, gray birch and aspen trees  are the first trees to show hints of the annual explosion of color that occurs in our woodlands.  The  shortening days and cooler temperatures that  arrive in the Fall start this slow process.   I decided to enjoy the mild October weather and observe the first changing…

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Another Summertime Hike On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

The forecast called for some severe weather Saturday afternoon so I decided to play it safe and hike close to home, on the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails in Luzerne County Saturday morning. I decided to start on hike on the end of the trail, on the parking area near the village of Hazle Brook. It is about seven miles from my home. It rained earlier in the morning, an unexpected downpour ( I got…

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Wildflowers Not Wildlife On This Hike Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails And A Visit To The Nearby Butler Preserve

I stayed close to home on Saturday and hiked  on the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails.  I also  visited the  adjacent pine barrens in the Butler Preserve in Hazle Township, Luzerne County. It was cloudy,  warm and humid when I began my hike on the  Broad St. entrance to the trail . Temperature were in the mid 70’s,  The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails follows the long abandoned  Delaware,…

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A Bear, A Hummingbird And A Few Cool Birds At The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

Forecasts of cloudy and rainy weather here in Northeastern Pennsylvania the last two weekends kept me close to home.  I hiked the  local Greater Hazleton  Rails to Trails near my home in Luzerne County on  both weekends.  I was luck, I missed the rain on both of my hikes. .   It was cloudy and wet on my first hike and I wasn’t sure if I should take my camera.  I did  started my  hike on the …

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Freezing Rain, Sleet And Snow On The Rails To Trails

Freezing Rain, Sleet And Snow On The Rails To Trails

The calendar shows  there still are four weeks until Winter but, as is often the case here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, freezing winter  weather often arrives in November. And it did today. The temperature was 32 degrees when I began my hike at the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails trail. 

A light drizzle was falling and freezing on the tree tops on the higher ridges along the trail. 

The…

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It's Been A While: A hike On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails.

Taking A Break From Mushroom hunting: A Walk On The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails.

Last Sunday I decided to take a break from my weekly hunts for wild mushrooms.  It has been a great year for mushrooms here in Northeastern Pennsylvania and I found enough to share with family and friends, especially the hen of the woods mushrooms.  (or ramsheads as we call them around here. I had plans for the afternoon so I decided to hike near home at our local Rails to Trails.

I haven’t been…

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A Walk In The Heat And Humidity With My Macro Lens At The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

A Walk In The Heat And Humidity With My Macro Lens At The Greater Hazleton Rails To Trails

July arrived like it should, in my opinion anyway, with hazy sunshine, heat and humidity. I love the Summer and I love the heat. It was already 70 degrees when I took my early morning walk Sunday. Later, I decided to stay close to home and hike on our beautiful Rails to Trails.

The temperature was in the 80’s when I arrived at the trail around 9 a.m. There were only a few cars in the parking lot…