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The Poconos, PA (High Bandwidth Warning)
Llywellyn
Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 3,186 Major grins
Last Friday, around 4pm, I got a call from a friend telling me she and another acquaintance were hopping into the car in an hour to head up to her lake house in the Poconos--did I want to come? After the most frantic packing job I've ever done (without forgetting a single piece of camera gear! :clap), I was in a car with two other photography fanatics and on my way. I love last-minute road trips.
I enjoyed sitting on her deck in the backyard overlooking Lake Harmony both at sunrise and sunset. It's very serene and beautiful there in the morning, especially.
Though my friend's mother had sworn up and down that the fall foliage had peaked, we discovered that wasn't quite so. But that wouldn't deter us. I still enjoyed the spots of color that were popping out everywhere, far more along than in the DC area.
We'd decided to spend Saturday along the Delaware Water Gap, but we ran into a slight problem: we couldn't find it! We took the right exit, followed the two-lane road into a small town and past, then pulled over at a scenic overlook. Which wasn't particularly scenic because there was a thick fog that refused to burn off that day. The map of the Gap at that overlook was half missing. The bottom portion of it had literally been ripped off. We had an amusing time trying to figure out where in that gaping black hole we were and how to get from the void to the spots where waterfalls were marked.
We backtracked to the little town and stopped at a place that advertised trolley tours of the gap to see if they could point us in the right direction. Five brochures and new confidence later, we headed back down that small highway. And still never found the Gap.
After several failed attempts to drive down as close to the river as we could without driving through somebody's backyard, we stumbled across the weirdest bridge. It was massive, and completely overgrown with trees and brush. Once we drove back to higher ground, we tried to find where the bridge came out so we could walk across, only to find that it didn't come out where it logically should have. After puzzling over this bridge to nowhere, we drove back down near the river and scrabbled up the rocks to the top. We later discovered it was an abandoned railway bridge.
Beneath the abandoned bridge were still functioning rail tracks--as well as warning signs that we were standing at the end of a shooting range. :huh
We risked the danger the sign implied for a couple shots of the river, since we'd finally found a way to reach it.
From there we headed out to Hickory Run State Park to see the truly bizarre natural creation of Boulder Field.
By this point we'd met up with a couple of our hostess's friends, and they went scampering across the boulders to explore. I trekked out a little of the way, then camped out on a boulder to capture a few shots of other tourists carefully picking their way across the rocks.
...and finding a few curious things between them...
After a day spent hiking, we met up with my friend's family and headed out to dinner in Jim Thorpe, PA. Before we got to the heart of the little town, I saw a few trains parked beside the road and easily accessible. As the troupe was milling about the parking lot after dinner, I ran down to snag some shots of the trains and try a little light painting.
The next morning, we dropped off our hostess with her family, then S and I took off for the Water Gap again in a determined effort to find the "official" route through it. As we left for the trek, we passed some beautiful scenes of fall peeking its head out.
We finally found the right road and enjoyed driving through the late afternoon light on a twisting, winding, sun-dappled two-lane road engulfed in gold leaves and clustered around close with tall, thin tree trunks. In glimpses through the thicket, we spotted scenic trails and other idyllic settings to photograph, but we had trouble finding a place to pull off the tiny road to do so.
Along the way, we drove past a group of gentlemen tinkering with and flying model planes. We made a U-turn as quickly as we could find a way to do so without killing ourselves (or others), and booked it back to their small airfield. They were very tolerant of us crawling around everywhere to take pictures of their planes.
Exhausted from two days of nearly nonstop shooting, we had one more place to pause before we started on the long trip home. Joining up again with our hostess, we drove to meet up with her friends who had joined us Saturday for hiking. The couple has a habit of attending every small festival in the local area they can find. They'd informed us of one happening late Sunday in Nesquehoning, PA, to honor St.Theresa...by dropping roses from the sky. :huh S had wanted to get home early Sunday, but after saying repeatedly, "how many times in your life will you get to see roses fall from the sky?" we convinced him to stick it out with us.
A helicopter made three passes over the town dropping roses--thorns and all. Several ambulances stood by, as previous years had resulted in several accidents as people run like crazy trying to catch the roses. Trying to capture the quick action while not being trampled was an exciting end to our last-minute adventure in PA.
Rest of the gallery can be seen here.
I enjoyed sitting on her deck in the backyard overlooking Lake Harmony both at sunrise and sunset. It's very serene and beautiful there in the morning, especially.
Though my friend's mother had sworn up and down that the fall foliage had peaked, we discovered that wasn't quite so. But that wouldn't deter us. I still enjoyed the spots of color that were popping out everywhere, far more along than in the DC area.
We'd decided to spend Saturday along the Delaware Water Gap, but we ran into a slight problem: we couldn't find it! We took the right exit, followed the two-lane road into a small town and past, then pulled over at a scenic overlook. Which wasn't particularly scenic because there was a thick fog that refused to burn off that day. The map of the Gap at that overlook was half missing. The bottom portion of it had literally been ripped off. We had an amusing time trying to figure out where in that gaping black hole we were and how to get from the void to the spots where waterfalls were marked.
We backtracked to the little town and stopped at a place that advertised trolley tours of the gap to see if they could point us in the right direction. Five brochures and new confidence later, we headed back down that small highway. And still never found the Gap.
After several failed attempts to drive down as close to the river as we could without driving through somebody's backyard, we stumbled across the weirdest bridge. It was massive, and completely overgrown with trees and brush. Once we drove back to higher ground, we tried to find where the bridge came out so we could walk across, only to find that it didn't come out where it logically should have. After puzzling over this bridge to nowhere, we drove back down near the river and scrabbled up the rocks to the top. We later discovered it was an abandoned railway bridge.
Beneath the abandoned bridge were still functioning rail tracks--as well as warning signs that we were standing at the end of a shooting range. :huh
We risked the danger the sign implied for a couple shots of the river, since we'd finally found a way to reach it.
From there we headed out to Hickory Run State Park to see the truly bizarre natural creation of Boulder Field.
By this point we'd met up with a couple of our hostess's friends, and they went scampering across the boulders to explore. I trekked out a little of the way, then camped out on a boulder to capture a few shots of other tourists carefully picking their way across the rocks.
...and finding a few curious things between them...
After a day spent hiking, we met up with my friend's family and headed out to dinner in Jim Thorpe, PA. Before we got to the heart of the little town, I saw a few trains parked beside the road and easily accessible. As the troupe was milling about the parking lot after dinner, I ran down to snag some shots of the trains and try a little light painting.
The next morning, we dropped off our hostess with her family, then S and I took off for the Water Gap again in a determined effort to find the "official" route through it. As we left for the trek, we passed some beautiful scenes of fall peeking its head out.
We finally found the right road and enjoyed driving through the late afternoon light on a twisting, winding, sun-dappled two-lane road engulfed in gold leaves and clustered around close with tall, thin tree trunks. In glimpses through the thicket, we spotted scenic trails and other idyllic settings to photograph, but we had trouble finding a place to pull off the tiny road to do so.
Along the way, we drove past a group of gentlemen tinkering with and flying model planes. We made a U-turn as quickly as we could find a way to do so without killing ourselves (or others), and booked it back to their small airfield. They were very tolerant of us crawling around everywhere to take pictures of their planes.
Exhausted from two days of nearly nonstop shooting, we had one more place to pause before we started on the long trip home. Joining up again with our hostess, we drove to meet up with her friends who had joined us Saturday for hiking. The couple has a habit of attending every small festival in the local area they can find. They'd informed us of one happening late Sunday in Nesquehoning, PA, to honor St.Theresa...by dropping roses from the sky. :huh S had wanted to get home early Sunday, but after saying repeatedly, "how many times in your life will you get to see roses fall from the sky?" we convinced him to stick it out with us.
A helicopter made three passes over the town dropping roses--thorns and all. Several ambulances stood by, as previous years had resulted in several accidents as people run like crazy trying to catch the roses. Trying to capture the quick action while not being trampled was an exciting end to our last-minute adventure in PA.
Rest of the gallery can be seen here.
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Comments
I like what you did with the model plane on the table, excellent idea.
This one caught my eye too.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
I love this photo in particular! The perspective in this is amazing! That is wonderful that you got a chance for an impromptu trip, and you took some lovely photos as usual.
It sounds like catching falling roses can be a seriously dangerous sport.
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Thanks, Sid! That one is my personal fave of the entire gallery.
Wow, I think that's my first bowing smiley, and it's from you! Thank you so much! I'm not surprised that this one appeals to you, though.
As for the festival, one of the guys recounted a story of how last year, one of the elderly women got rolled down the hill (the church that sponsors this thing is at the top of a very steep hill) and broke her hip.
too cool.
It looks and sounds like you had a great time in a beautiful place!
Thanks for sharing
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Thanks for sharing!
http://www.moose135photography.com
Thank you for sharing, too. This is only the second time I've been up that way. I find the entire area very peaceful and relaxing to look at, so it's nice to know I captured a bit of that.
Thank you so much! Boulder Field was certainly unique. Not at all like The Burren, which I'd been expecting.
Er, I'm really not that familiar with the area, so all I can say is that bridge is what you'd find if you took the Delaware Water Gap exit off 81 (83? I get them all mixed up) and went straight instead of turning left onto River Road, then hung a left at the light in front of the trolley tour place...and kept on going. There's a small street on the left after you pass the entrance to the Water Gap National Park. It's a tiny road that goes through a random residential area in the middle of nowhere. You drive under the abandoned bridge about midway through that road, before it spits you back out onto the main roadway again (it's a big "U," essentially).
I know those tracks very well, my parents have a place about 4 miles down river from Portland Pa, in Mt.Bethel.
Beuatiful pictures, they make me want to go up there and take some shots, thanks for sharing
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Thanks - I checked it on Google Maps, and think I found the right spot. I've been down that way a number of times, taking Rt 611 to avoid traffic on I-80. I'll have to check it out next time I'm out that way.
http://www.moose135photography.com
I am pretty familiar with that area as I lived in Portland for three years back in my early teenage years. I wish I had not taken for granted all of the beautiful elements of living up there. I took my wife for a picnic lunch at a really nice waterfall close to where you were on one of our very first dates.
I wish I could run up and take some pictures this week!
Thanks for sharing.
Randall