Sinnemahoning WITO - Day 3

The night after star gazing was cloudy but cooler than the evening before. Somewhere between 11 and 2, I heard raccoons making their stupid fighting noise and zipped my fly so if they walked by I wouldn't have to look them in the eye. I have no idea why that made things better for me. I found out later that DaBraLady overheard one mother/ daughter couple heard them so close to their tent that, they could, "... hear them panting." They chose to go and sleep in their car for part of the night. Her comment about hearing them panting cracked me up.

Our morning started with tearing down the campsite. It was quite chilly and moving around really helped. I knew I had to eventually pack my bike but my first class in the morning was on biking rail trails and we would be on a stretch of the Low Lands Trail. There weren't too many parts of any of the park trails I hadn't already been on. I had even come back via the rugged and poorly blazed Red Spruce Trail the day before.

That morning I just took to the road. When I had woken, my arms were really stiff and sore from paddling the kayak and half of me thought that I might decide not to go to my canoeing class later in the morning. It was cold and I was sore. Over breakfast at the pavilion in the Forty Maples area my attitude changed. The sun came out, I had some food, the Prothonotary Warble was singing and it was our last day. I really didn't want to miss anything.

Jackie started our class with some rail trail history and gave many resources for finding trails in our own areas. She had a book on Pennsylvania Rail Trails which I was less familiar with and intend to check out when I have the chance. By this point, it was pretty clear to everyone that I like biking so when Jackie asked if we wanted to bike straight through her planned route or stop along the way for points of interest I know that some people re reticent to speak up and choose as to not disappoint the avid bikers. After what I felt was an appropriate amount of silence to let other people chime in I said, "Points of interest please." Many others agreed and I don't think anyone was sorry for it.

Jackie Flynn has an obvious love for Sinnemahoning State Park. Everything she says reflects that. Each stop we made on our bikes allowed her to share personal experiences mixed with history of the area. We learned of the town of First Fork that used to be in the area and she showed us the trees and Foxglove that the townsfolk had planted there. She showed us the way the CCC had planted trees and now they were slowly clearing them out because they allowed no sun to the ground. She pointed out the common May Apples and made them interesting all over with the history of the American Mandrake Root.

Jackie shared her favorite birding spot, noted out some bird song and passed on some sage advice from her expert birding friends. When she was frustrated with her level of proficiency her Audubon certified friend encouraged her, "Jackie, you are at the fun point in birding. You know enough to identify enough to keep your interest but have so many to yet learn and explore that you are still discovering. After you are an expert it becomes boring." Her friend went on to tell her that many birding experts go on to watch dragonflies and follow some of their migrations. It was a great perspective to share with so many of us who are feeling frustrated by not knowing as much as we might hope to.

We returned in time to meet up with the folks who had chosen to go bird banding, DaBraLady was among them. She was on a real high having correctly IDed some of the birds that had been caught in the mist nets. When she shared how she was allowed to set free a Common Yellow Throat after it had been weighed and banded I could tell another life long memory had been made. This program was full of them.

I had donned my water shoes that were still damp from kayaking. The sun was out but the shoes were chilly. I had already decided that I was not into water travel so it was a push for me to get excited about the canoe class. Park Manager Lisa Bainey's enthusiasm made it worthwhile. With the help of Environmental Education Specialist Aaron, she gave us so many pointers on proper paddling technique that I was afraid to tip my head for it running out of my ears. We buddied up and safely set out on to the lake. One thing that was different in this water sport class was that Aaron and Lisa made sure we were wearing properly sized and adjusted PFDs.

Liz and I paddled out onto the lake toward the middle and we all got some on water instruction. I was in the front and I tried to utilize my core strength rather than being an "arm paddler." We really just enjoyed the lake and chatted with one another from that point on. Every woman on the lake was so down to earth and interesting. We were all different in where we came from but similar in that we could all share the exhilaration of a bald eagle as it glided over our heads in the noon day sun. I obviously left my camera behind for this class too.

We returned for lunch and the final class of the day, geocaching. DaBraLady had taken the geocaching class while I was on the lake for my canoe class. Over sandwiches and fruit cups I asked her how it went. She thought I might not like it because the guy gave too many hints. She also told me that it wasn't Olf D'Cores as I had thought it was supposed to be. This brought me down a bit but I was all ready to debut the tracking coin I had activated just for the day. I had called it Sinnemahoning Smiley.

By now I think you may have caught on that I don't like to mention the names of anyone I have anything negative to say about. This geocacher may have been a late substitute so perhaps some of the things that fell through the cracks were out of his control. I personally think I cut him a lot of slack. He was pleasant, shared a lot of good information and none of it was incorrect. My problem was with the actual hands on geocaching. As with DaBraLady's group in the morning, after a quick demo of finding a nearby waypoint (it lead to a post) we were sent off to find a nearby cache. He had given a few hints and pointed us down the trail. It was not the approach I would have chosen because the tree he made reference too was on the main road and Diane was not
able to do any bushwhacking because of a severe poison ivy allergy. She was already on steroids for a bee sting. We walked an .6 mile by having to back track to a main trail and ran out of time before finding the cache. The morning group actually bushwhacked .3 mile and also did not find it. I was really disappointed to find that the instructor hadn't even checked on the cache before sending us out. Why he didn't do that, accompany us or set up a "day of" cache that was stocked and easier to find just perplexes me. Let me at it next year, I will lead this class.

I will be honest in saying that is where our weekend ended. We were both quite tired and wanted to be awake for our drive home. We decided at the last second (literally) to pass on the pontoon tour. We hugged everyone goodbye and swapped information with those we could. We really want to sign up for next year and take along as many friends and family who are interested. There is something for every woman, young and old. Attending the Sinnemahoning Women in the Outdoors program is probably one of the best decisions I have made in a long time.