ON THE ROCKS, PLEASE!

 6TH HIKE: HIGH ROCKS

Facts

Location: Pipersville, PA

Park: Ralph Stover State Park

Trail: Hike Rock Vista (? mi)

Elevation: 256 ft

Time: < 2 hours

Date: 5/13/11

Adventure

I was not sure if this hike could be squeezed into Friday, but naturally I had to try. The day began with breakie at my place, Kira came over for egg, pepper, & cheese omelettes, toast and strawberries. Kira gave me a chance to finally use the coffee maker I bought for company. Then around 1pm I scooped up Colette, we went to get a new ID for me and then we were off to the trails by 2pm. I had to be back by 6pm because I Friday nights I co-facilitate a youth group at Main Line Youth (as referenced in the previous blog). I was pushing it, by hiking a good hour away from home, but couldn't resist the thrill of adventure, especially since Colette was down to come out and play in the sunshine!

View from the top

We arrived at Pipersville hungry from the journey there. I stopped at the local grill and ordered a blackened chicken panini. Colette waited in the restaurant while I went back into the car to change into shorts and a tank. We then got back on the road and lost on the way to the rocks. Finding Ralph Stover was easy, we then followed the signs stating that high rocks was five miles away. The tricky part came when we encountered an awkward turn and lost the signs. I ended up on the road below the high rocks instead of ascending upward and had to turn around. When we got to the trail we walked down to one of the viewpoints to check out the Tohickon Creek, from above. It was gorgeous!

Copperhead

Colette and I then walked down the trail looking for a good place to stop and eat lunch. While hiking a biker pointed out that he just 4.5 ft copperhead in the bush up ahead of us. I began pounding and stomping my feet along the trail in the hopes of scaring it. I must have been successful because we never came face to face with; however it would have made for an exciting story had we seen it. We turned around and went back to the top of the rocks to eat and enjoy the view. While eating lunch we watched two dudes assembling their rock climbing gear to drop down from the cliffs. After lunch we continued along the trail in the other direction and stopped at empty stream, filled with rocks that descended down to the creek. Colette and I began hoping from rock to rock all the way down to the bottom so we could play in the water. Truly I just wanted to jump on the rocks, stick my toes in the water, and take pictures from below. Colette was a trooper and enjoyed my wild trail selection (as I mentioned it was a dried up stream we walked down) with loose rocks, high walls, and moss. The way back up was far more grueling and I whipped out the inhaler to complete the rock climb. After briefly celebrating our victory back up to the top we got in the car and headed home. I made it not only on time to volunteer, but when I got there an additional facilitator had set up the chairs for group and purchased food for the meeting. Mega victory!

Colette Playing in the Creek