Turkey Run State Park

Temps were in the high 70's for the first time this year on my day off! Hmmm, what should I do? stay home and attend to some much needed housecleaning or go take an all day ride down to Turkey Run State Park and hike the gorges? That's a really tough call! LOL!

From the pictures it's obvious that I said forget the housecleaning! I'm going riding! It was a chilly ride down in the morning. On the way there, I stopped at Strawbridge Pottery and Antiques on 37. It's owned by a potter and his wife. He throws the pots and she paints them. They had some pretty cool antiques and 3 or 4 different styles and colors of pottery. I especially liked an antique light fixture they had, but the price was a little steep. I didn't leave empty handed though, I picked out a bowl that was very similar to the Bastine Pottery bowl I dropped and shattered. Did I mention that it was full of leftover spaghetti at the time?! Good Lord! What a mess.

I packed a snack since I would be spending 6 hours on the bike and I wanted to spend the rest of the day hiking. When I got to the gate, I bought a year pass to the state parks for the very first time. To make it worth my while, I'll need to visit state parks more than 6 times this year. That sounds pretty doable.


It wasn't as green as I expected it would be and I think I only saw one redbud in bloom the whole way down there. The wildflowers have been a little strange this year too. I've seen lots of bloodroot, but not many with blooms. I haven't seen many trillium blooms either, but there were whole fields of bluebells. Maybe I missed the early wildflowers. I haven't been out hiking as much this year as I did last spring. I'll have to look at the dates on some of my wildflower photos from last year. I was also disappointed that I didn't see any fiddleheads. I did find one brave little fern growing directly from the rock, but no fiddleheads.

After climbing up and down all those stairs and ladders in the gorges, my legs were feeling a little noodly. At one point I even lost the trail in a creekbed and ended up on the top rock wall of one of the gorges. It was covered with moss and slanted downwards and too far a drop to jump down, but there was little teeny ledge and a couple of dimples in the rock that looked like good handholds. I was still sitting there contemplating the fact that I could fall and break a bone or my camera when this couple came hiking down the gorge. They were Asian and she was dressed impeccably in a bright red top, white shorts and blindingly white sneakers. Each step she took down the creek bed was scouted by him, then followed a consultation and instructions before she placed her foot again. I was just thinking how I could make my presence known without scaring the beejesus out of them when he looked up and saw me. I had a big smile on my face from watching them and he said, "Look, she's laughing at you." And I replied that I was only laughing because I was stuck and afraid of falling. Gallant that he was, he immediately offered to help me down. He did and after I thanked them, they continued on their way.




It was good to sit down on the bike, but the ride home was a long one. The trip would be much more enjoyable and relaxed if I overnighted it, so next time I think I will. In fact, I think I'll steal J away for that trip!