Short hiking the "Home Loop"

Jump out through the garage door, walk a few minutes on some asphalt and land on the Appalachian Trail and take it from there. It's great to live in a spot where I can make that happen, and that's exactly what Tara and I did today after shooting out of work early to take a quick hike in the March 60-degree weather.

It's just under 3 miles door-to-door, passing Lenape lake (a rather small pond, really) after hopping on the trail at Mountain Road and taking you up along the Appalachian Trail in its southern direction. You follow the AT for a short distance, overlooking the Delaware River and Route 80 as they both squeeze through the Delaware Water Gap to your left. Below are a few photos from that section.

After a short walk, you bear right at a junction that has you pass a swampy area on your left. You are heading toward Caledonia Creek, and you make a right turn at the next junction, essentially when you hear the creek just nearby. You walk a bit more downhill, take a left at the next junction and shortly after duck off a side trail on the left that places you face-to-face with Diana's Bath, loosely placed as a series of small waterfalls and pools. It's a cozy spot, surrounded by Rhododendrons and the sound of the creek rolling over rocks and down long slabs of rock.

It took us about and hour today to make the loop, and that's with a meandering pace. Just get outside, the season is here, so enjoy. No longer are we stuck with darkness upon getting home from our day jobs, and there is more adventure than any other time of the year to digest ahead of us before we get our next dose of Winter.

[gjn]