just doin' my job on the river patrol...

(Andy keeps saying that, so it seemed like a good title)

After our visit to Big Pocono State Park (the 14th PA State Park that we've visited together), we continued on up to set up camp for the night to get out on river patrol the following morning. The last time we attempted to go out on patrol, the river was high, so we went on a powerboat ride-along with one of the park rangers. This was our first time staying at the campsite, which we had to ourselves!

all these truck, kayak, and campsite pictures look the same, don't they?

This is our first year on the river patrol, so we're newbies. Our schedules (and the weather) allowed us to head up this past weekend, which coincided with a skills drill--combat swimming and throw bags. We belly-flopped into the water (sadly, i have no pictures), swam hard perpendicular to the current, slid in behind a rock, waited, swam back towards shore where other National Park Service seasonal staff and river patrol volunteers were waiting with throw bags (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, this is not us, but check out this page here). I had two PERFECT throw bag tosses and was able to catch the person on the first try each time (which I was later complimented on, yay!).

Once we had the practice time, it was about time we headed out on the river with an experienced member of the river patrol. With a little shuttling around, we were finally on the water just after 11:30am. We had about a 7 mile stretch with a couple of Class II rapids. We told people to make sure life jackets were on the kids and warned them of the rapids coming up. The only rescue of the day was a paddle and a life jacket (thank goodness!).

beautiful views!

waterfall into the Delaware

It was overall a beautiful day. By the time we packed up, got on the road, stopped and ate dinner, and got back home it was 8:30pm, and we had to clean off our gear, unpack the truck, shower, etc. It was a late night, and I'm still very tired (oh yeah, and summer hours started at work, which means that I'm at work at 7am now!).

me in my boat!

 Looking forward to another exciting weekend! Do you have any plans?

#13 Promised Land State Park

It's been almost a YEAR since we added a new PA State Park to our list. I know, ridiculous. We really like camping on the 4th of July weekend, and it gives us a good excuse to check out a new park each year. 

We had chosen #13 as Promised Land SP (Greentown, PA, in the Poconos) as we had planned to camp with two other couples. We wanted to visit a park that was close to the other couples and that had activities that everybody would enjoy: hiking, boating, fishing. Well, the plan fizzled out (partially over the course of the weekend, due to work commitments and illness). So Andy and I camped on our own. 

there's our spaceship tent!

On Friday, we set up, got organized, and drove around the park to check out the different areas (day use beach, boat launches, trailheads, etc). It's a big park, so there was a lot to see just by car!

On Saturday, we went for a 3-4 mile hike in the AM. The first part was a mountain bike/hiking trail, and was VERY muddy. The next section of the hike was a horse/hiking trail (watch out for road apples!), which apparently is not used very often. We were essentially bushwhacking through trees, shrubs, ferns, and the occasional raspberry bush (read: thorns). There were a couple small stream crossings (less than 5 feet across), and then we reached this:

We had to cross this stream--no bridge, nothing. Good thing we were wearing our Chacos! Once we crossed the stream here, we were in the home stretch, and going past the waterfalls! I had carried my DSLR & tripod for 3 miles in anticipation and hadn't take it out once. Unfortuantely, the light was not good, so I didn't get any good pictures. It was beautiful though!


We headed back to our site, had some lunch, and was near ready to pass out. We decided to head to the day use area and lay down under the sun for a bit. Andy wanted to go fishing, so that was going to push dinner later, so we stopped at the unofficial camp store and got some ice cream! We got out our kayaks and fishing poles, and headed to the Lower Lake (that was where our campground was too--there are nearly 500 camping sites at this park!). We weren't catching any fish, so we decided to just paddle around. Yay kayaks!

We had a late dinner and headed to bed. Andy woke me up at 4:30am saying a storm was coming in and we should pack some things up. So we did, went to the bathroom (modern facilities just a little walk away! the tent sites were a little too close for comfort for me to use the great outdoors), and put our camp chairs in the car, and put a garbage bag around the stove. On the way back from the bathroom, I realized it was officially my BIRTHDAY!

The storm hit at around 6am and was one of the most intense thunder/lightning/rain storms I have ever been in [it did rival some good storms from my time at summer camp where we turned the picnic tables over to act as barricades from the rain]. I couldn't sleep because the rain was deafening. About two hours later the rain stopped. It drizzled on and off, but not stopping for enough time for me to decide to take my pj pants off. It started pouring again around 10:30am = time for nap. When we woke up around 12noon, the rain had stopped, and most of the campers around us had packed up and left!


We were meeting my parents for dinner at 5:30, but decided we should get ready early and find something to do indoors (like shopping!). We knew one of our favorite Poconos camping stores (Alice's Wonderland) was semi-near the park, somewhat out of the way of where we were going for dinner, but well worth a trip.

Unfortunately Alice's closed 30 minutes after we got there. Still some time to peruse the store. Luckily my parents were arriving early, so we met up with them at the Apple Valley Restaurant in Milford, PA and did some shopping around there. We had a delicious meal, and several hours together to enjoy each other's company. [My dad kept saying that he traveled over 1500 miles to be with me on my birthday] I think they were just happy to see me.

We headed back to our campsite, and the sun was out (finally!), but I wasn't yet ready to take my camera out to the waterfalls for fear another storm would start up. Even though the light was perfect. We had eaten too much food, so Andy and I walked nearly the entire campground, scoping out the RVs, pop-ups, and mansions tents.

across from our tent site

On Monday morning, I woke Andy up early because I needed to get my waterfall pictures. I think it was worth it!

We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to our site and headed home. We had a lot of washing & drying of gear to do. I thought vacations were supposed to be restful? :)

Hope you had a fabulous 4th of July weekend!