Camping Trip to Ricketts Glen: Saturday

Saturday morning, we woke up again bright and early from going to bed so early.  It was still raining and gloomy out when we got up so we decided to head out and explore a little bit.

We ended up having breakfast at the Brass Pelican, 1119 Central Avenue, Benton, PA.  It was a little local place on a quiet back road.  The food was good but I was really sad that I didn’t order the buckwheat pancakes.  They are my favorite but I didn’t notice them on the menu.  They are apparently their specialty.  Next time I’m there!  Even still, I was really happy with my broccoli omelet and Rob’s bacon was fantastic!

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Our waitress told us we could go to downtown Benton to look at shops and visit her mom’s bakery so that is where we headed next.  I didn’t take many photos but it was a really cute, small town with tons of antique shops.  Nothing was open (until 10!!!) but the bakery (where I bought the most delicious molasses cookies) so we kept heading down the road to Bloomsburg.

Rob and I pulled over the second we saw this cool store.

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It wasn’t open yet so we got coffee at the Fog & Flame.  It was a really awesome, hipster coffee shop.  We ordered a double serving of the Siphon coffee which is brewed over this chemistry-lab-looking contraption.

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First, they heat the coffee, which boiled from the bottom beaker (for lack of a better word) into the top part.  Then, you add the coffee, stir slightly, and let it brew back into the bottom.  This was some of the best coffee I’ve ever had!

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After coffee, we went back to the cool shop where Rob bought me birthday present number one:

2015-06-13 11.31.14Best. Hubby. Ever.

I will be wasting plenty of hours from here on out!  We also got a few games that we once played a loved.  Rob is officially hooked on Bubble Bobble Smile

One of the locals told us we were really close to Knoebels, a campground/amusement park that Rob went to a few times when he was younger, so we decided to head that way.  When we came up on the entrance, there was a row of cars like 4 miles long!  We decided to skip that, since we aren’t a big fan of crowds, and head back to the campground since it was getting nice out.

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On our way back, we stumbled over a Strawberry Social that had a barbecue truck so we stopped for lunch.  The beef brisket was fantastic and I just got a burger.

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I also decided to get some Strawberry pie since it was the “Strawberry Social”.  They also had shortcake, ice cream, and strawberry-apple dumplings.  I was soooo happy with the pie.  It was a cold pie and the strawberries seemed to be set in some sort of gelatin.  I need the recipe!

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There was an adorable farm store also with tons of locally made foods and treats.  There was even a gift shop and wine tasting upstairs.  I bought some strawberry fudge which tasted like eating fresh strawberries!

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When we got back to the park, we decided to check out the Grand Overlook Trail which leads to the highest point on the mountain.  It was marked as “Easiest” level of hiking.  We mistook that to mean “Easy” hiking.  Our scale of easy to hard was not proportional to the park’s.

It started out okay enough…

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The trail followed this access road up to an old fire tower.  It was flat and level but became pretty unbearably steep after a while.  We might have just been tired.  Yeah, I’ll go with that.

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We reached the top and were waiting to be taken away by the view but blocking it was a guy with a big truck and trailer.  We had to walk around his stuff to just see the valley and find the rest of the trail.  What a bummer.  It was really pretty though.

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From there, we followed a short easy trail to a foot path that would wind through the woods to another access road further north.  This trail was nowhere near as easy at the first.  Lots of rocks.  Also, you were surrounded by trees from this point on.  It was really pretty but a little buggy and with all the rocks, you couldn’t look up while you were walking.

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The wooded path eventually opened up to a small clearing covered completely by ferns.  It was really pretty!

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The reason this trail is also popular is that it is covered with mountain laurel.  It was just the right time of year for them to all be in bloom.

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Finally, we came to the second access road which was surrounded by the laurel but pretty rocky so again you couldn’t look up.  We were tired at this point and just kept plugging along until we reached the car.

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This trail was a little over 2 miles with an elevation change of 300 feet.  It took us about 55 minutes to hike the whole thing.  We stopped a few times on the uphill parts to rest.  Also, I decided to twist my bad ankle once but not enough to do any damage.  Thank goodness for those tall boots I bought!

We were pretty tired after our excursions so we headed back to the campsite to make dinner and relax.

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Saturday night at the campsite wasn’t as much fun for Rob and I though.  The place was packed with families and it was really noisy.  We had trouble sleeping most of the night due to all of the noise but not much we could do about it.  We went to bed early because we decided to hike the Falls Trail a second time first thing Sunday morning, before the crowds.  And with that, I’ll break here until the next post!

What was your favorite game when you were little?

4 thoughts on “Camping Trip to Ricketts Glen: Saturday

  1. It looks so nice! I think I have a recipe for the type of strawberry pie you had, I’ll have to see if I can find it!

    1. 1) I will love your forever if you get me that recipe.
      2) Rob and I spent half the trip saying to each other “we have to bring Emily and James here! They would love it!” We have to figure out a good weekend to go 🙂

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