Jacob S., a 2013 PA Brookie, shares his experience in the field as he prepares to blaze a trail for his Eagle Scout project this spring:
“I went out hiking at the Howland Preserve today. The purpose of my hike was to plan a project that involves blazing a trail. These are some of the sites I saw. We started at the farmhouse in the morning. The temperature was 26°F with some light flurries. We traveled the first half of the trail that was already blazed but not cleaned up from the winter. We immediately found traces of deer and bear scat. There was evidence of coyotes because we found a deer carcass. Much of the invasive grasses were knocked down and we only needed to clear branches from the path.
Frozen waterfall and floating ice chunks at Howland preserve.This doesn’t seem like a good place for a picnic table…
Along the path we watched the remaining ice float down the Susquehanna River. However, a beautiful waterfall is still frozen. As we looked up we saw a round picnic table in a tree. It remains there since the area was flooded. We then traveled to the next section of the trail that has not been blazed. This is what I will be doing as my Eagle Scout project in the spring. Along the deer paths we saw a man-made pheasant habitat where 500 pheasants were released for population growth. The pheasants didn’t stay, they moved on. Towards the end of our hike we found a very interesting nest made of grasses and seemed to have hung in a tree or bush at one time. In the nest there was an empty, small, cream colored egg. Not sure if it had black spots or just dirt. We are still trying to determine what bird made this.
To end our hike, we saw a couple of very soothing pools of water and a huge tree. The trunk of the tree was large enough for a car to drive through. I am very excited to begin work on this project in April. Can’t wait to see what else we can see.”
-Jacob S.
Tranquil pools along the path add to a beautiful nature hike.
Come Blaze a Trail With Me
Posted: March 27, 2014 by Katie Cassidy
Jacob S., a 2013 PA Brookie, shares his experience in the field as he prepares to blaze a trail for his Eagle Scout project this spring:
“I went out hiking at the Howland Preserve today. The purpose of my hike was to plan a project that involves blazing a trail. These are some of the sites I saw. We started at the farmhouse in the morning. The temperature was 26°F with some light flurries. We traveled the first half of the trail that was already blazed but not cleaned up from the winter. We immediately found traces of deer and bear scat. There was evidence of coyotes because we found a deer carcass. Much of the invasive grasses were knocked down and we only needed to clear branches from the path.
Along the path we watched the remaining ice float down the Susquehanna River. However, a beautiful waterfall is still frozen. As we looked up we saw a round picnic table in a tree. It remains there since the area was flooded. We then traveled to the next section of the trail that has not been blazed. This is what I will be doing as my Eagle Scout project in the spring. Along the deer paths we saw a man-made pheasant habitat where 500 pheasants were released for population growth. The pheasants didn’t stay, they moved on. Towards the end of our hike we found a very interesting nest made of grasses and seemed to have hung in a tree or bush at one time. In the nest there was an empty, small, cream colored egg. Not sure if it had black spots or just dirt. We are still trying to determine what bird made this.
To end our hike, we saw a couple of very soothing pools of water and a huge tree. The trunk of the tree was large enough for a car to drive through. I am very excited to begin work on this project in April. Can’t wait to see what else we can see.”
-Jacob S.
Category: Youth Blog Tags: hiking, outdoors, reports from the field