Day Two

Day Two was similar to Day One in that we travelled through four states - Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. We began in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, and took a jog to the east to visit a Pennsylvania geo-site. It turned out that the visit to the geo-site, - in Pennsylvania, - in the winter, - was just as fool-hardy as it sounds. Hickory Run State Park, PA, is at the junction of I-80 and I-476, and there had recently been 9 inches of snow. The six mile drive to the park from the interstate was on snow covered roads and we knew that our chances of showing Mr. Spock the boulder field were not very good. We stopped at the Visitor Center where we were told that the road to the Boulder Field was closed to cars for the winter; it is now being used by snowmobilers. We could hike three miles, through the snow, to Boulder Field, but we really didn't have the time for that.

Over 20,000 years ago, out of the north, crept a giant sheet of ice - a glacier. Several miles thick and as wide as North America, the Laurentide Continental Glacier was a frozen blanket that eventually covered two-thirds of North America. Like a giant bulldozer, the glacier scraped the land and stopped near, but never reached Boulder Field.

The climate was cold enough to expose bedrock and create permafrost, yet warm enough for the temperature to go above and below freezing. The temperature fluctuations caused freeze-thaw and frost-heave that eroded bedrock. Abundant water worked down into cracks in the bed-rock, usually during the day, then froze at night widening the cracks. The resulting boulder field is a jumbled assortment of loosely packed boulders which range in size from 25 feet to several inches in length. Most boulders are under four feet in length.

Boulder fields have been studied throughout the world, from Europe where they are termed felsenmeer, German for "sea of rocks," to those Charles Darwin famously described in Tierra del Fuego, South America. They form part of the ancient lore of native tribes and for decades were an enigma to scientific interpretation. Geoscientists consider Hickory Run exceptional in comparison to other boulder fields because of its geographic extent, low (1-degree) gradient, diversity of features, and accessibility. It is a genuine rock relic and true leftover from that time when North America was emerging from its most recent big chill.

This cheery duo are Deb and Doris, in the Park Headquarters Office of Hickory Run State Park. They gave us the bad news about not being able to visit Boulder Field.

Instead, they offered up two pictures in the Visitor Center.

Even if we had been able to drive up to the Field, it was probably covered in snow and all we would have seen was lumpy snow.

I'm including this picture of a chipmunk explaining Boulder Field that was also hanging on the wall of the Visitor Center. Frederick was very charmed by this fellow.

Mr. Spock had to make due with just this view of Hickory Run State Park.

Frederick did have to restrain Mr. Spock from taking off on the "Shades of Death Trail". Maybe some other time.

After leaving Hickory Run State Park, we turned the car south and travelled through 200 miles of Pennsylvania, into Maryland and West Virginia and finally arrived in Harrisonburg, Virginia, home of James Madison University. As we travelled, the snow got less and less and the temperature rose higher - from the teens this morning, to the 60's in Harrisonburg, VA. 

Our lunch stop in Pennsylvania.

A bit like yesterday in New York but with less snow. Even though you can see the tops of the picnic tables, we chose to eat in the car.

The first thigh we did on arriving in Harrisonburg was look for a car wash.

I felt like we were driving a car masquerading as a piece of dirt.

The "after" picture.

I feel so much better now!

This evening we are staying at a Residence Inn. There was a Managers Reception this evening and this jazz quartet provided live music. 

There was a three-sided fireplace which reminded me of the house on Alumni Avenue. There was also beer and wine, spaghetti and meatballs, cheese and crackers and carrot and cucumber slices. That's what we had - carrots and cucumber.