Camping in Pennsylvania

So we have obviously survived our back to back camping adventures. Our first of the two camping adventures to end to the summer was a five day camping trip in Pennsylvania with my brother and his family. It was a lot of fun and I am always impressed with how beautiful Pennsylvania is.

We left our house Wednesday morning as soon as little lady woke us up. It was an eight hour drive and we wanted to get on the move as soon as possible. I think we left around 8 AM. We actually had a really nice drive. Sometimes our drives can be a bit chaotic and we bicker (A LOT). However, this one was very calm and we had a few really nice chats. I think it helped that we were leaving in the morning with an already loaded car instead of leaving after work and rushing to load the car. We took our time driving there and got to our campsite around 5pm.

My brother had wanted to rent a cabin. We are all about tent camping, but we caved for him. The cabin was actually really nice and worked out perfectly with little lady. There was a screened in porch area which came in handy when it rained one evening. There was a little sitting room which fit the pack and play perfectly and then there was a bunk room that slept five people.

We spent our 3 full days (2 days of driving and 3 full days of camping = 5 day camping trip to Penn) hiking, talking and drinking. There were so many amazing trails to explore that we didn't get to explore them all. We were at Laurel Hill State Park and I highly recommend going there if you ever get the chance. (If anyone from Laurel Hill State Park is reading this, we totally weren't drinking.)

The hiking was definitely the best part. Our cabin was close to a trail that lead to the Ridge trail. It was supposed to be an easy trail, but there were some challenging parts to it. It was a little damp and had a bit of an incline. 

 

 

Here we are hiking the Ridge trail. Even little lady got to try our her hiking legs. This was not the challenging part.

 

 

 

The hubby was very excited to hike the Pump House trail. He promised us an amazing waterfall and he did not disappoint. It was an easy hike and the waterfall was beautiful.

Here is the whole crew. Hubby is on the left, then me holding little lady, my sister in law, brother and nephew.

We also got to go on a run (my brother and I). I was really excited to run with my brother. It was something I never thought I would be able to do. It was much harder than I expected though. I didn't even want to try to run the ridge trail since I normally run on a flat paved surface, but I was willing to try out this grassy path. I tried to keep pace with my brother, but thought I would die just getting to the trail. I quickly fell behind, but kept on running. It was intense and much more of an incline than I realized. My brother also reminded me that we were at a much higher elevation than I am used to. (I don't know if he just said that to make me feel better, but it did.)  I had to keep stopping for walking breaks and felt like a wuss. We also got turned around, thanks to my directions, and turned our quick 20 minute run into an intense 35 minute run. It was worth it though and I felt great afterwards. I never run on trails and it was a fun experience.

This was the start of the trail. Grassy with a slight incline.

We ran this trail straight down until it hit the Ridge trail. It was such a beautiful view. I took little lady with me to take some pictures after the run. I don't like to carry anything when I run.

Here is little lady enjoying her favorite part of the campground. She kept asking to swing, She is holding a flower that she picked and would not put down.

My absolute favorite trail was the Hemlock trail. It was gorgeous! We almost didn't even get to check it out. We were supposed to check it out Saturday, but little lady took a longer nap than we expected and by the time she woke up we had started to fire to make dinner and we didn't want to put out the fire and then struggle to light a wet log for our evening fire. Hubby and I decided that on Sunday morning once we were all loaded up, we would stop at the trail and hike for a bit before our drive. On Sunday morning we almost decided not to hike it and just get on the road, but something made us do it. We were so glad we managed to see this trail. We had to hike for about a half hour before getting to the Hemlock area and we actually almost turned around right before seeing this sign. 

This is in the hemlock area. It was so pretty it almost looks fake here. And yes, little lady's outfit looks a bit crazy. I put jeans on under her jumper to keep her warm and some of the dirt off her. 

So all in all it was a great camping trip. It was so good to spend some quality time with my brother and his family. We definitely want to check out more of the Pennsylvania campgrounds. (We sort of have a thing for Pennsylvania. Hubby proposed to me in a Pennsylvania campground, but that is for another post.)

On a side note, even with all the hiking I still managed to gain weight. I was proud of myself for making great eating decisions while on the road. I usually have a weak spot when traveling and feel like I need a candy bar or some type of snack on the road. I picked a healthy salad for lunch and didn't munch at all in the car. However, all the eating and drinking and the campground added up...to ten pounds to be exact! Awful! I am back to focusing on my eating though, so they will not be here long.