Endless Mountains

Last weekend we attended a family wedding in Connecticut, then headed home by way of the Endless Mountains in Pennsylvania.  Our destination was Eagles Mere, a quaint little village that sprung up around the mountain-top Lake Lewis, now called Eagles Lake.  A bit more history of the region can be found here.  We arrived 10 minutes after 4:00--ten minutes too late to visit the Museum in the Visitor's Center. . . .

Yes, I know the clock shows 3:30, but it was running late, too. . . .

The day was gorgeous.  The Village was charming.  After driving the long way around the 114-acre lake we arrived at the Crestmont Inn which was built in 1926 to house the staff of the much larger Inn built in 1900. . . .

As you can see, I love this maple tree at the entrance. . . .

We dined next door in what had originally been the wash house for the Inn. . . .

The original Inn sat up on the hill. You can read a little of its history here.  It had deteriorated beyond repair so it was razed in 1981.  This is what it looked like in its heyday. . . .

The Inn now has 15 rooms, some suites, with their own bathrooms.  There had originally been 40 small rooms and two bathrooms in the building when it housed the staff.  We chose one of the simple rooms since we did not plan to spend much time in it.  I did not realize until we'd unpacked that it was not the room I'd requested.  I'd asked for "The Woods" but we were put in "Warner's Den" which was just below on the 1st Floor. . . .

I said something to the young clerk about it when we went over to the dining room.  He explained that the bathroom in "The Woods" needed repairing and since a remodeling was scheduled soon they decided to just close up the room.  Early the next morning, however, I heard someone walking about above us.  I was going to tease the fellow about the "ghost" I heard early in the morning in the (supposedly) vacant room above me, but he was such a serious fellow, I thought I'd not give him a hard time.  We'd already pointed out the evening before that our window was missing its blind and he'd not seen to having it replaced (I think he was running the whole place by himself since he was also our waiter that morning).   I'd improvised using my shaw to cover the lace curtain to keep the (hopefully) sun out in the morning. . . .

But there was no need to cover the window because we woke up to fog which made for a lot of "atmosphere" (pardon the pun) for this view at breakfast.   I had wonderfully delicious pumpkin waffels. . . .

Rain was not predicted until 4:00 so we headed for Ricketts Glen State Park where we planned to go hiking to as many of the 22 waterfalls we could.  We stopped in the Village to buy sandwiches for lunch and headed toward the park which was 45 minutes away.  But the mist turned into drizzle so we decided to hunt down the couple shops along the route that were still open.  I enjoyed browsing Katie's Country Store and the consignment barn out back where we bought a cute bench for Olivia.  It was still drizzling rain when we got to the park so we drove on past the entrance to browse the Mountain View Barn where I bought bittersweet and homespun material and would have bought an antique Windsor rocking chair for $40 if I'd had a place for it in my house. . . .

Finally we arrived at the park, ate our sandwiches in the car, bundled up in our warm coats with hoods and headed into the woods (don't forget to click on the lower-right corner to enlarge the slideshow). . . .
         
This was the first waterfall "Mohawk".  We met a young couple coming back from viewing it at the bottom of the rock steps that had no handrail and were extremely steep.  I could envision myself having to climb up rather than step up, and since they were huffing and puffing and it was wet and slippery, I opted out of going any further and captured the falls from above. . . .
                   
We decided to go back to the beginning of the path and take the "Easy Hike" trail over to the other waterfalls.  We were able to see two more falls there--the Onondaga, which you saw in the slideshow, and the "F. L. Ricketts" which Ken took a video of using his underwater camera. . . .
              
 It was only 3:15 when we got back to the car--much too early to head back to the Inn, so we decided to do some more exploring.  As we drove past this sign we decided to stop and have a look. . . .  

The Chapel consisted of these benches and lectern with a few picnic tables off to the side.  There is a bubbling brook down in the gully behind the lectern. . . .

We came to the park's visitor center. . . .

Inside were several interesting displays.  Do you know the difference between a Crow and a Raven. . . .

I hadn't realized Ravens were so much larger than Crows. . . !

We did not notice any cairns while hiking in either park, but we have come across them at Walden Pond and on Block Island. . . .

The Park attendant told us to be sure to visit the overlook despite the fog-covered tree tops. . . .

It really did look like Worlds End as we approached it on foot. . . .

The fog added to the mysteriousness. . . .

But we could see the stream that follows the road we'd come up on. . . .

Back on the road we headed for Forksville. . . .

. . . .while we listened to songs from Timothy Seaman's "Here on This Ridge". . . .
                            
We crossed over Little Loyalsock Creek via the covered bridge into Forksville where we stopped to buy our supper to take back to the room as the dining room was closed that evening. . . .

It seems we can't get away from black cats on our travels (or ghost stories!).  The fact that it was the 13th did not concern me ☺. . . .

Both nights we were asleep soon after 9:00.  The next morning it was still wet as we walked next door for our breakfast.  You can see the large building that replaced the original Inn.  It holds condos now. . . .

It was before 8:00 and the dining room was still locked so we waited on the porch. . . .so peaceful. . . .
                     
This is the red maple from the other side. . . .

After breakfast we headed down the mountain for home leaving the fog behind. . . .

Soon we were heading back toward the 21st century. . . . but not quite yet. . . .

Here is another article and a TV news piece on Eagles Mere.  I can't wait to go back!  We still need to do the hike around the lake and explore more of Worlds End State Park.

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Take Joy!