Tuesday, May 30, 2017

(More Than) 10 Things To Do In The Susquehanna Valley In June

There are so very many things going on in the Valley in June!  Including the Milton Bicentennial Celebration week, which is jam packed with activities.  



The Arrowhead restaurant in Milton is celebrating 70 years with special prices and memorabilia
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Clarks Ag In Turbotville Pa is having a Father/Son kite building activity

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Both the JessVic & the Love Hill 5k's are this month:



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The Mifflinburg Buggy Museum is Celebrating their new Bee Exhibit with all sorts of demonstrations and activities

A fun honey filled day to Just Bee at our museum. We will be unveiling our exhibit of items recently acquired from the Heiss family's Buffalo Valley Apiary! 
We will have food venders, bee vendors, bee keeping demonstrators, face painting, Pa. Bee Queen and Princess and a surprise guest to get your photos taken with. 
We will be showing The Bee Movie non stop with complimentary popocorn and water.
All things about bees and pollination and pollinators. 
Bee friendly plants for sale and , of course, honey!!

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June is the month to pick your own strawberries!
My favorite you pick berry farm is Green Berry Farm in Muncy Pa
Most Farmers Markets are in full swing now too, although this years weather may have many locally grown crops running a bit behind schedule.

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The Union County 4th Of July Parade is June 24th
(Yes, their 4th of July parade is in June)

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The Turbotville Carnival is the first full week of June
The Watsontown Carnival is the week following Turbotville
For a full list of area carnivals:

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Celebrate Historic Berwick Food Festival

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The Warrior Run Strawberry Festival & Car Show is June 11th

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"One man’s trash is another man’s treasure." Annual sale to support the Taber Museam and its operations. Buy knick knacks, household appliances in working order, small items of furniture, household linens, toys, games, puzzles, books, sporting equipment, lamps, office supplies and other items of interest.

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Local author Carrie Anne Noble will hold a book launch party for her second book, “The Gold Son,” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 30, at the James V. Brown Library, 19 E. Fourth St.,

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WWII Weekend in Reading Pa features hundreds of WWII reenactors, beautifully restored and flying WWII aircraft and vehicles along with lots of activities and vendors.


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Don't Forget

Bread Day in Turbotville will be June 5th
http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2015/04/bread-day-in-turbotville.html

The LAST Milton Bicentennial Lecture will be held at 2pm on June 4th

Watsontown Sesquiecentennial Meeting - Come Volunteer to help with the celebration!  Wednesday June 21st at 7pm

Watsontown Historical Society Meeting - June 18th at 6pm at D&D's on main street

Book Clubs - 
Saturday June 3rd the Rose Hill Book Club (Milton Library) will be discussing Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham

Monday June 12th  the Montgomery House Library Book Club will be discussing A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman


The Middleburg Farm & Livestock Market


We made our annual day after memorial day trip to Middleburg today.

I had some chickens to sell, and some runner ducks we raised  that ended up NOT being runner ducks.All brought a very good price.  The sale always seems especially packed the day after Memorial Day, although it might just be that busy most weeks now?  It was so loud, it was hard for anyone to hear the auctioneer, and sometimes hard for him to hear who was bidding.

There's a farmers market/flea market that starts early, and closes up around lunch time
Farmers and Flea Market Open 7:30am - 2:00pm
micro pigs at the small animal sale. This sale is mostly poultry and bunnies, but you really never know what you will see here.

There's a produce auction (a grocery sale) indoors.  Produce: 11:30am


There's poultry sale that starts at noon.  That's technically a "small animal" sale - today there were chinchillas and micro pigs, and there are always lots of rabbits, as well as ducks and chickens and turkeys.  
Sign hanging in the small animal sale area


And there's hay and grains sold, as well as a full, large, livestock sale indoors in the afternoon.


Farmers and Flea Market Open 7:30am - 2:00pm
Hay Sale: 11:30am
Produce: 11:30am
Small Animals: 12:00pm
Livestock: 1:15pm
We sell: Hay, Rabbits, Poultry, Produce, Pigs, Feeder Cattle, Sheep, Goats, Calves, Fat Cattle and Cows.

6592 Route 522, Middleburg, PA 17842
570-837-2222

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Anthracite Heritage Festival, Shamokin Pa

May 2017
This is a poor representation of how large this festival is - but it's all I got.  The festival is down both sides of the street, and it's a pretty long stretch.  


We made the trip to this festival on a whim, and were completely unprepared - I did not have my camera along, and my cell phone battery was almost dead, so even that was not much use.  The facebook group above has some great photos, that will show you a lot more about the event.


I'd compare this to the Milton Heritage Festival, but maybe a bit bigger.  We were surprised by how large of a festival it was, and how many things there were to do!  Wagon tours, carriage rides with a princess, North Shore train rides, trolley rides, cemetery tour, and much more!



There were booths to have caricatures done, a butterfly tent, the eclectic circus was there, along with many, many vendors and food stands.


The butterfly tent


Friday, May 26, 2017

Dr Doolittle's Roadside Cafe & Creamery

The "Lower" Restaurant.  There's a second restaurant up the hill, right next to this.
I originally saw this place on one of the many roadside PA facebook groups I follow.  I thought it would be a fun place to stop for lunch on our way to the ASPGB 2017 - and I was not disappointed.

There's normally an amish buggy here, being pulled by either the dinosaur or Sasquatch - but it was missing when we were here.

 
I've seen photos of an alpaca and goats here..  near this barn area.  We didn't see them when we stopped, they might have all been inside?

There's a lot of road noise if you eat outside, but we sat right at the front of the outdoor seating, not realizing that there was more outside seating behind the walk up counter.  Just go back past the party barn, and you can sit between the train cars below, and the back of the lower restaurant.

There are train cars everywhere you turn...

I really wanted to play mini golf - but we didn't have time, and I'm not certain it is open yet?

There's a bit of EVERYTHING going on here.  Outdoor eating, indoor eating, a second restaurant in a train car, laser tag, mini golf, full size trains (eventually they may be open to sleep in?) and probably other things we missed!  When traveling like this, I especially love restaurants with outdoor seating so that Miss Molly Mouse (our dog) can get out of the car with us.  


The food was nothing to write home about - either way.  Not to praise, nor to complain.  It was good, cheap, and simple.  I don't think there was anything over $5 on the menu.



My only real complaint was on the indoor seating on the lower restaurant area.  I went in to use the bathrooms, and the dirt on the doors was disturbing.  It looks like the doors, around the doorknobs, where people grab them,  have not been wiped down in, well, ever.  But the tables and floors were clean, and the outdoor seating area was clean..  it's just the doors the cleaning crew seem to be missing. But it's a pretty big miss - they were really bad.  BUT the tables inside are really awesome vintage tables, and there are fun things like this hotdog (above), and a chicken that looks like it was part of a merry go round at one time...  There really is fun stuff everywhere here.




But overall this is just a really fun place.  They were doing a lot of construction while we were there, I'd love to see it again and see what progress they have made.



I took photos of the up the hill restaurant - and the menu, although it's really too small to read here.  You eat in a train car, from the looks of things, after going in through the train station?  VERY cool.  We didn't get  a chance to go in and check this out this time.


Dr. Doolittles Roadside Cafe
1290 Rich Hwy  DuBois, Pennsylvania 15801 USA
(814) 375-7080

There's a great multi stage geocache nearby!



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The Eternal Flame Waterfall In Upper New York State

In Upstate New York, there's a waterfall with an "eternal flame" behind it.  Natural gas created by the shale keeps a small fire lit, behind the waterfall.

The longer explanation, copied from the geocaching page:

"Upon entering the gorge and approaching the base of Eternal Flame Falls, cachers will notice a change in the ambient aroma. What you smell is the natural gas that leaks from between the shale layers. At the base of the waterfall you will find a small grotto that emits natural gas which can be lit to produce a small flame.


The natural gas that is escaping from this small grotto is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane. It is found in oil fields and natural gas fields, and in coal beds. When methane-rich gases are produced by the anaerobic decay of non-fossil organic material, these are referred to as biogas. Sources of biogas include swamps, marshes as well as man-made entities such as landfills, sewage and manure storage facilities. The result of this natural gas leak is two and sometimes three burning flames behind a wall of water."

This flame is said to have been lit years ago by Native Americans. Whether that's true or not... the flame does go out, but is relit by hikers. We took a stick lighter along just in case, but the flame was lit when we arrived.

There are thousands of these flames all over the world, but most are man-made. This one is a natural flame, and a rare one. "natural eternal flames can only be kept alight by gas 'macro seeps'. Gas usually comes through soil, where bacteria eats the methane converts it into carbon dioxide. Alternatively, gas comes out in a location where it disappears quickly, so can't keep a lit flame burning. In the case of the New York flame, a 'macro seep' of gas comes from a natural hollowed-out chamber. Because the gas is contained and isn't converted, the flame is kept alight eternally."

Researchers from Indiana University discovered that the rocks are not hot enough to produce the gas reaction, and that the shale beneath the eternal flame falls cannot be creating gas the same way as other flames around the world. They cannot explain how this area is created.


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Notes From Our Hike , 2017
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Seeing this waterfall has been on my to do list for awhile.  Geocachers on the geocaching facebook groups mention it frequently as one of the best, and of course, I love waterfalls.  So when planning our ASPGB week-end and realizing we were only an hour away, I scheduled a "detour" to finally see these falls.


I was a bit nervous.  From what I had read online, it could be a dangerous hike, crossing the creek twice, steep hills, and it sounded like there was not much of a path.  I have a knee injury that has been problematic lately, and I'm still recovering from a minor health issue that had kept me from hiking much at all in the past year, meaning I am even more out of shape than normal.  But I really wanted to do this hike, and I didn't care how long it took us, we could take all day if need be.  I packed extra shoes, and even a change of clothes, just to be prepared.  (All needless preparations.)


Have you seen Google Timeline?  It's great when I am trying to remember how long it took us to hike things, or how long we drove, etc.  According to google timeline, it took us just over an hour round trip, and it was only half a mile of walking.  Others have said it is 3/4 of a mile, and that might be accurate - part of the trail is pretty much straight up, and google may not have calculated those steps.  We spent plenty of time talking to two different couples at the falls, and taking lots of photos - so we were not rushing. 


There was no need to worry.  This is not what I consider a difficult hike.  It's similar in terrain to Ricketts Glen, but this is a MUCH shorter version.  There's a really steep section, but most of the trail is pretty flat, wide, and easy to navigate.  For the last section, you do walk along the creek bed, and you do cross the creek - but water flow was so low while we were there (even after a full spring of constant heavy rains?  We were very surprised by how low all the water was in this area).


#TheAdventuresOfMollyMouse

Molly Mouse, our tiny dog, and me, the overweight out of shape human, had absolutely no problems with this trail.  Yes, be cautious and use common sense.  It's not a Texas hiking path (I was surprised when we got to Texas and went to a "hiking path" to find it was a concrete sidewalk, and of course it was Texas, so it was absolutely flat....) but it's not an impossible hike for the average non athlete.  It wasn't even the most difficult hike of our week-end.  (That HILL on the ASP #2 Night cache!  Oh my word!  My ankles still hurt from walking at that angle....)



All of my photos from our hike, with lots of photos of the trail, are here:

These are the reviews that made me nervous about this hike:

These pictures are amazing.  Even after a SUPER wet spring (it's rained almost nonstop this spring!) the waterfall was nowhere near this when we visited in May 2017.

More photos - I'd love to go back and see it in the winter!  I'm sure the hike is much more treacherous when it's all icy, but look at those beautiful photos!


This geocache has 510 Favorite Points.  Surprisingly, it's not even the most favorited in NY - it's currently #5 on the list of most favorited caches in NY state. There's one called The Spot that currently has over 800 favorite points, and Bridal Veil Falls Earth cache has 511.  I suspect that the ASPGB event being held right by the Bridal Veil Falls cache helps get a lot more people there to favorite it.