Monday, June 26, 2017

Susquehanna Valley Growers Market, Lewisburg Pa


60 Brookpark Circle, Lewisburg, Pennsyvania
Open every Friday through the end of October, 2-6pm

This market in Lewisburg is at an odd time, on a Friday afternoon.  But I finally made it there one day, when my daughter had an eye appointment nearby.

It's a very nice, very upscale, very little, market located in Brookpark Farms, on the same road as the Union County Public Library.  

You are buying everything directly from the grower, which I love. There was coffee and flowers and some amazing loaves of home made bread and biscotti, local honey, meats, and strawberries when we were there.  A few other things, but it was early in the season.

The prices were higher than I have found at most of our other local markets.  But it is Lewisburg, and there was a lot of organic and all natural, and everything was local.

From their facebook page: "The Susquehanna Valley Growers' Market is a local, seasonal farmers' market near Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, selling produce and goods directly from the farmers and producers. Each week, you can find a wealth of farm-fresh goods, from heirloom vegetables to fresh meats to baked goods and plenty more! Everything sold at the SVGM is grown, raised or prepared by the vendors, offering you a chance to know the faces of the people providing you with wholesome, seasonal food."




Susquehanna Growers Market Facebook Page:

Susquehanna Growers Market Blog:

Things To Do in the Valley in the summer 2016

I'm baffled when people tell me there is "nothing to do " in our area.  There's so much to do, that I can never do even a small fraction of everything I would like to do each week-end!  I do regular posts about events happening each week and month in the valley, but for this post, I'm just doing a quick overview of things that are almost always available for those of us who live right next to so many great resources, here in the Susquehanna Valley.



On The Water:

We not only have several lakes, but the Susquehanna River, right in our backyards.  If you have your own kayak, you are probably familiar with Montour Preserve, Lake Jean, and the various access points on the river.  I have information on some of our favorite kayaking trips here: http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/our-kayak-trips.html

If you do not have your own kayak, you can still go kayaking this week-end!  Bics does a trip from the Milton Island to their site in Montandon, for $30.  That includes everything - shuttle, kayak, life jacket - everything you need.  And you end up at their river lot, with outdoor games, fire pits, and hammocks.  Canoe Susquehanna has more organized kayak trips in different locations as well - you can find their schedule here.

Looking for a bigger boat?  Rent jet skis, a pontoon boat, or a boat to water-ski behind, at Lake Augusta Outfitters, located at Shikellamy state park in Sunbury PA.

Or take a trip on the Hiawatha Riverboat!  http://www.ridehiawatha.com/  They have regular tours, and special tours that include music, or make your own ice cream sundaes, or wing nights...



In The Water:

Would you rather be in the water than on it?  There's always half way dam of course, but if you don't mind a small hike, the haystacks are a fun place to visit.  There's also a swimming hole on white deer creek, but I am not sure of the exact location.  If you don't mind paying admission, Liberty Splashland in Northumberland sounds fun (I've never been there).  If you are looking for a community pool that is almost never crowded, and is often empty, check out the pool in Exchange PA.


How About A Cave Tour?
We have several near by!
Indian Echo Caverns, Woodword Cave, Penns Cave, and the Pioneer Tionel.

On the Trails:
We have so many gorgeous trails and places to walk around here.  Walk the trail at the Milton Island, take the historical walking tour in Milton, or at the Muncy Heritage Park and Nature trail.  Walk at the MARC East branch recreation area, or the lake trail around montour preserve.  There's a canal path in both Watsontown and Danville, and not far away we have the amazing Pine Creek Rail Trail - which is full of wildlife. Currently there's a bald eagles nest along the trail, and just this week someone posted photos of a bear swimming across the creek.

If you don't mind traveling a bit further, 7 Tubs Natural area is an interesting hike (an easy hike too.)

And of course there is Ricketts Glen.  I'd hike Ricketts Glen every week if I could!  The lake has a food stand open most of the summer, and you can rent kayaks and canoes there.  (Check - you USED to be able to rent kayaks and canoes there - I haven't done that in years)  And then there's the falls trail, which is just absolutely gorgeous, and I'm constantly amazed that it is so close to us!

From Adams Falls to Waters Meet at Ricketts Glen - http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2012/08/hiking-from-adams-falls-to-waters-meet.html

Ricketts Glen Falls Trail -
http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2012/08/ricketts-glen-falls-trail.html


At The Park
Play disc golf at Lime Bluff
Try Geocaching

Or there's always Knoebels!  Free admission - even if you don't ride a thing, there are the bald eagles to see there, and the museum, and shows...

Or how about an Escape Room?  We have three in our area - Can U Xscape In Bloomsburg (our favorite!) Fantasty Escape in Lewisburg (they run great deals on groupon) and a newer one in Williamsport. http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2016/04/escape-rooms-in-valley.html


On A Bike
If you like to ride a bike, there are so many great places to go around here!  One of our favorites is to start at Indian Park in Montoursville, then bike to Brewsters for ice cream, on the bike path.  You can then backtrack a bit, and go on to pick up the river walk, which is a a beautiful path around the river.

Of course there's the Pine Creek Rail Trail, another of our favorites to bike, but a bit further away.

In Lewisburg there's the rail trail, and there's one in Berwick and  Danville too.

Some of our biking trips - http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/our-bike-trips.html

There's a great trip near Jim Thorpe, where you can take a TRAIN shuttle to the top of the hehigh gorge bike path, then bike back.  They load your bikes onto the train, you ride the train up, then bike back.  I can't wait to do this!! (We have biked the Lehigh Gorge, another absolutely gorgeous trip!)



Great Things To See

Lake Tobias can be fun, especially the Safari tour, and don't forget T&D's Cats Of The World!  I love T&D's.  The animals there are rescues. The tiger above is there, I took that picture.  It's simply gorgeous there.  And don't forget the Elk in benezette. You can see them there year round, although spring and fall are the best times I think.  We also have Clyde Peelings Reptile land with a really fun dinosaur exhibit, in Allenwood Pa.

We have SO many covered bridges in our area!  There's a covered bridge tour in Columbia County, and it's a beautiful drive.  http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2016/02/columbia-county-covered-bridge-tour-3.html

And there are so, so many waterfalls!  Join the facebook group Pennsylvania Waterfalls, and you'll see so many gorgeous falls, with helpful hints on how to see them.

We also have The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, and while you are there, stop by Wellsboro to see the Wynken Blynken and Nod fountain, as well as shop and eat - it's a great little town.

Or Maybe You'd Like To Visit A Musuem?

If you enjoy history, be sure to check out the Taber House Museum in Williamsport, or the Packwood House In Lewisburg. I've been wanting to see the Jackson Mansion in Berwick.  There's the Joseph Priestly house in Northumberland, and fort agusta in Sunbury, and The Buggy Museum in Mifflingburg.  All of these often have events.

There's the train museum in both Milton, and in Williamsport (by the Taber House Museum).  In Lock Haven, there is a ming dynasty statue right outside of the library!  And the statues inside the front entrance of the James V. Brown library are also pretty amazing.  Our local colleges have art installations regularly, check out the Samek Art Museum at Bucknell in particular.

The pajama factory in Williamsport is such a fun place - I don't know how to categorize it.  Follow their facebook page to see all the great events, art shows, shows, and classes they offer.  It's such a great use of the old factory, and there is almost always something fun going on there!  https://www.facebook.com/PajamaFactory/

Are You A Baseball Fan?
We have both minor league baseball games at Bowman field in Williamsport, and the Little League World series is held here each August.  We also have the Little League World Series Musuem.

Is Live Music More Your Thing?
Check out the local wineries, like Fero in Lewisburg, they have live music most week-ends.  As does the Brickyard in Williamsport, Riverside Campground in Montgomery.  Be sure to follow your favorite local bands and venues on facebook.  This week-end there's a Billtown Blues event - there are a lot of Billtown Blues events throughout the summer as well.

Looking For A Good Place To Eat?
We have LOTS of options!  I keep a list of our "places to try", along with our favorites, here:
http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2017/03/our-places-to-try-list.html

How about a Road Trip?
9 cheap road trips -
http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2016/04/9-cheap-road-trips-from-susquehanna.html

Just a few of the many annual festivals around us:
http://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/festivals-fairs.html

Carnivals in 2017

And don't forget the farmers markets!  Some of them are full festivals in and of themselves.  The one in Williamsport often has horse drawn carriage rides.  I've not yet made it to the one in Mt Caramel, but their facebook page highlights fun stuff going on at theirs each week.

Kayaking For the Lewisburg Fireworks

Find more of our kayaking trips, times and distances, here:


The Union County Veterans 4th of July Celebrations, in Lewisburg PA, are always the week before July 4th.  This allows them to have the biggest parade around, and huge turn outs, because they are not conflicting with the other area celebrations.

Typically the fireworks, in lewisburg, are set off on Friday night, before the parade on Saturday. But this year the weather forecast (which was, as usually, incorrect) called for storms - so everything in our area was postponed.  Fourth Friday in Muncy, and the fireworks in Lewisburg included.  We ended up only getting some light showers, but for us, postponing the fireworks to Sunday was great - we could go on Sunday.  


Although we've kayaked this section of river several times, we of course could not remember how long it takes.  It hadn't rained in two days, so we didn't think the water would be TOO fast, but it should be moving, was our guess.   





The goal is to get to a good place to view the fireworks, and slowly float down the river as we watch the show.  Or, alternately, find a place to pull off and view the fireworks.  We did NOT want to get too far down river and have to watch backwards, or furiously paddle to stay in place.  

The fireworks were to start at 9:30, set off at the field beside Riverwoods.  We decided to meet at the Milton Island at 8:30, take a truck to the boat launch in Montandon, and be in the water in Milton by 9pm. If the water was too fast, we could stop at the fence, there's plenty of room there to pull up and watch the fireworks.  (We've kayaked to the fence for dinner a couple of times now)


There's a new kayak company in Montandon, Bics Watersports.  They are located right beside Rics restaurant, and they own the property along the river right beside the bridge.  They offer kayak rentals and shuttle service, and had a package for kayaking for the Lewisburg fireworks.  Friends of ours were on that trip - we saw them off before we got in the water.  They left about 20 minutes ahead of us, and if we do this again, I'd plan on being in the water by 8:30.


Because although the water moves pretty fast around the milton island, we forgot how much the river widens past the island.  Which makes the water move much slower.  We dwadled quite a bit and were almost not in a good location to see the fireworks when they started.  But we DID make it, with some furious last minute paddling.  :-)

The view is pretty good for quite a distance - once you get around the bend, you can see the fireworks well for awhile.  And because the river is wide, and generally slow,  here, you do not need to worry about floating past too quickly.


Because the water levels are much, much higher than we normally see this time of year (not dangerously high - just steady high - we've had a LOT of rain this spring) there were a lot of bigger boats.  One of them yelled at us (there was a large group, including the Bics group, 5 of us, and a few others that had independently kayaked down for this) saying that it was illegal for us to be on the river in "those kinds of boats" after dark.

I assure you, it most certainly is not.  We not only have the required white lights on every kayak, we also had glow sticks and glow necklaces.  I even put glow bracelets on the dogs life jackets, in case they fell in and we needed to find them in the dark.  



Any non-powered canoe or kayak on the water prior to legal dawn or after legal dusk
must have on board a hand-held white light, which is to be turned on and held overhead if
approached by another watercraft, in time to avoid a collision. (Motorized canoes must follow motorboat requirements – call the PFBC for details.) When anchored in a non-anchorage area prior to legal dawn or after legal dusk, an all-round (360°) anchor light must be displayed. (See Chapter 4 of the PA Boating Handbook)

We found out that we could have docked at the Bics landing for $5 each, and enjoyed their hammocks, fire pits, and outdoor games.  That's a nice option!  

But it was late, and we still had a ways to go.  There is a much closer boat launch as well, on the lewisburg side of the river.  We had not parked there because we were afraid traffic would be too bad getting in and out.  In hindsight, I think we'd plan to park a vehicle there much earlier and use that boat launch to exit if we are to do this again.



Mariah Quant Memorial Garden 
Along Walnut Alley in Lewisburg
This quiet pocket park provides lovely views of the West Branch, benches, and native flowers planted in memory of Mariah Quant. It has been planted with native species as part of the Chesapeake BayScapes program and is maintained by the Borough of Lewisburg as a public park.

Roughly 5.5 miles from the Milton State Park Boat Launch, to the Chilisquauque boat launch in Montandon Pa. For maps, use 949 PA-405, Milton, PA 17847, USA as the address for the Chilisquauque boat launch in Montandon.  

Really though, it wasn't too far to the Chilisquaque fish and game boat launch in Montandon.  It's just about a mile from the bridge, although it does feel longer, because that part of the river is very wide and slow.  We got to the boat launch at about 10:30.  So our trip from the Milton Island to the Chilisquaque boat launch took about an hour and a half.  I'd plan on two hours, to be safe, especially if the water is any lower, which it often is.

The one thing I'd do differently is be sure to put a glow stick at the ending boat launch - out on a tree branch where it could be easily spotted from the river.  We had marked it's gps coordinates, and that definitely helped, but the last thing you want to do is pass your exit in the dark.

We had beautiful weather, it was cool but not cold.  The fireworks were really well done, another show by .  The dogs stayed in the kayaks and stayed dry.  It was a beautiful night, and a lot of fun!










The White Oak Tavern in Herndon Pa


Although I keep a list of restaurants we want to try, sometimes we just stumble on a great place.  This was one of those times.  We loved this place so much that we were trying to figure out why we might need to go back to that area any time this summer.  (Geocaching.  There's always geocaching.)


We were in Herndon to buy a used truck Dan had found through Craigslist.  Most of the time we were in the area we had no cell service.  But we did have enough service at one point to find this place on yelp.  I think it was the only restaurant listed for Herndon.

Had we not been looking for it, we might have driven right past.  Like most buildings in this area, it's right up along the mountain, around a curve in the road.  

We had dinner on the  patio.  Service was quick  - we were very surprised by how fast our food arrived after ordering it.  Our waitress was nice, helpful, and not overly intrusive.

Inside the restaurant, even though it's a tavern, it was very much a family atmosphere, with booths full of families with kids. It was a bit noisy in there, we definitely preferred the patio.

And the food was sooooooooo good!  Dan ordered the smoked turkey sandwich, and that's what I would recommend.  I had the roast beef and it was very good.  Very good.  But that smoked turkey was so good it's worth a drive to Herndon just for that.  We really loved the sourdough bread the sandwiches were served on.

The restaurant has a great website, with their menu, and lots of photos.


Update - We've been back a couple of times now - the food is always great!

From a later visit:




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