MD - Gunpowder Falls State Park: Highland Trail Hike-and-Dawdle

My niece Amy and I ventured out to explore the Upper Gunpowder River where it is at its most wild and scenic. The day was predicted to hold a few showers and be mostly cloudy, but it turned out to offer broken blue skies and gentle breezes. We were both happy and feeling very lucky to have this day to put aside the crazy-making world of post-Covid year office jobs and enjoy a long awaited day of hike-and-dawdle.  

Trail post intersection with the Highland Trail.

There were so few people out that we almost had the river and hills to ourselves, save for a handful of fly fishermen and day hikers. I was relieved not to see the parking areas packed with cars and the road leading down to the old iron span bridge absent packs of loud people. Honestly, I have been avoiding many of my favorite hikes this past year and a half because of the crowds so I was relieved to see this area so quiet.  

Upper Gunpowder River

The Gunpowder River flows very cold here, released from the bottom of the high dam at Prettyboy Reservoir just upriver. This is prime habitat for cold water species like trout. Long before the dam, however, these hills were dotted with charcoal pits and colliers huts and were mostly timbered for hardwood species like oak and maple that fed  forges and kilns. Much of the land was farmed after the clearing, but it is rocky ground and 19th century farmers struggled to make the land produce anything but marginal yields. Now it has come full circle, returned to a wild woods. 

Cold and gold the river flows.

Almost 60 miles long, the Big Gunpowder (there's a Little Gunpowder, too) runs from Southern York County, PA, to the Chesapeake Bay. It provides Baltimore City with its drinking water and  gathers in the Loch Raven Reservoir downstream. The Prettyboy Reservoir above us with its impressively steep dam serves as the backup supply should levels at Loch Raven become too low.  The system is charged by rain and snow melt.  The forested watershed is protected by state and city authorities. 

Warbler's demise

Colors popped under muted skies. Gold and yellow stole the show. Signs of "casual" beaver activity made us giggle. A great blue heron stalked for fish and migrating warblers, tanagers, and flycatchers kept us busy ID-ing as they fluttered through the woods.. My only complaint was how thick and almost impenetrable the banks of Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) had become. Where we saw native plants like Wild Ginger, they were buried under solid walls of the stuff. It really was a nightmare

Sycamore bark

 

We came to the Highland Trail post and turned uphill on an old charcoal wagon road that was so deeply incised into the hillside it reminded me of the ancient u-shaped holloway roads of northern England and the Borders of Scotland. No wider than heavy horse and his wagon, some holloways are so deep that a walker can remain unseen to sheep and cattle grazing in fields above. I've walked many sunken roads  in England and Scotland as segments of old pilgrimage paths, some so deep with hundreds (sometimes a thousand or more) years of foot and hoof travel that vegetation forms a tunnel of green overhead and the enfolding high banks cradle the treadway at bottom. 

Amanita

We talked about how we've come to really love the shoulder seasons of not-quite-full-on-autumn and the raw yet hopeful late winter/ early spring where transition is subtle, almost secretive. We both love the austerity of the muted winter palette with its symphonic surprises of pure sound and color against  background of ochre, brown, and grey.  But today was about yellow and gold. We were in no hurry, stopping to notice every little thing so that despite the upward pitch of the old road we were never short of breath. The air turned slightly cooler and a breeze drew up the valley as dark clouds slipped past overhead but there was no rain. We admired an old pasture fence and some old sugar maples that once grew in the open sunshine, limbs outstretched and with thick trunks "eating" old wire and planks.

Haircap Moss

 

Highland Trail 

Near the top of the hill the trail split away from the charcoal road and skirted the slope down towards a tiny stream.  This was  a different kind of path, maybe one that started as a deer trail long ago. It weaved slightly here and there but mainly stayed true to the deer's way of descending steep slopes on the diagonal.

Bonnets

Hemlocks and American Sycamore gave way to White Pines, Hickory, and Oak. Beech trees clustered at the elbow of the trail where it crossed the tiny stream.  American Holly punctuated the yellow understory with dramatic dark green foliage and it will stay just so throughout the winter. Spicebush flaunted its understory skirts of golden yellow and Virginia Creeper showed off cranberry-red leaves weaving through Christmas ferns. Hay-scented and Woodfern have already turned brown and brittle, but the hardy Christmas fern, like the Holly, will keep its deep green year-round.

Macro photography 

As we bent and kneeled to take pictures of mushrooms at ground level, I noted that besides a few toothy scrapes on the caps, not many animals in these parts seem to eat exclusively mushrooms. And there were lots to choose from! The Northern Flying Squirrel, Glaucomys sabrinus, however, prefers mushroom caps over almost everything else and I've observed these forest gliders tucking mushroom into knotholes and the forks of limbs for later dining. During my time in South Carolina, I remember watching wild boar root for emergent mushrooms - oh the damage they did to the forest floor! I'll stick with Northern Flying Squirrels, thank you.

Sunken charcoal road

Underside of a bracket fungi

Fallen trees and dead standing snags were heavy with clusters of Artist's Conk, Ganoderma appalanatum, bright white shelves of bracket fungi. The undersides of these tough woody fungi looked different from the gilled undersides of the capped mushrooms on the forest floor. I tested the limits of my Pixel phone's camera by trying some close-up macro photography to capture the distinctive basidiospore tubes underneath.  While I was at close quarters with the fallen tree, I noticed that almost every square inch of its surface was covered with thick netted webs of mycelium. No doubt the tree's rotting interior was riddled through with several species and I ventured a guess that biomass weight of the fungal decomposers in this one tree might exceed the weight of the remaining wood. 

Blue blaze of the Highland Trail

I noted that from the river's edge to our height on the valley rim, there were thick forests of Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) with some of the biggest diameter trunks I'd ever seen in this valley. I almost mistook them for Rhododendron being used to seeing its thigh-round trunks on the banks of Muddy Creek at home,  I did a double take when I saw that these giants were actually Mountain Laurel. How old they must be, I wondered.  

Gravel work road

After a sit-down water break and a sweet visit with Penny, a petite hound puppy, we topped the hill under some powerlines and started on the last stretch of trail. Laid with big chunky dark gravel, the gated work road connects the powerline corridor to the paved road ahead. We stopped to admire a Spotted Orbweaver at the locked gate (who kindly obliged our attempts at macro). These spiders are some of my favorite fall critters and I always make the time to say hello.  Penny and her human friends crossed the paved road ahead of us and continued on wooded paths to Prettyboy Dam another mile or so on, while we turned down the paved road to end our loop.

Spotted Orbweaver (Neoscona sp.)

Blessed are you, autumn,

season of unavoidable endings.

You show us how letting go

can be a glorious, joyful practice

with your spectacular colours.

You model how to hold 

paradoxes with grace -

the balance of living and dying,

relinquishing and receiving,

gathering and sharing.

You know that death is not

and ending, but a passage,

a transformation into new life.

May we learn these lessons well:

to celebrate with abandon

to practice reverence 

to surrender completely

to embrace tenderly

to love without regret

- Wendy Janzen

Hike-n-dawdlers.

Notes:

Gunpowder Falls State Park is a long, linear state park and is divided into several management areas. We hiked the Highland Trail Loop on Falls Road in the Hereford Area 

 https://dnr.maryland.gov/publiclands/Pages/central/GunpowderFalls/Hereford-Area.aspx

Autumn poem by Wendy Janzen, Burning Bush Wild Church 

https://burningbushforestchurch.weebly.com/reflections--prayers/autumn-equinox-blessing

PA - Lebanon Valley Rail Trail: Mt. Gretna to Lebanon Out-n-Back

How can the Root Beer Barrel not be the theme for this post?  The Root Beer Barrel was a local favorite hot dog and soft drink stand that stood aside Rt. 72 coming in to Mt. Gretna for 50 years. It was renovated and moved to its present location on the LVRT by two young men, their work team, and the original builder to serve as their Eagle Scout Project. (The Eagle Scout projects on this trail are impressive!)  It represents one of those quirky mid-century Pennsylvania roadside attractions - and there were many -  that sprang up when motoring around the Commonwealth was a weekend family pastime. I was one of those kids who was stuffed into the back seat of my great aunt Louise's Pontiac for hours of Sunday motor-touring, stopping at, I believe, every one of these places.  

The Root Beer Barrel

The idea that people actually had time to spend on "leisure time" gave my riding partner a bit of a giggle as we both had to wrangle time away from work-related schedules to make this day happen. "With everyone I know working two and three jobs just to stay ahead," she said, "it's a wonder 'the working class' has time at all these days."  We reflected on how the Covid-19 year affected the work place - how jobs that were once considered not important suddenly became essential. Carol is one of those. She is an office manager at local pet hospital and never missed a day of work during the pandemic. She struggles to find qualified office staff a year and a half later so she's been working two shifts a day for the past ten months, plus an occasional shift at the local Dollar Store. "It's crazy how hard I see some people working. And crazier still that other people won't or can't return, making it harder on the rest of us." She mentions lack of affordable and reliable child care for two of her most valued office staff.

Kauffman's Park whistle stop

Carol had time only to ride one way to Lebanon from Mt Gretna where we'd left her car. I opted for the out-and-back since I had the time. Soon she was off to her next shift.  As I waved goodbye I thought about how important this railway corridor has become, once so important as an operating railway to the working people who took holiday at Kauffman's Park near Mt. Gretna or who came by rail from cities to attend church meetings and camps, disembarking at the same station just a mile north of the village where we began our ride. 

Steel span bridge

On my return ride I noted the whistle stop post that alerted engineers to the busy rail crossing at Mt Gretna Station up ahead and imagined how the passengers must have watched in anticipation for the roller coaster, swimming lake, and various attractions through the trees. It's all gone now-  existing only on faded postcards and photographs on Eagle Scout kiosks and historical displays. The foundations of the station are visible through the brush as is one remaining intact water tank, the stone surround of a  decorative fountain, and a wide, flat siding area that once contained the boardwalk and crosswalk.

Old railroad ties mouldering in the leaves

During the work week, the Cornwall-Lebanon Railroad carried products to and from the mines, kilns, and furnaces as well as lumber, produce, and military materials. The large National Guard site, just north of Mt. Gretna sprawled across the hills and featured an impressive rifle range and tent barracks complex. It was moved to the present day Indiantown Gap location, and a smallish empty lot named Soldier Field is all that remains. 

Conewago Hotel

In the summer and on Sundays excursion trains carried passengers to picnic groves, parks, and church camps.  Leisure time was a valuable commodity then as it is now.  For the families of the furnace and quarry workers and (mostly) women workers who toiled in the dozens of factories from as far away as Harrisburg, a trip to church camp meeting or a relaxing day at the amusement park and picnic grove was the highlight of the summer season.  If you had a lot more money and a lot more time, a well-to-do person might book a room at the Hotel Conewago to enjoy a weekend or a summer respite from the smoke-filled streets of the manufacturing towns upriver, where according to one hotel guest "smoke stacks took the place of church steeples."

Disused water tank in the woods.

Our Covid experience not withstanding, available leisure time and income to support it for most American workers - especially women - has not changed in over a century, despite optimistic predictions made by economists in the first half of the 20th century.  Current studies that measure labor participation rates and worker-sector analysis to show who is working and where (Francis, 2007; White 2014) conclude that leisure time in the 21st century is about equal with that of the end of the 19th century.  This sobering reality makes John Maynard Keynes' 1930 rosy predictions seem like science fiction. He predicted that "central problem for humanity would be using its abundant leisure time in a meaningful way." Carol later emailed me to say that her hour-and-a-half on the bike trail that morning was one of the best breaks she's had a year. 

The LVRT may not transport people from urban work centers to relaxing parks and camp gatherings anymore, but its corridor still serves to provide people with a beautiful outdoor experience  for much needed time away from their hectic work weeks. Even just an hour-and-a-half on a bike rolling through an early fall forest is balm to a busy woman's soul. As we learn more about how important leisure time is to our mental and physical health, the national rail trail network is helping to provide leisure opportunity for when one has the time.   

Notes:

Lebanon Valley Rail Trail https://lvrailtrail.com/

National Bureau of Economic Research, Francis (2007)

 "Where Did All the Leisure Go?" 

 https://www.nber.org/digest/feb07/where-did-all-leisure-go

White (2014) "Changes to the Leisure Time Landscape." 

https://www.whitehutchinson.com/leisure/articles/downloads/changes-to-leisure-time-landscape.pdf

Keynes (1930) "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren." 

http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf

PA Mt. Gretna - Pennsylvania's Chautauqua

The Progressive Era's Chautauqua Movement, a national socio- educational program promoted by President Teddy Roosevelt, inspired the building of learning communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic (and the nation) where nature served as an important backdrop for institutes of adult learning in literary arts and sciences. Some Chautauqua towns made environment central to their development and the town of Mt. Gretna in Lebanon County, PA, is a great example of this. Nature is not so much a backdrop but an actual community member. 

A close-quarters town made for walking with narrow streets and footpaths. 

Mt. Gretna is a small late 19th century historic camp village of just about two hundred residents who with their historic society and many associations maintain Pennsylvania's best known Chautauqua town.  There were gatherings in many communities from the 1890s to the 1920s, most of these sites arising from the Methodist Church Camp tradition, true for Mt. Gretna. With appropriately scaled Greek-columned halls of learning and quaint rustic cottages built all around, the town is snuggled into a forest of pines, oak, and maple. It is relaxed and inspiring and in summer - as we emerge from this past pandemic year-and-a-half, busy! We chose to visit after Labor Day so it was serene and peaceful. 

Hall of Philosophy 

This 120 year-old village is part of a network of historic Chautauqua learning communities that seek to restore the movement by restoring both the physical space of their communities-in-nature and the spirit of learning-in-nature programs. Chautauqua was tied closely to the Nature Study Movement and shared many of its Progressive Era aims to educate all people with equal access to classes and outings. Modern Mt. Gretna accomplishes this goal by providing summer arts and sciences shows, classes, camps, and meetings. The experience of Mt. Gretna is not just of a time capsule but of a dedicated modern commitment to environment and humanities. 

Mt. Gretna Lake and Beach

The Chautauqua Trail Association mission reads -

The Chautauqua Trail is a group of organizations and individuals committed to the communication and implementation of the chautauqua concept of building community by supporting all persons in the development of their full potential intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically. The Chautauqua Trail facilitates interaction and communication among its members to further their preservation, growth and development.

Celebrating Camp Meeting Founding, 1892

Mt. Gretna was founded by iron industry heir Robert Coleman in 1889 to serve as a recreational haven for tourists and locals visiting by train. It was soon developed as a Chautauqua site by the Evangelical United Brethren in 1892 and they set about building all the required institutions of learning within the forest: lecture halls, tabernacle, performance venues, trails, and outdoor classrooms.  A dining hall and several smaller eateries were established. The cottages did not have kitchens or running water since they were designed for airy summer living with big open windows and  and wrap around porches. Today there are pocket gardens and seating areas that create quiet places for outdoor reading and visiting. Now folks live here year-round in renovated cottages that include kitchens and bathrooms, but area asked not to cause construction noise until after Labor Day.  

Small cottages with big porches

The scene is of small cottages built within the trees, or - as with a few properties - to allow the trees to maintain their space by making room for their growth by cutting sections out of eaves and overhangs. Given that the village looks like it popped right out of an old hand-colored linotype, the landscape bears little resemblance to what the church camp founders encountered. At the time of the town's purposeful development within the forested hillside, American Chestnuts would have dominated the woods all around. By early 20th century, however, the chestnut blight had caused a devastating die-off of trees. Surely the community members mourned their loss. 

Turreted cottage among White Pines and Hemlock

In the open gaps grew White Pine, Hemlock, Ash, Maple and Oak. Banks of native Rhododendron cascade down the hills. But evidence of the Chestnut woods are all around. I saw a few saplings growing up from still living roots below the ground. They won't reach the size of their grandparent trees, though, as the blight continues to take young trees of a certain girth (10-20 years). We were able to see chestnut beams and floorboards in the State Historic Site Cornwall Furnace later in the day and I'm sure their are Chestnut rafters and joists in many of the historic buildings of the village.  

Make way for White Pines

During the early 20th century Mt Gretna also mourned the loss the last Pennsylvania breeding colony of the now extinct Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistis migratorious.  I tried to imagine the wooded hillsides full of these birds during nesting season, full of dove-song and swirling flocks at sundown settling into their roosts. As we walked along the narrow paths that wove back and forth between the narrow streets, I saw a large antique parrot ornament planted in a tiny front yard and I wondered if villagers noticed too the passing of our only native parrot, the Carolina Parakeet, Conuropsis carolensis, in 1910?  With the recent USFWS release of its report on species now officially removed from the endangered species list and considered extinct, these losses were on my mind. 

A hall of learning turned antique and Halloween shop. 

What about other Chautauqua towns? In Pennsylvania, there were summer gatherings in New Hope and at church camps along the shores of Lake Erie. Ohio claimed many active Chautauqua sites as did New York and Massachusetts. In the context of Nature Study, none can beat Pacific Grove, California, however. Founded in 1875, the western-most site for Chautauqua, Pacific Grove hosted summers chock full of marine science courses, natural history expeditions, summer theater and orchestra, and walking tours.  It was one of the few places where guest instructor John Muir would speak in public. Pacific Grove is still deeply connected to the national Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) and maintains a strong commitment to environmental education with a natural history museum, Stanford marine research station "Seaside", and a large winter sanctuary for monarch butterflies.  

Signpost to learning and recreation.

As we walked (which always helps me think out loud) I began to wonder how Mt. Gretna in the past has dealt with fires and if and how it plans to adapt to the very real possibility of prolonged drought and fire danger as our climate changes. I thought about Western forest communities that have been damaged or destroyed by this year's terrible summer fires and how in many areas fire "season" is now a year-round concern. Of course, the more we walked, the more I wondered. So with questions about fire history and birds of early Mt. Gretna I contacted the Historical Society there and hope to dive into their collections later this fall. Now I have my sights set on the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail within a stone's throw of the corner general store and lake...maybe next weekend? 

Notes:

History of the Chautauqua Movement https://www.chautauquatrail.com/the-chautauqua-movement

Mt Gretna town history http://mtgretna.com/about-gretna/our-history/

The Chautauqua Trail Network https://www.chautauquatrail.com/chautauqua-network

Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station Seaside at Pacific Grove https://seaside.stanford.edu/ specifically, the chapter "Chautauqua: The Nature Study Movement in Pacific Grove, California," https://seaside.stanford.edu/Chautauqua

Lost to extinction, blogpost on the report by the USFWS https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/23-species-from-19-states-lost-to-extinction-2021-09-29/

PA Silver Mine Park - Clams and an Oyster

Silver Mine County Park in Lancaster County is a local gem of a walk that combines beautifully a maintained paved path and interconnecting hiking trails along Pequea Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River. I was able to fit in a fast five miles using all the trails in combination before meeting a fellow environmental historian at the Conestoga Area Historical Society Museum for Fall Fest. Climbing a synclinal bluff, I did some hawk-watching - fall migration is in full swing - and counted 16 hawks of four species, vultures, and an eagle. The fall weather is most definitely here and there is a hint of yellow in the leaves.   

Pequea Creek flowing to the Susquehanna

Paved trail is great for kids biking and people needing mobility assist.

Despite its small size at only 151 acres, the paths and trails are laid out in such a way that you really see all aspects of what made this area attractive to early mining industry. Ore mining and lime kiln operations spanned from the Revolutionary War Era to the Civil War. There are both small open pit and "gopher hole" shafts to find along the Geology Trail and two limestone kilns to see right on the main trail. The main shaft entrance is for safety's sake is closed up with a little slit left open for bats. Anticlinal folds and dips in the local geology are close to the surface and made this an attractive prospect for silver, though not much was found. Instead, the operations turned to lead and limestone production before closing at the end of the Civil War.

Main entrance - now walled off. 

What impressed me about climbing around this well-worked slope was the number of hand dug gopher holes that were excavated by hand - no machinery - to reach the main shaft below. Gopher holes served a few purposes such as providing fresh air to the miners below and as escape routes in case of a ceiling collapse. I've noticed while hiking and exploring 18th and 19th century mining areas how common it is to find these hand-dug holes and how careful you have to be not to accidently tumble into one that has been covered by hundreds of years of accumulated forest debris!  The Wind Caves area, once mined for magnetite on the down slope towards the Susquehanna is peppered with gopher holes. It's wise to know the history of the area when exploring off trail in these parts! 

A gopher hole shaft dug to access the main shaft.

Gopher hole shaft nearly covered by forest debris.

Gopher hole in the curve of the syncline.

Once the leaves drop it will be easier to see evidence of blasting activity. A dangerous job for a man with a steel drill and another with a sledge hammer and a load of powder, blasting was the most expedient way to access the ore-rich rock on a bluff or shoulder. Waste rock cascades down almost every slope towards the paved path where there are woods. Beyond the mowed fields and pavilion sites, the creek banks, freshly scoured by last week's heavy rain, are cluttered with waste rock. I glimpsed the tell-tale half-cylinder bore hole of a blasted boulder lying in shattered rock on the bank.

Lime kiln

In addition to agricultural lime, the twin kilns produced quick-lime which was especially useful when maintaining household privies to both kill the smell and disinfect the contents. Ew. But as I was later to learn from the friend I was meeting at the Fall Festival, old privies make for some really great archeology and all that quick lime over the centuries have made some pits quite sterile. Still - ew. Later I walked a section of road to make a loop back to my truck and passed several large roadside quarry cuts that supplied the dolomite and limestone for that important phase of the operation. 

Quarry lake

Black Shale of  the Conestoga Formation

Fossil mud cracks in dolomite-limestone.

Conestoga Phyllite (metamorphosed shale) with a blasting bore hole.

I explored the small stream that emptied from the two quarry lakes above the paved trail and found it covered with Asian Clams which is a concern because they quickly replace native mollusks. I looked hard for any native species and could find none. The bottom of the little stream was filled with them and their wormy looking excretions which cause algae blooms and  browning of the stream floor. These clams are everywhere in the Lower Susquehanna basin and cause problems for man and fishy beasts alike. 

Tiny Asian Clams, 

I was happy at the end of my hike to find Blue Lobelia where I'd parked my truck but had walked right by earlier on!  I forced myself to stop for a few minutes and enjoy this most beautiful of blue fall wildflowers as it contrasted with a nearby bank full of goldenrod.  Slow down! What's the hurry? 

Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica 

Canada Goldenrod, Solidago canadensis

Just up the road and just a few miles away, the Conestoga Area Historical Society was open for the morning and the Fall Fest was underway.  I met Dr. Lasi and her wonderful Plott Coonhound, Oyster by the iconic Conestoga wagon out front. Clams and an Oyster!

Oyster and the wagon.

Notes: 

Trails Map of the paved and hiking trails at Silver Mine County Park http://www.pequeatwp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2012-08-29_Walking_Trails_Map_Kiosk_web.pdf

Asian Clam information sheet https://seagrant.psu.edu/sites/default/files/AsianClam2013_reduced.pdf

Pequea Township Silver Mine Park information including an excellent geology paper by Jordan Marche, linked. http://www.pequeatwp.org/park-info/

PA Warwick-to-Ephrata Rail Trail

 

Trestle over Chickahominy Creek

It's been a very busy August-into-September with 0 opportunities to hike, bike, or paddle. Finally I was able to manage a morning on the Warwick-to-Ephrata Rail Trail before it got too busy on a Saturday. The air was tempting autumn but heat will return soon so I soaked up the cool breezes for a 20-mile circuit.

Neighbor's gate.

The BBQ is close!

Kind of reminded me of spirit houses in Alaskan Native cemeteries from this summer!

The communities along the rail trail take great pride in it and everyone seems to pile on by mid-morning, strollering, walking, jogging, admiring backyard gardens, butterfly watching at the church wildflower meadow - even a local lumber yard's back lot warehouse is painted in huge letters that spell out SMILE and LOVE IS THE ANSWER.  Neat and proper Amish farms fill the valley. Pumpkins and apples are starting to appear at road-side stands. Blue Mountain runs the across the northern horizon. Everyone says "Hello!" and "Good Morning!" I can't help but heed the lumber yard's advice and smile all 20 miles.

The Memorial to Major Dick Winter and his Band of Brothers.

I visited the memorial dedicated to Major Dick Winters, who commanded Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division in the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944. His story was made famous by Stephen Ambrose's 1992 book, Band of Brothers, which later became a smash hit HBO series of the same name. A Lancaster County native, Dick lived into his 90s and passed away in 2011. I remember well the sense of loss for our Southern PA communities and the weeks of memorial services and remembrances. His legacy, however, was far more than his years in the military. He was a kind, humble man, industrious - the earth, and devoted to his family and community, a good Christian. He was a local who everyone from around here, sooner or later, met up with at the Goods Store or on a walk through Hershey. His boyhood was spent in Ephrata, where the memorials are placed along the rail trail. 

New York Aster

Hope Methodist Wildflower Meadow

Pennsylvania is blessed with so many excellent rail-trails and though this line of the former Reading & Columbia RR is short and does not pass through spectacular mountain scenery like its longer cousins north and west of here, it is beautiful enough to really get a sense for the peaceful Lancaster countryside and small towns, some settled in the 1700s, and welcoming communities. I cycled through Ephrata, left the rail-trail at its terminus, and decided to bike along backroads to visit Winter's grave at Bergstrasse Evangelical Lutheran Church, another 3 miles further on. It was a great ride that totaled 20 miles out-and-back.

German gravestone art is both somber and beautiful - there's a lot!

The oldest section of the cemetery holds graves from the Revolutionary War Era. 

After roaming the vast hillside of grave stones and markers dating back to the 1750s - all in German - I sat on the hillside before walking down to Winter's grave and took in the view of the long spine of Blue Mountain. Hawks are beginning to move south along its ridge, beginning their autumn migration season out of Canada and the Northeast U.S. I wanted to be with them and just float to Mexico with the Monarchs and Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, all now on their way.  Moved by the beauty and the day, September 11, I read aloud Winter's "Leadership Principals" from a photo I took of a plaque at the memorial:

1. Strive to be a leader of character, competence, and courage

2. Lead from the front. Say "Follow Me!" and then lead the way.

3. Stay in top physical shape - physical stamina is the root of mental toughness.

4. Develop your team: If you know your people, are fair setting realistic goals and expectations, and lead by example - you will develop teamwork.

5. Delegate responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their job. You can't do a good job if you can't use your imagination and creativity.

6. Anticipate problems and prepare to overcome obstacles. Don't wait until you get to the top of the ridge then decide to make up your mind.

7. Remain humble. Don't worry about who receives the credit. 

Never let power or authority go to your head.

8. Take a moment of self-reflection. 

Look at yourself in the mirror ever night and ask if you did your best.

9. True satisfaction comes from getting the job done. The key to the successful leader is to earn respect - not because of rank or position, but because you are a leader of character.

10. Hang tough - Never, ever, give up.

(Originally from Dick Winter's Beyond Band of Brothers: War Memoir of Major Dick Winters. With Cole Kingseed, Berkley Trade, 2006)

Dick and Ethel Winters, asleep in the Lord. 

Notes: 

Warwick Township rail-trail map https://www.warwicktownship.org/WERT 

Trail Link description of WERT https://www.traillink.com/trail/warwick-to-ephrata-rail-trail/

Wikipedia for Richard Winters, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Winters

HBO Band of Brothers series webpage:  https://www.hbo.com/band-of-brothers