Winter at Kings Gap

Kings Gap Road

I returned for a third successive weekend to Kings Gap. This time on a Saturday, rather than Friday afternoons. The snow and ice from a storm a few weeks ago have made trails and sidewalks impassable. Since then, it has been cold with very little melting. Kings Gap, a favorite, if relatively inconvenient, place to walk beckons. One of my goals this year is to complete the Kings Gap challenge, successfully hiking every trail through the park. I came close last year but had a couple of trails left, not getting myself organized in time. Even at Kings Gap, however, the trails are icy and dangerous. The prospect of falling on the ice, breaking a bone, or straining my back, without good cellular service is just not something I want to chance.

Instead, walking the four-mile-long Kings Gap Road, from the park entrance to the lodge at the top of the mountain is a good substitute. The occasional automobile does not spoil the tranquility of walking in the woods. It also provides additional safety; if I were to fall chances are much better than someone would be along sometime soon to give me a hand. The first two times I parked at Black Gum Parking Area and walked to the top. On my third visit, I parked near the entrance. Normally I would start at Pine Plantation, but the parking lot was covered in ice. The previous two nights, nearly two inches of rain fell, and then the temperature dropped quickly. I pulled into the parking area, which was a sheet of ice, to use the restroom before starting and nearly fell a couple of times. It made more sense to park elsewhere, but the ice was so slick it was not easy to get the car up the small incline to get out. I parked, instead, at the small parking lot at the nearby Nature Conservancy Preserve and walked toward the top of the mountain one the cleared road. 

Kings Gap is quiet during the winter, except for the wind blowing through the dead leaves still clinging to the trees and the occasional trail runners yelling their conversations back and forth to one another as them make their way up or down the trails and roads. A few birds can be heard but often not seen. The snow creates beautiful vistas and muffles distance sounds.

Water tower and loblolly pine at the top of the mountain 

As I was walking back down, lost in my thoughts, and enjoying nature, my left foot hit a piece of “black ice,” melted snow that has recently refroze but looks like wet asphalt. I could not pick up my foot, it kept sliding in slow motion. Soon I was close to do the splits when my right knee touched the ground and stopped the slide. It was a reminder that I should pay attention and not be so cavalier during the winter. I suffered no injury, just chastened.

Nearing the car, I heard the distinct sound of pileated woodpeckers, one of my favorite birds. Then, I followed the sound and saw two flying between trees. It was the first good look at a bird on the walk. I immediately spook one, but the other went to a nearby tree and began scrounging for food in the bark. I got closer, took a couple of photos, and was prepared to wait for it to be in a better position. I crept closer, then a car came barreling down the road, with two Weimaraners hanging their head out the back windows voicing their pleasure. The woodpecker flew away in haste, far enough I lost track. I would have to wait another day for that good picture of a pileated woodpecker. 

A pileated woodpecker, before getting scared

On the way: 

An abandoned house on Walnut Bottom Road (PA 174) between the villages of Walnut Bottom and Centerville, near the intersection of Quarry Hill Road.