Nanda & Nathan The Travellers: January 2013

January 23-25, 2013 ---- It was my first time living where there are four seasons and the winter brings plenty of snow, so Nathan agreed that we should have our winter trip somewhere nearby. I did a lot of research and found that Black Moshannon State Park was only 2-3 hours away and had a frozen lake that we could safely ice skate on, and the modern cabin with electric heat was only $50/ night, so we decided that this was the perfect place for our winter getaway.

We booked 2 nights at the modern cabin in the park, and we seemed to be the only two guests in the entire park! The 2-bedroom cabin is really nice and spacious and can hold up to 6 people. The electric heater worked very well, and the full-kitchen had everything we wanted. Of course we had to bring our own utensils, plates, and cooking wares and things for the bedroom and bathroom. There were many rustic cabins where you can stay for a lower cost, but they open for rent only in April-December.

There was snow everywhere. It was so fine like tiny grains of sand, so we couldn't make a snowman out of it, but we made our snow angels right in front of the cabin. The first night we just stayed in our cozy cabin and read some books and played the dollar game we found in the guest book. Apparently some guests in the past started the game by hiding five $1 bills in the cabins and wrote some clues for the next guests to find those hidden bills. This game has been passed on for quite some time, and Nathan found three hidden $1 bills from the previous guests, and then we both hid those bills and wrote the clues in the guest book for the next cabin's guests. It was kind of fun!

The next day we started early to the Visitor Center to get more information about the park and to make sure that the lake was still safe to ice skate on. The park rangers were all nice and helpful, and they gave us two pairs of snowshoes at no charge and said we could return them the next day when we checked out.

Boating Area 1 was the maintained ice skating spot of the park. It wasn't super smooth, but it was flat enough to ice skate on. I wasn't good at it, so it was much more difficult for me to walk on the wavy ice, but Nathan had so much fun skating around. We didn't stay too long because my feet were numb, and I felt regret that I didn't put on two pairs of socks.

It wasn't lunch time yet, so we decided to drive around and found that we could do an easy, short hike on the Bog Trail. This trail had a boardwalk through the wetland dominated by sphagnum moss and leather-leaf, and it was a perfect trail for a photo snap. Nathan and I slowly walked on the boardwalk covered with snow and ice and learned about wildlife. The view of the frozen lake was gorgeous here!

At lunch we drove back to our cabin and we ate grilled cheese, read a book, and took a nap. We were so tired from running and walking the the cold, and it was still below 15F at noon.

In the late afternoon we took the snowshoes we got from the park ranger and went hiking on the trails behind our cabin. We started on Seneca Trail and made a loop through Indian Trail and Hay Road Trail and back to Seneca Trail to our cabin. It was our first time to go snowshoeing, and I found it very interesting and loved it! We walked about two hours through the forest and found a lot of animal tracks that looked like dog, bear, snake, deer, and some of them we couldn't really identify. It was a fun time!

At night we just stayed in our cozy cabin. The moon brightly shined overhead and I read my favorite books, and Nathan did his work on the computer. We also brought some movie DVDs for the nights. It was quiet, cozy, and peaceful, and we just loved it there.