This weekend I was out on another tour with my lab mates - plus a Japanese girl how is a friend of Jiang. The weather was forecasted to be awesome - so we planned some nature thing. We decided to go for a moderate hiking tour in the Pennsylvanian Appalachians in Berks County. The loop passing by the scenic outlooks "Pulpit Rock" and "Pinnacle" is supposed to be one of the best in PA.
All the hiking recommendation websites warned that it is a rocky trail and that you'd need sturdy hiking boots. Well, none of us had proper hiking equipment here - but we tried in any case. Americans tend to exaggerate... It turned out to be not that bad. Some trails were quite rocky, but I've seen much worse... After all it was just a hill with a maximum elevation of about 500 m...
Nevertheless we enjoyed the tour. The view from up there was really excellent. You had a perfect birds-eye perspective of the agricultural land of Berks and Lancaster County. It looked very cute and peaceful from above. We also encountered some wild life: In total we saw four snakes and countless vultures. One of the snakes was really long - maybe 1.5 to 2 meters. Quite astonishing for me - I hardly remember when I last saw a snake in Germany. I'm not 100% sure, but I suppose it was a Coluber constrictor aka. Black Racer. The birds were probably Turkey Vultures judging from their way of soaring in the upwinds.
We finished the 8 or 9 mile loop at a leisurely pace but we were still kind of tired after it. I guess we are slowly getting lab rats... Find some of my pictures below. Unfortunately I screwed up the exposure setting... so most of them are quite overexposured... But you can still get an impression of the scenic views.
All the hiking recommendation websites warned that it is a rocky trail and that you'd need sturdy hiking boots. Well, none of us had proper hiking equipment here - but we tried in any case. Americans tend to exaggerate... It turned out to be not that bad. Some trails were quite rocky, but I've seen much worse... After all it was just a hill with a maximum elevation of about 500 m...
Nevertheless we enjoyed the tour. The view from up there was really excellent. You had a perfect birds-eye perspective of the agricultural land of Berks and Lancaster County. It looked very cute and peaceful from above. We also encountered some wild life: In total we saw four snakes and countless vultures. One of the snakes was really long - maybe 1.5 to 2 meters. Quite astonishing for me - I hardly remember when I last saw a snake in Germany. I'm not 100% sure, but I suppose it was a Coluber constrictor aka. Black Racer. The birds were probably Turkey Vultures judging from their way of soaring in the upwinds.
We finished the 8 or 9 mile loop at a leisurely pace but we were still kind of tired after it. I guess we are slowly getting lab rats... Find some of my pictures below. Unfortunately I screwed up the exposure setting... so most of them are quite overexposured... But you can still get an impression of the scenic views.
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