Pickerel Point (April 17): Back when we lived in Ithaca in 1996, we discovered Promised Land State Park, in the Pocono Mountains. We loved it for camping with our very young children, because the Pickerel Point campground sticks into the lake, with tent sites right by the water. And in late July, our preferred camping time, Pickerel Point is prime blueberry country. We camped there for 2 summers, but in 1998 a strong tornado hit the park and adjacent town. That summer the park was closed. We drove down the road to have a look – huge trees looked like a giant had twisted off their tops and thrown branches into the sides of buildings.
I am not sure how long it took for the park to re-open. We moved on to other parks and campsites. However, once we moved to State College, the park was on our route to CT, and whenever we passed by we would note that we should go back. So, this time we did.
The weather was not co-operative, but Pickerel Point is still very nice. The RV campsites are up a bit from the water, but you can walk along the shore or go down the road along the spine of the point which takes you to a small beach. There were lots of warblers and other birds.
One thing that we did not notice in 1996/97 – there is no cell reception, GPS or wifi. Sadly, I turned out to be the type of person who cannot live without her phone for 24 hours! In fact, even my bird-watching was impacted, as the bird id app requires GPS!
Among our motivations for camping at Promised Land is its location at the junction of highways 84 and 81. I zipped down to Washington for the March for Science on Earth Day (the subject of another post) leaving Chuck to dog-sit in splendid (or lonely) isolation.
Our last day at Promised Land we had better weather. We took a birding walk on Conservation Island, (which is more of a point than an island) and also did a paddle in the lake. It is still a lovely spot and I want to visit again in blueberry season (although perhaps not this year).