Date of Hike: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Total Distance:7.27 Miles
Avg speed:2.67MPH
Avg moving speed: 2.88MPH
Moving Time: 2:31:34
Total Time:2:43:22
Conditions: Rain to Cloudy, 71 degrees
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Today's hike wasn't about taking pictures although I did manage to get a few. For more than half of my hike, it was raining which was my intention this time around. On April 30th of this year, I hiked around Tyler State Park in the pouring rain to give my waterproof gear a test run. It didn't fare so well and by the time I was done hiking, my legs and feet were soaking wet. I was lucky enough to have a double shelled jacket on as it leaked through the first layer but not the second. It was between 45-48 degrees that day and I would have frozen my butt off. No hypothermia for me, thanks.
To be fair, it was literally pouring. We had about 5-6 inches of rain that day so I wasn't really expecting my equipment to withstand that much but it was fun trying it out. I took a few screenshots of the Doppler radar, the first was about an hour into the hike and the second was when I arrived back at my car. If you're not familiar with Doppler, the tints of orange are very heavy rain, yellow is moderate to heavy rain, and the green is lighter rain.
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After that, I treated all of my "supposed to be" waterproof jackets and pants with Nikwax Tech Wash (washing agent), then Nikwax TX Direct (waterproofing) and since then, it hasn't been raining much on the weekends so I haven't really had the opportunity to give them another test run to see if the stuff actually works. More on this after the tour!
Like I always do when I go to Tyler State Park, I parked in the fisherman's parking lot since the trail head (one of them) is right there.
Approximate address:
1440 Newtown Richboro Road
Newtown, PA 18940
GPS: 40.223819, -74.966256
In the first leg of my journey, I took a few of the equestrian trails. I started my hike heading west and wasn't able to take any pictures until after I made it past the covered bridge in the northernmost part of my track. It was unfortunate because I saw about 4-5 deer and about 10 wild turkey before the rain let up. Shortly after the covered bridge, I was able to take my camera out.
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Even with the recent rains, it hasn't been enough to have any effect on the Neshaminy Creek. Waters in this part of Pennsylvania get very muddy with enough rainfall.
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Most of the trails I was on were paved. Usually, I'll do my best to avoid paved trails but all of the "real" trails were understandably muddy. By this time, I had also taken all my waterproof gear off except my boots of course.
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One of the few trails I took pictures of and there was a reason for this. First, it was one of the few that I was on after the rain had stopped and second, during my last hike at Tyler State Park, I had stated that I had my doubts that this trail existed even though it's marked on the map. I had tried finding it on a few previous occasions but ended up going in the wrong direction. It turns out I had missed it, or more accurately, walked right past it a few times. Well, I finally "found" it. In the area where this trail is, there are other trails that aren't marked on the map which ended up being the ones I took thinking it was this one.
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That was it for my adventure. I'm thinking I'll eventually invest in a waterproof camera so I can take pictures in the rain but that won't be happening anytime soon. This summer has been relatively mild and the weekends have been beautiful for the most part. I recall in an earlier post how I had mentioned that in this area, there had been 9 straight weekends in a row where the weather had been beautiful. Even since then, we've had very few weekends of bad weather. After this past winter and how bitter cold it was, it's been a nice trade-off and I'm glad to say that I've enjoyed getting out on the weekends to do two of my favorite things...hiking and photography!
A little something to note: most of the equestrian trails in this park are not well maintained at all. If you decide to go hiking there, make sure if you want to take these trails that it's not wet and that you wear long pants. That, or just stick to the paved trails. As much as I dislike them, this was part of the reason I stuck to the paved ones for the most part this time around too.
Back to my original subject matter, the testing of my waterproof gear. As of right now, the jackets and pants I own are all Columbia brand. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the actual names of them. The pants say they're Omni-Tech waterproof breathable...more on this in a moment. I believe they're called the Regan pant but I can't be sure since I bought them at least a year ago. The jacket I was wearing however, has no information on it and I bought it a few years ago for my fishing expeditions so I couldn't even tell you the name.
How did the waterproof gear fare against the elements? I think they did fine. My problem with the gear I was wearing is that for the jacket, both the shell and inside lining are 100% nylon. What this means is no matter where it's coming from, moisture isn't getting in, nor is it getting out either. Another words, it's not breathable fabric. The pants are said to be breathable but I have my doubts about this too. Within 30 minutes of my hike, I had covered just under a mile and a half and within that time, I was so hot and sweaty that I was forced to take the waterproof gear off or pass out from heat stroke (not really but I was hot). Instead of getting soaked from the rain, I was soaked from sweating. Essentially, this is a catch 22. Either get wet from rain or get wet from sweating.
Luckily it wasn't raining that hard and I was able to stay warm without the waterproof gear on but it defeated the purpose of trying to protect yourself from the elements. I suppose if it were cooler outside that perhaps it might have been slightly easier to test but with a very thin long sleeve shirt on under the jacket and my Columbia hiking pants under the waterproof pants, it was too much. Perhaps next time, I'll wear a short sleeve shirt and shorts under the gear to see if it makes a difference. My concern was being cold but that wasn't a problem. Chalk another one up to trial and error and place it in the memory bank for the next time out. It might also be a good idea to look for another waterproof jacket that has breathable fabric!
My hiking boots (Timberland Chocorua) also didn't fare too well in the wet weather either. By the time my hike was over, I could feel my right foot getting wet. They're drying now and I sure hope they're ready for Sunday's hike but that's not a very good sign for boots that are supposed to be waterproof. I'll be treating them with waterproofing soon to see if this helps.
A few days ago, I made a post about ways to protect and preserve your maps and mentioned that I had used a clear self-adhesive shelf liner to laminate them. While it was raining, I purposely kept the map in my hand so it would get wet and I'm happy to report at least one item was able to withstand the elements. We'll see what happens when I'm out in a more significant rain storm but I'm happy with the results. Hopefully I can save some paper and not have to re-print them every time I head out.
Until next time, happy exploring and happy hiking!
Please give my Facebook page a like!
Today's hike wasn't about taking pictures although I did manage to get a few. For more than half of my hike, it was raining which was my intention this time around. On April 30th of this year, I hiked around Tyler State Park in the pouring rain to give my waterproof gear a test run. It didn't fare so well and by the time I was done hiking, my legs and feet were soaking wet. I was lucky enough to have a double shelled jacket on as it leaked through the first layer but not the second. It was between 45-48 degrees that day and I would have frozen my butt off. No hypothermia for me, thanks.
To be fair, it was literally pouring. We had about 5-6 inches of rain that day so I wasn't really expecting my equipment to withstand that much but it was fun trying it out. I took a few screenshots of the Doppler radar, the first was about an hour into the hike and the second was when I arrived back at my car. If you're not familiar with Doppler, the tints of orange are very heavy rain, yellow is moderate to heavy rain, and the green is lighter rain.
After that, I treated all of my "supposed to be" waterproof jackets and pants with Nikwax Tech Wash (washing agent), then Nikwax TX Direct (waterproofing) and since then, it hasn't been raining much on the weekends so I haven't really had the opportunity to give them another test run to see if the stuff actually works. More on this after the tour!
Like I always do when I go to Tyler State Park, I parked in the fisherman's parking lot since the trail head (one of them) is right there.
Approximate address:
1440 Newtown Richboro Road
Newtown, PA 18940
GPS: 40.223819, -74.966256
In the first leg of my journey, I took a few of the equestrian trails. I started my hike heading west and wasn't able to take any pictures until after I made it past the covered bridge in the northernmost part of my track. It was unfortunate because I saw about 4-5 deer and about 10 wild turkey before the rain let up. Shortly after the covered bridge, I was able to take my camera out.
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| This little guy was in one of the windows of the covered bridge |
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| View from covered bridge looking up the trail I had just hiked down |
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Even with the recent rains, it hasn't been enough to have any effect on the Neshaminy Creek. Waters in this part of Pennsylvania get very muddy with enough rainfall.
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| Slowly clearing up with the clouds rolling out of the area |
Most of the trails I was on were paved. Usually, I'll do my best to avoid paved trails but all of the "real" trails were understandably muddy. By this time, I had also taken all my waterproof gear off except my boots of course.
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| My favorite kind of trail...flat, paved and straight! |
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One of the few trails I took pictures of and there was a reason for this. First, it was one of the few that I was on after the rain had stopped and second, during my last hike at Tyler State Park, I had stated that I had my doubts that this trail existed even though it's marked on the map. I had tried finding it on a few previous occasions but ended up going in the wrong direction. It turns out I had missed it, or more accurately, walked right past it a few times. Well, I finally "found" it. In the area where this trail is, there are other trails that aren't marked on the map which ended up being the ones I took thinking it was this one.
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| The trail was a little wet! |
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| Crossing over Porter Run |
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| Looking upstream on Porter Run |
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| And downstream on Porter Run |
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| One last shot of the trail before I got back to pavement |
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That was it for my adventure. I'm thinking I'll eventually invest in a waterproof camera so I can take pictures in the rain but that won't be happening anytime soon. This summer has been relatively mild and the weekends have been beautiful for the most part. I recall in an earlier post how I had mentioned that in this area, there had been 9 straight weekends in a row where the weather had been beautiful. Even since then, we've had very few weekends of bad weather. After this past winter and how bitter cold it was, it's been a nice trade-off and I'm glad to say that I've enjoyed getting out on the weekends to do two of my favorite things...hiking and photography!
A little something to note: most of the equestrian trails in this park are not well maintained at all. If you decide to go hiking there, make sure if you want to take these trails that it's not wet and that you wear long pants. That, or just stick to the paved trails. As much as I dislike them, this was part of the reason I stuck to the paved ones for the most part this time around too.
Back to my original subject matter, the testing of my waterproof gear. As of right now, the jackets and pants I own are all Columbia brand. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the actual names of them. The pants say they're Omni-Tech waterproof breathable...more on this in a moment. I believe they're called the Regan pant but I can't be sure since I bought them at least a year ago. The jacket I was wearing however, has no information on it and I bought it a few years ago for my fishing expeditions so I couldn't even tell you the name.
How did the waterproof gear fare against the elements? I think they did fine. My problem with the gear I was wearing is that for the jacket, both the shell and inside lining are 100% nylon. What this means is no matter where it's coming from, moisture isn't getting in, nor is it getting out either. Another words, it's not breathable fabric. The pants are said to be breathable but I have my doubts about this too. Within 30 minutes of my hike, I had covered just under a mile and a half and within that time, I was so hot and sweaty that I was forced to take the waterproof gear off or pass out from heat stroke (not really but I was hot). Instead of getting soaked from the rain, I was soaked from sweating. Essentially, this is a catch 22. Either get wet from rain or get wet from sweating.
Luckily it wasn't raining that hard and I was able to stay warm without the waterproof gear on but it defeated the purpose of trying to protect yourself from the elements. I suppose if it were cooler outside that perhaps it might have been slightly easier to test but with a very thin long sleeve shirt on under the jacket and my Columbia hiking pants under the waterproof pants, it was too much. Perhaps next time, I'll wear a short sleeve shirt and shorts under the gear to see if it makes a difference. My concern was being cold but that wasn't a problem. Chalk another one up to trial and error and place it in the memory bank for the next time out. It might also be a good idea to look for another waterproof jacket that has breathable fabric!
My hiking boots (Timberland Chocorua) also didn't fare too well in the wet weather either. By the time my hike was over, I could feel my right foot getting wet. They're drying now and I sure hope they're ready for Sunday's hike but that's not a very good sign for boots that are supposed to be waterproof. I'll be treating them with waterproofing soon to see if this helps.
A few days ago, I made a post about ways to protect and preserve your maps and mentioned that I had used a clear self-adhesive shelf liner to laminate them. While it was raining, I purposely kept the map in my hand so it would get wet and I'm happy to report at least one item was able to withstand the elements. We'll see what happens when I'm out in a more significant rain storm but I'm happy with the results. Hopefully I can save some paper and not have to re-print them every time I head out.
Until next time, happy exploring and happy hiking!
Please give my Facebook page a like!
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