Ricketts Glen State Park

Ricketts Glen in winter

Every cliché on beautiful landscapes comes to mind – Amazing! Awesome! Gorgeous! And I immediately realize none of them do justice to the frozen landscape that I had just witnessed. Every one of these words and expressions seems inadequate.

Let me back up here – I went to Ricketts Glen State park with Desi Doers this weekend. While I have done many winter hikes before, this was my first to the beautiful world of the park in full winter glory. On the hike Vivek gave me the responsibility of penning down my thoughts on the hike. I suspect he was half-joking, but being the good student that I am, I said “aapki aagya sar ankhon par”. In other words, your wish is my command 🙂

As we got to the parking lot, I saw a few people not from our group, gearing up in heavy duty crampons, colorful helmets, full winter gear and ice axes. I looked at them, and thought, boy these people are seriously geared up, am I going to be up for it? Pretty soon, others from the group arrived and we got to the business of getting ready. Gaiters, crampons, poles, ice axe and layered clothing – done and we headed out. Some of us were new to the ice axe – Vivek gave us a quick tutorial on the right way to carry and use it to break a fall in slippery conditions, if needed. Not without some trepidation, I headed out with 16 fellow Doers on packed snow and ice, crunching along the Falls Loop trail – I had the thought in my head that it sounded a bit like the crisp rusk I enjoy with my morning tea! As we got a little further into the trail, we came upon the big map of the park, and Vivek explained the route we were going to take.

We headed into the lower trail section, walking along the “Kitchen Creek” that was to be our companion for the next several hours. It being the middle of January, it goes without saying that the landscape was covered in snow and ice, and there were frozen vistas all around. As we came across the first frozen waterfall, Murray Reynolds, albeit a small one, it was “oohs and ahs” all around, and a mad scramble to click photos. Every way you turned your head, a fascinating formation of ice, snow and water gushing beneath was waiting to greet us. “Oh look here, it looks like scores of very tiny dark colored fish are running under the ice to get somewhere” , I exclaimed, but then I realized, it was just the sunlight and the shadows playing tricks on my eyes.

Crossing 3 waterfalls, Murray Reynolds, Sheldon Reynolds and Harrison Wright, we reached the Waters Meet landmark, beyond which the trail is closed to casual visitors in the winter, and is only open to fully geared winter hikers and ice climbers that have to register at the park. Vivek had already registered our group, so after a quick water break we headed past that point to complete the Falls trail loop in an anti clockwise direction, going over one of the several scenic wooden bridges. As we walked towards the bridge, I looked to my right and up, and I could see the tumbling waters of the creek arrested in their mad tumble over several frozen falls on the hillside. Oh what a sight it was!

From here on, there was a perceptible difference in the physicality of the hike, with the waterfalls becoming taller, and the climb steep and slippery, over rock stairs covered with thick ice. As we passed by B Reynolds falls, R B Ricketts falls (after whom the park is named), Ozone falls, though not a strenuous hike by any means, it definitely got more treacherous. We stopped at a few of the waterfalls to take more pictures, using our ice axes to gauge the condition of the frozen landscape before stepping on it, lest the ice give away and we find ourselves in icy cold water. (To be honest though, the excitement when another gorgeous frozen waterfall, even better than the last one, came into view, some of us would forget the safety lesson and almost head in a mad dash to get closer to the waterfall, but someone from the team would always remind you to be careful, test the ice..). We passed by beautiful pools formed in the middle of ice masses, with water gushing and swirling only to disappear below the ice formations. We came across logs topped with snow that looked like they were ready to eat as a perfectly baked Christmas log with beautiful and tasty white icing on top – my imagination was certainly running wild!

As we were ascending to Huron falls, we met a large group of hikers escorted by some guides from a professional adventure company, descending the falls. As is the norm with hikers, each group gave the other enough space and time to enjoy the falls, and pass by with pleasantries exchanged, letting the other group take its place to enjoy. One of the guides, though, stopped and talked to me directly, “For your information, you are not supposed to be in this part of the park without trail crampons, and if the ranger finds you, each of you will be fined $300”. We politely let him have his say, and moved on as we were confident in our gear (all of us had crampons and ice axes) and the fortitude of Doers leaders that had done this hike before multiple times and knew the requirements of the park. Funnily enough, on the next falls called Ozone falls, we encountered clearly unequipped hikers with no hiking poles or ice axes! Needless to say, that is not advisable on this hike.

Having covered the Glen Leigh side of the trail, we reached about the midway point of the hike, and switched over to the Highland trail. Aside from the discomfort of walking on the packed snow covered by some softer snow, it was a fairly easy trail for about 1 mile and quarter. We then switched to the Old Beaver dam trail, before getting back on the Falls loop trail to explore the Ganoga Glen side of the trail system. Down we descended through narrow ledges, and steep stairs, covered with packed snow hiding ice underneath. We passed one majestic waterfall after another, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and then encountered one of the most treacherous sections of the trail, where we met a large group of hikers coming up from the opposite direction. And not surprisingly, it was the same set of hikers led by the professional guides we had met before. We took our time descending the really steep and icy ledges, while giving enough space to the other group. The same guide that had lamented our crampons before, made it a point to mention “the rangers are somewhere between here and the parking on Rt 118”. I am not sure if he was just having some fun at our expense, or he was really serious. One thing is for sure, you do have strange encounters on hikes sometimes, and I will file this one in that category!

And then we came to the most spectacular of all the sights we had encountered: the Ganoga falls standing tall at 94 feet, majestic  and almost completely frozen (save for a tiny gush in the center of the falls). It was a sight to behold, with the frozen water in its soft acqa-green hues, making for an ethereal sort of feeling. Fresh snow had started falling, and as I stood looking and feeling the sights in front of me, I think for a few minutes all other sounds just faded around me ; I soaked in the beauty of the soft fresh snow floating down in the backdrop of snow and ice sculpted by nature.

This was our stop for the famed “Mona’s chai”  so we all enjoyed the warm up with the chai and a quick bite of lunch and headed out back on the trail.

We passed more waterfalls – the Seneca, Delaware , Mohican, etc and finally Erie. There were a couple of points on this part of the trail where it was treacherous, narrow and very slippery where a false step could do some serious damage to limbs. Most of us used our ice axes in some fashion to stabilize ourselves as we crossed these,  but we didn’t need to use the rope. Some of us were heard saying they would have liked to see how a rope is used on a winter hike, but we will leave that to another hike, another day. Crossing the last of the 22 falls, Erie, we reached Waters Meet point again, and headed back to the parking lot 1.5 miles away and this time, having already seen the lower trail before, we stayed on the upper trail which is easier.

I can honestly say that I came out of the forest refreshed and rejuvenated. You see, nature has that habit of doing that to you. “Give me your tired soul, and I will give you back that spring in your step, even after you have dragged your feet across 8 miles in the freezing cold, and you would rather soak your feet in warm water and close your eyes” .

We then drove about 5 miles to the other side of the park where Lake Jean stood calm and absolutely still in all its frozen glory. We came upon some good folks ice fishing, and took even more photos before heading back on our drive back to New Jersey. 

In the end, only this line from that old Jitendra starrer, in Mukesh’s soulful voice makes sense “Yeh kaun chitrakar hai yeh kaun chitrakar” (“Who is this artist?!”) and keeps ringing in my head as I head out of the park.

PS: Sorry for the Hindi references for non-Hindi speakers!

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