MondayJanuary 15th 2024 - Hike at Blue Marsh Lake, Near Bernville PA - 3.25 miles, 350 feet elevation gain

Blue Marsh is an 1100 acre lake in a 6000 acre piece of property managed by the Army Corps.  The Alltrails hike listing we used for this hike was only 4.1 miles long.  Since we weren't successful at hiking on Sunday (very high winds made driving let along walking difficult) we wanted to make a good showing to ourselves for this hike.  Instead of going just in and back on the same exact trail both ways we made a little balloon at the end of the original suggested hike and walked farther inland from the lake around some large fields then eventually back to return on the same trail we came in about half way back to the car.

The most surprising thing about this hike was that it was peaceful, quiet and very isolated feeling. Why is this surprising? Because the trailhead (such as it is) is just a wide shoulder on the side of a truly horrendous stretch of PA-183 which runs between Reading PA and I-78.  I'm guessing this NW/SE running road is used as a shortcut of sorts for traffic not only from Reading but probably even Philadelphia.  There are a TON of gigantic distribution centers all along I-78 in PA and many of them connect directly to PA-183. It was basically a solid line of 45 mph trucks and private vehicles for the 10 miles between the trailhead and I-78.  Getting to the start of the trail requires walking across a substantial bridge on PA-183 with no physical separation between pedestrians and the very heavy (literally) traffic.  Thankfully there IS an extra wide paved shoulder even on the bridge itself but it was still very unpleasant and not particularly safe feeling walking across it.  Then, like magic, you go up a tiny embankment and down the other side and the thundering road noise is 95% gone.  And maybe half a mile later another little slope completes the isolation and you would absolutely have no idea this 20 mile long man made lake lies just a few hundred feet from that awful road.

After the hike we headed towards home with about a 5 hour trip home plus a very slow lunch in Pottsville PA and a few bathroom/fuel stops.  It was a very good weekend away.





















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