We're only a third of the way into the summer of 2021, but it's already given us plenty of reminders of why summer is our least favorite season to hike. There's basically less of the things we like, like views (because of the leaves on the trees) and solitude (because there are more hikers), and much more of things we don't like, namely heat, humidity and bugs! Our four-day hiking trip in the Poconos last month allowed us to hike only once, the heat and humidity were so intense. And today we were eaten alive by mosquitos every step of the way.

We hiked this interesting part of the Great Swamp less than three years ago. At that time we parked on Tiger Lily Lane and hiked every trail in the Great Swamp Conservation Management Area as well as the trails in the Gatehouse area to the east. Today we returned to do all of the trails again, but this time starting from the other end, the Gatehouse parking lot on Harter Road. We intended to hike all of the trails once again, but were stymied at the gate that separates the Gatehouse trails and the CMA trails. It was chained closed and despite my best efforts, I simply couldn't shimmy the chain to see where to open it. So we had to turn back and were only able to hike the Gatehouse trails.

This map shows all of the trails in both areas. We ended up hiking most of the trails to the east, but nothing west of where the Purple trails meets the Red. It's just as well, since the mosquitoes were out in force.