Indian Orchard Park

In an effort to clear my head of all the things that have been going on over the last few days and weeks, I took an hour and a half this afternoon to get out and do a little walking in a park that I had never been to before. My destination was Indian Orchard Park, a nice little one in Middletown Township off 352 adjacent to Linvilla Orchards. Shockingly enough, there were also 7 geocaches in and around this park. OK, maybe not so shocking...

There was only one other car and a couple of dog walkers when I arrived, and I was happy to find a sign board at the trail head that showed the different trails within the park and how they connected to the larger Middletown Trails system, specifically the Linvill Trail that winds behind the orchards and then into the park.

I parked at the blue dot, got the cache to the NE first, then the farthest north, then south/southeast, ending with the one to the SW. None of the caches were overly memorable or difficult, but that wasn't the point of my being there. A 2.2 mile hike in a little over an hour, with something else to occupy my mind was exactly what the doctor ordered. On second thought, let's keep the doctors out of this.

I was pleased to be able to get out by myself for a little while, and this is yet another example of exploring a hidden gem of a park that I never would have known about otherwise. At this time of year, with all the leaves down, there were a pretty good number of places where you were able to see how close you were to the surrounding houses. I would be very interested to walk this again in the summer and see how much more isolated it would feel. It is often amazing what a few leaves can do to whisk you away from civilization.