Link to Shingletown Gap on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/nyLkdeGx8rdnEKV66
Shingletown Gap my favorite hiking spot in my hometown. I have a great sense of place to it, so much so I got my senior pictures taken there. I remember sitting in my dad’s backpack as he carried me up the mountain when I was a toddler, and even today, especially during a time of social distancing, my friends and I frequent the hike up Shingletown Trail.
Rock Point and Shingletown Gap vary more than they are similar in ecological landscape. At the beginning of the hike, a surplus of rhododendron. This is unsurprising because in PA, if there is a creek in the woods, there likely will be rhododendron as well.
Pennsylvania’s state flower, the mountain laurel, is spotted at the upper part of the trail; I have yet to see this plant anywhere in Vermont, although I know they grow in most of the eastern United States. They appear very similar to rhododendron, but they can be differentiated primarily through their blooms. But because it is winter, these evergreen plants are not blooming. However, due to recent warm weather and high moisture, a little bloom can be seen on this rhododendron (Figure 2):
I know that this plant is a rhododendron because the buds are pink. Rhododendron have pink blooms, while mountain laurel have white. Higher up the mountain, where the mountain laurel were spotted, there were no buds observed. However, I could still tell that the plant was a mountain laurel from its leaves. Mountain laurel leaves are usually darker on the underside than the underside of a rhododendron leaf (identifythatplant.com).
A big similarity between the two forests is the fact that both are very young forests. The understory is much more grown than the overstory, and many trees are obviously very young. The evergreen presence in this forest is also greater than at Rock Point. I saw both eastern white pine and eastern hemlock. The descent is much steeper at Shingletown Gap with a creek that runs along side the entire trail. The trail itself is (ironically) rockier at Shingletown than at Rock Point as well, the reason of which I could not explain. The ascend of the hike does look over a valley, because State College is a valley, so maybe the rocks are from the separation of tectonic plates which formed the valley. The most stark difference between the two spots is the water that is present. Rock Point sits on the shores of Lake Champlain, giving it those sandy soils and phenology that comes from being next to a lake. There is water at Shingletown Gap, but only in the form of a stream. The soils are much darker and less sandy, but still very nutrient rich at Shingletown.
The phenology of the two places seem more similar than the ecology. Squirrels and song birds live in both locations. The differences are shown by the presence (or lack thereof) of amphibians. I have yet to see any amphibians at Rock Point, but Shingletown Gap has many toads hopping around due to the presence of the creek. However, it is wintertime and these toads are hibernating so I did not see any during this particular hike. I would presume there are more larger mammals such as bear and deer in the woods at Shingletown as it is a more secluded location than Rock Point, and both of these animals are shy towards humans. In Pennsylvania, it’s hunting season. Shingletown Gap is located in a state forest, making it fair hunting ground. While we were making our way back down the trail close to the bottom, we noticed two men sitting silently wearing orange clothing. It would be safe to assume they were hunting, meaning there definitely are black bears and deers in Shingletown Gap. There are likely more bears than deer because deer tend to like flat planes and are less likely to enjoy the side of a mountain. Despite this, it would not be wrong to think there may be some deer in that forest.
There is one final big distinction between Shingletown Gap and Rock Point: a small black dog named Fiona! When we hiked Shingletown Gap for this assignment, we brought our dog Fiona, who loved to hike. If she had been with me in Burlington, maybe Shingletown Gap and Rock Point would have her in common, but for now, she’s only been spotted in Shingletown Gap.
