Bear Creek Mountain Resort to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon

by Renee · Published February 8, 2025 · Updated March 11, 2025

Our three boys came home to Wilmington to help me celebrate my milestone 60th. Oma (Paige’s mom) died unexpectedly in March. We all drove up to Macungie, PA to bury Oma, the boys flew home from Philadelphia, and Paige and I continued north before we headed back to Wilmington.

Paige wanted to stay at his old ski mountain, Doe Mountain, which is now called Bear Creek Mountain Resort. We also hit all of Oma’s favorite restaurants and honored her for the four days that we were there. Paige was very happy to have his three sons with him for the entire weekend. Oma is smiling in heaven, her burial day is her beloved daughter, Pier’s, birthday. This could not have been planned any better.

Bear Creek was a super nice place to be in the summer. We enjoyed hiking up the mountain and sitting by the pool. We even got to meet up with Paige’s old ski buddy, Mike. We drove to a great pizza place in Emmaus and even got to see the old Pennebacker foundary which partially burned down decades ago. Some of it remains and we think maybe ppl are living there which spooked these four Pennebackers when they visited in the dark and imagined seeing ppl or at least their hoodies hanging up by the door.

We went to the Little Lehigh Valley River and three our fly rods in but nothing was caught except rocks, but it was still fun. The boys flew home via ABE to Philadelphia to LAX. The first leg was actually a bus to Philly which we were all shocked by… read the fine print people!

Paige and I continued our trip to Sanford NY and stayed in a cute cabin on the West Branch of the Delaware River. We actually had a float boat and Paige managed to catch a few fish, me NOTHING. Then we just fished alone in the river. Again, I had no luck, Paige was the big winner.

We really enjoyed his place so much and would go back. It is just across the PA border.

Next stop Lake Placid. We stayed on Mirror Lake and really enjoyed the nearby hiking. Our morning exercise was a paddle boat across the lake, followed by an afternoon hike. The town was also very cool, lots of fun shops and great restaurants. We visited the Olympic Center and the town we hiked in was called Wilmington!

We headed to the Finger Lakes next and met up with Harriett and Jake for a long weekend. We did get to fish some but no luck for biting fish but the river was beautiful. We made it to a winery for a delicious lunch and a tasting but most of our fun was catching up with good friends.

Our next adventure brought us to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Paige had a fantastic time here once before with Dave and Steve but we could not book the same place. Although we stayed by the river, it was quite a heat wave and the fish were just not biting. I actually caught a few (finally) and of course Paige always catches fish but again, it was really hot and not a great time to fish.

We headed home a few days early with one quick stop in Altoona. I got to see Renee, Lisa and Scott, get some Meadows custard, then we started our journey back to NC super late, stopped for the night in WV.

Great times starting out with birthday fun, Oma’s weekend in Emmaus, fishing and visiting many places tha tI have never seen before. America the beautiful!