Giving Pond at Dawn

Trip Overview

After a 1+ hour trip from Philadelphia, this beautiful but chilly day began with some landscape photography at dawn. Many wonderful images were captured of the misty water and quiet area just beginning to wake from the dark night. Once the sun rose, the mist burned off, and my attention turned to paddling. This tiny lake was once home to a quarry, and it is occupied, oddly enough, by small islands full of vegetation and dead trees protruding through the shallow water. For the latter it reminded me of Manasquan Reservoir in New Jersey. The islands and trees make for a very interesting paddle, but again the water is shallow, and I bumped against underwater tree stumps and branches several times. The water is calm, the scenery is gorgeous, and you can see plenty of turtles. I imagine children would love to get so close to aquatic wildlife. I spent 2 hours calmly rowing around the islands, looking at the wildlife, and just watching the morning sun stream across calm water. A few fisherman were also there, but our mutual paths never crossed. Giving Pond is a tiny but interesting lake, and it is well worth the journey. There is one dirt parking lot and one boat launch on the north end of the park.