From picnicking to paddling to music, families enjoy outdoor activities on Labor Day

The line was short at the Blue Marsh Lake Dry Brooks Boat Ramp in Bern Township when the Martin family of Pine Grove, Schuylkill County arrived about 9 Monday morning to launch two small motorboats.

A few times each summer, Lyndon and JoAnn Martin and their children get away from the farm. They’ll hitch the boats to a pickup truck and a van, respectively, and head south on Route 183 to the lake in western Berks County for activities that include fishing, playing on the sandy beach and picnicking.

Even farmers sometimes get to enjoy a leisurely day on Labor Day.

Elvin Martin, 16, of Pine Grove launches a boat with his brothers Arlyn, 13, and David, 10, for a Labor Day outing at Blue Marsh Lake on Monday. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

“We’re dairy farmers,” Lyndon said before backing his pickup truck up to lower the first boat into the water. “We took the day off, as much as a day off you can have when you have a dairy farm.”

Even with two boats, the 11 Martin family members who made the trip would need to take turns riding to the other side of the lake, where the sandy beach awaited.

“Almost all of my children will be here except our oldest,” JoAnn said. “They want to go across and play in the sand. We’ll take turns riding in the boats because we can’t legally be in the boats at the same time.”

Picnickers at Blue Marsh Lake prepare to take to the water for a Labor Day float on Monday. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

The extended weekend thanks to Labor Day, along with almost perfect late-summer weather, made Blue Marsh Recreation Area and the entire, largely publicly owned Tulpehocken Creek corridor a magnet for recreation activities from kayaking to fishing to boating, picnicking and swimming.

Julia Gonzalez and Alejandro Fajardo of the Living God Church in Philadelphia do some Labor Day barbecuing at Blue Marsh Lake. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

Before 11 a.m. at the Dry Brooks Day Use Area the pleasant scent of charcoal fires wafted over the partially shaded slope overlooking the swimming beach. By that time, Alejadro Fajadro and Julia Gonzales had a rack of barbeque chicken almost ready to serve their group of friends and family members who traveled from Philadelphia.

Swimmers enjoy the last day of summer activities at Blue Marsh Lake on Monday. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

The Blue Marsh Lake Church Road Access in North Heidelberg Township was overflowing with parked vehicles around noon.

Some of the vehicles parked there or on the road were hunters utilizing the nearby state game lands along Route 183 for the opening day for doves and geese.

Hunters gather for the opening day of dove and goose season on Monday at State Game Lands 280 at Blue Marsh Lake. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

There were also many paddlers putting in kayaks and stand-up paddleboards as bursts of shotgun blasts erupted in the distance.

Among the paddlers were Rachael Cibroski of Womelsdorf and Kyle Dry of Boyertown. Their outing included five children—Cibroski’s two sons and Dry’s daughter and two sons, ranging in age from teenagers to 4 years old—and required four inflatable paddleboards and a two-person kayak.

“It’s just peaceful,” Cibroski said when asked what she enjoyed about paddleboarding, as she hand-pumped air into a board to prepare it for launch. “You get out and you can sit or stand or lay down.”

Dry and his 4-year-old, Asher, were sharing the two-person kayak.

“It’s just nice to be on the water,” Dry said, looking out on the glistening lake.

Bob Fogelman of Greenfields was jogging on the Union Canal Trail when he spotted a Berks County Parks and Recreation Department poster for a free Labor Day concert of the Ringgold Band in the county Heritage Center in Bern Township.

With nothing else to do, Fogelman thought it would be a great way to spend the rest of the morning.

The Reading-based band is one of America’s first community bands, having formed before the Civil War. At the beginning of the show, band director Charles Ebersole told the audience the program would include familiar classics, symphonic overtures, show tunes, marches, patriotic songs and some pop music.

He didn’t mislead.

The Ringgold Band plays its third annual Labor Day concert on Monday at the Red Bridge in the Berks County Heritage Center. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

Well over 100 people turned out for the concert, which is the third straight year Ringgold Band has performed a Labor Day concert in the park.

Beginning with “America the Beautiful,” accompanied by guest vocalist and recent Antietam High School graduate Ellen Rochlin (whose mother, Heidi, play trumpet in the band), the brass and percussions got rolling with “Nabucco” by Verdi before veering off into pop with a foot-tapping, guitar-less Eric Clapton song medley that ended with (you guessed it) “Layla.”

Jere Redcay of Robesonia plays the timpani during the Ringgold Band’s third annual Labor Day concert on Monday at the Red Bridge in the Berks County Heritage Center. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

Facing hillside that serves as a natural amphitheater, with their backs to the biking and hiking trail and the Tulpehocken Creek, band members including percussionist Jere Redcay, who has been a member fore more than 50 years, couldn’t have performed in a much more beautiful setting.

Sue Eshelman of Birdsboro, who works as a volunteer for the county parks and recreation department, said she has seen The Ringgold Band perform many times, but the Heritage Center is her favorite setting.

“I have family in the band so it’s good to come out,” she said. “The park is so beautiful and not a lot of people know it’s here, so it’s nice to see them in a beautiful setting.”