[at-l] Art and logging on the AT

["cosmo catalano, jr." <Cosmo.A.Catalano@williams.edu>]

As I headed onto the trail yesterday to check out some logging 
activity by an abuttor south of Dalton, I ran into two of the 
strangest/most interesting trail users I can recall.

Just north of the Blotz Road crossing, I saw this strange thing 
traveling towards me over the footpath, at first I though it was a 
ferret, but it was too large, and last I'd heard Feelix was hiking in 
Indiana w/ some rock and roll offspring.  The creature and I both 
arrived at opposite ends of the bog bridge at the same time.  It was 
a Daschsund, its legs couldn't have been more than 2" long.  Pretty 
weird trail dog.  It was friendly, and we got acquainted.  I really 
wanted to see the hiker who had a dog like this!

Sure enough they quickly came into view.  Three women in their 
30/40's, fairly stout, in sneakers, shorts and smelling of Skin So 
Soft.  I could tell they weren't thru hikers.  Oddly, they were each 
carrying a piece of tree trunk, and one had a small bow saw.  For a 
second the "log lady" flashed in my confused brain.  Turns out these 
three were locals, looking for wood for craft projects.  Apparently 
they use strange/interestingly shaped pieces of wood to create 
centerpieces or kincknacks of some sort.  I introduced myself and 
explained that they shouldn't take anything from the AT lands, and 
asked them to find another location to "harvest".  They were 
friendly, but I think they'll be back.  However, I don't think I call 
the En-Con Police and report them.Shaking may head, I continued up 
the trail; that was not the logging operation I was looking for.

Shortly after my encounter with the three ladies and the wiener dog, 
I rounded a curve and saw a youngish guy sitting on a chair pretty 
much right on the trail.  His back was turned to me and I could see 
he was hunched over something in front of him.  His jacket was hung 
on a nearby tree, and a day pack lay on the ground behind him.  He 
was very focused on whatever he was doing, and didn't look up as I 
approached.  As I came along side him, I noticed he had a desk in 
front of him--a very nifty three legged folding desk.  Then I noticed 
the desk had a 2" thick slab of stone on it and he was drawing on the 
stone.  He was making a lithographic plate of the Hemlock woods that 
this portion of the trail passed through.  Neat!  I found out that to 
make a lithographic print, the artist draws on the stone with a 
special grease pencil, very finely pointed.  In the printing process, 
the grease repels the ink, so wherever there is grease on the stone, 
the paper color shows through on the print.  Essentialy he had to 
draw a negative of what he wanted to print.  The desk had an interior 
compartment that held the stone securely inside for travel, and with 
the legs  folded up, the whole thing packed out.  I was impressed.

I eventually found the logging operation we had been notified about, 
the closest tree marked for harvest was about five feet from our 
(yours and mine) well marked corridor boundary (thank you, Monitors), 
and that was more than 2500 ft from the foot path.  Your tax dollars 
at work!


Cosmo
* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================