[at-l] Weekend Hiking

[greyowl@rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

In two weeks I am off on a weekend hike (20 miles) and I find 
myself in pretty poor physical shape.  I had all of last week off as i 
took my children back to school. This allowed me to take some 
long walks and one of the more interesting ones was along the 
Lehigh Canal Towpath to Lehigh Gap.  This was an AMC 
sponsored hike and the leader of the hike was the chairperson of 
the trail maintenance committee.  When we got to the Gap I notice 
the same old bare rock.  They were suppose to seed the area 
arounf the trail and in fact the trail was suppose to be closed for 
two weeks while they were seeding.  

So here is the story.

They were going to drop the seed, mixed in dehydrate sewge 
sludge, from a bucket slung underneath a helicopter.  They had 
some doubts about the effectiveness of the method (works well 
when dropping water on fires) so they decide to do a test run.  Well 
the material was so light is was sucked up into the prop wash and 
ended up coating the helicopter.  I understand that it was a pretty 
disgusting mess.  They are now looking for an alternate method of 
spreding this material out.  

Happy Hiking

Bob Dudley