[at-l] pulaskis, ham supper and wolves

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Not quite a trail report -
We had a somewhat different trail care weekend this time.  KTA's September 
trip was on the Conestoga Trail down in Lancaster County, PA.  I've only 
hiked a short segment of that trail, and as it turned out that was the one 
we worked on Saturday -- the segment above the river, near Pequea, with the 
great views.  There were some washouts, so we dug some sidehill to make it 
safer and clipped and lopped a four mile stretch.  We arrived back at camp, 
filthy and hungry, to learn that everyone else had already gone to dinner - 
at the local Mennonite church.  It was the day of their annual Ham Supper - 
so off we went, in all our dirt (though we did manage to wash our hands and 
faces at the gas station) to join the local Mennonite community for a 
wonderful supper of ham, potatoes, green beans, corn, coleslaw, and a 
dessert tray.  They fed almost 900 people that evening, but I suppose the 20 
of us were among the oddest.  The dinner was hiker friendly though - family 
style and plenty of it.  Sunday we worked on a couple of sections that were 
less wild than the Tucquan Glen area -- we lopped a stretch along a 
river/creek behind some apartment buildings and then cleared a couple of 
downed trees with handsaws in a county park (which doesn't allow "amateurs" 
to use chain saws).  As usual, we ended the work early and decided to accept 
the invitation to check out a local wolf sanctuary.  That was really cool.  
They have taken in wolves that were abused or abandoned (evidently it is 
legal to own a wolf in PA and MD, but many people find they're not that as 
easy to care for as a domestic dog).  Some of the wolves have bred.  Their 
idea is to keep them as wild as possible - lots of land to run in (but 
fenced), they live in packs and while they are fed (dog food and venison 
during hunting season), they aren't domesticated.  They were beautiful!  
There were about 30 wolves - black, white, grey and mixed.  Some were very 
friendly, howling hello, others hid in the grass and watched us watching 
them.  I have always loved wolves (since reading Farley Mowat's "Never Cry 
Wolf") and have only ever seen one truly wild wolf, so it was a real treat 
to see these, even if they are only semi-wild.  See 
http://www.paonline.com/wolfsanc/
It was a good weekend.
Ginny

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp