[at-l] This weekend

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

In the spirit of taking my own advice, I'll talk about hiking for a while.  
We spent the weekend in PA taking our wheel for a walk on the Chuck Keiper 
Trail in North Central PA.  The trail is a figure 8 with the NE loop being a 
little over 20 miles and the SW loop (by actual count this weekend) just 
over 50 clicks.  Overall, it drops into and then cimbs out of 13 separate 
drainages, many of the climbs being 1000' or more.  The overall elevation 
gain for the trail is on the order of 15,000' - not bad for a 50 mile trail. 
  I highly recommend it as a training hike for the AT - we used it as a 
training hike for the CDT.  It worked for us.

We just did the SW loop this weekend - took our time and only did 14 miles 
on Sat.  Then on Sun we got to the new relos (over the last two years), but 
I won't comment on those.  Only did a little over 10 miles on Sun - we were 
out there for 3 days and didn't want to finish too soon.  We finished the 
last 2 climbs on Monday afternoon and then headed home.

Along the way we saw LOTS of deer, porcupine, squirrels, chipmunks, a 
zillion kinds of birds including hawks, turkeys, grouse, goldfinches and an 
indigo bunting, as well as bear, coyote and bobcat scat (among others).  We 
several times had deer come into camp - at least until they found out we 
were still alive.  Yeah - the buzzards thought we were dead, too - but we 
just smelled like it.  It was cool and cloudy on Sat, but really warm and 
sunny the rest of the weekend.

Anyway, beyond the prime purpose (that we both needed a walk) there was an 
ulterior motive here - we needed to wheel the trail so we can finish the 
guidebook.  We did this 4 years ago before we left for the CDT, but between 
trying to get ready for the thruhike and a spacecraft launch and a couple 
other things, it didn't happen.  So now we have what we need to finish it - 
then we can donate it to KTA.

A few little problems cropped up along the way this weekend though - someone 
mentioned "26 blowdowns" in an earlier post (I think it was in reference to 
Whitecap?) - and I almost choked.  We had more than that this weekend - per 
kilometer.  I haven't counted them yet, but it's gonna be a long weekend in 
mid-June trying to clear them all.  The tertiary purpose for the walk was to 
scout the trail conditions for the trail crew that'll be out there in 3 
weeks.  Anyone want to join us?

All in all, we had had a really nice --if somewhat strenuous -- walk in the 
woods, relaxed next to cascading streams, experienced spring for the third 
time this year (it comes late to the northern PA woods - the maples are 
still just starting to leaf out, the ferns barely unfurling, and the main 
wildflowers were violets and trillium, again, though a few azaleas and 
blueberry bushes were starting to bloom) -- and all in all, life felt very 
good.

Walk softly,
Jim

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