Saturday, February 19, 2011

About Our Full-Moon Hike 2/18/11


Good Morning Fellow NCTr's:

About our two-and-a-half mile, full moon hike to Booth Hill on the North Country Trail last evening:

- Bill introduced a friend - Eric, from Poland, OH - to the NCT, so the OH crew wasn't outnumbered by the PA folks. Welcome Eric!

- Tim was spot on on the weather forecast. A bit windy at the trailhead but a very pleasant evening to be in the woods with 360 degree clear skys for taking in the views. The woods were bright enough to walk the trail without a flashlight.

- You can see A BUNCH of sky from the top of Booth Hill and although the moon was bright there were many stars also visible. Tim had an amazing app on his phone that allows the user to hold it up to the sky and it identifies the stars and constellations. Cool stuff!

- "Moon Shadow Shows" - ie, strangling someone's shadow, or hitting their shadow over the head with a hiking pole shadow, are never not funny. That was the low-tech entertainment for the evening.

- I've never been on Booth Hill at night in the winter before. There are some good views off the side of the hill towards Negley and the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek.

- The warmer weather of the past few days has brought many nocturnal critters out of hibernation. On the drive to and from the gamelands I almost ran over two possums and a fox (no, the three of them weren't travelling together).

- I was able to get a few photos of our excursion, starting here.

Good time - thanks to Bill, Eric, Tim, Lee, and Eleanor for making trip out. We'll plan on doing it again in the warmer months.

Dave

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Switching To Plan B For 2/20/2011 - Adding Plan A




Good Evening Fellow NCTr's:

I received the message below from Tim Ramsey - He sold me! Definitely something to consider, so adding Plan A to the weekend mix. Booth Hill at Gamelands 285 is the place on our piece of the NCT to see the most sky so I'll be taking off from the state line (RT 251/Blackhawk Road) trailhead at 8:00 PM tomorrow - Friday the 18th. If you'd like to come along you may need a flashlight to walk the 3/4 of a mile of woods to get up to the clear area on the hill.

Hope you can make it out for this walk tomorrow evening!

Dave
330 531-1623


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Timothy Ramsey
Date: Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:59 AM
Subject: RE: Switching To Plan B 2/20/11
To: Wampum Chapter



Hi Dave,



Weather.com shows no rain for Friday night and total clearing by 9:00 pm when you just might see the northern lights due to the biggest solar storm hitting us since 1994. Something to consider???



Tim Ramsey






Good Afternoon Fellow NCTr's:

Plan A was to do a full-moon hike on the North Country Trail this Friday evening but the forecast for "cloudy, windy, and chance of rain" has put the kibosh (sp?) on that (at least for me!). So . . . now implementing Plan B, which is to head out to Gamelands 285 for a Sunday afternoon exursion. One of the projects we were working on last year was to repaint all of the blazes there, and we almost accomplished it, except for the section of trail between the clearcut and Booth Hill. Sunday afternoon's forecast calls for temps in the 40's and it should be a good day to try to get some more of that section worked on.

The plan is to meet at 2:00 PM on Sunday the 20th at the Game Commission gated road, which is about a mile south of the Watt's Mill trailhead on Watt's Mill Rd (link to map is below), and then walk on out to the clearcut area of the trail, working southwards from there. If you'd like to join me for a couple or three hours of painting trees I have plenty of paint, brushes, and scrapers. If painting isn't your thing just come on out Sunday and enjoy the NCT.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

February 12th Excursion to Gateway/Mines and Meadows


Good Evening Fellow NCTr's:

An EXCELLENT day today on the North Country Trail! The sun was out, the wind died down as the afternoon went on, and the temperature SOARED to about thirty degrees. We did about four miles out and back at Gateway and Mines and Meadows (the whole way to the Gamelands), and along the way planted a new blaze post in the field above Route 18, cleared a couple of branches and lots of grapevine that had fallen on the pathway, checked out the Chewton vista spur trail, and carried out some surprise attacks on the poison ivy vines and multifloral rose. We also considered the possibility of a short reroute up on the bench at Gateway, one that will offer a nice view.

It appears that we were the first ones out on that section of trail since the last snowfall so the going was slow, but with six people hiking today, and professional trail-breakers in attendance, the trail is now much easier to walk.

Thanks to Jake Erhardt, Doug Turner, Rick Ostheimer, Lee Fairbanks, and Eleanor Fairbanks for taking the walk out there with me today and doing the heavy lifting (and trailbeaking, and digging, and lopping, cutting, and pruning.) Some photos from today's hike start here .

Thanks for all you do for the trail!

Dave Brewer
Trail Work Coordinator

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Saturday 2-12 Maintenance Hike


For me, a new 12 megapixel camera, knowledge of a missing blaze post, a decent(er) looking weather forecast, a much-deserved night off from work, and a strong desire to get outside all come together to make the elements of a maintenance hike on the North Country Trail this upcoming Saturday afternoon.

If you are interested in joining me I'll be taking off from the Route 18 trailhead in Wampum at 2:00 to replace the blaze post in the field just above the bridge and then walk on up through Gateway, Mines and Meadows, and Gamelands 148 to see what the blowdown situation is like. I'd also like to find out if we've had any ATV activity on the trail in that area.

Hope you can make it out on Saturday. It should be a nice two or three mile walk with some nice views out over the Beaver River Valley. The depth of the snow on the trail (and therefore, the ease of walking) will determine just how far I'll (we'll) be going.

Map

Dave Brewer