The Treehouse Blog

The past few days were a pretty good start to the pleasant part of weather in PA. I’ve hiked more than 20 miles over the past few days – 11 with Doug on the Appalachian between Caledonia and Big Flat on Thursday, 5 with my sister around Snowy Mountain on Friday, and 7 with Chris around the Thousand Stairs on Saturday. And on top of that, I managed to get a few things done around the house, too.

Chris and I took a hike on a dead-end road on Bower Mountain last evening. On the way back, I saw a bear crossing the road in front of us at the power line right-of-way. I brought this to Chris’s attention and we both reached for our cell phone cameras too slowly – the bear picked up a bit of speed, perhaps in response to us. We were around 200 feet away. It wasn’t totally unexpected to see a bear, but it was a first-time experience for me while on a random hike in the area.

This past weekend I went camping at Cowan’s Gap with Doug and family. The somewhat colder than normal weather wasn’t much of an issue, with the furnace in Doug‘s pop-up camper keeping temperatures comfortable throughout the nights. Activities included walking up to the overlook, past the remnants of a landslide. I had been up there some years ago, during an excursion from Rhodes Grove. We also walked the Three Mile Trail, which also had some nice views, but was somewhat of a misnomer at about a mile and a half in length (“round trip” excuses notwithstanding). And I would be remiss not to mention a few fire-related incidents that lead (separately) to an eighth inch hole in my jacket, and some molten boot tread for Doug‘s father-in-law.

The weather this week has been just great. And I’ve even had the opportunity to take advantage of it. Sunday, I had a family picnic which I used as an excuse for a rather long hike up and down a mountain.

On Tuesday evening, Chris and I walked a 2.5 mile stretch of the Tuscarora Trail that runs along the top of a mountain. Of course, it got dark, the flashlight wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and the return trip was rather interesting. No broken limbs, but lots of scratches and such. This wasn’t your nice dirt road kind of trail either – just rocks and the occasional blaze for much of the trail. The cell phone provided a good deal of light towards the end, despite accidentally calling Tim.

On Wednesday, Ian and I hiked (on a trail that was like a dirt road) almost 9 miles. It was pretty dark at the end, but a lot nicer than stumbling over rocks. It was one of the few times I was with Ian this summer, so we had the chance to catch up on all of the happenings since the Spring semester.

Now, Doug‘s turn should probably be next… but I haven’t decided on the appropriate successor to last summer’s infamous pipeline hike 😉

Getting some stuff done this labor day, or trying to. Washed and vacuumed the car, swapped out the radio for the one from Chris’s car (now I have a working tape deck, woo!), put a tarp over part of the treehouse’s roof (need to put another one there, too), and so forth. This wasn’t all I did though. We had a breakfast picnic for Katelyn’s birthday on Sunday morning (she’ll be 16…) and today I went hiking on the Tuscarora Trail near Cowan’s Gap state park. The view from the overlook was rather dismal, given that it was all fog/cloud, no vista. It did rain a bit on me on the return trip. I took a different route home… and guess what was along the side of the road? No, not a rattlesnake. A coax repeater hut! In a forested area near state forest land! An expedition will be planned shortly, I’m sure.