Winter 2011

2012 Annual STC Winter Frolic

Photo by Curt Weinhold

When: Saturday February 18, 2011

Dinner: Begins at 6:00 PM

Price: $12.00 per person

Where: Gold Church

Route 449

Genesee, PA 16923

Menu: Chicken Corn Cole Slaw Dinner Rolls Mashed Potatoes Macaroni and Cheese Dessert

RSVP: Saturday February 4, 2011

Program: Hiking the Evergreen State by Pat Childs

The Susquehannock Trail Club‘s annual Winter Frolic will be held Saturday February 18, 2011. It‘s Presidents Day weekend! That means it‘s a weekend for us to escape all the political banter and ads by getting outside to enjoy a weekend of adventure in northcentral Pennsylvania!

Day activities are still being planned. Stay tuned to our website for detailed information. In the evening, the club will gather at the Gold Church for dinner catered by Downey‘s Restaurant in Ulysses, PA

A short STC business meeting will follow the dinner. The evening program will a presentation by Club member and hiking enthusiast Pat Childs about her hiking adventures in Washington state.

We hope to see you there!

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ALONG THE TRAIL By Wil Ahn

Years ago I was hunting with two good friends, Larry Peterson and Ed Vandegrift. It was the latter part of the hunting season for buck deer and we were walking out the Billy Brown Trail behind Susquehannock Lodge. I was leading on our way to take stands in ―Hidden Valley.‖

Near the Drumater Trail, Larry said, ―There are some deer down there on the hill watching us.‖

Ed and I asked where, and Larry said, ―Over there in those beech saplings.‖

Ed and I looked in that direction but couldn‘t see any deer. As we watched for a few minutes, the deer moved and we saw that they were three does. The yellow leaves still hanging on the beech brush had camouflaged the deer. I wondered how Larry could see the deer while Ed and I could not.

Then Ed the joker said, ―It pays to be color blind.‖

Sure enough, Larry said he was color blind, and the deer looked kind of green to him. Needless to say, we had a great time kidding Larry about the green deer.

Many years later in September 2003, I led a day hike through the Hammersley Wild Area on the Susquehan-nock Trail System. We hiked from the McConnell Road to Cross Fork, a distance of about 10 miles. We had about a dozen hikers that day including Larry and Diane Peterson and their daughter Christa. Christa is a grown-up lady now, but I remember her when she was just a kid climbing in my apple tree at Susquehannock Lodge.

Somewhere along the trail in the vicinity of Road Hollow, Larry said, ―Look! There‘s a buck‘s antlers.‖

We all looked in the direction he was pointing his walking stick, but I only saw a pile of branches a short distance off the trail. No one else saw the antlers until Larry walked over and pulled away the branches from around the antlers. The antlers were still attached to the skull and part of the animal‘s backbone. No hide or flesh remained—only bones. It was a nice eight-

point rack. Had the buck been shot and wounded by a hunter, get away, escape being found, and die in the woods? That is a mystery to this day.

Larry held the remains of the deer upright against a tree with his walking stick, and Diane took a picture of it.

Once again we kidded Larry about being color blind, because only he could see those hidden antlers. But I marveled at his eyesight.

Larry and Diane have long dreamed of a trip to Alaska. As I write this, they are now in Anchorage, AK. I just got a post card from them. They are having a great trip and on their way to Denali. When they get home, we will hear many stories of their trip. I wonder if Larry will see a green grizzly bear.

‗Nuf set. See you along the trail.

Wil

2011 Wild Game/Harvest Dinner Randy Cimino at the PCT Mexican border

Photo submitted by Randy Cimino

The 2011 Wild Game/Harvest Dinner was held at the Gold Church with 26 members attending. Club members shared several home-made dishes as well as the occasional ones professionally prepared.

The entertainment was provided by STC member Randy Cimino of Roulette, PA who shared pictures from his six-month end-to-end hike on the Pacific Crest Trail while contrasting this experience with an earlier end-to-end hike on the Appalachian trail.

After the slide show, Randy displayed some of the gear he uses on his long distance hikes. He explained that long distance hikers quickly learn to eliminate as much weight as possible from their packs. He offered a number of ―insider tips‖ such that seemingly trivial decisions, like the color of your gear, can sometimes be life saving.

Future issues of the Susquehannock Hiker will contain stories of Randy‘s long-distance hiking adventures.

Photo by Diane Peterson

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Winter Hammock Hanging in the PA Quehanna Wild Area By Chris Bell

It‘s been some time since I reported any of my activities in the PA Wilds. I have been desperate to use my new snow shoes. This past weekend I had hoped to do so as the first hand reports were of 15 inches of snow with a light 1/2 inch crust near the Quehanna Wild Area of PA.

Problem being that last Friday it was some 50 degrees and the days prior were above freezing. No snowshoeing for me but I did take them to hopefully try them out. However, I did take the challenge of going into PA's largest wild area. Although it is crisscrossed with many trails and roads, there is every type of wild creature to view there from the smallest mouse to a large elk. I saw both.

The weekend was just great. Had some time early Friday to drive around and review the area near the Wykoff Run and Quehanna Trail crossings for a possible loop hike this year. It was a warm but wet slushy day. The camp area I went to was a mix of no snow under some trees to heavy snow and some deep water from melt off collecting in pools.

I utilize an 8 X 10 foot tarp for over head protection and with the ends closed facing the wind. This is quite effective and I rarely feel any movement of air inside. The hammock itself is insulated underneath by an under quilt with some 4 inches of down loft. Quite warm and instantly heats you when sitting or lying in the hammock. When lying on a diagonal to the line of the hammock there is a flat area which does not stress the knees but is very comfortable.

For Friday night, a new cold front was soon on the way and with it wind gusts projected to be in excess of 45 mph. I wandered off to the hammock after an evening of eating

and star gazing. Home at the close of the day.

I was not disappointed with a calm evening. The wind came and howled relentlessly. Just when you thought, gee, that was pretty loud and horrendous!‖ a new gust would come and surpass the prior. As viewed from under the protection of the tarp, patterns of full moon light moved about its surface as the trees bent to the wind.

By morning I came out of the hammock safe and sound, although a bit haggard and dark around the eyes. It was a comfortable night hanging there, but difficult to sleep with all the noise around me. Short day hikes and a peach cobbler sure took the edge off things.

Saturday night had its share of wind now and then but it was quiet enough to hear the scary critters of the woods. The stomping and snorting of a deer is one familiar thing to listen to. But the effect is quite different when coming from an elk close by. Trust me. Scary noises like snoring can also be unsettling. I am told I do snore although I have never stayed awake to find out.

Sunday I awoke at 6 AM which is sleeping in 2 hours for me. I lay there in stillness with no wind and about 17 degrees. Just a nice quiet start waiting on the rising sun. I stayed in the hammock long enough for daylight to make it easier to see what I was doing. Took down camp and headed on out early for a nice drive back up north. I was greeted by the warming sunlit mountains that descend and touch the first waters of the Sinnemahoning.

Today on Monday, I shoveled about 15 inches of new snow. About 3 hours of more fun than I should legally be allowed to have. Maybe I will have time to even use those new snowshoes….

Photo submitted by Chris Bell Photo submitted by Chris Bell

Quehannah Wild Area Trying to keep warm

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2011 Trail Maintenance Summary By Bill Boyd, STC Trail Maintenance Chairman

Our 2011 trail maintenance season started off as usual with Boy Scout Troop 432 of Jonestown, PA making their very early spring STS maintenance trip to Potter County. The troop maintains a 20-mile stretch of the STS from Ole Bull State Park to the Shephard Road. Due to the amount of snow on the ground and a temperature of 8° F. the morning of March 26, they didn't make it all the way through their section that weekend.

Normally they would have been the first crew out of the gate, but Joe Allis had started his year in January. Joe had been out in mid-January and laid out some new cross-country ski connector routes to the White Line Trail, and also spent a few hours working in Jacob Hollow.

Things really picked up in April, with Jerry Johnston and Mary Lou Parker starting work on the Hogback section. Pat Childs and her father, Clair Almeter, cleared some of the trail from the Prouty Lick Road to the Rock Ridge Road. I checked three of my shorter sections, and Chris Bell did his Fire Tower Trail. Joe Wiskerski and Lois Morey cleared the Seed Study Trail, Wanda Shirk and John Zimmer worked from the Wild Boy Road to the East Fork Road, and Scoutmaster Charlie Kern of Troop 432 was back at it on the troop‘s 20-mile stretch.

By early May, Lowell and Barb Luft traveled from Columbia, PA, to spend three days on the section from Short Run to Ole Bull Park. They also returned in late June and went through that section again. Bob and Helen Bernhardy of Wellsboro, PA, worked on the segment from Lyman Run to the Sunken Branch Road. Jerry and Mary Lou, along with Daryl Warren cleared some of the upper Hammersley, and Joe and Barb Allis worked on the lower half. And Gary Buchanan and Gene Neefe cleared the stretch from the Prouty Lick Road to Patterson Park.

On April 30, 2011 fourteen of us dug about 1,000 feet of the new Lyman Run Park Connector Trail along the side hill on the south side of Lyman Run. The original trail cut through waterfowl nesting areas in the riparian zone along the stream and lake shore. This link ties into the STS at the intersection of the Fish and B&S trails.

On May 21, we were back and dug another 600 feet, and on October 22 we finished the job. The crew included STC members Wayne Baumann, Bob Bernhardy, Bill Boyd, Joe Boyd, Art Huber, Tim Morey, Gene Neefe, Marti Quigley, Lewis Russell, Wanda Shirk, and Curt Weinhold. Other volunteers were Kyle Franklin, Kathy Hengen, Joe Lewis, Veronica Martin, Lorie Olear, Ann Reinhart, Greg Snowman, Scott Taylor, and Kay Williams.

In June we started work on the West Branch Crossover Trail. This is approximately five miles of mostly an old Civilian Conservation Corps trail along the West Branch of Pine Creek that had become severely overgrown over the past seven decades. The link provides a 23-mile loop from the Northern Gateway for those who don‘t have time for a full circuit hike. Brushing out was finally completed in mid-August, and involved Joe Allis, Wayne Baumann, Bill Boyd, Gary Buchanan, Art Huber, Jerry Johnston, Mary Lou Parker, Bob Ross, Wanda Shirk, Curt Weinhold, and. John Zimmerman. We put around 280 man hours into this project, and held a celebratory hike on September 24, 2011.

In between all of this we managed to get many other areas cleared, some re-blazing done, nine posts set, about 17 new signs installed, and a start on a major relocation of the combined STS-Donut Hole Trail in Long Hollow. (See separate articles in this and the Fall 2011 issue for details of that project.)

Jerry Johnston and Mary Lou Parker are by far the front runners when it comes to hours, having between them over 300 hours on the trail (166 and 140 respectively). We don't do this work for the fame and fortune of course, but we should recognize efforts such as this. This pair not only spent time clearing the Hogback Trail, but also worked at many other locations along the STS, helped with blazing, setting posts and signs, digging new trail, and clearing blowdowns.

My apologies if I have missed anyone. We were fortunate to have upwards of 54 people working on the trails this year. We feel that we've had a very productive year, with getting a crossover trail cleared, some sections re-routed, and some decent maintenance of the STS. And the great thing is, next year we get to do it all over again. It doesn't get any better than that!

Final total for 2011: 1,434 hours—972 hours of actual work time, and 472 hours of travel time to get to the trail.

Next Newsletter

Deadline The spring edition of the STC Newsletter will go to press March 19, 2012. Email your articles to info@stc-hike.org no later than Wednesday March 10, 2012. If you‘d prefer, you can also mail them to PO Box B, Robinson, PA 15949, by March 4, 2011.

March 10

mailto:info@stc-hike.org

Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944 5

Long Hollow Trail Upgrade (Continued from Last Issue)

By Tom Fitzgerald

Background: Long Hollow, located on the Potter-Clinton county line, is part of the boundary between the Susque-hannock and Sproul state forests. The trail in this hollow is a link in the far southern edge of the Susquehannock Trail system. It‘s also a link in the Sproul State Forest‘s Donut Hole Trail. The trail was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the latter half of the 1930s. Long Hollow is a narrow, steep-sided valley whose bottom is barely wider than the stream. The CCC constructed their Long Hollow Trail almost on the stream bank, and the occasional flash floods during the past seven decades have washed away most of the footpath in the bottom third of the hollow. (The stream in upper Long Hollow is intermittent and subterranean, and has not eroded the original footpath there.) The bottom end of the hollow is also prime habitat for stinging nettles. Summer hikers—especially those wearing shorts—find picking their way up the rocky streambed an itchy experience.

In March 2011, I was asked by the manager of the Sproul State Forest if the Susquehannock Trail Club could provide some volunteer assistance in relocating and constructing a new footpath in the lower end of Long Hollow far enough up on the hillside to be above any future flash floods. They told me the budgetary and personnel situation this year prevented the district from doing it themselves. I said that we would do it, plus construct a 100-foot sample of new footpath to CCC standards (as wide as the length of a pick-handle) as a model for whatever volunteers the Sproul District could bring in later to work on the job.

During the spring, I laid out a proposed route for the new footpath, the Sproul Forest District approved it, and I returned later and marked the route with orange paint blazes to prevent it from being lost if the flagging disappeared before the new footpath was built. I chose the Sproul State Forest side of the hollow because (1) the small parking spot is located on that side of the stream, (2) the hillside is slightly less steep on that side, and (3) it was the Sproul district who asked our club to help.

During the spring and summer, the STC trail crew was occupied with a another trail relocation—the connector link to Lyman Run Park—so I went down to Long Hollow by myself and checked out the terrain. I quickly learned that the surface of the hillside was littered with semi-flat stones too big to rake, but small enough to lift by hand. I spent most of my time picking and stacking rocks. After two short days, I had built only 38 feet of pick handle-width trail.

Eventually the Lyman Run project was finished, and the STC trail crew wanted to keep our Long Hollow 100-foot promise before the end of the year. A break in the weather was predicted for Friday, November 18, so on that day nine of us met at Carter Camp and car-pooled in three pickup trucks the rest of the way to Long Hollow. (The Long Hollow parking spot is big enough for only three vehicles.)

The club members consisted of STC President Wanda Shirk, Vice President Wayne Baumann, Trail Maintenance Committee Chairman Bill Boyd, along with club members Joe Boyd, Jerry Johnston, Mary Lou Parker, Lewis Russell, and myself. We also assisted by John Livermore, a guest from Honeoye Falls, NY.

STC President Wanda Shirk lifts a rock while Lewis Russell and

Mary Lou Parker wait to place it along the outer edge of the trail.

Photo by Tom Fitzgerald

The hillside was covered with a light skiff of snow which had almost melted off by noon. The crew made their way, slipping and sliding up the steep pitch from the parking spot to the short previously-dug stretch where the footing was better. From there they charged out in both directions along the paint blazes and attacked the rocky hillside with gusto. By the end of three hours, close to 150 yards of new footpath had been roughed in, more than a hundred feet of it to CCC standards as promised! That was far more than I thought we could do. Everyone was tired and happy, and we decided to call it a day. No sense in turning a fun work detail into a grueling ordeal. Several of the crew want to come back in the spring and hit it again.

The most time-consuming part of the footpath was the initial pitch from the parking spot up to the level where the trail maintains about the same gradient as the stream below. Several more hours of effort are going to have to be spent on that first pitch. We‘re pretty sure that spring will also reveal some needed touch-up on the work we‘ve

Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944 6

done. Some caving of the bank on the uphill edge of the trail is expected at the soil finds its ―angle of repose.‖ A winter‘s worth of freezing, thawing, and settling of the soil will show us high spots to be knocked off, sinkholes to be filled in, and narrow stretches to be widened out to the length of a pick handle.

One disappointment: there were no good GPS readings, even with the trees bare. I had hoped to get latitude and longitude coordinates at the point where the new footpath tapers into the original CCC trail above the flash flood zone in the lower hollow. But during the few hours we were there, most of the navigational satellites were behind the hills. We‘ll try again in the early spring. If we still can‘t get good readings, we can always resort to old-fashioned methods with compass and chain tape.

Most of the new trail is covered with lots of rocks and very little soil. More soil between the rocks would help future vegetation (other than nettles) get a better foothold. Someone threw out the thought that if trail users could be inspired to carry in bags of soil and spread it over the rocks as they hike through, the club might be able to recognize them with a special ―STS Dirt-Bagger‖ award. A committee has not been appointed to explore the idea, draw up requirements, and suggest a design for a suitable certificate and patch.

STS Circuit Hiker Award Congratulations to the following for completing the circuit, and in turn earning the Circuit Hiker Award!

1017 Richard Dunn Pittsburgh, PA

1022 Robert Bovard Wynantskill, NY

1018 Donna Hoffman Pittsburgh, PA

1023 Mark Ferwerda Linthieum, MD

1019 Hugh Gale Massillon, OH

1024 Steve Mandl Jamestown, PA

1020 Molly Bovard Quakertown, PA

1025 Jeff Mandl Palmyra, PA

1021 Jacob Bovard Quakertown, PA

For more information or ―insider tips‖ on the Circuit Hiker Award, you may contact the club at PO Box 643 Coudersport, PA 16915 or email to info@stc-hike.org.

Election Time Every two years, the Susquehannock Trail Club elects officers. Nominations are usually taken at the March meeting, and ballots included in the spring edition of the newsletter. This year, several officers are retiring, and we are trying something new. We are inviting all members to submit nominations for each office. The requirements and duties of each office are described below.

Please read over the requirements of each office, and suggest the name of an STC member whom you believe would be able to serve in that office in a responsible manner. Each nominee will be contacted to find out if he/she is willing and able to serve. If the answer is yes, that person‘s name will appear on the ballot.

PRESIDENT – The president presides at club meetings and makes sure that business is conducted in an orderly manner. In between meetings, he/she may occasionally be called upon to make executive decisions in consultation with the Advisory Council

VICE-PRESIDENT – The Vice-President presides at meetings in the absence of the president, and assumes the office of President upon the death or resignation of the President.

SECRETARY – The Secretary records the minutes of each club meeting, and is responsible for all correspondence between the club and outside parties. The Secretary must be able to hear well in the presence of background noise, live close enough to Coudersport to check the post office box on a frequent basis, and be able to correspond in writing clearly and concisely.

TREASURER – The Treasurer receives money from dues and the sale of merchandise, deposits the money in the club‘s bank account, pays club bills, provides a current financial statement at each club meeting, and files the necessary forms pertaining to the club‘s tax-exempt status in a timely fashion.

ARCHIVIST – The Archivist maintains all records of the club‘s past activities in an organized fashion.

ADVISORY COUNCIL – The Advisory Council consists of three club members not holding one of the above offices. Their duties are to advise the club‘s officers on any action that needs to be taken between the regular monthly meetings.