Shenandoah National Park, July 27, 2017 — It’s been a routine summer. Personal business has kept me off the trails for the most part. Everything else has gone as planned.
My section of the Appalachian Trail has had its hair cut twice. That’s six to seven hours running a string trimmer 1.3 miles up Compton Peak and 1.3 miles back. The back ache, the sweat and the heat have been chronicled in this space before.
There’s a spring on this section about two-thirds of the way to the top of Compton Peak. It’s a favorite place for hikers to stop and eat lunch seated in the dirt.
A storm dropped a tree near the spring about six weeks ago. It was on the ground, and an easy step-over, so not an immediate priority. Park rules to not permit sawyers to chainsaw alone. So, Thursday I arranged for an off duty ridgrunner to swamp for me.
We sawed the log into an appropriate length, wedged it between some trees, and made this bench on which hikers can sit while eating lunch. We tried it out and it worked perfectly.
The wildlife is abundant. The soft mast, mast being what you call bear food, is going to be plentiful this year. The blackberries, wine berries and apple crop are prolific.
Best of all, found a source for Long Trail Ale near my house!!!!
Sisu
Another job well done !!! Have another ale !!! Hope all went well at home. I hope to be on trail in NJ mid August. Just got back from 8 day on water canoe / camping trip in BWCA. Canoe campers sure do take along a lot of stuff !!!!
Don’t you know! Thought you might return to Maine.
I really would like to but the air fare is is to high for me to pay right now to Maine. A lot cheaper to drive to NJ.
I understand and appreciate that fact.
Hey Jim. Good to see you again. Quick trips can be refreshing. We got out yesterday for a quick hike near our local reservoir. I had been sick with a flu the week before. It was good to be out again in fresh air. We also encountered a down tree across the trail. Three of them. They weren’t too old as the leaves were still kind of greenish. I sent an email to the park admin saying they needed attention along with some nasty erosion damage. They probably already knew about it.
Jim, Glad to hear you’re still there. I’m not receiving either your or Melanie’s posts anymore. My wife had a knee replaced which has kept me totally occupied all summer. I’m having another hand surgery in time to recover before her second knee is done. Truly what a pain.
Wow! Things can get complicated very quickly. I hope her knee is coming along ok. You two will be glad when this year is over and you both don’t have surgeries to face.
Are you not receiving our posts because you are busy? Or, don’t have the links? We can fix the latter. 🙂
They came to my email. At some point they stopped. I tried to resubscribe to no avail.
I’ll look into that.
You are listed as a follower of both blogs. The Our View shows you for 3 yrs and 8 mo. The How I See It shows you for 2 mo and a few days.
Nothing was changed for either blog. I’m not sure what to suggest. You already tried to resubscribe. Did you check your email spam folder for them?
I may have to unsubscribe and resubscribe. And to think that we are going to trust software to drive our cars …
Was that a butterfly? The detail was such that I thought it was a bird.
It was a butterfly.