1/2003 Page 1 of 2
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. Comments on word usage are welcomed.
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August 2001, I arrive at the camping spot 5:30 AM and block her car with mine so I can not "over sleep". I have all the bases covered, thinking I know the camping spot but not wanting them to leave on me when I go looking for them in the morning, One has to take a risk with the rangers not finding you when arriving at 5:30 am. I'm so smart, on so little sleep, Now if I was only smart enough not to get lost getting here. Oh! well, I went a new way zzzzzzz sleep.
I wake up to my "two alarm" call that's two alarm clocks and not being able to figure out which one is making all that noise. Try one and then the other and then back again as I can not comprehend how to turn them off. Hearing is not so good on 2 hours of sleep. |
from the road at Bear Rocks. 9-1990 |
I meet Susan Bly our trip leader. Since this is a stream trip I call her
Captain Bly as a memory aid. She does not think it funny, must be old.
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Off we go on the strangest route starting from the Laneville Game Cabin. I being in the back, (drivers always are) I assume this is the x-stream thing, as we follow slightly different paths through a little private all lady's camping spot and their equipment pile (cooking area?). All six of us that is. |
I can just see the thought...... how
dare they mess up our little freshly rain washed, very private,
stream side beach with tracks all over everywhere. No follow the leader there,
just scatter and regroup. We continue checking out every corner finding the
trail in time to spot the turn off for Big Stonecoal Run.
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Big Stonecoal Run
I hike the flood zone bank taking pictures with a point and shoot that most likely will never come out, too dark here. When I make a comment about how great hiking off trail is. I get the reply like....John - You're supposed to hike the boulders! That is what it is all about! Oh! Heaven here I come. Soon we get to the point where there is only one possible route ending my debate about the easy way vs. the fun way. |
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Along the way, the waterfalls get bigger and better with brown tannic acid and white foam. The foam sits on the water forever, since there are bark and other objects on top of the 2 to 5 inch high suds. The stuff is even gritty.
So much for dreaming of coming back and skinny-dipping through that stuff. I set a block of foam free and it floats with the current, bumping into rocks like a toy boat and disappears. Oh well, they have left me, quit dreaming. Quick, get up with the rest of the group. This is getting to be like hiking with the mileage counting AT jock hiker types. |
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I'm at the tail of the group and I notice they seem to favor the xxx mountain laurel route. What me proud, this is not Seneca Rocks, hang on the roots and use those knees. (Can't see those feet anyway these days.) Now I'm in front and waste the advantage waiting for them for safety reasons.
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I can't see them in the mountain laurel, but sure can hear them. The noise is the result of their paranoid from getting lost and separated in the mountain laurel yesterday. Twice I am able to skip by the group that way.
Ops, someone has led me in to a too exposed dead end spot for me. I lose 50 feet in elevation or was that 100 feet? Drat, at the end again.