Friday, April 27, 2018

We did a quick trip to Lynn’s place in upstate Pennsylvania. Where the internet goes to die. No cell service or internet connection.

I-80 rest stop in the snow. This is late April. Something is wrong here.

We only stayed a few days. First there was no waterpressure. Finally figured out the problem was the water filters. They were clogged with silt. This was like mud. Changing the filters took care of the water pressure but that’s a temporary fix. Silt doesn’t belong in the water system. Then we ran out of heating oil and it was going to be several days before any could be delivered. So we scurried back to Okemos.

The highlight for me was finding the Schools family deer camp, a place we vacationed once as kids. I’m guessing it was originally built in the late 50s or early 60s. Dad wasn’t a dues paying member of the “club”, but did the electrical work for the cabin. Including running electricity to the outhouse so they could turn on an electric heater in the outhouse from the cabin. Not liking the typical claustrophobic style of outhouse my family built one with picture windows. So you had a view while you were sitting there. As my grandfather became less mobile the outhouse became his “deer stand”. After making breakfast and getting everyone off to the hunt he would go sit in the heated outhouse with his rifle and a stack of magazines. Not a few of which were Playboy. Needless to say I don’t think he ever got a deer from his deer stand.

Since dad wired the cabin he occasionally got to hunt there, and we got to use it once for a family vacation. This is one of the only places I can remember us going on a family vacation. With six kids and a grandmother, go figure.

My siblings playing in Cedar Run, later 1960s. I took this with a little Kodak Instamatic camera. Even back then I was interested in photography.

I was around 14 or 15 when we stayed at deer camp, so we’re talking about 50 year ago.  When I was in the area with Lynn last year we drove past a dirt road and something in  my brain clicked. I was pretty sure it was the road to the deer camp. So this trip Lise and  I explored a bit. We re-found the dirt road and as we started up it I started recalling  landmarks that would say if we were on the right road. Like the place where Cedar Run  was right by the road, with some riffles and a popular trout pool. Which we hit about  three miles in. Then I started describing what I remembered about the camp, and how it  was situated form the road, and where we played in Cedar Run. About seven or eight  miles in, we hit it. I was pretty happy dredging this up from the depths of my memory. It had been a long time and lots of other things had gone in and out of my brain since then. And more than a few brain cells killed off.

 

Cedar Crest.

The outhouse with windows. I saw my first bear right about where the driveway gate is located.

The original cabin burnt down about 25 years ago and was rebuilt. I peeked inside and it  looked about what I remembered from our visit there in the 1960s. And there was the aluminum siding outhouse with picture windows. How’s that for class?

A small waterfall entering Cedar Run.

 

A couple waterfalls flowing into Pine Creek. Pine Creek is larger than any waterway we  call a river in Michigan. It flows through the Pine Creek Gorge, also known as the Grand  Canyon of Pennsylvania.