I have a correction to my last post. I was suggesting that
maybe my cell phone couldn’t get a signal in the church lot under a cell tower
because God doesn’t like Verizon. Molly corrected me in that it was because Verizon
is in fact the Satan and was probably blocked because of the church. The tower
will need to be moved for it to actually function.
I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t some kind of bad Ju-Ju
related to our birding excursions lately. Lise and I popped over to Hiawassee National
Wildlife Refuge where we got two new species, bank swallow and tundra swan. We
also got a merlin for our Michigan list. What we mostly did though, was to
watch a really wicked storm roll over us.
Then Saturday we did the annual pilgrimage with Barb and
Ellen down to Pte. Mouille State Game Area. And once again we had to high tail
it from a torrential downpour. That’s four out of the last five Pte. Moo trips
where I had to run from storms and downpours. At Pte. Moo Lise and I got white
pelican for the year, Lise got a bobolink for the year and we got snowy egret
for the Michigan list. That brings Lise to 305 species for the year and me to
302.
Been a busy couple
weeks and I was disconnected for part of that time. On August 12 Molly and I
went to a Flogging Molly concert. Celtic punk is the best description of
Flogging Molly. Two hours of pure energy and the audience sings most of the
songs along with the band. Then they end each concert playing a tape of Monty
Python”s “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” from “The Life of Brian”. And
the audience joins in this one too. Since this was the last gig of the tour all
the warm up acts and the stage crew came out waltzed around the stage. Pretty
amusing scene with the entire audience singing for them.
Flogging Molly
concert pictures.
The next morning I
woke up and drove to my sister Lynn’s place in upstate Pennsylvania. In
Michigan everyone goes “up north.” In Pennsylvania it’s “upstate.” Same idea, a
place to go for rest and recreation.
Obligatory hour long
accident delay on I-80.
Lynn’s upstate place
is a few miles north of Lock Haven, on the Susquehanna River. It’s a nice area,
on the Allegheny Plateau, almost centered in what is called the Pennsylvania
Wilds. A lot of people think every northeastern state looks like the I-95
corridor from Washington DC to Boston. I would stack those northcentral
Pennsylvania counties up against any place in the Midwest, including the
Michigan Upper Peninsula. I love the U.P., and there are some elements that
can’t be replicated anywhere. Like the Great Lakes shorelines and the vistas
over the lakes. But the Allegheny Plateau has relief that just doesn’t exist in
the Midwest.
The Allegheny Plateau
may not have the Great Lakes, but it does have real rivers. If I were to fault
Michigan for anything it would be the rather liberal use of the term river for
any trickle of flowing water. I love being on Sand River at Joanna’s cabin near
Marquette. But the Sand River would be a creek anywhere in Pennsylvania.
Looking south down
the Susquehanna River from Hyner Mountain. Lynn lives downstream a mile or so.
The terrain of the
Allegheny Plateau does make cell phones pretty much a waste of money. I was
unconnected from the internet, cellular service and telephone for about five
days. Fives days without hearing about Clinton’s email or Trump’s stupidity was
kind of nice. One evening I wanted to call Lise so I went driving around
looking for cell service. At one point I was standing in a church parking lot
under a cell tower and couldn’t get reception. I could go up the road a couple
miles to a bar and get reception. So what’s the message here? God doesn’t use
Verizon? Satan likes cell phones? Cell phones are for sinners? My cellphone is
possessed by demons so this may explain a lot.
The holy cell tower.
No connectivity for sinners.
I went to help Lynn
do things around her place but I got some play time too. Spent a little wading
time in the Susquehanna doing odenate photography. Lynn’s deck had about ten
hummingbirds constantly flitting around that made some easy subjects. And I got
an eastern screech owl from her deck, species number 299 for the year.
Ruby-throated
hummingbirds.
Damselflies I haven’t
keyed out yet.
Lynn and I went to
the Pine Creek Gorge, AKA the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Notice it’s Pine
Creek, not Pine River. We did a family trip there when I was maybe 14 or 15. I
recognized the rocks on the lip of the gorge I was standing on when we learned
my mother was terrified of heights. And her children standing at the unprotected
precipice of heights.
Pine Creek Gorge
Pine Creek
One of the waterfalls
hiking from the top down to Pine Creek.
So now I’m back in
Michigan, getting ready to teach for another semester. Ya gotta do what ya
gotta do.
Life is kind of slow in the Schools’ household right now.
Not necessarily a bad thing as summer winds down.
We spent the weekend down in West Lafayette, visiting
family. Always a good thing to do. I spent some time playing out at
Prophetstown
State Park. Things were pretty slow odenate wise, at least where I was.
There’s a stream that flows through a nice fen but late in the season
everything was overgrown. Hard to sneak up on anything when you are in you are
hauling a tripod with camera and flash units through grass and plants over your
head. For birds I got dickcissel and Henslow’s sparrow, bringing me up to 298
for the year. Closing in on Lise’s 300 count.
Male widow skimmer at Prophetstown State Park.
American rubyspot damselfly
Prophetstown State Park.
While we were in West Lafayette we walked around a good bit
for Molly to play Pokemon Go. For the uninitiated, Pokemon Go is a worldwide
video game played on your cell phone. You wander around and Pokemons pop up and
you capture them by flinging a virtual ball at them. If you hit them, or they
don’t dodge or deflect the ball you capture them. You acquire the balls and
other goodies at various landmarks or buildings.
I am not a fan of video games and barely tolerate my smart
phone slightly more. But Pokemon Go is an interesting phenomenon. The developers
have done a remarkable job of incorporating the real world into the game. They
have taken online map products and turned them into a virtual reality. You see
a cartoon map of where you are, but it is accurate as any online map. Pretty
much anything that has a place name, or physical objects like historical
plaques or statues, are part of the game. Morton Community Center, which was
the building where Lise went to grade school, is a Pokemon Center where you
stock up on balls and goodies.
Being that I spent the last part of my career trying to
figure out how to map things, I’m really interested in the technical and
geographic component of the game. But the social side intrigues me even more. This
is a social game. People play this in groups. If you see a group of people
walking around looking at their phones, they are playing Pokemon Go. This is
the first time I have seen what amounts to a video game getting people outside,
walking around looking for places, as a group. I saw a number of families where
Mom, Dad, and all the kids were walking together collecting Pokemons on their
phones. And finding things they never knew existed. Molly made the comment that
now she is starting to understand maps. Except for the two guys that walked off
a cliff and the guy that ran into a police car while driving and playing, I’m
not seeing a down side to this game. The Iranian government declared Pokemon Go
a threat to national security so you know it has to be good. I’m still not
going to play the game, even just to irritate the Iranians, but I will enjoy
walking around with my daughter while she learns to read a map and get to level
22.
This morning I went out to Rose Lake following a lead on
ringed boghunters. Unfortunately the lead was from last May, about the time I
was up in the UP trying to find bats. Conditions were about as bad as at
Prophetstown. So, no ringed boghunters but I did get a few other more common
species.
I’m getting used to retirement. In some ways it isn’t that large
of a change. I’m still really busy, but now I’m doing things at my pace and that
I have more control over. I have a very large list to work on and I’m slowly plugging
through them. Some big, some little, the list is long and seems to keep
growing. But at least I’m not sitting in a cubicle.
One thing that has changed is that I’m getting outside a lot more.
Sometimes just sitting on the patio to eat or sit and think. But a good bit of outdoor
play time too. Last week Lise had a meeting at Pokagon State Park, down in
Indiana. We coupled the trip with a visit with Fred and Jackie Wooley. While Lise
did the meeting I played in their fen and prairie. The place is beautiful, a
testimony to their prairie restoration and fen maintenance efforts.
Halloween pennant in Fred and
Jackie’s prairie.
In the past few days Lise and I visited a couple more fun places; Bunker
Natural Area and Hartwick Pines State Park. Bunker Natural Area was donated to
a conservancy I’m on the board of. It’s 120 acres of restored prairie, open wetlands,
and a nice little mesic forest.
Bunker Natural Area prairie.
Viceroy butterfly at Bunker Natural Area.
Mating
Eastern forktail damselflies
at
Bunker Natural Area.
Unknown
spreadwing damselfly
at
Bunker Natural Area.
Unknown brown phase bluet damselfly
at
Bunker Natural Area.
Hartwick Pines is one of those few places that
managed to avoid being scalped during Michigan’s early timber frenzy. Not sure
of the details as to why, but there is a small old growth pine remnant that
survived the logging. The trail we hiked crosses a branch of the Au Sable River, one
of Michigan’s great trout streams. I have a couple fly rods that haven’t been
used in years. May be time to relearn one of the classier sports. Fly-fishing isn’t
the same as drowning worms, waiting for a fish to come by and decide it wants your
dead worm for dinner. Fly-fishing takes some skill to convince a fish with a
brain size a tiny fraction of your own that your bits of feathers and fluff are
something to eat. More often than not the fish wins.
The Au Sable River.
The presidential
election is now in full swing. I really, really wish we could vote now, just to
end it all. But no, this will go on for another couple months. I so hope Trump
is totally smashed and every Republican that doesn’t repudiate him loses too. I
can’t help but feel a lot of Republicans wish the election could be held now
too, in an effort to limit the damage this nut case causes. What is really
scary to me is that there are people that actually believe what he says. His
mouth opens, gibberish falls out, and they believe him. A larger proportion of
our population than is healthy for survival of the Republic. Scary.
Big doings in the Schools household yesterday. While riding bike yesterday morning Lise heard an alder flycatcher. That’s species number 300 this year for her, a new personal yearly high since we started keeping yearly records. Her count was helped significantly by our January excursion to Costa Rica, which gave us both a number of lifers. Her new high is indicative of effort and diligence on her part, and with a couple months left in the year will be going even higher.
Lise in Costa Rica
Blue-gray tanager on pink flowers.
Unknown hummingbird. (Need to find my Costa Rica field guide)
Nauyaca Falls in Costa Rica. Even if you don’t get new birds, how can you not like the place?
The other notable event yesterday was Molly coming home from her internship. She spent eight weeks at Oklahoma State in Stillwater OK, doing animal behavior research. And she has a poster with statistically significant results to show for her efforts. Along with Molly we also got her boyfriend Mitchell, who is in between apartments right now.
I have been working through the mountain of little things that have piled up on me the past year or so. Yesterday I worked through the stack of magazines I have been wanting to read for the past couple months. When I was working I would read them while commuting on the bus. It would take a couple weeks to get through a single magazine. Knocked them all off in one pleasurable afternoon of reading yesterday. Today will be making a batch of beer, doing some photo organizing, working through the pile of stuff on my desk, and probably at least one household job. Maybe have some for planning the next adventure too. A boy’s gotta dream.
After being gone
about five weeks I am back in beautiful downtown Okemos. And I didn’t miss
Okemos for a moment. Got to spend some quality time with family, both one on
one and in groups. Did 190 tough miles on the AT. Spent some time playing in
Delaware and around the Lebanon area of Pa. Spent a couple days at Lynn’s place
up near Lock Haven Pa., where cell reception is but a dream. Something other
people and other parts of the world have.
Lewes DE canal at
sunset.
Tanks at the Dogfish
head brewery. There’s lots of good stuff in those tanks. Liquid gold.
Cypress trees at
Trapp Pond State Park in DE. The northernmost cypress swamp in North America.
Union Canal locks at
Swatara Gap, near Jonestown PA.
Did some serious good
eating too. Got to eat some great food like crabs, fried oysters, and that
delicacy, scrapple. In the serious weirdness category I found out that
Bridgeville, Delaware that has a scrapple festival. They even have a scrapple
carving festival. Even I wouldn’t go that far. I’ll eat the stuff but I’m
having a hard time visualizing it as an art medium.
Found some other
serious weirdness in Pa. First, there was the live bait vending machine. Can
you get minnows out of that? Then there was the Statue of Liberty lifting her
lamp beside the pond in a farm field. Why Miss Liberty, I don’t know.
Bait machine
Miss Liberty
Had lots of outdoor
time. Got some in some hiking, kayaking, birding, biking, odenating, and
photography. Not as much photography as I would have liked, but enough. We
added a bunch of bird species to the list. Lise is up to 299 for the year and
I’m coming at 295.
Tree swallow
sibling rivalry, Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Kleinfeltersville, PA.
Clapper rail
preening, Mispillion River, DE.
Clapper rail with
chick, Mispillion River, DE.
Clapper rail
with chick, Mispillion River, DE.
Clapper rail bathing,
Mispillion River, DE.
Clapper rail bathing,
Mispillion River, DE.
Seaside sparrow
bathing, Mispillion River, DE.
Seaside sparrow spin
cycle, Mispillion River, DE.
Female pondhawk
dragonfly, Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, DE.
Unknown damselfly,
Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, DE.
Slaty skimmer
dragonfly, Cape Henlopen State Park, DE.
Immature blue dasher
dragonfly, Cape Henlopen State Park, DE.
Seaside dragonlet
dragonfly, Cape Henlopen State Park, DE.
Fence lizard, Cape
Henlopen State Park, DE.
Baby box turtle, Cape
Henlopen State Park, DE.
We got back Sunday
night and I’ve spent the past two days catching up on things. Unpacking,
putting things away, answering messages, reading mail, cataloging over 400
photos, doing the emergency home repairs, etc… Right now it doesn’t feel like
I’m retired. It’s more like coming back from any old vacation. I think it will
be a couple days before the reality sets in. Then I have to figure out what I’m
going to do with the rest of my life. Within the bounds of good taste and some
fiscal restraints of course. I am up to five notes on my bagpipe practice
chanter. Look out world, here I come.
Political ranting
follows. Proceed at your own risk. Please note that I am a political
independent and do not belong to any political party.
One of the pleasures
of being out of touch for five weeks was missing the political circus. Tonight
the Republicans crown Trump king. What I love is seeing all his former
Republican detractors bending over backwards to kiss his royal butt. So much
for taking the moral high ground. Chris Christie has his head so far up the
Donald’s rear end that he can’t see daylight unless Trump opens his mouth. Then
there’s Melania Trump’s speech. It’s pretty obvious that Trump didn’t marry her
for intellectually stimulating conversations. So one would think he would at
least hire a decent speech writer for her. Instead she copied a Michelle Obama
speech from 2008. Sounded good then, why not use it again?
Not that the
Democrats are much better. This could be a golden opportunity to drive the
Republican Party close to political extinction. Doubt that will happen though.
Democrats are good at bringing a knife to a gun fight. Instead of trying to tie
every Republican to Trump, in every election at every level of government, they
will appeal to the intelligence of the electorate to make an informed decision.
And lose a golden opportunity to do something good for the country.
Anyway, the next couple months should supply some amusing moments.
I dropped off Rich at the Baltimore airport this morning,
ending our little Appalachian Trail adventure. With a good bit of logistics
help from our sisters Lynn and Anita we did a bit over 190 of the 240 trail
miles in Pennsylvania. We would have needed another three days and a bit better
planning to knock off the whole state. Or to be 30 years younger. Or have super
powers. Or all of the above.
Typical view
Rich crossing stream
Last night camp.
Last night whiskey. (Rich Schools photo)
The AT in Pennsylvania isn’t so much a trail as a river of rocks.
This is where rocks go to die and are then thrown on a pile to be called a
trail. Usually wrapped in a garland of poison ivy for good measure. Seven
hundred years ago the Inca built a rock trail in rougher terrain, without the
wheel, had a lot less oxygen available to them, and no written language.
Portions of that original trail are still being used. In Pennsylvania they just
pile up the dead rocks and say. “Go for it. Oh, and did we tell you that
rattlesnakes like to live in the rocks?”
Rocky trail.
(Rich Schools photo)
Trail going through poison ivy.
Hiker on the trail. The white blazes denote the trail.
Pennsylvania has a well deserved reputation as the roughest
part of the whole AT. The comments in the shelter log books didn’t speak too
highly of the state. One comment was written entirely in German. It’s been a
long time since I took German but it wasn’t too hard to get the gist of what
was being said. Another person commented that they never thought they would
actually be glad to get to New Jersey.
Lehigh Gap descent.
(Rich Schools photo)
Lehigh Gap descent.
You don’t want to slip here. (Rich Schools photo)
One thing about hiking anywhere in the East is that you are
not going through untrammeled wilderness. There’s a lot of history here. Crossing
the Cumberland Valley we were reminded that these were the same fields and
hills Lee’s army crossed heading to Gettysburg. The trail crosses the site of Fort
Dietrich-Snyder, built as protection from the Indians in 1755. You can still
use Pilger Ruh, a spring named in 1742 by Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf
and Conrad Weiser while on their way to visit Indian tribes. We went through
old rock fences that once delineated property boundaries, and past a small cemetery
from the late 1700s and early 1800s. We saw a stream emerging from the ground
yellow and full of minerals, likely the result of old coal mining operations. We
went through Yellow Springs and Rousch Gap, long abandoned villages, now
nothing but some foundation stones and trees. Every rock-filled step of the way
through Pennsylvania has some kind of history with it.
Rock fences
Old cemetery.
Yellow stream.
Foundations.
Met some great people too. Like the trail angels that would leave
sodas in a cold stream by the trail for hikers to enjoy. They even left a bag hanging there for the empties. Going through Duncannon the funeral
home had a community picnic going and they would call over hikers to feed them.
Twice, where the trail crossed roads people would set up grills and do burgers
and hot dogs for hikers. There were people from several countries, including a
young lady from Thailand trying to be the first female Thai to complete the
trail. And we met a number of former Navy guys doing the trail.
Sodas left by trail angels.
Picnic
I got a lot out of this trip, besides sore feet. First, it
was great to be able to challenge myself, and even better that I could do it
while reconnecting with my brother Rich. It was fun telling other hikers that
he and I did some of these same trail sections together 30 years ago. One hiker lamented that he wished his brothers would do something like this with him.
I also gained a
lot of knowledge. I’m seriously considering a through hike, all 2180 miles of
the trail in the next year or two. This has been an excellent practice run. I
came out of this little adventure knowing that I’m physically capable of the
trip. I just need some good planning, realistic mileage goals, and the right
mental attitude.
Red eft on the trail. We saw about 20 of them one day.
Reporting in from Lynn’s house in Jonestown, PA. Thought I
could do some posting from my phone but it’s acting stupid right now. So I can
only post pictures periodically.
With the help of vitamin I (Ibuprofen) we walked 57 miles northward
from the Maryland-Pennsylvania border at the town of Penn Mar to the town of
Boiling Springs. Our options for camping or lodging were not great at Boiling
Springs. The weather report called for thunderstorms with hail and a
possibility of a tornado. Since a good bit of the next leg would be in the open,
and not really wanting to deal with frozen chunks of water falling on us, we
opted for the better part of valor. We called my sisters call for a ride and decided
to take today as a zero mile day.
We did some fairly tough walking with way overloaded packs.
Initially we thought we would be out for seven days and we packed enough food
for seven days. My starting pack weight came in at 48 pounds. Way too much. So today
gave us an opportunity for some planning and to readjust what we need to carry.
We figured a route that will allow us to do two days, and then be resupplied
with food for the next three days. Along with jettisoning unneeded equipment I
got my pack weight down to 37 pounds, including water. Still too heavy for the minimalists,
but a bit more tolerable.
Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.I think the pack weighed more than I did. (Rich Schools photo)
Trail time has been interesting. The AT is very accessible, so
you meet a whole range of people on it. The first question usually is, are you
a through hiker or a section hiker? Naturally there is a lot more cachet to
being a through hiker. Deservedly so. Just doing Pennsylvania, Rich and I are
section hikers. But at least we have chosen a fairly tough section to do. Pennsylvania
has a reputation for the rocks one must deal with. I remember reading a number
of years ago that boot manufacturers tested their new styles on this section. Some
places amounted to rock scrambling with a 45 pound pack.
Speed bumps on the AT.
(Rich Schools photo)
Rock scrambling.
(Rich Schools photo)
The part of the trail we have done so far goes fairly north.
The mountains run generally southwest to northeast. So we did a lot of going up
one side, then down the next. Once we cross the Susquehanna River in a couple
days the trail tends to align along the ridge lines. You do a steep uphill, hike
along the ridge for 15 or so miles, and then do a steep downhill. Then repeat.
Not much in the way of switchbacks. It’s usually straight up, then straight down. There was a time in my life that I could do 20 – 25 mile days without too much bother. I think 15 is
more the order now. Endurance wise it isn’t too bad but the body doesn’t quite
like the beating anymore.
Up. This is actually one of the easier ups.
(Rich Schools photo)
Rich, living the dream with the aid of cold cloths and Ibuprofen.
So the routine is get up eat a quick breakfast, walk, eat a
quick dinner, sleep, repeat. Not much time for photography. Rich has his cell
phone handy for quick pictures but mine doesn’t want to take pictures. Anita has
loaned me her lightweight camera but I have to take my pack off to use it. I’ve
gotten in some birding but it’s all audible since I don’t have time to bird or
want to carry binoculars. But, I have gotten whip-or-will and summer tanager for
the year. Also, a cooperative wood thrush at one of the shelters.
Wood thrush.
Oh, and apparently Tuesday, June 21, was National Hike Naked
Day. We did have an adherent come through. Wouldn’t have bothered me at all to
never have seen that. There’re some
people on this planet that I wouldn’t mind seeing them hiking naked. He wasn’t
one of them. And no, we didn’t participate. The world has enough problems without
Rich and me hiking naked to add to the burden.
About to start on our little adventure, walking the
Pennsylvania portion of the Appalachian Trail (AT). This is about 230 miles of
the whole AT. It’s a fairly rocky and rugged portion too, with elevations going
from 320’ to 2080’. From what I recall they don’t do switchbacks very often.
You go straight up the hill, then straight down the hill.
My sister Lynn lives about six miles off the trail, almost
exactly at the halfway point in PA. So right now I’m at her house, waiting to
pick up my brother Rich at BWI airport in a couple hours. From BWI we head west
to Penn-Mar, a town in the Pennsylvania-Maryland border, and start heading
north. The plan is to hike north to Lynns’ house, take a day to resupply and
clean up, then drive north to the Delaware Water Gap and hike south back to her
house. Should be interesting.
My pack is coming in pretty heavy at about 47 pounds. Mostly
because of food. Most through hikers only carry three to fours days of food,
and mail food to themselves at stops along the trail. We are packing seven days
of food. So my pack will lighten some as I eat my way across PA.
The load that has to fit in the pack to the right. Forty-eight pounds, including pack weight.
It fits, now I just have to carry the damn thing.
Nick, one of the world’s plumpest golden retrievers. This is a test to see if I can post from my phone. If so, I will try to do so while on the AT.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 