Visit with Mountain Girl, Paula

On Saturday, August 23, the family and I travelled to Leetonia to meet Mountain Girl, Paula. What a beautiful place she has. In a way I 'm am so jealous that she gets to live up in that beautiful spot all year. I'd love to be able to live there. However, the 3 1/2 hour commute one way to work every day would problaby take it's toll rather quickly. We talked for a while, then Paula showed our daughter her Tee Pee. After our visit, Paula invited us to drive up to her million dollar view at the top of the ridge. We took the truck up to the top and parked. She didn't underestimate the view at all. What a gorgeous spot. We went on a hike back into the Pines on her property. We weren't 100 yards into the pines when my wife spotted a very large buck sneaking up over the hill. I'm not sure how many points he had, but his antlers were much wider than his body. In the woods, we found the perfect picnic spot. There were several pine stumps set up in a circle. Nearby, someone had made carvings of a bear and an eagle (surprised?). We sat down and enjoyed our picnic lunch. On the way back down the trail, we saw two very large turkeys. Although I wanted to stay all day, we eventually had to head back home.

We're all thankful that Paula appears to be healing well from her accident. She has the most original body cast you'll ever see. (visit her blog at http://leetonia-eaglebear.blogspot.com/). When you pass the spot where her car went down over the bank, it is amazing to realize that she climbed back to the road using her one good arm. We enjoyed getting to meet our new friend in person, and look forward to seeing her again in the future.

Summer of 2008

Well, we were able to get up to camp a few times over the summer. This summer's weather was ablsolutely gorgeous. Very few days saw the temperature get above 90. We just spent a weekend in Cedar Run and the daytime temperatures were in the 70's each day. Everything at camp is ok. Over 30 cabins have been broken into this summer. However, the only problem that we have had this summer is porcupines. Yes, the porcupines are chewing everything they can get their teeth on. We've had to replace entire sections of decking, and railing. This past week we realized that we never had this problem when we were allowed to keep a salt lick at the camp. We now think they are chewing the wood to get the sodium that is in the treated lumber.

I'm looking forward to getting up to camp at least once in the fall to hunt turkeys. There are a lot of them around this summer. We have seen very few deer, but the deer we have seen have been nice sized and appear to be very healthy. We've seen several groups of fawns. Bears seem to be everywhere and many times these days seem to outnumber the deer.

You can hardly tell where the Bull Run fire went through except for the burned out laurel in some places. It's amazing how the ferns have come up and the trees have opened as if the fire was never there. It will be interesting to see if the burned out areas will change the movement of the deer this fall.

Missing the Northwoods

I'm sitting here today realizing that this may be the first year in recent memory that I won't get back to the cabin for Spring Gobbler Season. A hectic work schedule, high gas prices, and two very energetic toddlers at home means that I won't get to take my gun for a walk this year in search of gobblers. While I thoroughly enjoy turkey hunting, spring gobbler season has always been a great time to walk in the woods - calling in a turkey is just icing on the cake. I was fortunate to just happen to be camping in the mountains the day the forest fire broke out. We were all relieved to know that the cabin survived. However, I'm anxious to return as soon as possible to discover how far into our hunting territory the fire actually burned. I've enjoyed reading Paula's blog. It has allowed me to experience Spring in the Leetonia valley, even though I haven't been able to get back up there. In many ways, I envy those who are able to live up there year-round. Who knows? Perhaps some day, I'll be able to do the same.

View of the fire from Cedar Run

Here is another picture of the fire I took from the bike trail just south of Cedar Run on Sunday, April 20. This was taken about two hours before the rains came down.

The Bull Run Forest Fire

A very large forest fire began burning near Route 414 on Saturday morning, April 19. Driven by stiff winds, it burned quickly up Bull Run Hollow in Northern Lycoming County and spread into a 5,000 acre inferno covering a very large area. The fire jumped Mine Hole Road on Saturday night and burned all the way to the Spinning Wheel Hollow. This was a real scare for all of us at Peter's Camp. Our camp sits near the Spinning Wheel Hollow and the fire literally ended in our backyard. We can thank the Lord Almighty for sending a two hour rain shower at 4:00 pm on Sunday. This all but stopped the fire from spreading and gave the fireman a chance to surround it. A great deal of forest land was burned West from Pine Creek, North of the Fahneystock Road, South of the West Rim Road, and East of the Spinning Wheel Hollow. This will obviously have an effect on the hunting for this coming season. I need to take a moment to thank all the firefighters who worked very hard to keep this fire from burning any cabins. Their valiant efforts will never be forgotten by those of us who love to spend time at our cabins in the Northwoods.