The Deer, the Ridge and Other Things

When I look back to last weekend, it is now with very wonderful memories. When I was living it, it almost seemed surreal. Things happened to me that had never happened before. Nothing earth shattering or traumatic.....just things. It began when Sherry, from Dogs with Wings, and I decided to make a return visit to central Pennsylvania. This time though, we were going to brave the mountains and do some hiking. Our weekend started pleasantly with a visit to Port Royal for the first of many Crayola Posse boxes, PA Woman's Series #3 - Nancy Kulp . It had been raining off and on that day but when we arrived in this area, the sun was shining cheerfully. We weren't sure how long it would last because the forecast was for thunderstorms later on that evening. But that was then and this was now. We left Port Royal and headed for Fountains of Soup . The story behind this box was very puzzling to me until I actually reached my destination - then all became crystal clear. From here we went to find another of True Indigo's amazing Tartan series Scottish Tartans 4. Unfortunately, it was here that we met our only defeat of the weekend, there were two boxes missing from this series but we were still able to successfully compose a half of a plaid.

By now it was beginning to get dark so we headed to Reed's Gap State Park for the night. We pulled into the park in the dark but even in the dark, it was obvious that we were in a very beautiful area. And we were there alone. Not one other camper anywhere around. I think that this spooked Sherry a little, especially when she found that the campsite which she had reserved was a good distance away from mine. But we settled in and got together to do some exchanges for the boxes that we planned on planting the next day. A little later, the park ranger joined us and tried to assuage Sherry's fears that the sub sandwich which she had in her car would probably not be enough to attract bears to her car. It was so peaceful here, we were next to a noisy stream, in an evergreens woods, the stars and the moon were shining very brightly and I slept so well.

When I woke the next morning and hiked to the showerhouse in the dark to get ready for the day, I was amazed to see that the promised rain had never appeared and the stars were still out, twinkling away with no cloud cover. It was the start of a great day. Our first stop this morning was to search for Hartley's Potato Chips in another absolutely beautiful forest. This box had attracted me from the first day I read the clues because it referenced a brand of pretzels and chips that I grew up with - Snyder's of Hanover. After collecting another wonderful Crayola Posse stamp, we then moved on to find the mysterious Hemlock . Although True Indigo mentions in her clues that #461 is not the tallest hemlock in PA, it sure was a monster of a tree. We moved onward and probably upward as we next headed for the neatly named Shaggy Mane . I have also been intrigued by this box, simply because of the name and for the story that went with the area it is located. I need to mention at this point, that when we were driving to this box, it was the first time that we were on a real road with lines down the middle. All morning, we had been up and down on mountain roads, many of them not more than a one lane wide dirt road. My mapping program was taking us on some very scenic drives. But the road to Shaggy Mane was a normal road. However, on both sides of the road were wire mesh fences, about 8 feet high. Our guess is that these were to contain the wildlife and prevent them from running out onto the roads. But if that was their true intention - it didn't work. Quick as a wink, a doe ran in front of my car, crossed the road and jumped the fence on the other side, only to catch her hoof in the wire mesh of the fence. In horror, we watched as she hung upside down by her leg from the top of the fence. Quickly stepping on the brakes, we pulled both cars over to the side of the road and grabbing my hiking stick, we ran over to her. I never knew that a deer could growl before and we were lucky that she was hanging from the opposite side of the fence as she bared her teeth at us several times. Sherry talked soothingly to her and I tried to move the wires with my stick but nothing happened. Then two pickup trucks stopped beside us and a group of men dressed in camo disembarked from the trucks. Oh great, I thought, this must have been some of the hunters that we had heard shooting all morning, and their first thought will probably be to shoot the deer. I knew that I would be upset if that happened, but I also knew that it would devastate my animal loving companion. But we got lucky, this was a group of fishermen and they thought that they had some kind of cutters in their tackle boxes and we could cut her loose. As we were discussing the situation and they are fumbling through their boxes, we heard a crash and looked to see our little doe running into the woods. She had freed herself and everyone heaved a big sigh of relief. It was heartbreaking to see that beautiful creature hanging upside down and wonderful to see her running away.

We did move on to successfully find Shaggy Mane and Sherry admitted that her heart was still beating wildly from our deer experience an hour later. From Shaggy Mane we crossed some county lines and headed for two of the main reasons that we had made the trip to this part of Pennsylvania. Our first stop was to look for Water Undine . This was a box which we had really wanted to stop and find on our last trip to this area but just ran out of time. We were really anxious to see the boiling spring mentioned in the clues and we were not disappointed. It WAS really a boiling spring in the middle of the trail. I used the video recorder on my camera to tape it but Blogger doesn't allow this type of upload so I will just have to enjoy it myself. We were so excited to not only find Water Undine but to be first finders on it.
Our next destination proved to also be our next adventure. We were now off in search of Ravenflight and I have to admit that I questioned my good friends, the Crayola Posse's placement of a bicycle as a means to reach this box. We decided to drive as closely to it as possible. Well, the road that leads to it IS a road, of sorts. It is mostly rocks and ruts and our four wheel drive vehicles were getting a workout. I was in the lead as we crawled up, up, up on our quest. The road was only a little more than a car width wide and I wondered what we would do if another car came in the opposite direction while we were on it. But I absolutely was in absolute terror of this happening as we hit the ridge of the mountain. My GPS told me that we were at 1600 feet. The road was now on the top of the mountain which seemed to be only about 25 feet wide and it dropped straight down on both sides. I could not look at where we were to enjoy what I am sure must have been beautiful views. My fear of heights was in full gear and it was all that I could do to focus my eyes only on the road straight ahead of me and drive. We finally reached more comfortable driving conditions before I went into full blown panic mode and were able to locate this beautifully carved stamp and enjoy the mountain top views from a more stable location. But there was no way I was going back down that road so we decided to continue in the direction we had been heading. Worked out great because we did have better driving conditions and we also passed a spot where I knew there was another box that I had already found and that Sherry could now look for. And miracle of miracles, here we were at 1600 feet elevation and I had the first cell phone reception that I had had since we arrived in the mountains the day before. While Sherry looked for her box, I quickly caught up with my family and then called the Crayola Posse to make plans to get together, only to find out that they were down and out with a stomach virus. Disappointed that we would not get to see them this trip, we headed for the last two boxes on our agenda for the day, Music Woman's new Crosses of Dartmoor - Cave Penney Cross and PA Women's Series #4 - Anna Keichline . And I also should mention that both of these boxes were on good solid roads in actual civilization and were an excellent way to wind down our day's adventures. Tired and feeling extremely successful at obtaining even more boxes than we had thought we would on this day, we headed for home.

As I was writing this, I was looking at my photos for the day and didn't have many to post. The views in the mountains are breathtaking but I have found from previous photos that they just don't do the scenes justice. When you stand on a mountain top, there is no picture that can compare to the actual beauty that is before you.

Some other memories from this day - I saw my first real life ruffed grouse. I am not a bird watcher so I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to distinguish one bird from another but this bird is very distinguishable. We possible started another one from its hiding place as we were hiking but that one moved too quickly to be sure.

We left behind a few pieces of tupperware in the mountains - watch for clues to be posted soon.