Sinnemahoning WITO - Day 2 - AM

I was up really early the next morning so I wouldn't have to wait for the one shower. I think I was the first to use it because it took a long time to warm up. DaBraLady had brought a coffee maker but forgot filters so she offered some powdered cappuccino mix and made hot water. I knew there would be fresh coffee offered before our first class so I only had about a half a cup. I mounted up and headed off for the Forty Maples area where we would all have breakfast.

Sadly, there was a little glitch in the coffee making that morning and it wasn't quite ready by the time we had to leave to start our morning bird watching walk at the northern end of the park. Mark Johnson lead the walk as he shared his knowledge of bird watching. He gave great tips about how to listen for the birds first then look for them. I have always felt like the odd one out when birding by ear and he assured me that he counts birds that he has clearly identified by ear without ever seeing them. I do so much of my birding by ear because I have a rough time finding them in the field. He took time to give advice on binoculars and field guides and encouraged everyone to take time to really read about a bird immediately after you have made a positive ID on it in the wild. He was giving us the tools and enthusiasm to bird on our own. I do not know one person in our group who would have had an objection to birding with Mark all morning but the time limited us and we had to return to the Forty Maples area for our next class. Birds we saw and heard that morning included Field Sparrow, Bluebird, Northern Oriole, Pine Siskins (late for the area), Alder Flycatcher (positive ID because of it's song - looks exactly like Willow Flycatcher), Cedar Waxwings, Yellow Warbler, Yellow Billed Cuckoo, Chipping Sparrow, Cardinal, Blue Jay, and American Crow.

The next class was photography. I knew that the instructor would probably focus on digital photography but the theme was Outdoor Photography. I can always use some tips and get inspired for more creative shots and better composition. The talk started in the pavilion and I was pretty bored, I wanted to be out in the field and enjoying the beautiful park. I understood that things would need to be covered before heading out but a few things got to me. The photographer had a lot of matted prints on the table not as examples but for sale. I thought that was tacky. Mark Johnson was standing out in the clearing and while I was trying to listen to the photographer and looked at him while he gave his talk, my eyes kept noticing Mark the background and wishing I was still birding. So, I left.


I am sure this was rude but I was going to take charge of my weekend so I walked off as discretely as I could and joined Mark. He was looking for a Prothonotary Warbler that he could hear in the trees. He pointed out it's song for me as we stood and chatted while we watched the little bird skip from tree to tree in the distance. Jackie joined us and they started a great conversation about Woodcocks. I just loved the stories and experiences they were sharing.

As we stood there, Jackie got a call from a forestry official that he had caught a bear and was willing to bring it to demonstrate it being sedated and tagged for ID. She set up a time right around our lunch break so that we would all be gathered to watch. She was pretty excited to be able to offer such an unplanned and unique presentation to our program. It was soon after this the photography class got up to shoot in the field so I decided to rejoin them.

I know I hadn't ingratiated myself with the instructor by walking out on a portion of his class but the guy continued to get under my skin. As we walked on he was instructing everyone how not to just delete shots from your memory card but to reformat it every time or it would become quickly corrupt and he proceeded to tell a story of how when he was flying over a beautiful volcano with snow on it's crown and his memory card went corrupt. His warning to us all sounded less like a lesson than bragging and I thought it was stupid and blurted out, "Didn't you have a back up card?" I mean come ON! Equipment fails and if you are going for a shot like that you should be prepared. He snapped back, "No! I didn't! Yes, I did." I thought he was a jerk for sure.


We took a walk along the First Fork Sinnemahoning Creek and it was just lovely. He was pointing out some lighting options and occasionally would take time to go one on one to help some of the women understand their camera menus. It was during one of those times he was navigating someone through their camera that I was sharing some composition tips with Kate, a woman who had also been on the birding walk. I told her how in some open field areas how it's nice to frame a shot by adding a little over-hanging interest in the foreground. I gave the tip my father liked to share that if there isn't anything overhanging, you can break off a small branch or some thing and just dangle it out in front of you to frame the upper corner. I know the photographer overheard me but what was that hurting?

We walked on and he set up his camera on a tripod to share what I had been describing composition wise. I was excited he was covering that topic. He was using a tree on the right to frame the creek to the left and encouraged everyone to look through the view finder so that we could see for ourselves. Unfortunately, the way he had it composed (maybe someone bumped the camera?) was that the tree was too far in and the negative space to the right of the tree drew my eyes away from the creek too often. It was poor composition and I totally lost respect for him at that point.

As the women took turns looking through the camera, he continued to say how "some people" will force framing by breaking off a plant and adding it to the shot. He very pointedly added, "Not that I would ever do that." He had obviously directed that at me. I guess I should have made sure to add to Kate that it would be prudent not to do any harm to the plant life and frequently there are branches and plants already down. My omitting that may have made me a target because over the next half hour during our walk he made reference to it twice. I don't know exactly why he wouldn't do it, he never said but I was ready to ask if he did it a third time.

So, the guy had really gotten under my skin and I am pretty sure I had gotten under his by the time we made our way back to the pavilion. We stopped for one last composition lesson where a wonderful old apple tree well in the foreground arched over a picnic table that was just close enough to allow for a really nice group shot. He instructed us to take turns standing just where he was and check out how nice the shot would look. I took my turn and saw the lovely old branch in the foreground, the table situated beautifully under it but in the background was a big sign for the Low Lands Trail. It was in a place where no one sitting at the picnic table would be blocking it and if you moved for anything to hide it the tree wouldn't be framing the table anymore. As I stood there you bet I said, "It's really nice except for the sign in the background." He ignored my jab by commenting and instructing on something totally different. What a waste of time except for the nice shots I got along the creek.

Sinnemahoning WITO - Day 1

DaBraLady and I went for a Women in the Outdoors weekend in Sinnemahoning State Park. I cannot say enough good about the staff of that park. They share what they know, make you aware of things you may want know to or need to know in the park and really care about the park and it's visitors.

Even before setting up camp, DaBraLday and I stopped off for the view from the breast of the dam. The day was beautiful and we got the the park in great time. This allowed us to stop and enjoy every aspect of the beginning to the weekend. The mountains were so green and the sky was very beautiful. As we drove on, I noticed just where the trail crossed over the road and looked forward to exploring them on foot or bike later in the weekend. I intended to bike whenever possible.

The park office allowed us to check into our camp site early and this allowed us plenty of time to set everything in in daylight before the first WITO event that evening. We were close to the showers, firewood and playground so it was an area of activity. It was also a huge space and seemed larger than any of the other tenting spots in the campground.

We found level places for our tents that wouldn't be in the way of water run off if there was an afternoon thunderstorm while we were there. I even had time to set up my LED purple lights to locate the campsite after dark and some banners that visually reminded me of what a special time and space I was visiting.

We sat a bit, met the local chipmunks, ate some supper and checked our schedule. We were supposed to get together at 7PM for the history of the area and getting to know each other. This was about a mile from the campground at the Forty Maples day use area. The main park road led to it and I noticed some trails on the map that cut through that area too. I chose to plan to bike to and from the get together. Not knowing how late it would end, I packed my headlamp and put the front and rear lights on my bike.

Other than a small group of woman who had participated the year before, everyone of the 21 women were pleasant and down to earth. There were 4 mother/daughter couples and the rest were groups or couples of friends. There was only one woman who seemed to have come by herself and she was teaching one of the workshops. She had come the year before and seemed very comfortable being on her own.

We went around and introduced ourselves. We came with a broad range of interests and from very different locations. I think the farthest traveled from Philly area and there were a few local women too. About four or so were of retirement age or older. I think I pretty much fell right in the middle of them all when it came to interests, expertise, age and location. I felt pretty comfortable.

What really made me sure of the fact that I knew it was going to be a great weekend was the way each of the staff members handled themselves and how they presented the information. The one ranger, Brian, was very straightforward in sharing information of the threat of so many of the local state parks potentially closing. He let us know that that the issue had been tabled just two days before but still encouraged us to write to our legislators.

The coordinator of the WITO program at Sinnemahoning, Jackie Flynn, had been a pleasure to work with even in the weeks prior to my attending the program. She made sure that my veggie diet needs were met. I was not let down the whole weekend, there was plenty for me to eat and I gained two pounds to prove it! She gave us a wonderful history of the park and her role there.

Toward the end of the question and answer portion a young male deer emerged from the woods and started to tentatively approach our group. He was licking his lips and looking for a handout. We hadn't even started to make our s'mores so he was just a general mooch. The snacks were great and we chatting with each other a while longer before I biked back via the magical Low Lands Trail to our camp site. It was after 9PM when I got back but it was still light enough that DaBraLady was reading her novel in her camp chair.

I think we both slept pretty well. The stars were out and we hoped that they might be as brilliant the next night because that is when they were setting up telescopes on the breast of the dam for an astronomy program. I fell asleep listening to campground noises and watching the stars through the hemlock canopy.

My Best Friend

A Sunday Walk

Strolling by a sunny lake.

We saw a Brown Thrasher.

Two Northern Water Snakes.

A geocache from 2002.

We added our mark to the inside.

Robin's Eggs!

On the western side of our apartment building.

Exploring Gotham

I finally took the non-stop bus into Gotham City. RGBisMe had a few things to do this week but was driving into the city to meet me on May Day - yay! Before he joined me I had a few interesting experiences and did quite a bit of exploring. I have had little time nor reason to be in the city on my own before and this was my chance to check out personal points of interest and be a tourist. Not everything I was most interested in is in any tour book but in the future I do plan on taking a walking tour to check out Gargoyles sometime. I might not buy into a package deal but probably seek them out on my own.

I wanted to start to explore the moment the bus let out in Chinatown so I decided to pack light, micro-light. I paired down my luggage to stuffing my purse full. Granted I planned on staying with with Asrai and Ravenboy so I could count on them for a few things but I could have stayed in The Pod and been just as fine with what I had packed. This included a change of clothing for 2 days, toiletries, money and letterboxing supplies. It was supposed to rain on and off for the whole time I was going to be in the city so I also wore a rain coat.

I did a little exploring around Chinatown right off. I didn't have time to go to the arcade to play any DDR but did find a letterbox and also hid one in that general area of the city. I don't think the one I hid will stay for very long but stranger things have happened.

I started navigating the city in the MTA. I got pretty good at knowing where to get on, transferring and navigating the underground pilgrimages from stop to stop. My first of many trips last week was to get myself to Union Square by 2pm to meet Asrai at nearby 890 Broadway. I made it by 1:30 and had time to take in the Farmer's Market. Just as I was grabbing an organic vegan carrot raisin cookie, Asrai appeared. We took advantage of the extra half hour to shop in a couple of nearby stores. She bought a back brace for teaching in her circus arts classes and I looked at the cool catware at Fishs Eddy. We soon met Ravenboy and had some lunch at Whole Foods.

Every moment I spent with Ravenboy and Asrai reminded me of how lucky I was to know them. Generous in every with kind spirits, they loved sharing stories, ideas and opened their home and lives to me completely. Being with them makes the time without them around feel very superficial and without depth. I actually have to forget just how special they are until I am with them again or I would be very lonely most of the year. I know I can speak for RGBisMe as well, we love them very much.

We spent Ravenboy's break exploring from Union Square to Washington Square and back. They showed me where they went to go hear Dieselboy spin at club Love. Like many clubs in Gotham, there is no indicator or sign of the nightclub inside, you have to know the address and boldly venture into the unmarked door. They were given the wrong address and went to the wrong location. By the time they realized and corrected their error, they were too tired to go to the performance.

There are so many cool nooks and crannies around Greenwich Village. Washington Mews, MacDougal Alley, Patchin Place, Cherry Alley, Fat Cat jazz club, and many other locations make this area a must to explore. Ravenboy once cut through the local pizza/pita place about 1AM on his way to Fat Cat and saw the late Heath Ledger grabbing a slice there. Greenwich Village, a very cool area.

After spending a completely chill evening with my family and resting well, I started out the next morning experiencing Ravenboy's typical morning commute. I promised not to slow him down and road the express subway down to Union Square with him. I bid him a good day of rehearsals and about 9:45 AM set off on my own to board the N train to Coney Island. The ride ended up taking close to 40 minutes and I was glad to have taken a book to read. The last 20 minutes were in Brooklyn. The train came above ground as it left Manhattan and I was able to enjoy looking out and around. I could see the Brooklyn Bridge in the distance as we crossed the East River and about 10 minutes later I was able to smell the sea in the air each time the train cars opened.

Not many people will understand my wanting to visit a place like Coney Island when it is not open. I think there is an amazingly spooky charm to amusement parks when there is no one around. I am am also quite intimidated by large crowds of people so this allowed me to enjoy a few attractions without the added stress of so many people being around. The boardwalk had very few people on it except for around the entrance to the New York Aquarium where bus loads of children lined the path the entire way to the board walk. Their excited chatter filled the area as I walked the boardwalk and enjoyed the view of the Atlantic Ocean before finding my way back to the Metro stop.

I transferred to the 2 train in the middle of Brooklyn so that I could get to a station where I could catch a train to Battery Park. It was a number of times this week which I traveled through the area where the World Trade Center stops used to be open on the red line. I am sure it is not my imagination that everyone on the cars seem a bit more subdued as we travel under that area where the two towers used to stand. Almost a decade has passed but few who live in Gotham, or care about the city, have forgotten that day.

The day never produced any rain and by the time I reached Battery Park it was quite nice. I was back to dodging camera wielding tourists again. Every one's focus was either the ferry, Lady Liberty or some of the memorial sculptures in the park. I pulled my camera out a few time but my focus at one point seemed to be of little interest to anyone else. It turns out that I was able to photograph Zelda the wild turkey!

I was able to find a letterbox in Battery Park before getting back onto the metro to go uptown again. I made a few stops, here and there and planted another letterbox before making my way upper east side. Partway along this commute I decided that I wanted to transfer to the local train and jumped off at the next stop. Unlike the express stop before, I realized the local platform was two flights upstairs! I ran up a flight and then ran up a flight that was also an escalator that brought me out near the platform. I heard to departure announcement being made on the local train that stood on the tracks just a few steps down. On fatigued ankles I sprinted down the steps and through the doors of the subway car just before they closed. I was able to understand and share that smug little smile of satisfaction I had seen on the faces of other breathless commuters. This was a genuine NYC moment for me.

The next morning, RGBisMe was able to join us. We wandered around Central Park for a while. We passed where the Red Tailed Hawk, Pale Male, regularly nests and walked by the boat pond. We played on the Alice in Wonderland sculpture and marveled at the many tulips that were at their peak around the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After successfully finding a letterbox in Central Park, we met Asrai after her art class and she showed us a spectacular piece of work she had modeled for. Also an avid knitter, Asrai showed us a colorful wall of yarns in a local shop.

We spent the afternoon exploring different areas of the city. We checked out Grand Central Station during rush hour and I finally had a chance to take RGBisMe into the Chrysler Building to show off it's amazing deco style and architecture. We looked at the ceiling painting and all of the chrome stairway fixtures and even wandered into an area where we shouldn't have been. It was all very beautiful.

Across the street from Grand Central Station was the old Bowery Savings Bank that had loads of imagery on it. The typical beehive image was repeated a few times but what surprised us was how many times squirrels were represented. They always had acorns and in one image a man was pulling a squirrel's tail as it was running away with an acorn. I took so many photos of that bank it's ridiculous. I have at least 5 different squirrel images. Now, with Tracdc in mind, I am wondering just how many images of squirrels are in the city! I want to do a NYC squirrel tour just for her!

The day I rushed from the express train to the local train was so that I could make reservations in person at the Candle Cafe. I think I got it mixed up with Candle 79 which is also nearby and both are vegetarian restaurants. No regrets because the four of us had a very nice meal that night.

On our last day in the city, RGBisMe and I rose early and prepared to depart to find some letterboxes and get out of the way. Although Ravenboy had to work it was Asrai's day off and we wanted her to be able to sleep in. She got up early and asked if she could tag along with us. We were thrilled!

That morning we wandered through a completely different part of Central Park and failed at finding the two letterboxes we sought upper west side. After washing off our grubby hands, Asrai treated us to lunch at the famous Pomodoro Rosso. Everything at this quaint little restaurant was delicious. We can't wait to return for some pasta some evening.

We all caught the subway to look for one of the best letterboxes in the city, A Lovely Light. I had failed to find it TWICE before in the same number of days because my research was faulty. Never mind I walked past the exact location probably 10 times, I groped all of the wrong final locations. I was glad to have Asrai and RGBisMe along for the final attempt. I refused to look for it because I thought I had jinxed every other location. Asrai was quite clever in pretending to get into her back pack and quickly made the successful grab! We walked down a block, well away from the location to stamp into the little letterbox. Awesome carving! As we were logging in, a tour formed right around us and the guide started spouting off information that RGBisMe had successfully researched just that morning. It was hard not to crack up as they walked by us and we followed them to listen a bit. They walked right past the hiding place, totally distracted with their tour, as Asrai slipped the letterbox back into place.

We met Ravenboy on his break one last time before we set out for home. The time together was all too brief but they assured us that they would be coming to visit in August. They are more than welcome and I can never thank them enough for such a great time in their city.

The Scarlet D

We finally decided to check out The Scarlet D in Mifflinburg tonight and were not impressed. Half of the vegetarian menu items were not available and the service was terrible. We should have known better since there online menu was all blocked out in greeking as opposed to real text. Oh well, the drive up the valley was nice and we got a fun photo of RGBisMe by the one end of The Scarlet D/ Mifflinburg Hotel. It's THERE!

Heat Shield Sculpture Garden 2009

Thanks to friends and family the old "Heat Shield Graveyard" has had new life breathed into it and is now known at the Heat Shield Sculpture Garden.

Nom Nom Nom

Southerly Wind

This past weekend was a real pleasure spent with my dearest RGBisMe. My week had been filled with early mornings spent volunteering at WPSU radio pledge drive. The fund raising was going really well but the early hours, 6 AM until noon, were starting to wear me down.

The week prior, Maga11 had alerted me to the fact that our South of the Border letterbox seemed to be missing so a run down to Juniata County to replace it would make a nice drive. I had carved up a new image and with a a replacement log book we could make sure everything was in order for future seeker.

We decided to add a few detours and extend our trip to make a day of it. RGBisMe really wanted to find the Lewsitown Narrows Canal Park letterbox that I had hidden with the help of Maga11 and Toolman Luke the past summer. That would be our first stop.

The walk along the Juniata would have been very lovely with all of the early spring flowers except a fierce wind blew steadily. We saw some low lying lightly colored Dutchman's Breaches here an there along the trail as we started out. The trail had some other visitors and we got to meet the president of some Juniata trails society who told us that this was set to be the day of their annual walk on the trail.

RGBisMe found the letterbox without any problem and he picked up a really cool hitch hiker there. We were able to move it, as well as 3 others, along that day. We walked out the canal trail the way we had come in, packing out two huge bags of trash but barely making a dent in all of the river and highway litter.

We maintained a mystery box of ours that was in good shape but quite lonely and went on to replace South of the Border. RGBisMe determined that rock was still in place and went to find another one or two. As I brushed some debris aside to seat the replacement letterbox I touched what felt like another rock. It turned out to be the original letterbox! No one had logged in since 2007 but it was in great shape. This was a terrific surprise and now we have a replacement for it... just in case.

We then stopped for lunch in Newport in a cute coffee shop Toolman Luke had told us had vegetarian menu items. Although Espresso Yourself Cafe is not entirely a vegetarian restaurant it has an extensive vegetarian and vegan menu. RGBisme and I both opted for the 1/2 sandwich and cup of soup. He got a Santa Fe wrap and I got a vegan Reuben. They were both amazing! Along with the Potato Rivel soup we were stuffed with some of the best vegetarian food we had from a restaurant in a long time.

We drove on to check on Torchlight. The 4Rhines (now Loyalsock Skippers) had a report that it might be missing since Monday. Because we had been with Mososo Kruppe who had found it just a week prior we really thought it should be in place. We told them we would take a replacement log since the old log book was quite full. It was as secure as when Mososo Kruppe found it and we swapped out the log.

We toyed with hiking up to check on our Uncle Wiggily letterbox but opted to press on to Harrisburg and plant our new Miss Penn urban microbox. On the way to plant it we checked on one of Silent Doug's Capitol Tiles boxes because we wanted to hide a hitch hiker in it but that box seems to have gone missing. Natty Bummpo's 4th @ 3rd is still in place though.

After planting Miss Penn we drove on to Hummelstown to enjoy letterboxing in Shank Park, Gelder Park and on the Hummel Nature Trail. We sadly were again unable to leave the hitch hiker because the Hitch Hiker Hostel we went to seems to be missing. It was our second visit to it so we are pretty sure it was gone.

Some ticks made themselves known in Shank Park and we checked over our pants as we exited. The wind still was pretty strong and we were getting hungry by the end of the day. We weren't as familiar with the roads we were on as we left Hummelstown but had two restaurants in mind as we drove through the Harrisburg area. The one that we ended up stopping at was the Macaroni Grill.

After a huge supper and carrying away many left overs, we started for home. It was about 10 PM and we phoned DaBraLady as we were passing through her area. She insisted that we get together and we picked her up. We started at J. P. Edward's and ended dancing to Johnny Unit at our old haunt, The Bierhaus. I pulled out my cards and read for a bunch of kids before we left town.

We didn't make it home until after 1 AM and that is when I found a tick deeply embedded into my thigh. Much fun and jumping around to the music at The Birehaus had caused it to dig in pretty far. It was not fun getting it out but RGBisMe got it head and all. It was a very full day and a real change from sitting and answering a phone for hours.

Sunday was a sunny day but quite honestly we just recovered from the day before. Laundry, gardening and yard work was the theme after a morning of answering emails and trying to get the Miss Penn clue to work. I am still having some problems with links but decided to blog our weekend before I went back to that frustration. The day ended with a happy text that Ravenboy is back in the country. Welcome back and I am looking forward to a new week of adventures after helping WPSU meet their goal of $85,000.