Anti-Clock

1/4/2017
      Mostly clouds with snow showers, 30F The dog and I walk an old pipeline road, more like the towpath of a canal, that parallels the Allegheny between the river and Hemlock road. In places it is as wide as a two lane highway, the surface grass and leaf covered, and I think it was probably a railroad grade that followed the river through Kinzua valley before the dam was built. Today it is maintained by the refining company which has replaced cast iron pipes with more modern ones and provided access points to the macadam road on the ridge above. From this perspective I notice all the trash that has been cast down, some of it very old-galvanized washtubs and the like-and some of it more recent-plastic tubs and lawn chairs. I doubt that future archaeologists will find much of interest here except to indicate the generational habits of human beings.
       A few minutes of sunlight break though the clouds, and during those moments I turn to the sky to deliberately burn the light into my retina. Sunlight in Warren in winter is a rare thing.
1/5
        Snow showers,20F  Work at the office and shop, then walk 4 miles on Morrison Run road 2pm. We follow the tracks of a man who seems distracted, for he meanders back and forth in a slow gait, dragging his left foot on the snow occasionally, and bushwhacking into the woods now and again before reappearing further down the road. I suspect that he is planning or checking a trap line at first, but see him near the end of our walk, when he tells me that he is searching for Chaga, a medicinal fungus that grows on birch trees. He touts its benefits towards longevity and explains that he had climbed "to the the top of the mountain" and back in his search  then found some right where he had parked his truck. I suggest that perhaps the climbing alone will add to his lifespan and he laughs as I leave him to his collecting. Other than the man we see only a few chickadees active in these cold woods, although there is evidence of fox and coyote in the snow. Because of the recurring freezes and thaws the stream is not iced over, and this present ice is apt to melt in next weeks predicted warm temperatures.