Southern Travels

   This is part of the Lower Suwanee River Rail Trail at the border of South Carolina and Georgia along Highway 301, that follows the old highway paralleling the new highway. In one picture you can see the new and old bridges, the latter still showing the remarkably well preserved wooden pilings. In fact, along the three miles I walked only one railing showed overt deterioration of the concrete after 83 years. The old highway culminated in a pivoting bridge that turned on a turnstile to allow boats to navigate the river. The new highway bridge was constructed at a higher level. This is just one interesting artifact I stumbled upon while meandering down south.

 

 

The Election Travesty...or...Hopefully This is the End of This

   this is a smaple of the emails I have been sending my representatives..

 >As a Pennsylvania resident I object strongly to your immoral and unethical and probably treasonous attempts to enable Mr. Trumps false claims of election fraud. The use of mail in ballots here was a totally reasonable adaptation to help save lives during an extremely unusual and deadly time-just as masks and social distancing have been. The votes were accurately counted and Mr. Biden won. To argue a legal technicality in order to dismiss the votes of millions of American citizens is both despicable and dishonors all those men and women who have died protecting our democracy. Shame on you for being on the wrong side of history and humanity. As a white man I now understand the centuries of voter suppression that the black race has faced in this country. Stop the madness and your support of the immature child man ranting in the white house...This is McCarthyism all over again, but apparently some people- mostly Republicans like you- have never learned genuine integrity. Pathetic…<

     The above is an email I have sent to my representative Glenn Thompson and, in a modified form, to Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnel, Mr. Cruz and others in our state and national governments. In all my 65 years I have never experienced such an egregious assault on the integrity of our elections, nor such a blatant, self serving distortion of the good spirit of the vote. For the Republican party to support these attempts is absolutely disgusting to me, so it is difficult for me to disguise my contempt for the men and women whose personal character is so lacking. If nothing else, this year should remind all of us of how easy it is for a nation to fall into anarchy, when millions are willing to follow a leader into lies and darkness. Some of these people are threatening civil war because of totally fabricated conspiracy theories and the self serving distortions of their cult leader. The disheartening thing is that many of these people are so called good Christians, yet they lack the critical, consistent thinking to comprehend the most basic facts and assertions....So again I write rather than be complicit in silence, and I pray that our institutions continue to defend the people rather than the corruption of those in power.

 

Loleta Rec Area etc

  Took a hike at Loleta Natl. Rec. Area again, where some of the great stone work of the CCC is evident. Just zoom in on the dam to see that they don't build them like that anymore. I am a fan of some kind of national service to help unify this country, and doing infrastructure work such as much needed maintenance on our state and national parks would be a way to employ people after this pandemic ends.

 As for the car...It is now 3 years old with 40,000 miles and I have had absolutely no problems other than a loose heat shield that was easily tightened. The warranty still has 2 years remaining on the bumper to bumper and 7 years/100,000 miles on the engine and drive train-not bad for a purchased new price of $9,995. Mitsubishi Mirages get terrible reviews by the 'experts' yet many owners- including me- love them,  It is great everyday transportation and averages 47mpg... What's not to like? I  think the 'experts' are fools on this one, and totally missing the point of this car for people who simply want good, basic, reliable transportation.

Chapman Dam

   Circled the pond at Chapman today-a state park about ten miles from the house. A cross country skier had proceeded me in the new snow, but it is always a tranquil, beautiful  park just a short drive from Warren. The pond is popular for fishing, swimming and kayaking in summer, as well as ice fishing and sledding on a groomed hill in winter. Most years there is a festival in January, with dog sled races etc, but Co-vid has canceled that for this season. Winter is Beth's favorite season, and despite my preference for warm weather, I am not blind to the beauty of a winter woods. In fact, hemlocks draped in a fresh snow offer me a humbling contrast to the muttering under my breath I do when I have to scrape the windshield almost every day.

One of many nationwide

   " ANF-13 (Bull Hill) was operational from July 2, 1935 until 1946, but it was converted to a German POW camp from 1942 through 1946. It was also used as a YCC, Youth Conservation Camp, in the 1970s, with the addition of mobile trailers on the site. There was a Univ. of Iowa forestry field school here in the 1980s and it was an 82d Airborne exercise area. The CCC men from here built the Farnsworth Fish Hatchery, and also Forest Roads 116, 119 and 154, as well as many other projects. Besides Bull Hill, it was also called the Austin Hill and the Cherry Grove Camp. See the "Valley Voice" (Sheffield newspaper) for Friday, Oct. 1999 for interviews, photos and maps. A 1994 edition of this paper has many more photos. An article in the Sheffield "Observer" for Aug. 13. 1935 lists the eleven buildings, which included five 110' barracks. It is west of Sheffield,PA on Route 2002, between Forest Roads 416 and 481. There is a road side historic marker, erected by the ANF. Isabelle Champlin, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Bradford, PA., has site maps, as does the ANF."

        Walked past this marker a few weeks ago-in the middle of nowhere essentially- but I never saw any of the buildings which were torn down years ago. A lot of stonework the men did in the forest-dams and buildings and walls- has aged well. Quality stonework is a lost art and usually replaced by concrete in the modern age, although even modern concrete seems to break down much faster than that mixed in the last century. There are concrete bridges from the 1930's which are only now crumbling and ten year old concrete bridges down the road that already show signs of deterioration. It is a sad fact that workmanship is not what it used to be in many places, or at least, too expensive for the majority of us to experience.

Post Election Corruption

This latest commentary/article in the local paper reveals an extremely disturbing thought process that is all too common among people; their cult worship and demonizing and total disregard for facts, with no clear methodical way to ascertain reality- which has been Trumps and now his followers life. My reply no doubt falls on deaf ears but I have to keep speaking out...There are millions of people who can be led-or lead themselves- down dangerous paths and who then drag the rest of us down, and so wars and civil wars begin and no one wins.  I do not know how history will record this era of Trump, but as I said before...Reality is Natures way of cutting through human hubris... So denials and shortsighted policies will affect all of us, regardless of our politics.  ( click on the pics to enlarger them )

 

Autumn

     The leaves are about 50% changed, with vibrant yellow, red and orange maples being the predominant color so far. The dry summer and a couple light frosts have made for an excellent leaf season, as contrasted with last years rain which had the leaves turning brown and falling early. Depending on storms and winds things can change overnight, so waiting for a 'peak' is sometimes risky if one is planning a vacation.The pond in the picture is one of a dozen at Buzzard Swamp, dug decades ago and now being filled with silk. Beavers have assumed residence and built their 'dam' across the spillway over which the gravel access road was constructed. The beavers lodge can

be seen in the distance by zooming in past that path through the algae. Beavers are mostly nocturnal although I have seen them swim past me while fishing in daylight. 

     These are the first pictures I have taken with a new Fujifilm Finepix XP130 camera I bought for $130 to replace a Canon SX720 camera that stopped working when perspiration entered the camera as I was carrying it while climbing a mountain. An earlier Panasonic point and shoot camera also stopped working from what I thought was  a minimal amount of water, so this time I've opted for a 'waterproof/shockproof' model. We'll see if that makes a difference. I have a larger SLR camera that takes excellent pictures but is too bulky for hiking, so I need a portable camera. So far this Fuji seems to take better pictures than the more expensive and more highly rated Canon, so listening to the 'experts' is not always helpful. The sole advantage of the Canon was a better zoom lens, but the pictures always seemed a bit blurry and the camera had a hard time focusing.