Brokeback, Last of the Mohicans, World’s Fastest Indian, Victoria Trail/AT hike (posted from home)
(This post covers 12 June through 16 June, 2006)
Friday, 16 June-
I took the Miata in to the Farmer’s Market early this morning to pick for some goodies for the weekend. Back home I spent an hour or so on the web and then became restless.
I rode the Concours north of Harrisburg to the Victoria Trail parking area along SR225, not far from Dehart Dam and hiked up the mountain to its intersection with the Appalachian Trail, then down the other side to Ibberson Conservation Area. After a snack in the little education pavilion there I turned around and headed back up, this time taking the Whitetail Trail to the top. I love the stonework on the steep section of the Whitetail Trail. Someone spent many hours finding and securely placing the stone steps and fashioning them into sweeping curves at the switchbacks. They even went to the trouble of building a stone bench right across from a natural opening in the trees which provides a view across the valley. I’d like to know who did that; it’s obviously a labor of love. I thought I might see one of our slithery friends along the way in that rocky area and cast a close eye on any sunny patches but didn't see any.
Once back at the mountaintop I decided a detour to the Peter’s Mountain AT shelters would be in order. They were only a mile south (AT trail-south, that is) and I’ve not been there in a few years. And besides, if I went down now I’d just have to deal with rush-hour traffic going home. I may as well enjoy a little walk while the traffic thins out--- and, besides, I have some history with that shelter….
----
In January of 1990 Labashi and I had hiked in to the Peter’s Mountain shelter (there was only one then, there are two now) in a light snow. At that time of year it grew dark around 1700 so we had a long evening around the campfire and we were getting a bit chilled by 2100. We decided to hike down to the spring for water and to warm ourselves up a bit before getting into the sleeping bags. The spring lies 300 steps down the steep mountainside. But as I stepped across a log in the upper part of the steep, my foot slipped on a downhill-pointed ridge of rock and I fell. Unfortunately for me, the fall threw me into a tree and at the base of that tree was a small stump. When I hit that stump, I broke three ribs. But all I knew at the time was I was in trouble. We were camped three miles from the nearest road and it was snowing pretty steadily. It wasn’t all that cold—low thirties—but I didn’t want to chance walking out at night and I didn’t know how much damage had been done. Right after my fall I was completely infused with adrenaline and churned up that hill to the shelter in what must have been record time. But I also knew the adrenaline wouldn’t last long.
So we stayed. Between the pain and worry about the damage and thinking about what to do about this situation, I didn’t sleep a wink. The shelter’s wooden floor was torture. And for some reason the fall had resulted in my having to get up to go to the bathroom every hour or so. On the one hand this was a good thing—an opportunity to monitor for blood in the urine—but on the other hand the getting up and down in the low-roofed shelter was extremely painful—enough to make me yell each time.
At daylight, we arose and packed up. My plan was to cover my backpack with a garbage bag and hide it somewhere until I’d be able to return for it. But I wasn’t fond of that option so had Labashi put the pack on me. As it turned out, the pack’s downward pull not only didn’t hurt, it actually helped relieve the pain a little. So we hiked out to our car (my little Fiesta) and drove to the emergency room. There I learned I had broken the three ribs but all they did was give me Tylenol #3 for the pain and send me home to rest.
In the intervening years I’ve been back to the shelter four or five times and several times I’ve gone down the spring trail to ‘water’ the stump I fell on.
----
On my walk in to the shelter today, I thought there was a good chance I’d encounter a thru-hiker or two. I first met Matt. He started the trail on 22 February and it’s going well for him. Matt does not keep a journal. Then, just north of the shelter, along came Swiss-the Chocolate Bandito and Happy Feet. They are a young couple who have done many miles on the AT. They have journals on trailjournals.com but have not updated them lately. At the shelter I met six other hikers but did not catch their names. One pair of hikers were staying in the old shelter, were out for a two-day trip and had two bottles of wine and a liter-size aluminum fuel bottle of bourbon (“to help us get to sleep”). In the main shelter were a couple (Swansons and Kurly) and three others (two women and a man) whose names I did not get. As I signed the shelter log I asked if any were keeping trail journals and Kurly spoke up. She has a good one—it’s at http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=3663.
I asked her how she keeps it up and she says she snail-mails entries to her mother who does the online entry.
I made it back to the Concours around 1745 and figured that made a good four hours of steady hiking and about a half-hour of talking with the various hikers I met. The hikers were all at or near the AT shelter; I didn’t see anyone on the Victoria, White-Tail, or other side trails or at the Conservation Area. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife… the typical squirrels, chipmunks, and crows plus a very large pileated woodpecker on the mountaintop and a bluebird and swallows chasing bugs over the field at the Conservation area.
Later that evening we watched ‘Osama’, an Afghan film about a girl whose mother and grandmother decide their fatherless family will starve if they don’t cut the girl’s hair and pass her off as a boy so (s)he can work and earn some money. Excellent film.
Thursday, 15 June-
Today’s big event was a picnic at my former workplace. I’ve not been back for the nine months since leaving and it was wonderful to see the folks again and catch up. Time seemed to fly and I ate well and played a few games of volleyball between chats.
Back home that evening we watched “The Worlds’ Fastest Indian”. It’s about Burt Munro, who set a land-speed record on his highly-modified 1920 Indian Scout at the age of 73 and went on to set nine more records. His 1967 speed record for faired motorcycles under 1000 cc’s still stands today. While Anthony Hopkins did a good job in acting the part of Munro, the best part about the DVD was seeing the footage of the real guy in one of the extra features. What a character.
Wednesday, 14 June-
I spent some of the morning on the web. In late morning I took the Concours down to Starbucks to read the papers, then to Rocky Ridge park to jog the double loop and outer loop trails in the west end of the park. That evening we watched the 1927 (and silent) version of ‘The Last of the Mohicans’. While watching the film we’d pause it and look up stuff on the web. For example, I learned that Wallace Beery played Magua in this film and also, in 1934’s ‘Treasure Island’, he played Long John Silver. (Labashi has such an eye for this stuff—upon seeing him as Magua, she said “That’s the pirate in Treasure Island!”; that’s what got us started).
Also, IMDb.com says Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi played uncredited roles as Indians in The Last of the Mohicans (but we couldn’t find them). And, by the way, where exactly was Fort William Henry? And what were the historical events that the movie is based on? And who were the Mohicans?
I can’t say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen but I’m glad I saw it. Now I want to see the 1992 version again and see how well they did in presenting the history of what happened there on Lake George.
Tuesday, 13 June-
Today I washed the cars and cleaned up the van from our trip. Later, I took the KLR for a jaunt down to Don’s Kawasaki in Hellam and set up an appointment to have the valves checked as part of the 5000-mile maintenance schedule and then took a longish ride home through the countryside. In the evening I mowed the lawn, finishing just as darkness was making it difficult to see well enough to mow. We rook MAHV-a-rus.
Monday, 12 June-
I spent much of the morning on the web and updating the blog. In the afternoon I rode over to Pinchot State Park and jogged from the Conewago Day Use area parking lot to the dam and back. It was a nice, airy day for a jog and I even managed to pick up the pace in a few sections – but not for long!
In the evening we watched the much-regarded “Brokeback Mountain”. I’m not a fan. It didn’t seem very plausible to me.
(This post covers 12 June through 16 June, 2006)
Friday, 16 June-
I took the Miata in to the Farmer’s Market early this morning to pick for some goodies for the weekend. Back home I spent an hour or so on the web and then became restless.
I rode the Concours north of Harrisburg to the Victoria Trail parking area along SR225, not far from Dehart Dam and hiked up the mountain to its intersection with the Appalachian Trail, then down the other side to Ibberson Conservation Area. After a snack in the little education pavilion there I turned around and headed back up, this time taking the Whitetail Trail to the top. I love the stonework on the steep section of the Whitetail Trail. Someone spent many hours finding and securely placing the stone steps and fashioning them into sweeping curves at the switchbacks. They even went to the trouble of building a stone bench right across from a natural opening in the trees which provides a view across the valley. I’d like to know who did that; it’s obviously a labor of love. I thought I might see one of our slithery friends along the way in that rocky area and cast a close eye on any sunny patches but didn't see any.
Once back at the mountaintop I decided a detour to the Peter’s Mountain AT shelters would be in order. They were only a mile south (AT trail-south, that is) and I’ve not been there in a few years. And besides, if I went down now I’d just have to deal with rush-hour traffic going home. I may as well enjoy a little walk while the traffic thins out--- and, besides, I have some history with that shelter….
----
In January of 1990 Labashi and I had hiked in to the Peter’s Mountain shelter (there was only one then, there are two now) in a light snow. At that time of year it grew dark around 1700 so we had a long evening around the campfire and we were getting a bit chilled by 2100. We decided to hike down to the spring for water and to warm ourselves up a bit before getting into the sleeping bags. The spring lies 300 steps down the steep mountainside. But as I stepped across a log in the upper part of the steep, my foot slipped on a downhill-pointed ridge of rock and I fell. Unfortunately for me, the fall threw me into a tree and at the base of that tree was a small stump. When I hit that stump, I broke three ribs. But all I knew at the time was I was in trouble. We were camped three miles from the nearest road and it was snowing pretty steadily. It wasn’t all that cold—low thirties—but I didn’t want to chance walking out at night and I didn’t know how much damage had been done. Right after my fall I was completely infused with adrenaline and churned up that hill to the shelter in what must have been record time. But I also knew the adrenaline wouldn’t last long.
So we stayed. Between the pain and worry about the damage and thinking about what to do about this situation, I didn’t sleep a wink. The shelter’s wooden floor was torture. And for some reason the fall had resulted in my having to get up to go to the bathroom every hour or so. On the one hand this was a good thing—an opportunity to monitor for blood in the urine—but on the other hand the getting up and down in the low-roofed shelter was extremely painful—enough to make me yell each time.
At daylight, we arose and packed up. My plan was to cover my backpack with a garbage bag and hide it somewhere until I’d be able to return for it. But I wasn’t fond of that option so had Labashi put the pack on me. As it turned out, the pack’s downward pull not only didn’t hurt, it actually helped relieve the pain a little. So we hiked out to our car (my little Fiesta) and drove to the emergency room. There I learned I had broken the three ribs but all they did was give me Tylenol #3 for the pain and send me home to rest.
In the intervening years I’ve been back to the shelter four or five times and several times I’ve gone down the spring trail to ‘water’ the stump I fell on.
----
On my walk in to the shelter today, I thought there was a good chance I’d encounter a thru-hiker or two. I first met Matt. He started the trail on 22 February and it’s going well for him. Matt does not keep a journal. Then, just north of the shelter, along came Swiss-the Chocolate Bandito and Happy Feet. They are a young couple who have done many miles on the AT. They have journals on trailjournals.com but have not updated them lately. At the shelter I met six other hikers but did not catch their names. One pair of hikers were staying in the old shelter, were out for a two-day trip and had two bottles of wine and a liter-size aluminum fuel bottle of bourbon (“to help us get to sleep”). In the main shelter were a couple (Swansons and Kurly) and three others (two women and a man) whose names I did not get. As I signed the shelter log I asked if any were keeping trail journals and Kurly spoke up. She has a good one—it’s at http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=3663.
I asked her how she keeps it up and she says she snail-mails entries to her mother who does the online entry.
I made it back to the Concours around 1745 and figured that made a good four hours of steady hiking and about a half-hour of talking with the various hikers I met. The hikers were all at or near the AT shelter; I didn’t see anyone on the Victoria, White-Tail, or other side trails or at the Conservation Area. I didn’t see a lot of wildlife… the typical squirrels, chipmunks, and crows plus a very large pileated woodpecker on the mountaintop and a bluebird and swallows chasing bugs over the field at the Conservation area.
Later that evening we watched ‘Osama’, an Afghan film about a girl whose mother and grandmother decide their fatherless family will starve if they don’t cut the girl’s hair and pass her off as a boy so (s)he can work and earn some money. Excellent film.
Thursday, 15 June-
Today’s big event was a picnic at my former workplace. I’ve not been back for the nine months since leaving and it was wonderful to see the folks again and catch up. Time seemed to fly and I ate well and played a few games of volleyball between chats.
Back home that evening we watched “The Worlds’ Fastest Indian”. It’s about Burt Munro, who set a land-speed record on his highly-modified 1920 Indian Scout at the age of 73 and went on to set nine more records. His 1967 speed record for faired motorcycles under 1000 cc’s still stands today. While Anthony Hopkins did a good job in acting the part of Munro, the best part about the DVD was seeing the footage of the real guy in one of the extra features. What a character.
Wednesday, 14 June-
I spent some of the morning on the web. In late morning I took the Concours down to Starbucks to read the papers, then to Rocky Ridge park to jog the double loop and outer loop trails in the west end of the park. That evening we watched the 1927 (and silent) version of ‘The Last of the Mohicans’. While watching the film we’d pause it and look up stuff on the web. For example, I learned that Wallace Beery played Magua in this film and also, in 1934’s ‘Treasure Island’, he played Long John Silver. (Labashi has such an eye for this stuff—upon seeing him as Magua, she said “That’s the pirate in Treasure Island!”; that’s what got us started).
Also, IMDb.com says Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi played uncredited roles as Indians in The Last of the Mohicans (but we couldn’t find them). And, by the way, where exactly was Fort William Henry? And what were the historical events that the movie is based on? And who were the Mohicans?
I can’t say it’s the best film I’ve ever seen but I’m glad I saw it. Now I want to see the 1992 version again and see how well they did in presenting the history of what happened there on Lake George.
Tuesday, 13 June-
Today I washed the cars and cleaned up the van from our trip. Later, I took the KLR for a jaunt down to Don’s Kawasaki in Hellam and set up an appointment to have the valves checked as part of the 5000-mile maintenance schedule and then took a longish ride home through the countryside. In the evening I mowed the lawn, finishing just as darkness was making it difficult to see well enough to mow. We rook MAHV-a-rus.
Monday, 12 June-
I spent much of the morning on the web and updating the blog. In the afternoon I rode over to Pinchot State Park and jogged from the Conewago Day Use area parking lot to the dam and back. It was a nice, airy day for a jog and I even managed to pick up the pace in a few sections – but not for long!
In the evening we watched the much-regarded “Brokeback Mountain”. I’m not a fan. It didn’t seem very plausible to me.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 12:13
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home