(no subject)
Sep. 16th, 2009 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickSo, again, I went out walking tonight. More scouting. I'm starting to fucking hate walking.
I had Dad drive me up the hill to the top of the mountain. This is a good thing because the last bit of climb is about .4 mile at 17.5% grade. It's not like you're going to wreck or anything, but it's a hell of a climb to get up there. The mountain ridge is our property line. There's a road runs along the ridge, called Fisher Road. It's nice, reasonably level, goes out the ridge to the state forest.
Now, for the last four or so years, the state forest part of the road has had three Deer Exclosure Fences on it. The fences are to keep the deer out while the trees grow back or something. The fences have little flap-style openings where people can go through but the openings are not big enough for horses. It is possible, if you are determined, to ride a horse *around* the DEF but the alleged trail is vertical and the footing is shitty. It's a lot like work for a horse. I've done it. I do not care to do it again.
So, I got two reports on the status of the DEF this fall. One report, from my uncle Jim, was that the fence was still up. One report, from a Lot Owner who shall remain nameless, was that the fence was "all gone". Clearly, they can't both be right. So, I went up and walked out the damn ridge to determine what the hell was up with the DEF.
The DEF is still in place. This is a lovely thing to discover, but then you're roughly two miles out in the middle of BFE (bum fuck egypt -- I live near there) and have to walk home.
Google Maps won't embed in LJ so I took a screenshot and pasted it in here. You have no idea how pissed I am about having to do that. Click the link below the picture to get a scrollable picture.
View alternative route in a larger map
I started walking at the GREEN marker dot. BFE is where the BLUE marker is placed. The red line between the green and blue marker dots is the mountain ridge I walked out. The green line coming off of the blue marker dot is more-or-less the ATV trail that connects to it. It's approximate because google maps does not have atv trails or other trails from the pa dcnr state forest atv trail map page.
When I walked home, it was downhill and about half the distance of the mountain ridge. It should have been a fucking cakewalk. You'd think that, right? You'd be wrong. ATVs pull the rocks to the surface. They make the ground very, very rough and difficult to walk on. Going on foot over an atv trail requires a lot of effort, both physically and in one's attention to not-falling-over-and-destroying-an-ankle-or-knee. Multi-use trails suffer from atv traffic, but on the other hand, the atvs pay for a lot of trail maintaining in a chronically under-funded forestry department. At any rate, the slog homeward was tiring and took way longer than I thought it should. That section of atv trail has some real ankle-busting potential, say I. Not gonna do that for any reason. It's killer.
So, then. No up-to-Hull's and no out-the-ridge. No. Final route is as follows...
Start at red marker.
From football field up past burn pile. Yellow. 6/10 mile total.
Across main road. Up hill more towards Hull's road. On Hull's road, turn downhill and make left to water tank. Go to water tank, make right hand turn and go down to Minnigh's. Purple. 1.43 mile cumulative.
Make left to my house, at main road make right to go past lodge. Follow around lake. Brown. 2.93 miles.
Take illegal atv trail across creek, across valley floor, up hill. Go R on atv trail and follow it down to red bank trail. Make L on red bank and go up the fucking mountain. At ridge, make R and head out ridge more until you hit Snowfield. Make R onto Snowfield and go down the mountain you just went up. At bottom of valley, make R onto atv trail. Go back to red bank intersection. Light Blue. 6.51 miles cumulative.
Make L onto Red Bank, follow up hill to turnpike. Make L on to turnpike, follow about one mile to the parking area, whereupon you may exit the pike. Purple. 7.56 miles.
Follow Oregon Road from Parking Area back to home. Strong blue. 11.26 miles (not counting Red Bank from valley floor to Turnpike, not counting turnpike to oregon connector. Both are fairly minimal distances.)
It's 11.5 miles, give or take. That's plenty. It'll be a long damn ride, kiddies, with a hell of a lot of blue gravel. Hope you like blue gravel. At least that is graded to be non-vertical.
And, the best part about all of this? The only thing I have left to walk is down from the water tank to the main road, probably with a chainsaw in my hand (thus ensuring that I won't have to cut any trees out). It's a very short, easy walk. Then I'm ALL DONE with the scouting. Go me!!
I had Dad drive me up the hill to the top of the mountain. This is a good thing because the last bit of climb is about .4 mile at 17.5% grade. It's not like you're going to wreck or anything, but it's a hell of a climb to get up there. The mountain ridge is our property line. There's a road runs along the ridge, called Fisher Road. It's nice, reasonably level, goes out the ridge to the state forest.
Now, for the last four or so years, the state forest part of the road has had three Deer Exclosure Fences on it. The fences are to keep the deer out while the trees grow back or something. The fences have little flap-style openings where people can go through but the openings are not big enough for horses. It is possible, if you are determined, to ride a horse *around* the DEF but the alleged trail is vertical and the footing is shitty. It's a lot like work for a horse. I've done it. I do not care to do it again.
So, I got two reports on the status of the DEF this fall. One report, from my uncle Jim, was that the fence was still up. One report, from a Lot Owner who shall remain nameless, was that the fence was "all gone". Clearly, they can't both be right. So, I went up and walked out the damn ridge to determine what the hell was up with the DEF.
The DEF is still in place. This is a lovely thing to discover, but then you're roughly two miles out in the middle of BFE (bum fuck egypt -- I live near there) and have to walk home.
Google Maps won't embed in LJ so I took a screenshot and pasted it in here. You have no idea how pissed I am about having to do that. Click the link below the picture to get a scrollable picture.
View alternative route in a larger map
I started walking at the GREEN marker dot. BFE is where the BLUE marker is placed. The red line between the green and blue marker dots is the mountain ridge I walked out. The green line coming off of the blue marker dot is more-or-less the ATV trail that connects to it. It's approximate because google maps does not have atv trails or other trails from the pa dcnr state forest atv trail map page.
When I walked home, it was downhill and about half the distance of the mountain ridge. It should have been a fucking cakewalk. You'd think that, right? You'd be wrong. ATVs pull the rocks to the surface. They make the ground very, very rough and difficult to walk on. Going on foot over an atv trail requires a lot of effort, both physically and in one's attention to not-falling-over-and-destroying-an-ankle-or-knee. Multi-use trails suffer from atv traffic, but on the other hand, the atvs pay for a lot of trail maintaining in a chronically under-funded forestry department. At any rate, the slog homeward was tiring and took way longer than I thought it should. That section of atv trail has some real ankle-busting potential, say I. Not gonna do that for any reason. It's killer.
So, then. No up-to-Hull's and no out-the-ridge. No. Final route is as follows...
Start at red marker.
From football field up past burn pile. Yellow. 6/10 mile total.
Across main road. Up hill more towards Hull's road. On Hull's road, turn downhill and make left to water tank. Go to water tank, make right hand turn and go down to Minnigh's. Purple. 1.43 mile cumulative.
Make left to my house, at main road make right to go past lodge. Follow around lake. Brown. 2.93 miles.
Take illegal atv trail across creek, across valley floor, up hill. Go R on atv trail and follow it down to red bank trail. Make L on red bank and go up the fucking mountain. At ridge, make R and head out ridge more until you hit Snowfield. Make R onto Snowfield and go down the mountain you just went up. At bottom of valley, make R onto atv trail. Go back to red bank intersection. Light Blue. 6.51 miles cumulative.
Make L onto Red Bank, follow up hill to turnpike. Make L on to turnpike, follow about one mile to the parking area, whereupon you may exit the pike. Purple. 7.56 miles.
Follow Oregon Road from Parking Area back to home. Strong blue. 11.26 miles (not counting Red Bank from valley floor to Turnpike, not counting turnpike to oregon connector. Both are fairly minimal distances.)
It's 11.5 miles, give or take. That's plenty. It'll be a long damn ride, kiddies, with a hell of a lot of blue gravel. Hope you like blue gravel. At least that is graded to be non-vertical.
And, the best part about all of this? The only thing I have left to walk is down from the water tank to the main road, probably with a chainsaw in my hand (thus ensuring that I won't have to cut any trees out). It's a very short, easy walk. Then I'm ALL DONE with the scouting. Go me!!
