Waterfront Property from Tropical Storm

This is the highest water we've experienced in our 35 yrs in CNY!  From my kitchen windows we can see where Big Brook is across the road for the first time in our lives here. 

DISMAL all day long - difficult for this gal who lives for and thrives on sunshine.

When the rain subsided a wee bit I got out to take some photos.  Too bad I couldn't take more but it got dark too quickly.

Our quiet little stream between the house and barn.  This stream is seasonal and is usually dry most of the summer and fall months.

 The bottom end of that quiet stream where it enters Big Brook below the house, barn and hangar. 

Big Brook is living up to her name

Normally this bridge is 6 feet above the water.

Amazingly it hasn't carried away my footbridge - yet.  The ground has washed away from under the far end and it still holds - hallelujah!

Vic and the Jeep came to my rescue as the rain began to pick up again.  We checked things out further.  It's well past 7pm here and, finally, there is not enough light to continue shooting.

It's 8pm and we've had an official 3.64" of rain since midnight.  It continues to rain.



Waterville, PA - Little Pine State Park Area

After departing Rausch Creek we headed to Waterville, PA to spend a few days and camp at Little Pine State Park.  This is the general area where Vic's dad took the family to vacation when Vic and his sister, Linda, were growing up.  We explored lots of fun mountain roads and trails.

An unusual tree marked for removal.

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Pretty view with a little fall color

This view is the valley where they stayed.

The Waterville Hotel was reopened under new management in 2008 after a major renovation.  The photo at the bottom of the news article was taken in the 1930s and is how it still looked in the 1950s.

The landmark hotel was built in the 1820s.  We had a lovely dinner and enjoyed visiting with a young lady who is a proud resident and a very good waitress.

Vic spotted teaberries which brought back memories for us both.  Vic enjoyed teaberry ice cream which was produced seasonally by the Allegheny Creamery in Waterville.  I remember getting teaberry gum in my grandmother's store when I was growing up.  Mnnnn.  Sadly neither place exists now.  And something I didn't know is that wintergreen oil comes from the leaves of this plant.

                                  
              Lots of mining and logging is going on and gas wells are being drilled.

The evening before heading home Vic wanted to drive to English Center and check out the bridge.  That route would cut at least an hour off our trip the following day if......

There was no way that the bridge was an option as you will soon see, but where there is a will, there is a way.

The next morning

And, the reason why we chose not to use the bridge.  We were lightly loaded but still in the 18,000 pound range.

That evening at home the fog rolled in over our stream as the sun set.
Home Sweet Home!

Rausch Creek Off Road

Rausch Creek is an off-road park in Pennsylvania where the CNYJeep.org folks go on occasion.  Vic decided we would join them on September 18 and 19 for some wheeling.  We took the camper and stayed at a nearby campground and arrived Saturday morning ready to go.  For whatever reason there were only three other Jeeps that attended.  It was a nice fall weekend - coolish and dry on Sat. and warmish and still dry on Sun.

Trails were marked for difficulty with colors.  Green for easy, blue for more moderate, black for challenging and red for mind-bogglingly (new word?) bad.

Old fire tower

 A sprig of sweetfern which is not actually a fern but a subshrub or shrub.  It has       a nice sweet smell hence its name.  Too late I realized I should have collected a few leaves to make a tea.

A pretty viewpoint.  Most interesting is that cattails are growing on this mountainside. 

Having a spotter was nice in more than one area.

The amount of water was surprising to us as the latter part of the summer has been terribly dry.

Andy coming through the water behind us.

This muddy pool is named "Buried Treasure".  Benjamin's Jeep almost became another treasure buried here.  He managed to get around back to attach a tow strap to be pulled out.  I'm not quite sure why he chose not to wade in as his feet were wet; the Jeep had taken on a few inches of water.

After walking about a third of Crawl Daddy to check it out, the fellows decided it would have provided too much opportunity to damage the Jeeps in some areas and was just plain impossible in others. 

More in depth research will tell if this is Pennsylvania Smartweed or Lady's Thumb.

Pokeberries or ink berries were abundant.

Brian's turn to get stuck. 

Preparing for Vic to strap him out.

Vic finds this ledge too appealing....

and at this point decides to back down.

 

That evening we explored the area a bit more and found this hang gliding area.  That's a small piece of carpeting on the launch spot.

A beautiful view for launching, flying and landing out there somewhere.

       Brian returns the favor (for strapping him out of Smoothie) by stacking rocks.