The Rock Slide

Picking your way through a massive slide of rocks on the steep side of a mountain is no easy feat. Sometimes coming downhill takes longer than going up. There are times when steps are provided but I find that most of them were not built for the short of leg. At the bottom of the descent into Duncannon there was one particularly long drop and I designated that a James (Pray) sized step. Needless to say, Liz and I found a way around instead of down.






















































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Hawk Rock

Hawk Rock gives you the kind of view that justifies the hard hiking and true to its name, a hawk circled the skies in front of us as we took in the scenery.





















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Yogi

Wednesday, April 23

As the trio of two turtles and an armadillo, also known as myself, Liz and the significantly longer legged Nicole, walked along the Cove Mountain ridgeline we were greeted by several friendly messages written with chalk. By the third scrawl, it became clear who was leaving them. Colin has made sure that Yogi has gotten the full AT experience, including photo-bombing and waving to the good citizens of Duncannon as our group hiked through the town.












I love that I unknowingly caught a classic Jen Keach face in the background of this last photo.

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Rocky Ground

Tuesday, April 22-
Wednesday, April 23

The area surrounding Cove Mountain Shelter was not exactly flat and extremely rocky so with limited tent space, eleven of us shared the shelter with a thru hiker who had started his trek in Georgia just after Christmas. Notable events at the shelter included:
• poor Jen's migraine
•Nolan's food bag getting stuck in a tree, with my hiking pole broken and Nolan nearly dropping onto Greg in the process of getting it down
•Josh denying the use of his sleeping mat for Grandpa Mike
•Caleb's sleep taking episode, looking straight at Peg, saying, "I'm not going to do it, Josh." and plopping his head back down again with not another word.
•A water bottle dropping onto Liz's neck from the loft after she was already sore from falling onto a rock just after the thunderstorm
•Valet in-bunk water service for Greg
•A very early morning treacherously rocky moonlight walk with Peg to the luxuriously large privy.
•My attempt to keep my neck from stiffening up by sleeping upright, encased in my mummy sleeping bag, against the shelter post.
•And of no small significance, Nicole's stolen roll of toilet paper.

Morning came with its aching muscles and a new set of miles.





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God's Storehouses

Psalms 135:5-7
For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps. He, it is, who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
••••••••••
Tuesday, April 22
The second half of our first hiking day was less pleasant. As always, the stubby, out of shape, legs of Liz and I made sure that we were the last group of our pack of hikers. As we hiked along the ridge of Cove Mountain we could hear distant rumblings and see storm clouds roll up from the valley as we anxiously watched for the blue blaze that would tell us we were about a mile from Cove Mountain Shelter. Providentially, we met up with Peg, Brooke and Jaleine, who were also wondering if they had also missed the blue blazes. We figured BOTH groups would not have missed BOTH blazes so we pressed on. We hoped the storm would change direction, knowing that it was moving much faster than us, but it quickly hit full force with driving rain and gusting winds howling up and over the ridge. When a couple flashes of lightning followed and a branch crashed to the ground near us, our packs came off and Peg found an already fallen tree for the girls to crawl under. Nichole and Liz grabbed the ground cover for our tent and I quickly chucked the metal hiking poles away from our "shelter". We prayed, stayed mostly dry and kept our sense of humor for the duration of the thankfully short-lived storm. I can't say that I was unafraid but it was definitely reassuring to know the Owner of the storm's storehouses.





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God's Garden

Tuesday April 22nd

The first half of our first hiking day was pleasant. With fresh legs we encountered green growth that hasn't hit Maine yet. Our path was interwoven with wild flowers, wild chives for the taste buds, and blooming daffodils near the remains of an old farm homestead. Light rain for a short time kept us pleasantly cool.




















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Travel Time

Tuesday April 22nd:
We're heading to the Trail Head near Darlington Shelter to begin our first day of hiking. We traveled down yesterday, attempting to order coffee and muffins from some of the toll takers. We camped at Little Buffalo State Park last night.

Yesterday's quote of the day was from Colin Viele:

"There is nothing wrong with hiking with a teddy bear."

Yogi will be accompanying us on the trail today.







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A Bit of a Brag

This post is unapologetically a chance to share how proud I am of Nolan's accomplishments in karate. Jim, Tell and I attended his belt testing today.



















It was an opportunity to see the results of Nolan's hard work. The students are tested on their form and then do some sparring.






































When the belt advancements were given, Nolan's sensei had some comments. Nolan's turn came with two of the other students and David mentioned that each of these particular students were at the dojo consistently and showed a lot of promise. Each one of them had recently competed at the Battle of Maine Martial Arts Championship. Nolan had decided the day of the competition to fight in the full contact match. He has a 3rd degree yellow belt in karate and only a white belt with one stripe in jiu jitsu. His sensei said that his opponent had a brown belt in both of those martial arts and yet, Nolan almost defeated him. How could a parent not feel a little bit of pride after hearing that?




















Even more so when Nolan's new belt was given to him and he had skipped three belt levels to receive his blue one. His sensei had only seen one other person accomplish that. Nolan quietly asked, "Who was that?" and David laughed as he said, "That was me."



















Well done, Nolan!

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AP-brrr-RIL

In Maine, the calendar is no indication that spring has actually arrived. Earlier this week I was not impressed to wake up in mid April to winter's final spewing of snow.








Exiting from the movies with Greg, Annah and Jim tonight, a cold blast of night air hit me and I saw my breath. These things should absolutely not be!






At this rate spring may only be a couple weeks long. I think it's time for a trip a bit further south to take advantage of some slightly warmer temps and hike a few miles.....

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Celebrating a Century

Not many people hit the century mark but Atira and I were privileged to attend a party this afternoon for one such lady, Frances Robshaw. As a teenager I knew her as my best friend Beth's Grammie Robshaw and what a feisty character she is. Oh, the fun we had spending time with her back then! She was much younger in spirit and actions than her actual age of mid seventies, and took us out on several excursions, including Funtown and shopping at the Maine Mall. If I recall correctly, her mall attire included some very cool leather pants with a sweater and of course, great jewelry. She actually managed to pull the look off. She's an original and it was a pleasure to celebrate her 100th birthday and to see her still looking so spry. I have to say the best part of the afternoon was spending some time and laughter with Beth. It's never dull with her. Atira enjoyed meeting my bestie from way back and said, "Beth is pretty fun. You guys were laughing so much, and I thought, 'Yep. I can tell this is how they were in high school.'"

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Preparation

Perhaps it was the never-ending winter, but Easter seems to have appeared out of nowhere on the calendar this year. All of the sudden it's time for Nicole and I to decorate the front of the church platform, so yesterday we met. On such occasions, good friends bring you coffee. The best friends, however, bring you donuts as well! But alas! Her Dunkin' Donuts were overshadowed by the delectability of the box of Frosty's Donuts that Greg arrived with. I felt a bit bad for giving a pass to Nicole's effort but that feeling lasted only until the first bite of my maple-frosted bit of heaven and I'm sure the Viele kids didn't mind the full box that traveled home with their mom. With Greg's "assistance", our mission was completed in a good amount of time. For those of you who know Greg, the quotes need no explanation. For those who don't, the photo showing my shoe placed far out of my reach will help to clarify.

Next up to prepare this weekend are our backpacks for the AT hike. Nolan and I leave for Pennsylvania in 9 days. What?! 

Umami?

Salty, Sweet, Sour, Bitter. These are the "tastes" of the tongue that I grew up with. I was never taught Umami. While planning a tasting experiment for Atira and Tell to learn which parts of the tongue were more sensitive to the various "tastes", I encountered this controversial fifth "taste".
The name comes from the Japanese language and can be translated as pleasant savoury taste. Umami foods include meats, mushrooms, cheese, and tomatoes. Apparently it was first scientifically identified by a Japanese professor back in 1908 in Tokyo. Not all scientists agree that it is one of the "tastes", however, so perhaps that's why I had never heard of it before today.
It was one of those "I learned something new" school days.





















I also learned that 8 year old boys can disappoint you with their lack of manners...for instance, when explaining that a loss of scent results in a loss of taste and to demonstrate that you tell them to plug their nose, after which, they proceed to insert one finger into each nostril. Then, in the same day, they can surprise you with their artistic eye by spotting the outline of the Eiffel Tower in the roast beef on their dinner plate.
I love being a mom to boys!

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Starting Spring Inside

Ignoring the fact that the front yard is still blanketed in snow, Atira, Tell and I sowed 11 types of seeds indoors yesterday. In about ten days we'll see if we have any chance of growing some tomatoes, lettuce, zucchini, pumpkin, beans, radishes, cucumbers or squash this summer. The suspense will linger on the fate of the carrot seeds. Their germination time can be as long as 25 days.





































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