June 6th : (Wednesday): Sorry it's been so long but I'm working 7 days a week and most days are at two jobs.... I'm certainly not complaining because it keeps my mind occupied. More is in store for the summer - but I'll let everyone know when I know more.... Take whatever pictures you want from off the months of 'Mountain News' because I'll be taking them down - the website is getting too big and I have a lot more to put on there....
Lots of pictures coming up of Memorial Weekend and the last few were from today.... I counted 41 buildings at Eckerd and just when I thought I was almost done, I found several more up in the woods....
ATV'ing with Tom & Gayle
Memorial Weekend Perry Stream Land & Timber - Cowen Hill
Bunkhouse at Camp E-toh-anee
One of the Original Yurts
Inside the Yurts
Massive Cribbage Table
Tree Farms
June 8th (Friday): My Dad would've been 91 today....
T-storms blew through but tomorrow looks like a nice day....thinking about the ATV trails in No. Stratford and a lunch spot named 'Bear Bait Picnic Area'....( has kinda a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say?)
June 13th (Wednesday): Went ATVing with Gayle over the weekend and after climbing up and up Cowen Hill, we headed down the other side and right in the trail in front of me was a nice-sized black bear!.... Gayle missed it but I hooted and hollared about it for the rest of the day!....It's so awesome seeing things in the wild like that!
Took the ATV and trailer out to Diamond Pond to make short work of the hauling process from building to maintenance shed and actually got quite a bit accomplished Monday and Tuesday. Most all of the buildings have been cleaned out. And I've been hauling furniture & shelving down from the mountain cabin which is another good reason to use an ATV. A lot less wear and tear on the body....Ha! The cabin is up a small mountain about 1/2 to 3/4 mile and I'd be out there still if I was hoofing it....but then again, it's not a bad place to be....very peaceful!....some times I just sit in a cabin near the woodstove (No-it's not going!)....and think about the campfire days and back when it used to be good to be alive....and then I think of the kids that came here and the memories they must have of a place where they escaped the garbage of the world and learned survival skills etc....and God wasn't used to punctuate profanity....Why is it that these are the places that are closing?.... I was told that nine closed in the state of New Hampshire alone....???
Going to a ritzy club in Littleton tomorrow night - first real night out in 10-15 years....(ya! - you heard it right!).... Linda invited me to hear one of her friends play (he's a pianist) ...so it will be a bit unusual and who knows, maybe I'll even enjoy it???
Saturday's the big day in the Nash Stream Forest and Garland Mill (The Timberframers Guild) will be hauling the Old Hermit Lean-to to the top of Sugarloaf Arm....They've scared up 50 workers and we've got another 16 so it'll be busy as a beehive that day....NO RAIN - PLEASE!.... Dana Bartlett, the dentist from Colebrook, and I are the ATV haulers and there will be a big BBQ at the end, so it should be fun...I promise to take lots of pictures!
Went to Chang Thai in Littleton with Linda to listen to the Beatles, Jazz style....and they were awesome!...but the funny thing is, the bass player was my neighbor from Snowfield in Pittsburg - Bob Purrington....Ha! - but Rick, Bob and Greg have been a trio since the Balsams Days (15 years) and now Greg plays full time at Mountain View Grand in Whitefield.....
June 15 (Friday): Brought the ATV and utility cart to Kamp Kirk in the Nash Stream Forest so that the loaded trailer won't be sitting in the road in W. Stewartstown overnight....Not to mention that I need to keep occupied as much as possible so that I don't have time to think....and it was a nice trip in to a beautiful area....
June 15 (Friday): Leaving early in the am for Nash Stream - and the camera batteries are charging....
June 16 (Saturday): What an awesome day! The temperature was perfect....the bugs were out in swarms....and I did Honda mighty proud by hauling a Kabota tractor out of the mud!....and no sooner than the last knot was tied from the ATV to the trailer did F & G come by, wondering where all the ATV tracks were going....Imagine Chris's surprise when he saw that it was just me....Ha!!! They came to our BBQ and we had a great time discussing Baxter State Park in Maine!
The Lean-to is almost all built with just part of a wall to finish plus the metal roofing.... the latrine is almost done and Cynthia Bartlett and I cut a trail to the brook, the necessary water source.
Dana Bartlett hauling his Ranger with his Jeep
"Okay - Did anyone think to bring a hammer?"
Heading for trouble up Sugarloaf Arm
YES!!!!!!
Mary Sturtevant - A thru-hiker
trimming the roof
The classiest lean-to in the mountains
Intricate Framing held together by wooden pegs
June 21 (Thursday): Monday, Gayle and I went ATVing and somewhere along the line, baby Lainie lost her precious Under Armor riding gloves....so today, Gayle came in the store and said that Tom had found one of them at a junction out by Cowan Hill Camp and if I wanted, we could go out after work (12:00- noon) and look for the other.... Well, that was an offer I couldn't possilbly refuse so I went to her place on Day Rd. where it turns into Perrry Stream.
We searched several trails and revisited Cowan Hill Camp, coming up gloveless so seeing we were already out there, we decided to do a bit of riding (imagine that!).
We rode Indian Stream Road almost down to Moose Pond Road and decided to try out some steep side trails going back.....
Took off uphill at jct. 20 and the trail quickly went to pot.... ramming up over boulders and rock-n-rolling through gullies, I heard the unmistakable sound of metal hitting boulder....whoops, there went my glove box with all my tools!...
I didn't stop 'til the top and poor Gayle came up shaking in her boots....'Oh, I didn't like that trail at all!"...
I walked clear down over the steep stuff collecting wrenches, ball hitches, screwdrivers etc, then found the cover and hoofed it back uphill in the 90 degree heat then put everything back together again thinking it would hold until I could do a more thorough job.
Several more miles and I hit the gravel pit, shut off my machine and waited for Gayle to catch up. She was purposely hanging back to avoid the dirt and dust thrown off my tires. After 5 minutes, I decided to retrace my path and find out what was wrong and about two miles back, she was sitting there with a very flat tire with a wrench sticking out of it.
...Seems like the box fell off again, depositing the tools all over kingdom come and Gayle was nice enough to pick them up for me.... It would've been cheaper to pick them up with her hands.....!!!!
Tom didn't look too thrilled when he got the news but he didn't throw any temper tantrums either - and Ronnie just laughed ....
It may be awhile before we go out again....Ha!
Went up to 2nd Lake Dam to mow yesterday and got that ready for the 4th of July weekend- there's a large tree down at the Moose Alley Trail entrance that I need to cut up and remove....oh yeah!....
Cowan Hill Camp
Inside Cowan Hill Camp!
The Covill Boys
What an awesome chair! (A similiar one was perched on the point, south of our camp on Moosehead Lake)
Natural Artifacts gracing the Entrance
Oh, and I forgot to say, I've got Deer Mountain and may be living in the ranger hut for the rest of the summer... but that's not a 'for sure' thing quite yet....will know on Monday....
Took a ride up Canaan Hill Road in the pm. and found another whole world up Clay Brook Road.... The roads just go and go and go but I'm a little partial to Canaan Hill Rd. itself although it does get a little bland towards the Forest Lake end. I wanted to get out and hike uphill across the brook but found that it would've been pretty anti-climatic walking out into someone's field...Ha!
June 23 (Saturday): I thought I had a quick, half hour job cutting up the spruce that fell over the Moose Alley Trail but I was wrong....there were four trees down and it took close to three hours to get it all cleaned up.
Couldn't find anyone to go to North Stratford with me so I went alone to explore the Stratford Night Hawks snowmobile/ATV trails....my ultimate goal was to ride the Westside Trail which is one of the few trails in the Nash Stream Forest that's shared with hikers (The Cohos Trail).... The loop goes 12 miles but we only share a small portion of it.
I was about 12 miles out when the rain started so I aborted my mission and headed back, probably a little too fast and nearly went airbourne on a culvert.... I didn't see it until it was too late to react and even though I said 'Whoa, Nellie', I didn't slow down much....
Had a real good time despite the fact that there was no one to share it with and I want to go back when the skies are less threatening...Ha!
The Corn's right on the side of the trail - just one little slip-up......
Tunnel under Rt. 3
The Other Side of Rt. 3
June 24 (Sunday)...I was scheduled to work at the Rest Area but when I got there I found out that the schedule had changed but they forgot to call me....so darn!....the day's ruined....I called Gayle and we went ATVing again!... Shatney Mountain was drawing like a magnet so I told Gayle I would go up and report back...(this is the steep climb that Gayle didn't want to do unless Tom was with us)....It was steep, but no worse than Cowan Hill, so Gayle went up ....
I lost her on a trail that was marked 'Most Difficult'....mainly because she saw the sign tucked down in the puckerbrush and I didn't - but when I got a couple of miles up the trail, I looked ahead and thought, 'Oh she's never going to climb THAT!'...so I turned around and found her back at the trailhead, the little chicken....HA!
There's an awesome view on top of Shatney that us snowmobilers are well acquainted with that looks across to Back Lake and the rest of the northeastern world....To see it now with the foliage, you have to stand on a picnic table that was graciously donated by the ATATV Club in Bath, NH....but we forgot our cameras so I guess there will have to be another trip up there....
June 25 (Monday).....It's now official...I'm the new park ranger at Deer Mountain and will be going up Thursday mornings and coming back on Monday's.... Gas lights.... gas stove.... radios for communications.... NO CoMPUTERS..... NO TeLEVISION.... No Phones.....Just wonderful peace and quiet again!...I'm so excited, I wish I was going now.... SOOOOO....you're all going to have to come up to visit and Saturday night will be beans & hotdogs followed by cards or cribbage....your pick...HA!
June 26 (Tuesday)...Bought a muffler and managed to get the wrong one so I brought it back... they didn't have the right one in stock...so....it'll be installed tomorrow by the mechanic across the street (I didn't want to do it anyway! - Ha!)
Packing for my pilgrimage north....
June 27 (Wednesday).... Picked up the new muffler this am. and D'Anjoue's will be working on it this afternoon.... Brought a lot of stuff & my bike up to Deer Mountain Campground and while I was gone, the power went out.... which meant he couldn't start on the truck right away...but it's over there now...
I can hear a "I told you so!" coming from Milesburg, Pennsylvania....but the wheel bearing on the right side is bad - Very bad, as a matter of fact!...so bad that he said he wouldn't even drive it another mile - Wow!...and to think that I've been hauling trailers, ATV's etc...into the Nash Stream Forest, up to Deer Mountain, over to Diamond Pond and on my little back-road jaunts....and the wheel has stayed on....amazing!
Here are some photos of my home-away-from-home:
My little S-10
front - office entrance
The Double Mouse Pad with a Tupperware Hope Chest
Campground Entrance from Rt. 3 (27.3 miles from W. Stewartstown)
July 2 (Monday)...Reluctantly came home, only because I had to work at the Rest Area today....The week was exciting and I had my first psychopath at the campground on Friday and Saturday.... I'll write more tomorrow and throw in some photos but for now, I need some sleeep....gave away my sleeping bag and blankets to some campers last night so I froze and didn't get much sleep....(Yes! - it was cold last night!)
Thursday: Sandy's Dad, Arnold, tried to get the radio going but for some reason we can x-mit but not receive....
A bobcat was seen at tentsite 28 by two hikers....tentsite 28 is about 1/4 mile on a trail that dumps you out on Moose Flowage (or Moose Falls on older maps)....
Cleaned up after the slobby little mice by dumping most of the draws outdoors and pouring bleach into them....and I've decided that the pots-n-pans are going into the dumpster because even though I bleached, rinsed, sterilized and boiled them, I just couldn't stand the thought of heating up my chinese food in them regardless of what I went through to clean them.
Went to the North Country Endurance Challenge meeting at Notch View Campground in E. Colebrook in the pm..... We're combining the finish line with the Lumberjack Festival on Sept. 8th
Friday: Beautiful day - Sunny and in the 80's...Moved my operations outdoors...one day of Bleach & Cleaners Vs. Mouse Scat is enough!
About mid-afternoon, I noticed a man pacing around with a hooded sweatshirt on, with no vehicle in sight so I asked if everything was okay.... He said he just wanted to look around and how much did we charge a night to stay there...?????.....I told him $23.00 .... and he proceeded to let me know what he thought of the state....and isn't it amazing that the state police can get new cruisers and the state can do this and the state can do that - but they lie to you.....SO...I told him that maybe he should leave and find a government-funded national park and stay there....and he said 'Good - cause I have a federal pass!' (ya-right!)....BUT....he didn't leave, he walked out to Rt. 3, got his van and drove into the campground stating that there was no law against day use...
.... Not being in the mood to argue with him, I simply dumped my rake and went in to get my .38 special-communications-device. When I came out, he had driven through the campground to the back tentsites so I waited to see how long he could play the obstenate game.
Another camper came in after 8:00 so I offered to haul his firewood out in the S-10, just so I could check on 'Psycho'....sure enough, he was sitting on a picnic table, tucked way into a corner of a back lot (five hours later)!
He left the campground around 8:30 and spent the night over on Corridor 5 off Sophie Lane....
Tom and Gayle came up to visit late in the pm.....
Bought 8 'C' batteries for a small fortune but now I can listen to my CD's on the walkman...
Chaos hit the buckets outside the screened bedroom window at precisely 1:19am......and after figuring out where I was and which direction the flashlight was in, any old bear could've waltzed in or busted in a screen (must've seen too many movies in my past - Ha!).....but when I got up in the am, nothing was disturbed outside and there were NO tracks anywhere!
In the woods in back of the camp are two 12-foot lengths of angle-iron and three equally long metal pipes that had been discarded back before the snow fell and all five of them were moved out of their indents in the ground....so that was the first consideration of maybe it wasn't a bear afterall...??? (a very unsettling thought!)
Saturday: The radio still wasn't working so I took the S-10 to Lake Francis State Park (HQ) to report my predator and when I got back, I did a quick drive-thru because I smelled a rat....and a rat there was!.... Mr. Creepy was back at the picnic table and for some reason, it really ticked me off - so I got out and started walking towards him and he said 'Don't come up here, I'm getting dressed'....(What's he doing undressed?)....so I simply said - 'You need to leave - you can't be doing this' and he said 'Okay'....and I sat there and took his plate number and full description of the vehicle.
He left within 15 minutes and later on, Cheif Lapoint came cruisin' through.....
Gayle came up in the pm and after snagging a chocolate moose tracks ice cream cone down the road, we settled down to some serious cribbage games...in which I lost ! - HA!
Sunday: Lots of campers coming in for the 4th so I grabbed the rider and mowed 'til dark....
Monday: Left around noon to make it to the Rest Area for 2...... what a contrast!......
Tuesday & Wednesday: Bored silly!....and there's just no real reason to be here so I spent most of my time in my 'flight-mode'.... Called first and no one was home so I went up Prospect Mtn. to get my sandals (never did find them) and some campground games...... and ended up bawling like a baby looking at all of my flower gardens, shrubs, the campground, lean-to and trees I planted and even the weeping birch I grafted is still alive!.....I went to Dean & Heidi's and the grass has grown up tall and the place looks deserted (and is....) but Jeff & Kim must be up but not at camp....??..... Some things in life, I guess, aren't meant to be understood
Escaping back to my cabin in the am....
Had a fairly uneventful weekend other than the gas refrigerator died and I still don't have communications - but all else went smooth and I've discovered long abandoned flower gardens overgrown with spruces and raspberry bushes, which I cut back
Gayle came up Saturday night for a whippin' at cribbage but ended up taking 2 out of 3 games....
Found the original 'Fire Tower' sign for Deer Mountain
Hydiseka emailed a few photos of Norma's new hobby-----get this!---- She's into CHAINSAW art - (carving with a chainsaw!)....This is someone that paints her fingernails - Well, maybe not, but she's not really the chainsaw type either - or I didn't think she was - HA!....Hey Norma, I know where there's a few blowdowns crossing the trail, actually a whole clump of them.... but anyway, here are the photos that John sent along!.... The bear looks great! Nice job! ..
Tuesday June 10: Painted out back until I dropped the roller on the rug then I got paint on my pants trying to clean up the mess....some people have no right handling a paintbrush and I'm one of them....gave up the whole project and went to get the trailer in Pittsburg.
Gayle and I went to the Nash Stream Forest to pick up the utility trailer for Deer Mountain.... We rode up to the Headwaters Gate somewhere around milemarker 18 then took pictures of the camp signs....
...The camps on the right side going in used to be waterfront camps (some were built on stilts) but that all changed when the Nash Stream Bog breached in 1969....so some of the camp names reflected their sense of humor and their lack of water, while other signs stated their snowmobile preferences, etc........
How's that Gayle??
