Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year everyone!

Cheers,

Marc

Wrapping up 2020

 Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a pretty laid back Christmas this year, though as I reflect on some of our Christmas' through the years (I'm looking at you Germany and Washington), I think Christmas away from family is a known experience. We wish we could have traveled this year - especially since we know next year will be challenging for us to travel - but will settle for the phone calls and text messages from family and friends.

As we prepare to put 2020 to rest (loooooong overdue for THIS year!!), I thought I'd take some photos of Catherine and the kids.

So, enjoy everybody!!

We wish you had a joyous Christmas this year. And if I don't get another set of photos out in time for the new years, we wish you health, happiness, and an experience closer to 2019 than what 2020 had to offer...only much, much better!

Cheers,

Marc

Virtual Choir Concert Thurs Dec 17

 For those of you who might be interested Leah will be taking part in a Choir Concert this Thursday night, December 17, that will premiere on YouTube at 7:00 PM est.  Here is the link for those of you who may want to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ3dDuP4NcM&feature=youtu.be

Don't worry, you should still be able to watch it later as well if you miss it at the time it goes live.  

Enjoy the show!

Catherine

More on Leah's Silver Award

 As Marc's last post said, Leah earned her silver award this year.  She worked with another scout in her troop to create a portable signboard for one of the local Girl Scout camps here.  It turned out to be a big project for us to focus on during the pandemic.  The girls worked over the phone, google chats, and video calls as well as wore masks and social distanced to get the project done and delivered before the deadline. 


Her troop also had a bridging ceremony at the end of summer where she went from cadette to senior scout now that she's in high school.  Leah did her nails for the occasion.

Back to the silver project.  I actually managed to get Marc in one of the pictures helping out supervising the building of the signboard roof.

Here is the finished signboard that had to be transported in 2 vans & the girls put together on site. 

Her troop leader surprised us by giving her the silver award at a fall outing to work on their first journey they need to complete for their gold award.

I was able to pin it on Leah's vest for her.  I also was outdoor chef that day cooking burgers & dogs on the charcoal grill at the park we were at that day. 

Hope everyone enjoys this peek into some of our scout activities!

Catherine

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone - wishing everyone a safe, happy, and healthy Thanksgiving this year!

To help celebrate, I figured I would post a photo of Leah with her new Silver Award from the Girl Scouts.

 

She is starting to work on her Gold Award, which is equivalent to the Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts. Lots of work ahead of her for this next one, super proud of what she did to get this one done during COVID - it wasn't easy!

Cheers,

Marc

Happy Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!

The clinic was closed today in observance of the holiday, so I had a chance to sleep in . . . and squandered it. Darn internal clock!

It rained most of the day, so we were inside, which gave me time to plan out a beer project - looking to make a stand for my grain mill.

Christina is here visiting while she is having some remodeling on her home, which has helped to pass the time here.

Otherwise, nothing terribly new. Cheers!

Marc

Assateague/Chincoteague

Catherine has wanted to see the ponies at Assateague/Chincoteague for some time now, and this weekend the timing was right. We made the 3-hour drive to Chincoteague, and got to enjoy the park with plenty of sunshine and some good warmth for the day.

Assateague has a herd of wild ponies that gets rounded up once a year, with the ponies sold off. We did get to see some, but it was from quite a distance.

We also got to see the lighthouse, and Catherine got to dip her toes into the ocean. 

Our hotel was right on the water, facing north and west. I went out to pick up dinner, and when I came back, this was the view I saw from our balcony. Gorgeous warm light on the bridge connecting us to the mainland. There were several paddle boarders out enjoying what could be the last warm day of the year.

I think Catherine enjoyed checking off this bucket list item. Cheers!

Marc

Boy Scout Camping

Ian and I went camping with his Boy Scout Troop this past weekend - and had gorgeous conditions!

We went to Camp Sinoquipe in southwest Pennsylvania, a Boy Scout reservation where Ian did summer camp last year, and where we've done some winter camping the past couple of years. The last time we were there, we went hiking on the abandoned Pennsylvania turnpike, and thought it would be fun to bike it. The photo below is the view of the second (western-most) tunnel entrance, with the hillside in pretty color.

So that is what we did. We totally lucked out on weather - it warmed into the low 60's during the day, with clear blue skies. It did get pretty chilly as soon as the sun went down, dipping below freezing at night. The photo below is from near the campsite. I saw the neon-yellow leaves and thought I'd snap a photo.

Nothing that a warm/large campfire and a down under quilt for hammock couldn't handle. We also lucked out on the leaf colors, they were at peak...and it was gorgeous. The photo below is from our campsite on the lake at Camp Sinoquipe. The leaves on the south shore were fantastic, and I lucked out with no wind for a reflection.

We biked 8-9 miles out on the abandoned turnpike, which was rough in places (not used for car traffic since the 50's), enjoyed lunch, and then biked back. We had two tunnels to bike through, one is a mile long, the other much less (you can see daylight from the other end). There were loads of people out, plenty of bikers, hikers, a couple of photographers, and even a couple of hunters.

I can't wait for peak color to hit here - hopefully in the next week or so. Catherine has plans to head to the east coast of Maryland - maybe get a peak at the ponies of Chincoteague with pretty fall color.

Cheers,

Marc

We now resume our regular programming...

I got up early on Monday thinking I had to work:  I didn't. Extra day of vacation!

Not to get too nerdy, but I spent a huge chunk of the day working on an equation with multiple references for my homebrew software set up (recipe design with brewed recipe page - like a cookbook). Software sounds cool, it is really just a fancy google sheets - itself a dumbed down version of excel.

So prior to getting ready to read before I go to bed (Radical Uncertainty by Kay and King), I figured I'd snap a quick photo of the kiddos. A couple of quick edits, then throw this in to Blogger with a scheduled release after the Mountain Man day 4 post (itself on a scheduled release).

Enjoy a peek behind the curtains everyone!

Cheers,

Marc

Mountain Man Adventure, Day 4 - the last day

It was a cold night - and we were attacked by a roving band of raccoons. I actually slept through the whole thing, but Jason tells me everyone around us was yelling and banging on pots or whatever to shoo the trash pandas to the next campsite.

The clouds had cleared off at some point in time, and the lake we were camping on (the view below was about 30 feet from our campsite) had a ton of mist floating on it.

The mist burned off as the sun was rising, but there was still some light mist to provide some drama to the photo.

Shortly after I took this, we packed up camp, loaded up Jason's truck, and made the drive home. I think we lucked out - phenomenally - with the two absolute gems of Loyalsock and Rickett's Glen. The weather was just about perfect, the leaves were pretty near peak color, and we got to spend some time in a beautiful place that I never would have attributed to Pennsylvania. Two WELL-kept secrets!

Cheers!

Marc

Mountain Man Adventure, Day 3

It rained at some point in time in the early morning hours, but it was light and it stopped a bit before breakfast. We decided to go find a diner for breakfast, which gave us a nice warm, dry place to eat and no dishes to clean up afterwards...win!

Along the way to the diner, we crossed the lower trail that leads up to the final 4 falls in Rickett's Glen, all below Water's Meet. The first photo is Abram's Falls, and is just off the road. It has 3 distinct falls, the one pictured is the middle falls. This one was a bit sketchy - with the rain and leaves, the rocks were slippery in places.

We then hiked about a mile or so up the river to see the final 3 falls. We kept kidding (just like the day before) that the next waterfall was just that, another waterfall in the 25+ we'd seen in the past 2-3 days, but they always seemed to amaze us.

After the hike, we went back to camp, and started a fire which we nursed for the rest of the day. Cheers,

Marc

Mountain Man Adventure, Day 2

The next day we made our way to Rickett's Glen State Park. It has 22 named waterfalls, and a whole host of smaller, unnamed waterfalls. We took the long (scenic) route to get there, and got a later start to the hike, but ended up hiking the main circuit (down Genoga Glen and then up Glen Leigh).

The place was pretty busy, with loads of folks on the trails and clustered at the larger waterfalls. 

We didn't let that stop us, we just enjoyed the sites and moved on to the less popular falls and really enjoyed those.

The leaves were really just starting to turn at Rickett's Glen, compared to just short of full throttle at Loyalsock. 

Eventually, the two streams merge into Water's Meet (photo above) which does not count as a named waterfall. There were leaves swirling in the pool, so I thought I'd try to capture the motion with a longer exposure. I kinda like how this turned out.

We both joked with each waterfall that we'd seen them all, but the next waterfall was always just perfect, which slowed us down. Just what the doctor ordered!

Cheers,

Marc

Mountain Man Adventure, Day 1, Part 2

From Miner's Run, we drove about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile up the road to the next trailhead - for Middle Falls on Rocky Run. I knew from my planning that it was going to be a pretty special place, but we were totally unprepared for just how amazing this place was. 

The waterfall itself is fairly small, definitely less than a 10 foot drop, but it drops into a small cut and then empties into a large pool. The photo above shows the first pool, which then drops into a much larger pool. Both are large and deep enough to swim in, with the lower pool hitting at least 15 feet, probably 20 feet of depth. This place has to be a great place in the summer to come cool off!

Once we'd had our fill of Middle Falls, we drove on up the road to get to the Upper Falls trailhead. This is another place that had a deep pool that would make for a fantastic swimming hole. The tree on the right third has a rope swing - so people definitely come here to make some fun memories.

I did a little hiking upstream to cross to the other side, and found that the river had carved a pretty path through the rock.

And finally, from downstream of the Upper Falls.

All in all, Jason and I both thought the two falls were crazy awesome - we cannot believe that the locals have managed to keep this such a well-kept secret!

Cheers,

Marc

Mountain Man Adventure, Day 1, Part 1

Every year for the past 5 or so years, I have met up with an old friend from high school, and we go hiking and camping. We've hiked at Dolly Sods in WV, the Escarpment Trail in NY, Red River Gorge in KY, and the Great Smoky Mountains in NC. This year we headed north into Pennsylvania. I had heard of Rickett's Glen State Park from a guy at church, and with a short leash this year (thank you very much COVID), that is where we headed.

Because all campsites were booked for the whole time I had available, I looked nearby for other places to day hike and stumbled across Loyalsock State Forest.

We made our way to Miner's Run, a small river (creek is a better descriptor) just a couple of miles in from the entrance. We parked next to this bridge, and then started following the river upstream. There are supposed to be seven waterfalls, none named, on this short stretch of river.

The first one is just under the bridge, and then again about 100 feet upstream. The leaves were not quite in full swing for the autumn color change, but we were within a week of peak color.

We continued to hike upstream until the last large waterfall, which required some decent bouldering to get around (not in the pictures here).

We both agreed that this little state park is an unsung gem - but we didn't know how much better it would be!

Cheers,

Marc

More Kansas

I have no classes this weekend, so I decided to do a bit of exploring rather than just sit and read in my room. I was originally planning to head south into the prairie, but decided to instead head north and explore the countryside.

I found a scenic highway, and then with the help of both my GPS and google maps, drove off into the countryside on some pretty rural roads.

On two different roads, the gravel disappeared and I was left with a dirt road. On more than one occasion, the road I thought I would take became a two-rut dirt road. For THOSE, I turned around and found a different way.

I drove north just over the Nebraska state line, and then headed back for some lunch and a leisurely return mostly along the Missouri river.

I have some laundry and homework to do - but that will all be done shortly. Next up - planning my Sunday excursion. Have a great day everybody!

Marc

Konza Prairie

I am in Kansas for course I need for my next job. Since everyone had to be tested for COVID, we had a couple of days on the front end to allow for testing. Well, mine came back about 9 am today, so I took a quick drive out into the prairie.

I found the Konza Prairie preserve, a joint venture between Kansas State University and The Nature Conservancy, about 90 miles away. Since the thought of hanging out in my hotel room all day wasn't appealing, I jumped into the rental and took a drive through the countryside.

It was a beautiful drive. A bit west of Topeka, I crested a hill and the wooded bottomlands gave way to the prairie of the flint hills. Some road construction added a solid 45 minutes to my drive on the front side of the trip, but it was still a pretty pleasant trip all things considered.

I took the 5 mile hiking loop. Good thing I brought sunscreen, since there wasn't much in the way of shade along the majority of the trail. A couple of other people were out there, but it was otherwise fairly desolate. Just what the doctor ordered.

Have a great week!

Marc

Cunningham Falls

We loaded up this past Saturday for a mini road trip here in Maryland.

First up was Roddy Road covered bridge, just north of Thurston. It was a nice little break from the drive, with the wonderful sound of the river.

From there, we made our way into Catoctin Mountain National Park and Cunningham Falls State Park, where we made the less-than-one-mile hike to Cunningham Falls. Along with 18 million of our closest friends. 

Okay, so I exaggerated a bit...but in the moment it felt like the rest of the state wanted to see the falls, too.

Catherine found a nice little diner where we ordered some take out, and then we found a fun little ice cream store on the way home.

Happy Labor Day!

Marc