hammering the hammersley - stc-hike.org the hammersley ... creates a challenge for trail...

Summer 2013

Hammering the Hammersley

By Wands Shirk, President, Susquehannock Trail Club

One of the ways the Keystone Trails Association benefits hiking trail clubs is assisting with trail maintenance when Mother Nature gets ahead of us on trails from time to time. After KTA's Ed Lawrence hiked a section of the Susquehannock Trail System (STS) in Potter County last summer with his wife Cathy and good friend (and former KTA executive director) Paul Shaw, Ed offered to let the Susquehannock Trail Club (STC) host a KTA trail care this May to "Hammer the Hammersley."

Pennsylvania has 16 designated "Wild Areas," in which timber harvesting, resource development, and motorized transport of all sorts is prohibited. At 30,253 acres, the Hammersley Wild is second in size only to the Quehanna Wild Area, but the Hammersley maintains the distinction of being the state's largest roadless area. This honor creates a challenge for trail maintenance, because the STS passes through the Hammersley on 10 miles of trail with no road access between the ends. With a five mile hike in to the center of the Hammersley, and another five mile hike out, most of the local STC maintainers have no time or energy left in a work day to do Pulaski, chain saw, brush-cutter, or even lopper work in the center stretch of the trail. Trail work might get done on the first three miles on each end, but the center four miles of the stretch would see tools and trail-crews rather infrequently.

Under the direction of STC president (and KTA vice president) Wanda Shirk, 34 workers put boots on the STS ground over the weekend of May 17-19, 2013. Ole Bull State Park donated the Group Camping Area for the volunteers, and some who arrived early enjoyed hiking the two-mile trail around the park, viewing the beach and swimming area along Kettle Creek, and visiting the vista where Norwegian violinist Ole Bull once began building his home for the short-lived, ill-fated nineteenth century colony he started there.

Tom Bastian and Ed Lawrence, assisted by thrower Wellis Balliet, put chain saws to work on sections of the Morgan Hollow Trail and Wild Boy Trail on Friday to jump-start the weekend's work. Mid State Trail boss Kevin Busko had done preliminary scouting and sent back reports of where blowdowns needed to be cleared.

Fifteen KTA volunteers and eleven STC members were on

deck for Saturday's work detail, plus six boys from Boy Scout Troop 538 in Lewisburg, PA. Scout leader Steve Everson last winter had read about the planned trail care weekend on the KTA website and brought six hard-working teenagers along with himself and a co-leader to camp in the Hammersley overnight and do trail work on Saturday and Sunday. The Scout troop was preparing to go to Philmont in July, and needed to do some shakedown backpacking to get in shape for their High Adventure trip.

The KTA volunteers separated themselves into specialized teams. Tom Bastian began Saturday early and carried out a day-long attack on the big woody items. He hiked a chain saw the entire ten-mile length of the Hammersley section and cleared all the blowdowns from south to north.

Most satisfying to STC founding-father and retired forester Tom Fitzgerald was the planting of a sign post at the intersection of the Twin Sisters and Elkhorn trails on the STS. Tom had made the signs in 1980 from heavy wooden planks which were subsequently pressure treated with creosote for wood decay protection. Bill Boyd fashioned a stout signpost from black locust tree. But until today, a crew large enough to transport the signs, post, and digging tools up a steep mile of Twin Sisters Trail and across another mile of plateau to where they needed to be planted, was never available.

The men in the crew loaded the signs, the signpost, the digging tools, and the brush-cutting tools on John Zim-mer’s deer cart and started up the trail. But the cart wasn’t made to carry a rigid 8-foot-long load. The end of the post kept dragging on the ground. In less than ten minutes, the men unloaded the post, and 76-year-old Wellis Balliet carried it most of the way up the first mile on his shoulder. The deer cart was soon out of sight far ahead.

But before noon, the relief crew arrived. The Boy Scouts, who had driven from Lewisburg to Cross Fork that

Photo by Tom Fitzgerald

Wellis Balliet—a human

pack horse

2 Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944

morning, had caught up with the STC/KTA volunteers. The Scouts forged on ahead, and stashed their packs somewhere along the trail. Shortly thereafter, three of the boys came running back, grabbed the post, and carried it the rest of the way up the hill and across the mile of ridge top to the intersection of the Twin Sisters and Elkhorn trails

Troop 538 sign crew. L to R: Ethan Davidson, Thomas Lantz,

Matt Challman, Elliot Davidson,Peter Challman, Carter

Kerstetter

Photo by Steve Everson

The Scouts dug the post hole under the supervision of the KTA volunteers. By noon, they had the post firmly set in the ground and the two signs bolted in place. It was noted that the non-STS portion of the Twin Sisters Trail had already been blazed in yellow, presumably by the Susquehannock Forest District.

Troop 538 removing a lodged tree from the STS


The Scouts cut away a few laurel bushes and pulled down a lodged tree at the intersection, narrowly missing the seated volunteers who were taking a lunch break. After a short rest, the Scouts continued on their shakedown hike, and the KTA crew loaded the digging tools onto the deer cart and trundled it back down the trail to Cross Fork.

The Susquehannock Trail System was created by linking many Civilian Conservation Corps fire trails, timber sale

roads, and old logging railroad grades into one 85 mile loop. Individual trail sections retain their original names.

Vegetation in the Hammersley was attacked from both ends of the trail. On the north end, four men took in brush cutters, one took a Swisher mower, and one took a sprayer, while two women hiked in with loppers, all attacking a serious over-growth of briers along the trail. Hikers in shorts and T-shirts need not fear that section this summer. The path is now four feet wide.

Back on the south end, STC member John Zimmer and KTA volunteer Tony Robbins spent the day attacking the mountain laurel brush that was creeping into the Twin Sisters Trail. The two men were armed with heavy-duty weed whackers and outfitted with personal safety equipment that would meet Soren Eriksson’s approval. By 4 PM, when time, fuel, and energy had begun to run low, the duo was forced to call it a day about a quarter mile short of the Elkhorn Trail intersection. That portion of the Twin Sisters Trail has a much lighter invasion of laurel brush. It can be traversed without difficulty.

Troop 538 restoring the Hammersley Trail

Photo by Steve Everson

Early in the day, a five-person Pulaski crew pushed all the way to the heart of the Hammersley near the famous Hammersley Pool, which is is wide and deep enough for swimming even in the dog days of summer. They began digging out a stretch of new footpath two to three feet wide along a portion of the Hammersley Trail where a mere six-inch treadway was sliding off the hill. More than seven decades of slow hillside erosion and annual leaf fall had nearly obliterated the footpath originally constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.


Motivational Brush

Cutter Tony Robbins


When Troop 538 arrived, the KTA crew turned over their

Pulaskis and two pairs of loppers to the boys and headed

on up the trail to spend the rest of the day working with

the north end crew. Troop 538 Scouts spent about seven

hours extending the restoration of the Hammersley Trail

another 20 yards, then brushed out approximately a

hundred yards more of the trail back toward Elkhorn

Hollow. They also cleared a portion of the Pool campsite

area of brambles, and brought out the tools when they

hiked back to Cross Fork Sunday afternoon.

A father-son-daughter trio from Ephrata, PA, hiked in from Cross Fork later in the day. When they caught up with the Scouts, they complimented the boys on their work and expressed appreciation for the efforts of everyone involved. No other hikers came through the area while the crews were working, although the north end crew had a pleasant brief encounter with a turkey hunter.

(There were evidently other unseen turkey hunters some-where near one of the work crews. One of them later wrote a letter to the editor of the Potter Leader-Enterprise complaining that trail maintenance is disruptive to hunting and should be postponed until spring turkey season is over!)

The Boy Scouts had such a great time, that at their next weekly meeting, Troop 538 began to consider the idea of making a trail care backpacking weekend in the Hammersley an annual event.

It wasn’t just the Hammersley that received attention. Two-person teams manned other sections in of the STS in the vicinity of Ole Bull State Park. Jenn Ulmer and Donna Thompson worked from the park to the Hungry Hollow. Road. Lorraine Healey and Diane Buscarini lopped Impson Hollow south of the park, and Dave Taylor and Pete Fleszar cleared a nine mile stretch southeast of Cross Fork.

The Susquehannock Trail Club hosted a big feed at the pavilion in the park, with 39 STC and/or KTA members replenishing their energies after the Saturday work. A big roaster of tender, thin-sliced roast beef for hearty sand-wiches was accompanied by a variety of side dishes, from baked beans to macaroni, potato, and cabbage salads; and next to the hot coffee, cold tea and pop, were pies and cakes for dessert. Those who tented in the park enjoyed evening campfires both Friday and Saturday nights.

Eleven workers put in another half day on the trail on Sunday. Tom Bastian, assisted by Wellis Balliet, cleared blowdowns reported by Pete and Dave from their Saturday lopper-walk. Joe Healey and Bob Betcher took brush cutters into Impson Hollow, based on needs assessed by Lorraine and Diane the day before, and

Lorraine and Diane lopped up the hill south of the park. Tony and Ed took brush cutters to the lower Wild Boy area and made comfortable, four-foot wide swaths where invasive barberry had overtaken a half mile of trail. And finally, Joe and Betty Clark and Wanda Shirk, on their second day with Pulaskis, went up the Three Stone Quarries Trail and turned another section of narrow goat path into a proper sidehill trail with real tread. When Betty inspects it and says it's okay, then it's okay!

KTA's trailer-load of tools was put to good use over the weekend, and thanks to Wanda Shirk and Ed Lawrence, everything was well-organized. Temperatures were perfect for working, camping, and -- in some cases -- finding an ice cream cone at Kinney's Store in Cross Fork to celebrate the satisfaction of a job well done. Before heading back to Ole Bull Park, Tom Fitzgerald led Wanda and her companions on a short pilgrimage to the site of the long-gone Ten Pines Footbridge that carried the Susquehannock Trail System across Kettle Creek until the big hollow white oak tree that anchored the far end of the bridge broke off in a windstorm.

Diane Buscarini said she's adding Ole Bull State Park to her list of favorite places to camp. And many of the workers agreed with Diane that a KTA trail crew is one of the finest, most enjoyable ways a person could spend a weekend in Pennsylvania in May.

Hammersley Historical Sketch By Chuck Dillon

The Hammersley Wild Area was timbered

for its hemlock by the Goodyear Lumber

Company from 1906 to 1910. A railroad

followed Hammersley Fork, with

intersecting grades at almost every hollow.

The hemlock was shipped to the Goodyear

mills at Austin, which were capable of

sawing 120 million board feet of timber per

year. Actual production was up to 100

million board feet annually. The

Hammersley logging operation was the

most extensive standard gauge logging

operation in the history of PA lumbering.


Signing the Prescribed Burn (and Working in a Winter Wonderland) By Curt Wunderlich, Assistant Scoutmaster

Boy Scout Troop 432, Jonestown, PA

Photo by Curt Wunderlich

Troop 432 maintains the 20-mile stretch of the Susquehan-nock Trail System between Ole Bull State Park and the Shephard Road. Last year, three boys in the troop set a base for a future sign along the Green Timber Hollow section of the STS under the supervision of the Susque-hannock State Forest District recreation forester, Cory Gulvas. The sign would explain the practice of prescribed burning in the forest. The Susquehannock district had carried out such a burn adjacent to the trail between Green Timber and Tin Can hollows in 2011.

We usually make our annual maintenance visit to the STS the last weekend of March. But since Easter Sunday fell on March 31 this year, we came two weeks early. There were 20 of us. Our headquarters for the weekend was my camp near Cross Fork. On Saturday, March 16, we left the camp about 8:00 AM and began the day’s work. As usual, Troop 432 split into three crews to cover the 20 miles.

This year the sign was finished, and the troop was offered the opportunity to attach it to the base we had placed last year. It didn’t take long. It was a simple matter of bolting the sign to the base.

After we returned the sign tools to the truck, it was time to perform our annual maintenance sweep. The western crew pushed through from the Shephard Road past the sign, down the Porter Branch, up the Scoval branch, and across the pipelines to the Greenlick Road, clearing what we could with snow coming down all day. We used the chainsaw on about six blowdowns.

A central crew of six started at the Twelve Mile Road and covered Long and Bobsled hollows, Big Greenlick Run, and Italian Hollow, also ending at the Greenlick Road.

An eastern crew of seven, led by Scoutmaster Charlie Kern, started at Ole Bull State Park and swept through Impson Hollow, the Big Springs area, Rattlesnake Trail, Fork Hill, down Morgan Hollow, across Ted’s Truss footbridge, and finished up at the Twelve Mile Road. Things went well at first, but Murphy’s Law caught up with them in the middle of the day. The starter rewind

mechanism on the saw broke. A couple of hours later, carrying a dead saw, they encountered a major tangle of blowdowns in upper Morgan Hollow! Oh, well. . . .

By the time we finished, there were about 4-to-5 inches of fresh snow on the ground. We all got a little wet but had no problems. The boys had a GREAT day being out in the snowy woods! We all appreciated having a nice warm cabin to return to.

Left to right: Jon Barry, Justin Hume, Nate Sheetz, Caleb

Ginder, Colby Boltz, Logan Startoni.

Photo by Curt Wunderlich

Opps, we goofed.

Just one little correction from the Spring 2013 edition of

the Susquehannock Hiker. Jerry Johnson had 190 hours,

Mary Lou Parker had 167 hours, and Bill Boyd was the

one with 246 hours.

Next Newsletter Deadline

All articles must be received before September 22, 2013

to be included in the next edition of the Susquehannock

Hiker. Email your articles to [email protected] no later

than Wednesday September 18, 2012, or mail them via the

USPS to PO Box B, Robinson, PA 15949, by September

15, 2011.

mailto:[email protected]


Lost Outdoors? “Don’t Panic” By Wade Grant Reprinted with permission from The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS April 21, 2013

It seems lately everyone is getting lost in the wild. The news has been filled with stories of lost teens in California who were found, a lost family on an air boat tour in the Everglades and a search for more hikers missing in a canyon in California.

I’ve always been lucky when it comes to finding my way around, but there are many people who just have a knack for getting lost. There are a few others who have a homing pigeon’s sense of direction. For those of us who aren’t blessed with “a nose for direction,” we have had to develop a reliance on tools for navigating the outdoors.

Because of map and compass skills developed in early childhood I can honestly say that I have never been lost, at least to the extent that panic set in.

While on that subject, I should use one of my favorite quotes about getting lost: “Don’t panic.” This line from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” has served me well in many situations as well as hiking out of a deep gully or two.

All seriousness should be put into planning a hike. Just jumping out of a car into even the most well-marked trail can turn out to ruin a family vacation or perfect Sunday afternoon. When taking a hike on the local trails, a heavy reliance of a GPS, whether it is a hand-held model or an app on your smartphone, is understandable but should be supplemented with a simple process.

Especially when dealing with a dying battery, you should begin associating the sights, sounds, and even smells of a location with phrases. This can help you in recalling the experience of a good hike and help reverse engineer your way out. This is really important when back-tracking your way to the car and you need to remember if you made a left or right at a trail marker that doesn’t give you details. A common occurrence is to mistake an animal’s path through the woods, such as a deer run, for a trail that you were meant to follow.

This is so common that some of the best outdoorsmen I know have been fooled and found themselves miles away from the car on the return trip.

GPS technology is wonderful and an insightful tool. Additional tools such as Google Earth can help too. However you should always let someone know where you are planning to hike and when you plan to return.

Kettle Creek Outdoor Show By Bill Boyd

The Susquehannock Trail Club once again took part in the annual Kettle Creek Outdoor Show, held this year at the Cross Fork fire hall. The highlight of the show is a turkey calling contest. There are also a great many vendors, displays, and some seminars.

John Zimmer, Wayne Baumann, Jerry Johnston and I manned an informational table on behalf of the STC. We handed out a lot of brochures and talked with quite a few hikers or potential hikers. Our table displayed a large map of the trail, a collection of pictures showing scenes along the trail, and a supply of club merchandise for sale—primarily trail maps and the guidebook.

One man we talked with lamented the fact that you simply cannot find a great many of the non-STS trails shown on the maps. These are mostly the trails built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps which have reverted back to nature from the lack of maintenance. How great it would be for volunteers to step up and clear some of these trails, which our club obviously lacks the manpower to do. Some years we struggle to keep the STS itself cleared.

All in all, the outdoor show was better than usual this year—probably due to some extension to the late winter weather we’re having. People were probably getting cabin fever, and were just waiting for a chance to get out. There was still a lot of snow cover all the way from Coudersport to Cross Fork. We all got a little spoiled with last year’s “open winter,” that led to 70-degree temperatures in March!

Potter-Tioga County Maple Festival By Myra Neefe

Gene Neefe and Gary Buchanan set up the STC tent on the Courthouse Square in Coudersport on Thursday evening , May 2nd, so we were ready to go the next morning. The club’s display was manned by Wayne Baumann, Gary and Alice Buchanan, and Gene and me.

A lot of people stopped at the tent. We sold $98 worth of maps, a T-shirt, and one membership. Sixteen people (not counting spouses) signed up for the free membership drawing. One lady specifically wants to participate in trail maintenance!

We talked with some really interesting folks, some of them fairly young who were experienced hikers from as far away as Colorado. (Rarefied air trails at 14,000 feet elevation!) Others were more local who had either hiked parts of the STS or have camps or homes near various parts of the trail. All in all, it was a fruitful two days on the square.


Tioga County Earth Day By Myra Neefe

STC members manning the booth

(L-R: Bob Bernhardy, John Zimmer, Gene Neefe)

Photo by Myra Neefe

My husband Gene and I, Bob and Helen Bernhardy, and John Zimmer held the fort for about half a day in a walk-in tent outdoors on a cold, blustery day. The number was 40 for both the temperature and the speed of the wind. Stuff was blowing around everywhere. Thankfully the tent didn’t rip apart or blow away. (John was hanging onto the middle bars inside the tent. He said if his feet left the ground he was letting go while it was still safe to drop. Thoughts of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz came to mind.) The five of us enjoyed each other’s company for the morning, and we had a few good laughs together.

There were no sales of anything. We asked many folks where they were from, and received mostly vague answers like, “just over that hill,” or “down the road.” We talked with perhaps half a dozen people who were remotely interested in hiking. Some had hiked in years past, but insisted they were too old now even though they looked younger than me. (I didn’t tell them about Tom Weiner, the 88-year-old solo STS Circuit Hiker from Erie, or Clair Almeter, STC’s eldest active hiker at 92.)

We did get two people to sign up for a free membership drawing. One young man was actually interested in hiking, but walked away forgetting his brochures. It was so windy he had put them under a couple books and forgot them.

The folks manning the tent next to us left shortly after noon, and we packed up about 1:45 PM.

Gene and I wonder what the “Earth Day” event was all about, actually. We would suggest some serious discussion among the local club members before we consider being part of the event next year.

The one really high point of the day was our encounter with Melvin Stafford. Melvin is an authentic Eighteenth Century Mountain Man re-enactor. He stopped by to chat with us, and before we packed up, I went over to see his display. He had period clothing, blacksmithing tools, cooking equipment, and of course, animal pelts on display. He and four or five of his fellow re-enactors go on four hikes a year in their 1700’s garb and gear. I didn’t recog-nize the trails he named; I don’t think they are close by.

Helen and I thought he was so interesting that our club should invite him to speak at one of our meetings—perhaps our Summer Camporee.

Melvin Stafford Demonstrating his 1700’s gear

Photo by Milgora Klothgrunt

Long Hard Pull, May 1894 Reprinted from Forbidden Land © 1971 by Robert R. Lyman, Sr. Published by The Potter Enterprise, Coudersport, PA

Will Seeley of Cowanesque, Tioga County, was trapping

for bear in Potter County. While setting a trap, which

weighed 75 pounds, it sprung and caught one of his hands.

The trap was fastened to a clog which weighed 300

pounds. With only one free hand, he could not release the

other, and he could not remove the trap chain from the

clog. No help was nearer than his camp 13 miles away

through the woods. He realized he had to get there or die

a miserable death. In desperation and agony of mind, he

slowly dragged the clog with one hand while the heavy trap

hung on his other, causing exquisite pain. He made it.

Stout fellow

--Will Seeley.


Event Calendar July 2013 – Mid August 2013

July 13, 2013

What: Great Rhododendron Hike

Where: RT 44 just south of the Black Forest Inn at the Pine Bog

Trail parking area.

Length: 5 ½ miles

Difficulty: Easy

Features:

Great Rhododendron in bloom

Two vista overlooking Baldwin Branch

When: Mid Morning – Early Afternoon

Leader: Chris Bell

814-697-6347

[email protected]

July 20, 2013

What: Hike

Where: Denton Hill Ski Area – Hilltop Hike

Length: 3.5 miles

Difficulty: easy

Features:

Loop hike

Minor elevation changes

When: 1:00 PM

Leader: Chuck & Mary Dundon

814-7143

[email protected]

July 13, 2013

What: Club Meeting

Where: Huber’s in Coudersport, PA

Length: about 2 hours

When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner

August 8-11, 2013

What: Camporee

Where: Ole Bull State Park

Length: about 3 days

Features: Melvin Stafford – 1700’s re-enactor

When: Arrive Thursday evening or all day Friday.

August 10, 2013

What: Club Meeting

Where: Ole Bull State Park

Length: about 2 hours

When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner at the main pavilion

Events on the Horizon Mid August and Beyond (Details still being solidified)

August 10, 2013 What: Camporee Hike Leader: Tom Fitzgerald 724.676.5845 [email protected] Late August, 2013 What: Hike Leader: Gary Buchanan 814-274-9263

[email protected] Early September, 2013 What: Hammersly Hike Length: 10 Miles Difficulty: Medium Features: Mid week hike Leader: Pat Childs

585-593-4077 [email protected]

September 14, 2013 What: Club Meeting Length: about 2 hours When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner Leader: Gary Buchanan Late September, 2013 What: Hike Leader: John Zimmer

570-923-2052 Late September or Early October, 2013 What: Hike Where: Pipeline County Leader: Tom Fitzgerald

724.676.5845 [email protected]

October 12, 2013 What: Club Meeting Length: about 2 hours When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner Leader: Gary Buchanan Mid October, 2013 What: Hike Leader: Curt Weinhold

814-274-9858 [email protected]


Fats vs. Carbohydrates By Tom Fitzgerald, Editor In the January 2009 issue, we printed an essay by George Reamerstraff extolling the virtues of energy from saturated fat for-distance hiking. It elicited only one response from our readers (a negative one). He suggested sandwiches made with genuine lard (pig fat). We thought the essay was absurd, and printed it for comic relief to lighten up our rather dull publication. But the more we read about health, energy, and endurance, the more we wonder if Mr. Reamerstraff might have been ahead of the curve.

Back in the 1960’s articles appeared in bicycling magazines recommending an eating practice the author called “carbo-hydrate loading,” beginning a day or two before a long-distance bike ride. Obviously, the same practice would apply to long hikes.

Recently, however, serious articles have begun appearing on the Internet that warn against the excessive consump-tion of carbohydrates and encourage the eating of more fats—especially saturated and monounsaturated fats (but not most polyunsaturated fats except those which have an “omega-3” chemical structure). The top three listed foods that are high in saturated fat but low in polyunsaturated, are coconut oil, butter from grass-fed cows, and lard!

Robert R. Lyman, Sr., in his 1971 book, Forbidden Land, recounts a tale of a woman who would eat food high in saturated fat for energy whenever she went shopping. She lived in the mid 1800’s and always walked to the store while her husband stayed home with the children and took care of the farm work.

Eliza Burt Ransome was among the early settlers in Potter County. She was one of 11 children of Titus Wright Burt and his wife, Sally Blackman. She was born 15 May 1814, and in June 1833 married George W. Ransome. They had seven children.

Eliza was strong, fearless, and determined, like the true pioneer woman that she was. Early in her lifetime she gained fame as a long distance walker. Her descendents told the story of her walking from her home in Bingham to Jersey Shore alone for essential supplies that could not be produced locally, and carried back a heavy load. This she did not only once but several times. For a woman to make this long and dangerous trip alone is astonishing indeed. As the story was told over and over again it did not grow in the telling but the details were lost. The essential facts remain in the memory of her great grandson, Dr. Nolan D. C. Lewis, who told them to me.

Eliza traveled by way of Coudersport, Lymansville, and then down the old Indian trail, known in her time and ours, as the Jersey Shore Turnpike. The total distance was about 90 miles, and for 60 miles south of Lymansville there was no home or shelter whatsoever. By her time the trail had been widened enough

to permit a wagon or sled to travel, but the condition of the road was described as terrible.

Think of a woman alone in the dense wilderness with hungry wolves and panthers. Think of the Indians she may have met who may or may not have been friendly. Picture her wading across streams whether low or high, and sleeping on the ground all night with a steady rain falling. Consider the heavy load she carried with weary legs and aching back. If you think as I do, you will be filled with admiration and wish that you had been there to help her. Perhaps she did meet other travelers at times. What a pleasure that must have been. And when she finally came to a home we can be sure that she was welcome indeed by the lonesome family. Ponder her thoughts as she trudged along from daylight until dark, picking a few berries beside the road to eat, and perhaps cooking a few trout on the ends of sticks over an open fire. In fact, living on anything she could find along the way.

What Eliza went for is not recorded. We can be certain however that her family needs included: powder, lead, salt, tea, and perhaps a needle or two, or a knife if such items had been broken or lost. And how about a few little things to please her children? One thing, however, was so unusual that it is remembered by Dr. Lewis. It was a head of cheese, so large and heavy that people at the time said: “We can’t understand how she could have carried it such a distance.” Why cheese, which could have been made at home? It must have been a very choice variety to be worth such an effort. We can imagine that the weight decreased each day on the way back as she ate for strength to continue her walk.

What a happy day when the weary traveler returned to her home after eight or ten days. How proud her husband must have been. How excited her little children were to see all the wonderful things from the unknown world outside their own.

A remarkable woman, Eliza Burt Ransome. And now her body rests in an unknown grave. If beside her husband in the Ulysses Cemetery, her name does not appear on any monument to her memory.

Could it be that Eliza instinctively or intuitively knew the energy packed into fats? Although the head of cheese was heavy, it contained more energy per ounce and was less bulky than any other food she might have carried. Perhaps she bought the cheese primarily as a trail food to sustain her on the long trek home.

That raises the question, what did she eat on her way to the store?


The Cucumber Tree By Mary Wetmore Reprinted with permission from Hill Country Wanderings, April 1999

When we hear the word, “cucumber,” most of us would think of the common garden vegetable enjoyed during the summer season. Crisp and juicy, they are a favorite, either eaten as-is, or in salads, or used to make a wide variety of delicious pickles to be enjoyed throughout the year.

But what do we know of the cucumber tree? This is a totally different thing. Although I grew up on a farm and helped my dad some in the woods and helped “buzz” wood for firewood, I never really recall any mention of cucumber wood.

When my husband and I bought our farm many years ago, it contained several acres of woods and a few scattered trees on our hillside pasture area. One of the

trees located in the corner of the woods was a cucumber tree; or at least that was what my husband called it. It was a bit different than any of the other trees, but I didn’t think much about it as to whether or not it was uncommon to this area. We just talked about it matter-or-factly, and especially because it marked a specific location for us, where our woods road turned and was to proceed up the hill. So to us, the cucumber tree was both a landmark and a “turning point.” When our children got old enough to hike, hunt, or go after the cows alone, we made sure they recognized the cucumber tree was where to make the turn in the path.

It wasn’t until just recently that I took a special interest in that tree. My brother, who also has woods nearby, stopped at our place and had a small branch from that tree in his hand and asked me if I knew what kind of tree it was. When I told him that we always had called it the cucumber tree, he was rather surprised, as he had never seen one. One reason why he had not noticed it before is that during most of the summer, the fruits of the tree are a deep green color, blending in with the leaves. But in the fall these fruits turn bright red, very colorful. They are not edible as far as I know.

My brother then took [the branch] to show to a man who is in the lumber business. The lumberman likewise identified it as a branch from a cucumber tree. This man said he had used some cucumber wood in the interior of his recently-built home and might be interested in buying our cucumber tree if we wished to sell it.

I then asked my son, who is now a land surveyor and works in the woods a lot, if he has often seen one and he said, “Very seldom.”

To obtain a little more information concerning the tree, I went to the World Book Encyclopedia, and there it was—“The Cucumber Tree.” (Magnilia acuminata). It really belongs to the family of Magnolias.

Magnolia lumber is used mainly for furniture. The cucumber tree gets its name from the shape of its fruits. So it wasn’t just a name that my husband had given it! We wives should never doubt the knowledge of our husbands anyway, especially when it comes to wood lore.

The sad part of this story is that our beloved cucumber tree is very old and gradually dying. The interior of the main part of the lower trunk is decaying, and some of the lower limbs have fallen off. But amazingly, there is an upper section of the trunk, somewhat smaller than the older-looking lower trunk that seems to be very alive and showy with its deep green leaves interspersed with the brilliant red “cucumber-like” fruits.

If we had known that the tree was valuable for furniture or interior decorating in building, we might have sold it several years ago before the decaying had set in.

On second thought, I’m not sure that we would have, willingly, wanted to part with our landmark which has been a “turning point” for us for more than forty years.

Editor’s note: Cucumber trees can grow to 100 feet in forest environments, but open-grown trees rarely exceed 75 feet. The branches tend to have a characteristic, slightly zig-zag pattern of growth which aids in identification during the dormant season. The twigs are rather stout to support the fairly heavy leaves. The leaves which can grow as large as 6 inches wide and 10 inches long, are borne alternately on the twigs, are oblong with a pointed tip, and tend to have slightly wavy edges. When crushed, they give off a characteristic spicy fragrance.

The wood is relatively lightweight, soft, and brittle. It is diffuse-porous, bland in appearance, and shows little figure. The cucumber tree is not abundant enough to be a major timber species in its own right. Lumber sawn from the few trees harvested, is usually mixed in with “yellow-poplar” lumber from the related tuliptree, which is a very abundant timber species To the casual observer, the two woods are nearly indistinguishable. These two species of wood do not swell and shrink much as the relative humidity changes, and are therefore often used for sliding parts of furniture such as drawers.

I do not know of any cucumber trees currently growing near the Susquehannock Trail System, but Joseph S. Illick noted in his classic book, Pennsylvania Trees, that during the big logging era around the turn of the Twentieth Century, “the largest log hauled out of the Hammersley Run of Potter County was a Cucumber. It was over 6½ feet in diameter at the small end.” (Quoted by Charles Fergus in Trees of

Pennsylvania and the Northeast)

Cucumber tree

fruit. Drawing by

Amelia Hansen in

Trees of Pennsylvania

and the Northeast by

Charles Fergus

hammering the hammersley - stc-hike.org the hammersley ... creates a challenge for trail...

Documents