Pennsy's BFT ECT

“Yeah, you win one of those frozen spring turkeys. But you have to carry it the entire trip.”

“Splash, Thanks for posting the link. I was going to attempt to read the link thread and try it, but didn't get around to it. Agent Splash comes through again in return for my backpacking secrets.
Pennsy, A good way to test waders for leakage is to fill them up with water and set them in a bucket upright.”

“landsurfer: So you think we're just a bunch of parasite-infested backwood birds eh? Well, here's some $.02 right back at ya... Try not to scratch and peck too much along the trail, resist any urge to gobble loudly, and don't forget to trim your beard and tail feathers ;-)

Seriously though, thanks for the tip.”

“Hee, hee, the Silver Daevel is the shepherd of this flightless flock. He even has a border collie to keep us in line.”

“He will spend $50.00 on waders just to fend off a little water, but only $.02 for a good tip.
So M Silver, does my plan for Thursday sound feasable to you? It's about a 2 hour drive from my home and I plan on getting there at around 8:00 am for an early start.”

“Hey landsurfer...you're not the 200th post...probably the 197th since you tend to keep repeating yourself! Better not underestimate what Mr. Silver can do with .02! What time do you plan to meet/leave on Friday morning Pennsy? I have a 2 hour drive and could be there and ready to go by 8:30 or so. Depends on the number of turkeys I get behind...snakes, bears and now turkey's oh my!”

“Looks like this is gonna turn into a critter fest.

It's about a 3 hour drive for me. I'd like to hit the trail no later than 9:30. I have no problem leaving home around 5:30-6:00. Possibly a bit earlier if Fritz is only doing Fri-Sun. He may want to leave a car elsewhere where I could pick him up and take him the Naval road.

Thanks for the tip on testing the waders Rich. I just seam sealed them and I'll stick them in a bucket tomorrow. How long do I have to stand in the bucket? nyuk nyuk”

“landsurfer: Your Thurs-Sun itinerary looks good. Seems that it'll allow you to hook up with some of the rest of us at Foster Hollow Pond for Friday's campsite ...and get you back to the Blackberry Trail parking area at Route 44 on Sunday.

BTW, here's another $.02 for you... there's a good spring near the top of Callahan Run, about 1/4 mile before the junction with Old Cut Off Trail. Good place to tank up before continuing on to Hemlock Mtn. If by chance it's dried up, you can just drop back down Callahan Run a little to find water there.

My own plan is to also park at the Blackberry Trail - though not until sometime on Friday afternoon - then head east to the BFT (and Foster Hollow Pond) via Pine Bog Trail and Old Mountain Road. Anyone want to join me for my Friday plan, lemme know.

So we seem to have coming:
Pennsy
Fritz
landsurfer
finewhine
Splash
Rich B ...probable (?)
M Silver (and Sparky)
Steiny?
Anyone else ...?”

“Hey Pennsy,
I think I will pass on the hauling that turkey you were talking about. I just couldn't get one to fit in my dehydrator.
M Silver,
Thanks for the tip on the water at callahan run. I guess we are back to even now, but you might want to throw $.02 Whiney's way, I hear he tent shopping for a roomy 1 or 2 man pack tent in the 5 lb. range.He's whining that his Eureka
backcountry 1 is too cramped.
Has anyone heard from Steiny lately?”

“Still planning on hitting the trail Friday early afternoon and meeting up at the Friday night site. Plan to do the whole thing (minus what we did last Fall) and hike into Monday morning. Have been incredibly busy with artwork and model building and trying to amass enough cash to keep the friggin'IRS at bay. Look for me and Leroy late Friday afternoon at M Silver's suggested campsite.

No luck on finding my lost hiking stick. Am whittling Stick II in my spare time. This will be his innaugural hike.”

“His Backcountry I is too cramped? What is he trying to do in there? Nevermind. I like mine but I wouldn't want to be in it for an all night downpour, since it doesn't have a full fly. I saw that the boy scout group had a tent like mine, but I assumed that it was one of the youngsters.”

“Pennsy, You can fill the waders with water and check for leaks on the outside. That's usually what I do when I'm trying to find exactly where the leak is.”

“finewhine has one o' them toy tents just like Splash's, eh? Cool.”

“My husband was insulted that y'all were calling my tent a "toy" tent. I told him that your tents were all toys too, only bigger.

:-D”

“Hey...whadda mean...I am a youngster! Besides, landsurfer recommended I get the Backcountry toy tent!”

“My brother used a Eureka Backcountry 3 for many years. Very roomy inside.”

“Hey whiney,
Lets get the story straight. I never recommended that toy, I just offered to pick it up for you when I was at campmor last summer. I would never spend that much for half a tent.
The offer is still good if you want to borrow my nylon tarp.There's plenty of room under that and it weighs less.”

“How much money? My tent was less than $100 new. Comes with alum poles, not fiberglass. I thought that was a decent price for a max. 3 1/2 lb freestanding tent with 24 sq feet inside.”

“Sorry Splash,
Nothing against the tent. I thought it made a good packing tent.There's nothing wrong with the tent in the case I was speaking of, it's more a case of the owner.Whine, whine, and more Whine and not a bit of cheese to go with it!
Hey steiny,
Sorry to hear you had no luck finding your hiking stick. I'm glad to hear your still going to make the trip. And Leroy too.

Pennsy,
Are you bringing the new camera on this trip?”

“You're darn tootin I'm bringing the new cam! With all you folks fightin about tents, and turkeys etc, it's gonna be a photographapalooza!! ;-)”

“In them thar Peeensylvaaanya hills. Wish I could have known you all when I lived there and done some hiking with you all.”

“Come on up and bring some of your dehydrated cuisine with you.What was it you were going to try to dehydrate? Peking Duck or something like that.”

“Not trying to pop anyone's ballon, but I was just wonderin'... If by chance the weather turns bad for this trip, is there a Plan B weekend? Will anyone be going rain-or-shine?

Trekking under rainy skies is no fun for me, and if the weather is uncooperative I'll probably cancel. But I'm available any weekend in May except the 12th (Mother's Day) and the 18th (my daughter's graduation from college). After the first weekend in June, I'm very flexible for the rest of Summer, including week days.”

“I knew there was a devil's advocate in this bunch! *just kidding*

I really haven't thought about it. I would consider postponing only if the weather reports were certain of a horrible weekend. If it's iffy (like chance of showers) I'll most likely go anyway. Of course I'd probably go on the rain date as well if everyone else bailed.

In any case, I'm free for long weekends through the year with the exception of late May and a few family weekends.”

“M Silver'
You have to think positive. It's going to be as nice a weekend as you can find. I hope!
Anyway, like Pennsy said, if it's just projecting a chance of showers or so , I will still be going.A complete washout? Well thats another story. But it's going to be nice. You will see.”

“With the dry weather we've been having since last year it seems like it's hard to get a good rain storm.”

“landsurfer:

Are you one o' them long hair freaky people of Woodstock fame? ... "Hey people, if we all just think really hard, maybe we can stop this rain" ... KABOOOOM! -- ... "better get down from those towers..." ;-)

There's nothing like listening to raindrops on my tent fly at night, but not on me during an all-day rain. Like most other trekkers, I've been caught in all-day downpours enough times to know better. And didn't I once tell you that I used to be a wedding photographer ...? Worked enough outdoor ceremonies and back yard receptions that were ruined because the couple didn't have a Plan B ready - just in case.

Hopeful backpackers, positive-thinking newlyweds, and well-intentioned hippies notwithstanding, Mother Nature can have her own ideas about how to define a good time on any particular day of the week.

As I always tell my wife... Not being negative, but rather, *realistic*. Hey, gimme some slack, man :-)”

“Long hair! i don't think so. I havn't had to use a comb in years.
Hippie! I was born a little late for that era.
Yes I have been caught in the rain on backpacking trips. Last June on the West Rim Trail we started on a Thursday night and it started to rain early Friday morning and never really stopped until Saturday afternoon.
Why did give up being a wedding photographer?”

“surfer, When my wife decided to become a stay-at-home mom, the photo business helped financially. Then when our daughter entered elementary school, my wife went back to college, and once again the business came through. It was fun too. But a lot of hard work, and eventually it got to be too much. So, once my wife returned back to work outside our home, we gradually cut back on the business until we closed it down completely.”

“Well Silver,
On a more serious note. I suppose your right about having a plan B.I know the month of May dosn't look to promising at a glance, so I hope the hike is a go as scheduled.
The sooner we settle on a rain date the better. Gotta let the Boss know.”

“Well, I've had my first major pretrip setback. My Nikon digital displayed the message "System Error", which apparently means an internal circuitry problem. I had to ship it back to the factory. I know it's not going to be back in time.Oh well, what can you do?”

“What model is it? I have a Coolpix 995 that doesn't get used much and you can borrow it.”

“Thanks for the offer Pennsy, but I wouldn't want to be responsible for It with my luck.
My camera is, or was, a coolpix 800. I got it because it would take AA batteries. It should be at the factory service center by Tuesday, and they said 7 days, so maybe there is a possibility.
If not I will take my old 35mm standby.
Again, thanks for the offer. I was hoping you or M Silver could give me some pointers on Digital's on the hike.”

“Pointers, eh? Nothing is free ya know. ;o)

I'll bring the 995 along anyway. If you want to use it, I am not worried about anything happening to it. Trust me...

Pennsy Sheister III Esquire”

“OK Sheister III Esquire,
I'm assuming it uses compactflash
cards.What megapixel resolution is it?
Have you given ay thought to M Silvers sugestion about a plan B?
In case of a rain out.”

“Just out of curiosity, what are the occupations of the TTer's going on this trip?
I"m metal fabrication and machinist trade.I mostly do repair work on molds that produce plastic bottles.”

“You are correct sir. It uses compact flash cards so bring yours along. The 995 is 3.3 megapixels which can produce some very nice 8x10's.

I really haven't given much thought to a plan B date. I'll worry about it if Plan A falls through. If someone wants to chose a date, it will most likely work for me since I'm available most weekends.

Occupation - Gee, give us something to chat about around the campfire (besides digital tips). I work for GPU Energy in NJ and do commercial/industrial meter installations and maintanence.”

“I'm an accountant, but mostly I'm a Mom.

Around the campfire, I just listen. But if you are planning to talk about metal working and electricity metering......”

“Self-employed graphic designer, architectural model and diorama builder, paid trail maintainer, volunteer firefighter. Gotta run. Wedding in Balamer this weekend. Lots to do before I split. Catch y'all next week.”

“Lyndy - we should have scheduled the trip for last week. That way you could have done all our taxes.

And heck no about shop talk. My brain has a 3:30 auto shut-off.”

“Yepper, you can just sign this paper and right now I'll give you your refund less a tiny 20% fee, there you go. All set until next year!”

“If you saw all the "other" deductions I added, you'd probably demand a lot more than 20%.

So hey, who all is going on the trip for sure? It's just a week away!”

“Hey, where and when is this hike? I may want to join in. I am in Day OH. How close to seven springs? Yo beare!”

“jerbear, the BFT hike is April 26,27,28,29. People are hopping onto the trail at different times, days and places, and attempting to meet up at the campsites. Several people are planning to park at lots along Rt. 44 north of Waterville and pick up the middle of the BFT. There may be a hiker or two starting at Slate Run at the beginning of the BFT. Tell us what timeframe you will be hiking and someone can match that to an itinery.”

“I feel like my arm is healed enough to make the trip. It won't be perfect, but it will be good enough.”

“Good deal, RichB! I'm glad your arm is feeling better. Wish for good weather everyone!”

“I checked weather.com for the long range forecast and temps were highs in the 60's and lows in the 30's. Pretty nice range if it holds.”

“Give me an area to look at in my atlas? BFT? Tnx”

“Central PA. Look for Slate Run, PA right next to Pine Creek about 30 miles or so above Williamsport.”

“Got it! Tnx!”