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Wheeling in Rattlesnake Country
| It was another fun weekend up in the
Pennsylvania mountains with a few un-expected
surprises. We had great weather, bordering on
the warm side, warm enough to bring the rattlesnakes
out of their dens as we discovered with a close,
high pulse encounter while scouting out some new
trails. Our friend Dick, an experienced
excavator by trade, kept warning us that we might
run across rattlesnakes. Nah, we haven't seen
any yet over the years up here, what would be the
odds of that. Well... we know better now.
Over the weekend we had a great opportunity to get familiar with
a 2007 Jeep JK Wrangler Rubicon and a 2007 Toyota FJ
Cruiser, both of which were recent purchases by a couple of the
regulars on these trail runs up here. With a weekend of
offroading on the moderate trails of the area, we wanted to gt
the run down on the pros and
cons and our offroad impressions of the FJ Cruiser and the JK
Wrangler Rubicon. We were not disappointed.
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| We made the long trek
up to our mountain destination and arrived around
the lunch hour on Friday. We had planned to
meet at a cool place for a burger and a beer, a
placed called
Denny's Beer Barrel Pub or the Rootbeer Palace
as it's been known by a few. As Mike and I
pulled up in the parking lot, we noticed a Toyota FJ
Cruiser parked along the side of the parking lot
where we usually park. Knowing that our
wheeling buddy had mentioned the idea of
"eventually" buying one of these, I recall saying
out loud, "he didn't go and buy one and not tell us,
did he?" Then I saw the dealer license plate
frame, a local dealership to his home and mine.
Yeah, that's his. And of course we then saw
him sitting on the Rootbeer Palace's porch with a
big grin on his face. This is going to be a
fun weekend. A JK and an FJ showdown. |
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| A few of our comrades arrived shortly after we
had our share of Denny's specialty burgers.
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| Scouting out New Trails
We talked about doing this for a while now.
The big boss-man owns a large track of land on top
of the mountain here on which the cabin resides.
The land has only a few trails running across it and
they only reach as far back as about half way, maybe
less. The land has a lot of acres of forest
and varying terrain that is only accessible on foot.
Prior to being sub-divided and sold to individuals,
the land had been owned by a mining company and
logged periodically like much of the land up here
that stood outside of state owned land. We
knew there was a few really nice clearings back
there and some old, over grown logging trails that
were no longer passable by vehicle. The plans were
to make them passable once again but that meant we
would have to scout it out on foot and mark it off
for our friend Dick, who would later come back with
some heavy equipment and clear a nice path to the
back of the property for us. First we
would have to scout out and mark a path for his
bulldozer to follow.
Surveying the property was a bit of a challenge.
We drove down an existing trail that bordered a
stream cutting through the property until the trail
ended. From there we walked, following the
south side of the stream staying on or near an old,
overgrown logging trail, marking the path along the
way for later reference. We had an old map
that somewhat pointed out the boundaries and
suggested something about a pile of rocks and a post
that marked the northwest corner where the property
met state owned land. After passing through a
couple of nice large clearings and near what felt
like the back of the property, we searched for this
referenced pile of rocks with a post in the middle.
We had no luck locating a pile of rocks however
knowing the property had been logged over the years,
and seeing a distinctive end to the tree cutting and
a sharp beginning of thick underbrush and larger old
growth trees, we figured we had to be near the back
corner. So we searched a little more for any
state land markings and marked the location on the
GPS. This is where the trail will emerge in
this clearing then turn south, following the west
border of the property. Meanwhile Dick was
mumbling something about about snakes and if it were
any warmer, or something like that. |
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|
 Rattlesnake Encounter!
Stephen wanted to check out the stream down here at
the lower end of the property so we were off to the
side of the clearing, walking over some rocks.
Suddenly out from under Stephens feet came the
distinctive sound of a Rattler. Like one of
those cats on America's Funniest Home Video that got
spooked by something under foot, Stephen Jumped
about 3 feet in the air and 10 feet forward as the
fat, stocky Rattler curled up in a defensive stance
shaking it's rattle. We all gave it plenty of
room as we reached for our cameras.
Luckily he had not stepped directly on it and the
rattlesnake was probably just as spooked as he was
as it quickly retreated under the rocks. From
that point forward we were closely watching where we
stepped. I think we just might name
this new
trail Rattlesnake. What do you think
Stephen? We trekked back to our vehicles, passing some bear
crap along the way. Maybe we should have
listened to Dick's comments about rattlesnakes.
Apparently he knows what he's talking about, having
been out in similar locations as this doing
excavating work in the past. It was our first
encounter with a rattlesnake up here but apparently
they are common in this area. |
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| Back at the cabin, we discussed snakes
and the plans for the trails, referencing a large
satellite map we printed out years ago. Jeff
and his gang had pulled up as we were hanging out. |
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Onboard
Air
