Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Overlooks Near Route 6 / Wyalusing Pa

This  Photo "Near Asylum" was taken about 1900 - but the view is still amazing here, 100 years later.  There are several overlooks in this area, all worth stopping to see!

Cruisers Cafe in Mt Pleasant Mills

Address- 8448 PA-104, Mt Pleasant Mills, PA 17853
Website- http://www.cruisers-cafe.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cruiserscafe

In what may seem like the  middle of nowhere, off 104 in Mt Pleasant Mills, is a fantastic little cafe full of historic memorabilia.  It's one of our favorite places to eat, and it's well worth the drive.

In 1931, this building was erected as the Landis Texaco Station, owned by Lester Landis.  After his death, his son Ardell ran the service station for 23 years. The Texaco closed in 1980, and stood empty for nearly 20 years.


The Original red Sky Chief gas pumps from the Texaco station still stand outside the building today.


In 1996, Gary and Kenny Pyle, grandsons of Lester Landis, purchased the site.  Several small businesses came and went, including a hardware store and a candy shop,  before Bob Barner began to rent the building in 2000.


 It's basic food. Hamburgs, french fries (vinegar is on the table) onion rings, pulled pork..  there's a pretty good, but basic, variety of options, including a bison burger. See their menu, on their website, here - http://www.cruiserscafe.blogspot.com/p/cruisers-cafe-menu.html


We stop here every time we are in the area, and the food has always been good!


And they have blue birch beer, on tap, as well as handcut fries and  teaberry milkshakes,  Which makes them pretty much perfect.  :-)  


The only real catch is that the inside is small, and this place is pretty popular.  In the summer there are outdoor tables, but in the winter months, it can be pretty crowded inside.  They have a nice old fashioned soda counter style bar inside.

There's a lot to see outside too!




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While in the area, T&Ds Cats is just 15 minutes away!
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2014/09/t-ds-cats-of-world.html

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Monday, September 21, 2015

Spring Water Trough off 220 near Laporte PA


I love all the unique things geocaching takes us to see.  This cache was called "Have A Drink On Me 2". 

The gps coords for this location  are - N 41° 26.380 W 076° 27.319 

When you go to google maps and enter those coords, you don't see the road - but there is a brick road that loops off of 220 here.  
The road that loops around is brick - 

I've tried to find out more about how it came to be, but so far have not turned up any information on it.  I'm hoping someone who sees this post will have more information to share.


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Big Old Trees In PA


 
Located in the Belltown Cemetery, Belltown PA

A year or so ago, a friend of mine took a hike to see really huge old trees here in PA.  I keep meaning to ask how she got there, but I haven't yet.  I know it was somewhere near Elk County - but every time I get out that way, it is to look for elk!  :-)

This past week-end we found a geocache called "canoewood".  Unfortunately the tree is no longer alive, but it was still really neat to see.

The geocache description - "The name canoewood refers to the trees use for construction of dugout canoes by Eastern Native Americans, for which its fine grain and large trunk size is eminently suited.

Maximum circumferences for the tulip poplar is between 24 and 30 feet at breast height, although a few historical specimens may have been slightly larger. Today, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has the greatest population of tulip trees, 20-feet and over in circumference. The largest volume tulip tree known anywhere is the Sag Branch Giant, which has a trunk and limb volume approaching 4,000 cubic feet. Visit the link below, for more information about the tulip tree.

This particular tree measures 23 feet 8 inches at the base. We found it while exploring another cemetery in the area. There are several other very large trees at the cemetery as well."




Monumental Trees is a site with the sizes and locations of the largest (recoreded) trees in the state - http://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/records/usa/pennsylvania/

The PA DNCR has a page devoted to "Old Growth Forests", with a driving tour of them - 
"Located primarily in north-central Pennsylvania, the twenty sites on the Auto Tour of Old Growth Forests represent many different ecosystems, not only deep classic "big tree" forests. Most of the sites are within what is known as the Lumber Heritage Region, the 15 counties from which most of the timber resources were extracted in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of this area has now once more become a heavily wooded area, with over 2.5 million acres of Federal and State forests." http://dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/oldgrowthforests/index.htm

The PA Forestry also has a site "Champion Trees of Pennsylvania" - http://www.pabigtrees.com/Default.aspx

This site lists some of the largest trees in Cook Forest - http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/old_growth_forests_in_pa.htm

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Sunday, September 20, 2015

McClure Bean Soup Festival & Fair

The McClure Bean Soup festival was started as a reunion for civil war soldiers.  Specifically, Post 355 of the G.A.R.  When I set out to attend this festival, I thought it was the Bean Soup Supper my ggg Grandfather J.A. Lumbard helped organize each year..  but it turns out, the 147th Co G. had their OWN Bean Soup Supper Reunion each year.  Now I wonder how many others had the same tradition?  Someday I'll take the time to research that.  But for now - here's a little about our experience attending the Bean Soup Fair in McClure, in 2015.  

Saturday, September 19, 2015

French Azilum & The Marie Antoinette Overlook

During the French revolution, around 1793, French aristocrats left the violence of their country, and settled in rural Bradford County PA.  They stayed for 10 years, until 1803, when Napoleon Bonaparte gained control of his country and offered amnesty for the nobles to return.  

Our Journey to the Train Trestle Falls Geocache


 Quick Links:
At the Train Trestle

Earlier this summer we had the opportunity to visit the geocache with the most favorite points in PA - which at the time was Raiders Of the Lost Cache.  When I posted on You Might Be A Geocacher If..  that we were headed there, several commented that they much preferred the Train Trestle Falls Cache, and that is was the most scenic, beautiful, cache they had ever been to - with a tunnel, trestle, amazing view, and waterfalls.  More than one person could not believe it had so few favorite points, compared to other caches.

So I immediately added it to my "want to go there" list.

It was only a few weeks later that we heard of a geocaching wedding taking place half way between this geocache, and where we live. A bike trail I had been wanting to do was also nearby (The Little Toby Bike Trail).  So we loaded up the tent and the bikes, and made a week-end out of it.

We made a wrong turn headed to the cache and turned back a little dirt lane, which was then gated with a sign denoting private property.  We had to back back out the lane to get out.

This is what the actual parking location looks like:


To the far right, out of this photo, there was a short, mildly steep, trail leading up to the top of this wall.


 The view from the to of the wall.  Not pictured here are piles of trash, a campfire area, and many other signs that made it clear this is a popular party location.  I was glad to be back out of here in the afternoon - I don't think this is where I would want to be on a Saturday night - just not my thing.  :-)


A very short walk back a pretty trail led us to the entrance to the tunnel.
The cache description is clear, and repetitive - BRING YOUR FLASHLIGHT.  Probably not the one on your phone.  We had our spotlight along, and were happy to have it, in the middle of the afternoon.  The description is also clear that you might get your feet wet - especially if you don't have a flashlight.  I didn't hesitate to wear flip flops, because I didn't care if my feet were wet - but if I went back I'd wear boots.  Not because of the water, but because of all the trash floating in the water.



It's so cool in the tunnel.  Almost immediately you escape the heat.


About half way through I had the fleeting thought that if this tunnel collapsed on us, no one knew where we were.  The tunnel appeared to be pretty secure - but there was no cell phone signal anywhere in the area, and we really should have made sure someone knew what we were doing.  This is true of so many of our trips...

  The tunnel is long - much longer than it appears in photos.  Maybe a quarter of a mile long?



 

 You come out of the tunnel to a small area, right before the train trestle.  In early spring, or winter, the view would probably be more impressive.  Walking out on the tracks would have allowed us to see more of the creek - but it didn't feel smart, after remembering that no one knew we were out here.. and I couldn't envision the view being great.  I was also thinking about all of the recent articles about being on these train tracks being tresspassing...  it just felt wrong to be out there.  I did venture out a few feet before deciding the view wasn't really worth it.




There were trails to the left, and to the right.  We explored the one on the left, away from the cache, to see if there was a better view (no) and found a campsite and more signs of partying.  Then we headed to the right, towards the "waterfalls" and the cache.


Spoiler alert - there were no waterfalls.  Not even "cascades".  Nothing of the sort.  :-(


Other cachers talked about the view - I'm thinking they were there in the winter?  In the summer, this is the view of the creek from the path - 


The actual cache is easy to find - but hard to get to.  It's STRAIGHT up a steep hill.


Then it was back to the tunnel - 





All in all, it was just really disappointing, because I had the cache so elevatedin my head.  I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had NOT been told about it, if no one had raved about how awesome and beautiful it was, I might have been more impressed. For me, it felt a lot like tresspassing, was dirty, and not even close to one of the 50 most beautiful spots I've been in PA - let alone THE most beautiful.

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We only had a few hours to spend in the area, and there are so many interesting caches here.  The ones we did really enjoy included:

Scripture Rocks - read the cache description. This is one of those PA Oddities that I love, and never knew about.  I love that geocaching takes us to places like this!

This series of PVC caches area fun, simple, gadget caches that we enjoyed very much:

We didn't get to this one - but I really wish we had!  It was raining a bit, and dark, so we skipped it.  :-(
It has 110 favorite points, as of 8/23/15 - http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC35EY4

We did stop by this one - and although it's a pretty spot, and I enjoyed stopping there, I am unsure how it merited 72 favorite points?  It must be on location alone - which was nice - I do enjoy caches taking me to locations like this.

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Read More About Our Geocaching Adventures & Tips Here
https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/geocaching.html