It's Friday evening, Jen and I are headed toward Trout Camp. The Mountaineer is loaded down with the remaining Craig's list bricks, the trailer is in tow and loaded as well. The plans are to meet up with Floatman and attempt to catch up to the head start in celebration that he's got on us. It is nearing the end of my vacation, we've done a lot on this one...99% of it for the kids. My body is sore and I'm tired. Two days at both Kalahari and Cedar Point/Cast-Away-Bay can do that to you. We've all enjoyed ourselves and I was able to spend much quality time with the family. Working 85% of the time that my place of employment's doors are open takes its toll on relationships, the few weeks a year that I'm able to full immerse myself in family bonding is a vacation within itself. However, the two remaining days of this vacation will be spent with the wife. The kids are with Grandma and Grandpa and looking forward to an anime meeting at the local library the following day. They have their kid activities that excite them and don't appreciate Trout Camp anywhere near the intensity that Jim, Jen and I do. It isn't their fault, but they can't see the future potential that we see. There'll come a time when the ideas that swirl in our heads are reality and provide a welcome refuge from the concrete jungle and constant barrage of noise and beehive-like activity of city dwelling. I would perdict in a few more years they'll be more inclined to travel to camp, maybe even bring their friends up there with us and show them how special it is. Who knows???
I've got a ritual that is initiated within only a few feet of crossing the border from the "So much to discover, the heart of it all and birthplace of aviation" and entering the "You've got a friend in the Keystone State because America Starts here" that involves purging the toxic stale and bitter gas within my lungs and replacing it with the cool, crisp and clean air of a place that comforts me with its natural wonders. This trip was no exception, well...except for the fact that I now have a co-pilot that joins me in a well choreographed and only slightly exaggerated disply.
The wheels of the 4X4 spun the mandatory time and eventually hit the gravel parking lot of Trout Camp's local tavern. It was dusk and the lot had not filled permitting the backing up and parking of the trailer into the very corner much more easy to navigate.
Friday is fish fry night. Jen and I chose to order separate meals and share. Her cod was baked, mine was fried. The garlic wings that were a constant source of desire expressed during the ride into camp were ordered. The evening took shape and the first of many cold ounces of Yuengling were being depleted from their containers.
Setting up camp in the dark after a joyous time at the local pub is a challenge. Many things conspire to make effective execution of fairly simple tasks extremely difficult. Gravity, darkness, bugs, remembering where you put things, heat, humidity, strange noises just past the tree lines, etc...they all play a role in slowing camp setup progress! LOL! We survive, but only barely!
The following morning with claim to a total of about 1.5 hours of sleep, I woke and grabbed the video camera. Today was a glorious day! Not only because it was truly glorious, but because today was the day that Mother Nature turned her revolting disgust and temperment away from Jim and I's plans and ALLOWED us to have rain free day that would permit Trout Camp Excavation (cue: stadium applause)!
As you'll notice, thirty days is approximately what it takes for a jungle to sprout from a semi barren landscape. The ferns have run rampant, taking over just about every square foot of ground that isn't covered by something or worn in from automotive travel. The trees have florished and bright green leaves abound across the entire mountain.
From my previous blog posts and linked videos, our intent of transformation for Trout Camp was fairly well documented. That vision and those plans are now a reality. We now have a blank slate to build upon. The endless quantity of tripping hazards, root ball dirt mounds that stood 2-3' tall, the adjacent 2-3' deep pits, the downed and rotting trees from the 85' tornado's fury, the big and small stumps that littered the landscape, the sprouting trees from those stumps have all been terminated, permanently! Our excavation contractor, Steve, has left us with plenty of room to park our campers, vehicles, play catch and basically use camp at our discretion. While leveling the mountain side, Steve installed rain diversion trenches, beveled adjoining hillsides and included appropriate grading decisions to make sure that our land improvements would stay intact and not get washed away. Our property sits fairly close to the top of the mountain, but still the slope and contour of the excavation site is designed in such a way to direct water coming down the road to the left or right and around the "flat" area. The "flat" area is sloped to facilitate proper run off as well. While I weed-wacked around the fire pit and deck, Jim used a spreader to seed. We were advised to use a combination of perrenial rye grass and tall fescue. Here's to hoping that we get a few good rain showers to spark the germination! Worst case scenario, we'll reseed in the fall when the climate is better.
The Dressor wide track dozer is an impressive and powerful beast. Only a couple times did the dozer slightly slow in the battle to tame the mountain, but that was only when huge buried boulders put up a fight. They were dispatched quickly with a change of blade angle and brushed aside. Trout Camp's trees were new growth, likely only 8-10 years old. The Dresser moved them like they didn't exist. Watching the man and the machine work was awe inspiring and impressive to say the least.
All-in-all, the entire orderal didn't take long. I was able to condense down the 4.5 hours it took into about 35 minutes of filming. I expected to upload the full 35 minutes that I rendered using Sony Vegas in widescreen HD to Youtube, but the flash based "advance uploader" they're touting for those of us fortunate enough to be able to upload longer than 15 minutes and up to 20gigs is extremely buggy and doesn't deliver as promised. So, I chopped the videos into 4 parts and lowered the quality of rendering to a more managable size.
Well, enough typing...here's the video proof of the event. If you don't care to watch the entire thing, I would suggest that you watch the first couple minutes of "Part I" and the last several minutes of "Part IV". The rest of it may be boring to most, but I thought it was important to catch it all for TC's legacy.
Enjoy! We're headed back up come Father's Day. Look for a video of the drive into camp which will include us traversing the switch back road from the valley up the mountain, the bumpy secondary road and our private and semi-washed out drive just outside camp's entrance!
I've got a ritual that is initiated within only a few feet of crossing the border from the "So much to discover, the heart of it all and birthplace of aviation" and entering the "You've got a friend in the Keystone State because America Starts here" that involves purging the toxic stale and bitter gas within my lungs and replacing it with the cool, crisp and clean air of a place that comforts me with its natural wonders. This trip was no exception, well...except for the fact that I now have a co-pilot that joins me in a well choreographed and only slightly exaggerated disply.
The wheels of the 4X4 spun the mandatory time and eventually hit the gravel parking lot of Trout Camp's local tavern. It was dusk and the lot had not filled permitting the backing up and parking of the trailer into the very corner much more easy to navigate.
Friday is fish fry night. Jen and I chose to order separate meals and share. Her cod was baked, mine was fried. The garlic wings that were a constant source of desire expressed during the ride into camp were ordered. The evening took shape and the first of many cold ounces of Yuengling were being depleted from their containers.
Setting up camp in the dark after a joyous time at the local pub is a challenge. Many things conspire to make effective execution of fairly simple tasks extremely difficult. Gravity, darkness, bugs, remembering where you put things, heat, humidity, strange noises just past the tree lines, etc...they all play a role in slowing camp setup progress! LOL! We survive, but only barely!
The following morning with claim to a total of about 1.5 hours of sleep, I woke and grabbed the video camera. Today was a glorious day! Not only because it was truly glorious, but because today was the day that Mother Nature turned her revolting disgust and temperment away from Jim and I's plans and ALLOWED us to have rain free day that would permit Trout Camp Excavation (cue: stadium applause)!
As you'll notice, thirty days is approximately what it takes for a jungle to sprout from a semi barren landscape. The ferns have run rampant, taking over just about every square foot of ground that isn't covered by something or worn in from automotive travel. The trees have florished and bright green leaves abound across the entire mountain.
From my previous blog posts and linked videos, our intent of transformation for Trout Camp was fairly well documented. That vision and those plans are now a reality. We now have a blank slate to build upon. The endless quantity of tripping hazards, root ball dirt mounds that stood 2-3' tall, the adjacent 2-3' deep pits, the downed and rotting trees from the 85' tornado's fury, the big and small stumps that littered the landscape, the sprouting trees from those stumps have all been terminated, permanently! Our excavation contractor, Steve, has left us with plenty of room to park our campers, vehicles, play catch and basically use camp at our discretion. While leveling the mountain side, Steve installed rain diversion trenches, beveled adjoining hillsides and included appropriate grading decisions to make sure that our land improvements would stay intact and not get washed away. Our property sits fairly close to the top of the mountain, but still the slope and contour of the excavation site is designed in such a way to direct water coming down the road to the left or right and around the "flat" area. The "flat" area is sloped to facilitate proper run off as well. While I weed-wacked around the fire pit and deck, Jim used a spreader to seed. We were advised to use a combination of perrenial rye grass and tall fescue. Here's to hoping that we get a few good rain showers to spark the germination! Worst case scenario, we'll reseed in the fall when the climate is better.
The Dressor wide track dozer is an impressive and powerful beast. Only a couple times did the dozer slightly slow in the battle to tame the mountain, but that was only when huge buried boulders put up a fight. They were dispatched quickly with a change of blade angle and brushed aside. Trout Camp's trees were new growth, likely only 8-10 years old. The Dresser moved them like they didn't exist. Watching the man and the machine work was awe inspiring and impressive to say the least.
All-in-all, the entire orderal didn't take long. I was able to condense down the 4.5 hours it took into about 35 minutes of filming. I expected to upload the full 35 minutes that I rendered using Sony Vegas in widescreen HD to Youtube, but the flash based "advance uploader" they're touting for those of us fortunate enough to be able to upload longer than 15 minutes and up to 20gigs is extremely buggy and doesn't deliver as promised. So, I chopped the videos into 4 parts and lowered the quality of rendering to a more managable size.
Well, enough typing...here's the video proof of the event. If you don't care to watch the entire thing, I would suggest that you watch the first couple minutes of "Part I" and the last several minutes of "Part IV". The rest of it may be boring to most, but I thought it was important to catch it all for TC's legacy.
Enjoy! We're headed back up come Father's Day. Look for a video of the drive into camp which will include us traversing the switch back road from the valley up the mountain, the bumpy secondary road and our private and semi-washed out drive just outside camp's entrance!
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