Summer 2013

Hammering the Hammersley

By Wands Shirk, President, Susquehannock Trail Club deck for Saturday's work detail, plus six boys from Boy One of the ways the Keystone Trails Association benefits Scout Troop 538 in Lewisburg, PA. Scout leader Steve hiking trail clubs is assisting with trail maintenance when Everson last winter had read about the planned trail care Mother Nature gets ahead of us on trails from time to weekend on the KTA website and brought six hard- time. After KTA's Ed Lawrence hiked a section of the working teenagers along with himself and a co-leader to Susquehannock Trail System (STS) in Potter County last camp in the Hammersley overnight and do trail work on summer with his wife Cathy and good friend (and former Saturday and Sunday. The Scout troop was preparing to KTA executive director) Paul Shaw, Ed offered to let the go to Philmont in July, and needed to do some shakedown Susquehannock Trail Club (STC) host a KTA trail care this backpacking to get in shape for their High Adventure trip. May to "Hammer the Hammersley." The KTA volunteers separated themselves into specialized Pennsylvania has 16 designated "Wild Areas," in which teams. Tom Bastian began Saturday early and carried out a timber harvesting, resource development, and motorized day-long attack on the big woody items. He hiked a chain transport of all sorts is prohibited. At 30,253 acres, the saw the entire ten-mile length of the Hammersley section Hammersley Wild is second in size only to the Quehanna and cleared all the blowdowns from south to north. Wild Area, but the Hammersley maintains the distinction Most satisfying to STC founding-father and retired forester of being the state's largest roadless area. This honor Tom Fitzgerald was the planting of a sign post at the creates a challenge for trail maintenance, because the STS intersection of the Twin Sisters and Elkhorn trails on the passes through the Hammersley on 10 miles of trail with STS. Tom had made the signs in 1980 from heavy no road access between the ends. With a five mile hike in wooden planks which were subsequently pressure treated to the center of the Hammersley, and another five mile with creosote for wood decay protection. Bill Boyd hike out, most of the local STC maintainers have no time fashioned a stout signpost from black locust tree. But or energy left in a work day to do Pulaski, chain saw, until today, a crew large enough to transport the signs, brush-cutter, or even lopper work in the center stretch of post, and digging tools up a steep mile of Twin Sisters the trail. Trail work might get done on the first three miles Trail and across another mile of plateau to where they on each end, but the center four miles of the stretch would needed to be planted, was never available. see tools and trail-crews rather infrequently. The men in the crew loaded Under the direction of STC president (and KTA vice Wellis Balliet—a human the signs, the signpost, the president) Wanda Shirk, 34 workers put boots on the STS pack horse digging tools, and the brush- ground over the weekend of May 17-19, 2013. Ole Bull cutting tools on John Zim- State Park donated the Group Camping Area for the mer’s deer cart and started volunteers, and some who arrived early enjoyed hiking the up the trail. But the cart two-mile trail around the park, viewing the beach and wasn’t made to carry a rigid swimming area along Kettle Creek, and visiting the vista 8-foot-long load. The end of where Norwegian violinist Ole Bull once began building the post kept dragging on his home for the short-lived, ill-fated nineteenth century the ground. In less than ten colony he started there. minutes, the men unloaded Tom Bastian and Ed Lawrence, assisted by thrower Wellis the post, and 76-year-old Balliet, put chain saws to work on sections of the Morgan Wellis Balliet carried it most Hollow Trail and Wild Boy Trail on Friday to jump-start of the way up the first mile the weekend's work. Mid State Trail boss Kevin Busko on his shoulder. The deer had done preliminary scouting and sent back reports of Photo by Tom Fitzgerald cart was soon out of sight far where blowdowns needed to be cleared. ahead. Fifteen KTA volunteers and eleven STC members were on But before noon, the relief crew arrived. The Boy Scouts, who had driven from Lewisburg to Cross Fork that

morning, had caught up with the STC/KTA volunteers. roads, and old logging railroad grades into one 85 mile The Scouts forged on ahead, and stashed their packs loop. Individual trail sections somewhere along the trail. Shortly thereafter, three of the retain their original names. Motivational Brush boys came running back, grabbed the post, and carried it Vegetation in the Hammersley Cutter Tony Robbins the rest of the way up the hill and across the mile of ridge was attacked from both ends of top to the intersection of the Twin Sisters and Elkhorn the trail. On the north end, trails four men took in brush cutters, Troop 538 sign crew. L to R: Ethan Davidson, Thomas Lantz, one took a Swisher mower, and Matt Challman, Elliot Davidson,Peter Challman, Carter one took a sprayer, while two Kerstetter 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 Photo by Tom Fitzgerald 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 Photo by Steve Everson 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 The Scouts dug the post hole under the supervision of the about a quarter mile short of the Elkhorn Trail KTA volunteers. By noon, they had the post firmly set in intersection. That portion of the Twin Sisters Trail has a the ground and the two signs bolted in place. It was noted much lighter invasion of laurel brush. It can be traversed that the non-STS portion of the Twin Sisters Trail had without difficulty. already been blazed in yellow, presumably by the Susquehannock Forest District. Troop 538 restoring the Hammersley Trail Troop 538 removing a lodged tree from the STS

Photo by Steve Everson

Early in the day, a five-person Pulaski crew pushed all the Photo by Tom Fitzgerald way to the heart of the Hammersley near the famous The Scouts cut away a few laurel bushes and pulled down a Hammersley Pool, which is is wide and deep enough for lodged tree at the intersection, narrowly missing the seated swimming even in the dog days of summer. They began volunteers who were taking a lunch break. After a short digging out a stretch of new footpath two to three feet rest, the Scouts continued on their shakedown hike, and wide along a portion of the Hammersley Trail where a the KTA crew loaded the digging tools onto the deer cart mere six-inch treadway was sliding off the hill. More than and trundled it back down the trail to Cross Fork. seven decades of slow hillside erosion and annual leaf fall had nearly obliterated the footpath originally constructed The Susquehannock Trail System was created by linking by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. many Civilian Conservation Corps fire trails, timber sale 2 Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944

When Troop 538 arrived, the KTA crew turned over their Lorraine and Diane lopped up the hill south of the park. Pulaskis and two pairs of loppers to the boys and headed Tony and Ed took brush cutters to the lower Wild Boy on up the trail to spend the rest of the day working with area and made comfortable, four-foot wide swaths where invasive barberry had overtaken a half mile of trail. And the north end crew. Troop 538 Scouts spent about seven finally, Joe and Betty Clark and Wanda Shirk, on their hours extending the restoration of the Hammersley Trail second day with Pulaskis, went up the Three Stone another 20 yards, then brushed out approximately a Quarries Trail and turned another section of narrow goat hundred yards more of the trail back toward Elkhorn path into a proper sidehill trail with real tread. When Betty Hollow. They also cleared a portion of the Pool campsite inspects it and says it's okay, then it's okay! area of brambles, and brought out the tools when they KTA's trailer-load of tools was put to good use over the hiked back to Cross Fork Sunday afternoon. weekend, and thanks to Wanda Shirk and Ed Lawrence, A father-son-daughter trio from Ephrata, PA, hiked in everything was well-organized. Temperatures were perfect from Cross Fork later in the day. When they caught up for working, camping, and -- in some cases -- finding an with the Scouts, they complimented the boys on their ice cream cone at Kinney's Store in Cross Fork to work and expressed appreciation for the efforts of celebrate the satisfaction of a job well done. Before everyone involved. No other hikers came through the area heading back to Ole Bull Park, Tom Fitzgerald led Wanda while the crews were working, although the north end and her companions on a short pilgrimage to the site of crew had a pleasant brief encounter with a turkey hunter. the long-gone Ten Pines Footbridge that carried the Susquehannock Trail System across Kettle Creek until the (There were evidently other unseen turkey hunters some- big hollow white oak tree that anchored the far end of the where near one of the work crews. One of them later bridge broke off in a windstorm. wrote a letter to the editor of the Potter Leader-Enterprise complaining that trail maintenance is disruptive to hunting Diane Buscarini said she's adding Ole Bull State Park to and should be postponed until spring turkey season is her list of favorite places to camp. And many of the over!) workers agreed with Diane that a KTA trail crew is one of the finest, most enjoyable ways a person could spend a The Boy Scouts had such a great time, that at their next weekend in Pennsylvania in May. 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. Hammersley Historical Sketch Two-person teams manned other sections in of the STS in By Chuck Dillon the vicinity of Ole Bull State Park. Jenn Ulmer and Donna Thompson worked from the park to the Hungry Hollow. The Hammersley Wild Area was timbered Road. Lorraine Healey and Diane Buscarini lopped for its hemlock by the Goodyear Lumber Impson Hollow south of the park, and Dave Taylor and Company from 1906 to 1910. A railroad Pete Fleszar cleared a nine mile stretch southeast of Cross followed Hammersley Fork, with Fork. intersecting grades at almost every hollow. The Susquehannock Trail Club hosted a big feed at the The hemlock was shipped to the Goodyear pavilion in the park, with 39 STC and/or KTA members mills at Austin, which were capable of replenishing their energies after the Saturday work. A big roaster of tender, thin-sliced roast beef for hearty sand- sawing 120 million board feet of timber per wiches was accompanied by a variety of side dishes, from year. Actual production was up to 100 baked beans to macaroni, potato, and cabbage salads; and million board feet annually. The next to the hot coffee, cold tea and pop, were pies and Hammersley logging operation was the cakes for dessert. Those who tented in the park enjoyed evening campfires both Friday and Saturday nights. most extensive standard gauge logging operation in the history of PA lumbering. 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

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mechanism on the saw broke. A couple of hours later, Signing the Prescribed Burn carrying a dead saw, they encountered a major tangle of (and Working in a Winter Wonderland) blowdowns in upper Morgan Hollow! Oh, well. . . . By Curt Wunderlich, Assistant Scoutmaster By the time we finished, there were about 4-to-5 inches of Boy Scout Troop 432, Jonestown, PA 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 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 Photo by Curt Wunderlich 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. Opps, we goofed. This year the sign was finished, and the troop was offered the opportunity to attach it to the base we had placed last Just one little correction from the Spring 2013 edition of year. It didn’t take long. It was a simple matter of bolting the Susquehannock Hiker. Jerry Johnson had 190 hours, the sign to the base. Mary Lou Parker had 167 hours, and Bill Boyd was the After we returned the sign tools to the truck, it was time to one with 246 hours. 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 Next Newsletter Deadline we could with snow coming down all day. We used the chainsaw on about six blowdowns. All articles must be received before September 22, 2013 A central crew of six started at the Twelve Mile Road and to be included in the next edition of the Susquehannock covered Long and Bobsled hollows, Big Greenlick Run, Hiker. Email your articles to [email protected] no later and Italian Hollow, also ending at the Greenlick Road. than Wednesday September 18, 2012, or mail them via the An eastern crew of seven, led by Scoutmaster Charlie USPS to PO Box B, Robinson, PA 15949, by September Kern, started at Ole Bull State Park and swept through 15, 2011. 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 4 Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944

Lost Outdoors? “Don’t Panic” Kettle Creek Outdoor Show By Wade Grant By Bill Boyd Reprinted with permission from The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS April 21, 2013 The Susquehannock Trail Club once again took part in the It seems lately everyone is annual Kettle Creek Outdoor Show, held this year at the getting lost in the wild. The Cross Fork fire hall. The highlight of the show is a turkey news has been filled with calling contest. There are also a great many vendors, stories of lost teens in displays, and some seminars. California who were found, a lost family on an air boat tour John Zimmer, Wayne Baumann, Jerry Johnston and I in the Everglades and a search manned an informational table on behalf of the STC. We for more hikers missing in a handed out a lot of brochures and talked with quite a few canyon in California. hikers or potential hikers. Our table displayed a large map of the trail, a collection of pictures showing scenes along I’ve always been lucky when it the trail, and a supply of club merchandise for sale— comes to finding my way around, but there are many primarily trail maps and the guidebook. people who just have a knack for getting lost. There are a few others who have a homing pigeon’s sense of direction. One man we talked with lamented the fact that you simply For those of us who aren’t blessed with “a nose for cannot find a great many of the non-STS trails shown on direction,” we have had to develop a reliance on tools for the maps. These are mostly the trails built in the 1930’s by navigating the outdoors. the Civilian Conservation Corps which have reverted back to nature from the lack of maintenance. How great it Because of map and compass skills developed in early would be for volunteers to step up and clear some of these childhood I can honestly say that I have never been lost, at trails, which our club obviously lacks the manpower to do. least to the extent that panic set in. Some years we struggle to keep the STS itself cleared. While on that subject, I should use one of my favorite All in all, the outdoor show was better than usual this quotes about getting lost: “Don’t panic.” This line from year—probably due to some extension to the late winter “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” has served me weather we’re having. People were probably getting cabin well in many situations as well as hiking out of a deep gully fever, and were just waiting for a chance to get out. There or two. was still a lot of snow cover all the way from Coudersport All seriousness should be put into planning a hike. Just to Cross Fork. We all got a little spoiled with last year’s jumping out of a car into even the most well-marked trail “open winter,” that led to 70-degree temperatures in can turn out to ruin a family vacation or perfect Sunday March! 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. Potter-Tioga County Maple Festival By Myra Neefe Especially when dealing with a dying battery, you should begin associating the sights, sounds, and even smells of a Gene Neefe and Gary Buchanan set up the STC tent on location with phrases. This can help you in recalling the the Courthouse Square in Coudersport on Thursday experience of a good hike and help reverse engineer your evening , May 2nd, so we were ready to go the next way out. This is really important when back-tracking your morning. The club’s display was manned by Wayne way to the car and you need to remember if you made a Baumann, Gary and Alice Buchanan, and Gene and me. left or right at a trail marker that doesn’t give you details. A lot of people stopped at the tent. We sold $98 worth of A common occurrence is to mistake an animal’s path maps, a T-shirt, and one membership. Sixteen people (not through the woods, such as a deer run, for a trail that you counting spouses) signed up for the free membership were meant to follow. drawing. One lady specifically wants to participate in trail This is so common that some of the best outdoorsmen I maintenance! know have been fooled and found themselves miles away We talked with some really interesting folks, some of them from the car on the return trip. fairly young who were experienced hikers from as far away GPS technology is wonderful and an insightful tool. as Colorado. (Rarefied air trails at 14,000 feet elevation!) Additional tools such as Google Earth can help too. Others were more local who had either hiked parts of the However you should always let someone know where you STS or have camps or homes near various parts of the are planning to hike and when you plan to return. trail. All in all, it was a fruitful two days on the square.

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The one really high point of the day was our encounter Tioga County Earth Day with Melvin Stafford. Melvin is an authentic Eighteenth By Myra Neefe Century Mountain Man re-enactor. He stopped by to chat STC members manning the booth with us, and before we packed up, I went over to see his (L-R: Bob Bernhardy, John Zimmer, Gene Neefe) 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 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 Photo by Milgora Klothgrunt 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. Long Hard Pull, May 1894 There were no sales of anything. We asked many folks Reprinted from Forbidden Land where they were from, and received mostly vague answers © 1971 by Robert R. Lyman, Sr. like, “just over that hill,” or “down the road.” We talked Published by The Potter Enterprise, Coudersport, PA with perhaps half a dozen people who were remotely Will Seeley of Cowanesque, Tioga County, was trapping interested in hiking. Some had hiked in years past, but for bear in Potter County. While setting a trap, which insisted they were too old now even though they looked weighed 75 pounds, it sprung and caught one of his hands. younger than me. (I didn’t tell them about Tom Weiner, The trap was fastened to a clog which weighed 300 the 88-year-old solo STS Circuit Hiker from Erie, or Clair pounds. With only one free hand, he could not release the Almeter, STC’s eldest active hiker at 92.) other, and he could not remove the trap chain from the We did get two people to sign up for a free membership clog. No help was nearer than his camp 13 miles away drawing. One young man was actually interested in hiking, but walked away forgetting his brochures. It was so windy through the woods. He realized he had to get there or die he had put them under a couple books and forgot them. a miserable death. In desperation and agony of mind, he The folks manning the tent next to us left shortly after slowly dragged the clog with one hand while the heavy trap noon, and we packed up about 1:45 PM. hung on his other, causing exquisite pain. He made it. Gene and I wonder what the “Earth Day” event was all Stout fellow about, actually. We would suggest some serious discussion among the local club members before we consider being --Will Seeley. part of the event next year.

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Event Calendar Events on the Horizon July 2013 – Mid August 2013 Mid August and Beyond (Details still being solidified)

July 13, 2013 August 10, 2013 What: Great Rhododendron Hike What: Camporee Hike Where: RT 44 just south of the Black Forest Inn at the Pine Bog Leader: Tom Fitzgerald Trail parking area. 724.676.5845 Length: 5 ½ miles [email protected] Difficulty: Easy Features: Late August, 2013 What: Hike  Great Rhododendron in bloom Leader: Gary Buchanan  Two vista overlooking Baldwin Branch 814-274-9263 When: Mid Morning – Early Afternoon [email protected] Leader: Chris Bell 814-697-6347 Early September, 2013 What: Hammersly Hike [email protected] Length: 10 Miles Difficulty: Medium July 20, 2013 Features: Mid week hike What: Hike Leader: Pat Childs Where: Denton Hill Ski Area – Hilltop Hike 585-593-4077 Length: 3.5 miles [email protected]

Difficulty: easy September 14, 2013 Features: What: Club Meeting  Loop hike Length: about 2 hours  Minor elevation changes When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner When: 1:00 PM Leader: Gary Buchanan

Leader: Chuck & Mary Dundon Late September, 2013 814-7143 What: Hike [email protected] Leader: John Zimmer 570-923-2052 July 13, 2013 What: Club Meeting Late September or Early October, 2013 Where: Huber’s in Coudersport, PA What: Hike Where: Pipeline County Length: about 2 hours Leader: Tom Fitzgerald When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner 724.676.5845 [email protected] August 8-11, 2013 What: Camporee October 12, 2013 Where: Ole Bull State Park What: Club Meeting Length: about 3 days Length: about 2 hours When: Beginning at 5:00 PM with dinner Features: Melvin Stafford – 1700’s re-enactor Leader: Gary Buchanan When: Arrive Thursday evening or all day Friday. Mid October, 2013 August 10, 2013 What: Hike What: Club Meeting Leader: Curt Weinhold Where: Ole Bull State Park 814-274-9858 [email protected] Length: about 2 hours

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

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to permit a wagon or sled to travel, but the condition of the road Fats vs. Carbohydrates was described as terrible. By Tom Fitzgerald, Editor Think of a woman alone in the dense wilderness with hungry In the January 2009 issue, we printed an essay by George wolves and panthers. Think of the Indians she may have met who Reamerstraff extolling the virtues of energy from saturated may or may not have been friendly. Picture her wading across fat for-distance hiking. It elicited only one response from our readers (a negative one). He suggested sandwiches streams whether low or high, and sleeping on the ground all night made with genuine lard (pig fat). We thought the essay with a steady rain falling. Consider the heavy load she carried was absurd, and printed it for comic relief to lighten up with weary legs and aching back. If you think as I do, you will be our rather dull publication. But the more we read about filled with admiration and wish that you had been there to help health, energy, and endurance, the more we wonder if Mr. her. Perhaps she did meet other travelers at times. What a Reamerstraff might have been ahead of the curve. 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 Back in the 1960’s articles appeared in bicycling magazines recommending an eating practice the author called “carbo- family. Ponder her thoughts as she trudged along from daylight hydrate loading,” beginning a day or two before a long- until dark, picking a few berries beside the road to eat, and distance bike ride. Obviously, the same practice would perhaps cooking a few trout on the ends of sticks over an open fire. apply to long hikes. In fact, living on anything she could find along the way. Recently, however, serious articles have begun appearing What Eliza went for is not recorded. We can be certain however on the Internet that warn against the excessive consump- that her family needs included: powder, lead, salt, tea, and perhaps tion of carbohydrates and encourage the eating of more a needle or two, or a knife if such items had been broken or lost. fats—especially saturated and monounsaturated fats (but And how about a few little things to please her children? One not most polyunsaturated fats except those which have an thing, however, was so unusual that it is remembered by Dr. “omega-3” chemical structure). The top three listed foods Lewis. It was a head of cheese, so large and heavy that people at that are high in saturated fat but low in polyunsaturated, the time said: “We can’t understand how she could have carried it are coconut oil, butter from grass-fed cows, and lard! such a distance.” Why cheese, which could have been made at Robert R. Lyman, Sr., in his 1971 book, Forbidden Land, home? It must have been a recounts a tale of a woman who would eat food high in very choice variety to be worth saturated fat for energy whenever she went shopping. She such an effort. We can lived in the mid 1800’s and always walked to the store imagine that the weight while her husband stayed home with the children and took decreased each day on the way care of the farm work. back as she ate for strength to Eliza Burt Ransome was among the early settlers in Potter continue her walk. County. She was one of 11 children of Titus Wright Burt and What a happy day when the his wife, Sally Blackman. She was born 15 May 1814, and in weary traveler returned to her June 1833 married George W. Ransome. They had seven home after eight or ten days. children. How proud her husband must Eliza was strong, fearless, and determined, like the true pioneer have been. How excited her woman that she was. Early in her lifetime she gained fame as a little children were to see all the wonderful things from the long distance walker. Her descendents told the story of her unknown world outside their own. walking from her home in Bingham to Jersey Shore alone for A remarkable woman, Eliza Burt Ransome. And now her body essential supplies that could not be produced locally, and carried rests in an unknown grave. If beside her husband in the Ulysses back a heavy load. This she did not only once but several times. Cemetery, her name does not appear on any monument to her For a woman to make this long and dangerous trip alone is memory. astonishing indeed. As the story was told over and over again it Could it be that Eliza instinctively or intuitively knew the did not grow in the telling but the details were lost. The essential energy packed into fats? Although the head of cheese was facts remain in the memory of her great grandson, Dr. Nolan D. heavy, it contained more energy per ounce and was less C. Lewis, who told them to me. bulky than any other food she might have carried. Perhaps Eliza traveled by way of Coudersport, Lymansville, and then she bought the cheese primarily as a trail food to sustain down the old Indian trail, known in her time and ours, as the her on the long trek home. Jersey Shore Turnpike. The total distance was about 90 miles, That raises the question, what did she eat on her way to the and for 60 miles south of Lymansville there was no home or store? shelter whatsoever. By her time the trail had been widened enough 8 Newsletter printed by the Welfare Hollow Publishing Group, New Florence, PA 15944

I then asked my son, who is now a The Cucumber Tree land surveyor and works in the woods By Mary Wetmore a lot, if he has often seen one and he Reprinted with permission from Hill Country Wanderings, April 1999 said, “Very seldom.” When we hear the word, “cucumber,” most of us would To obtain a little more information think of the common garden vegetable enjoyed during the concerning the tree, I went to the summer season. Crisp and juicy, they are a favorite, either World Book Encyclopedia, and there it eaten as-is, or in salads, or used to make a wide variety of was—“The Cucumber Tree.” delicious pickles to be enjoyed throughout the year. (Magnilia acuminata). It really belongs But what do we know of the to the family of Magnolias. cucumber tree? This is a totally Magnolia lumber is used mainly for different thing. Although I grew furniture. The cucumber tree gets its up on a farm and helped my dad Cucumber tree name from the shape of its fruits. So some in the woods and helped fruit. Drawing by it wasn’t just a name that my husband “buzz” wood for firewood, I Amelia Hansen in had given it! We wives should never never really recall any mention of Trees of Pennsylvania doubt the knowledge of our husbands cucumber wood. and the Northeast by Charles Fergus anyway, especially when it comes to When my husband and I bought wood lore. our farm many years ago, it The sad part of this story is that our beloved cucumber contained several acres of woods tree is very old and gradually dying. The interior of the and a few scattered trees on our main part of the lower trunk is decaying, and some of the hillside pasture area. One of the lower limbs have fallen off. But amazingly, there is an trees located in the corner of the woods was a cucumber upper section of the trunk, somewhat smaller than the tree; or at least that was what my husband called it. It was older-looking lower trunk that seems to be very alive and a bit different than any of the other trees, but I didn’t think showy with its deep green leaves interspersed with the much about it as to whether or not it was uncommon to brilliant red “cucumber-like” fruits. this area. We just talked about it matter-or-factly, and especially because it marked a specific location for us, If we had known that the tree was valuable for furniture or where our woods road turned and was to proceed up the interior decorating in building, we might have sold it hill. So to us, the cucumber tree was both a landmark and several years ago before the decaying had set in. a “turning point.” When our children got old enough to On second thought, I’m not sure that we would have, hike, hunt, or go after the cows alone, we made sure they willingly, wanted to part with our landmark which has recognized the cucumber tree was where to make the turn been a “turning point” for us for more than forty years. in the path. It wasn’t until just recently that I took a special interest in 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 that tree. My brother, who also has woods nearby, zig-zag pattern of growth which aids in identification during the dormant season. stopped at our place and had a small branch from that tree The twigs are rather stout to support the fairly heavy leaves. The leaves which can in his hand and asked me if I knew what kind of tree it grow as large as 6 inches wide and 10 inches long, are borne alternately on the twigs, was. When I told him that we always had called it the are oblong with a pointed tip, and tend to have slightly wavy edges. When crushed, cucumber tree, he was rather surprised, as he had never they give off a characteristic spicy fragrance. seen one. One reason why he had not noticed it before is 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 that during most of the summer, the fruits of the tree are a a major timber species in its own right. Lumber sawn from the few trees harvested, is deep green color, blending in with the leaves. But in the usually mixed in with “yellow-poplar” lumber from the related tuliptree, which is a fall these fruits turn bright red, very colorful. They are not very abundant timber species To the casual observer, the two woods are nearly edible as far as I know. 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 My brother then took [the branch] to show to a man who such as drawers. is in the lumber business. The lumberman likewise I do not know of any cucumber trees currently growing near the Susquehannock identified it as a branch from a cucumber tree. This man Trail System, but Joseph S. Illick noted in his classic book, Pennsylvania Trees, said he had used some cucumber wood in the interior of that during the big logging era around the turn of the Twentieth Century, “the largest his recently-built home and might be interested in buying 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 our cucumber tree if we wished to sell it. Pennsylvania and the Northeast)

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