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Unusual winter weather.

Call that winter camping:). There’s a stove in there.:eek:.

Winter camping is when you have to boil a kettle to melt the tent pegs out of the ground.
 
AndyP said:
Call that winter camping:). There’s a stove in there.:eek:.

Winter camping is when you have to boil a kettle to melt the tent pegs out of the ground.
Click to expand...
Apparently they say it is nice and warm in the tent as long as the fire is kept going.
 
Gentlemen, I hope you will indulge me this story from my youth on the topic of camping...

My friend Kevin Schumacher (RIP) and I often "camped-out" together. We were perhaps the wilder and more reckless of our collection of friends. What we did was actually considered "backpacking", as everything that we used we had to carry out into the "wilderness" on our backs, so sadly, no stoves or elaborate tents (NOT a criticism!).

We both lived in Maryland (USA) and would drive to West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Maine on our excursions, often with a canoe in tow. We always waited until after the first few frosts, in order to be certain that the insects would not plague us. We hated insects more than the cold!
As an aside, I saw my first black bear on a trip with Kevin (in Maine)... very exciting, but it was, unbeknownst to me at the time, actually the first of many future encounters with bears, as Pennsylvania has the most black bears in all of the "Southern 48" states.

On one trip to Southwestern Pennsylvania, we met our match, so to speak. Kevin and I, for some reason (bad luck?) were most often met with inclement weather on our trips. It was the dead of winter, and we drove to a friend's abandoned farm. It was in the hill country, with gently rolling hills, hollows, and streams... idyllic at most times of the year.
We parked on the property, and hiked up into the hills. We set up camp in a patch of white birch trees that was situated near the top of one hill. It was rather cold, and there was about six inches of snow on the ground. We pitched our small two-man tent, collected firewood, and started a fire. We made our meal, and brewed some coffee. As the sun went down, the coffee continued to pour, mostly in an attempt to stay warm.
We both soon began to realize that it was much colder than anything we had prior experienced. You would pour a cup of coffee from the pot situated over the fire, and within one minute (literally) the coffee in the cup was frozen solid.

Well, in this instance, we exercised uncommonly good judgement, and decided to abandon the campsite. We packed it up in the middle of the night, and hiked back down to our old 1970 4WD Jeep Wagoneer. We drove for about 45 minutes to the nearest town, where we found lodging in a motel. The town was out of the hill country, and felt somewhat less cold than where we had set up camp.
The thermometer outside of the local bank read negative 16° F. In retrospect, I think it was a wise decision...

Kevin and I, Cacapon River, West Virginia, 1970s:
alex & kevin canoe camping cacapon river, wv, enhanced.jpg
 
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Yep good decision that’s minus 27c. Much colder than my freezer! Without the best gear you could have died.
A bit shocked to hear that I’ve been in the bear capital PA a few years and didn’t know it! Never seen one either.
Good story though.
 
AndyP said:
Winter camping is when you have to boil a kettle to melt the tent pegs out of the ground.
Click to expand...
Ah, yes...Bad/good memories of breaking camp and shaking the Force Ten flysheet to dislodge the ice. Water bottle in your armpit overnight to ensure water for that necessary cuppa from your sleeping bag before anything else.
 
So, I did a little research on the topic of Black Bears in PA.
As it turns out, we are no longer at the top in the lower 48.

"Pennsylvania has been known to have the largest black bear population in the lower 48 states, particularly highlighted by a record harvest of 4,350 bears in 2011. The state's black bear population has significantly increased over the years, reaching around 18,000 today."

However, the latest numbers place us still near the top.
They get into our rubbish cans on a regular basis, and we must wait until they hibernate
before putting out seed for the birds... or else they destroy the feeders... 😳
Our rubbish cans have bite marks all over them... 😂
They can be a pain in the arse, but I never tire of seeing them.
They are, IMO, magnificent creatures...
Black Bear range in the USA.JPG
State NameBlack Bear Population
Alabama200
Alaska100,000
Arizona2,500
Arkansas5,000
California30,000-40,000
Colorado17,000-20,000
Connecticut1,000-1,200
Delawarenone
Florida4,050
Georgia5,100
Hawaiinone
Idaho30,000
Illinoisnone
Indiananone
Iowanone
Kansasnone
Kentucky1,000
Louisiana1,200+
Maine35,000
Maryland2,000
Massachusetts5,000
Michigan12,000
Minnesota13,000-18,000
Mississippi150+
Missouri600-1,000
Montana>13,000
NebraskaLow/rare sightings
Nevada600
New Hampshire5,600
New Jersey3,158
New Mexico5,000-6,000
New York6,000-8,000
North Carolina20,000
North Dakotanone
Ohio50-100
Oklahoma2,000
Oregon25,000-30,000
Pennsylvania20,000
Rhode Island5-10 (new population)
South Carolina1,125
South DakotaLow/rare sightings
Tennessee5,000-6,000
Texas75
Utah4,000
Vermont7,000-8,500
Virginia18,000
Washington25,000-30,000
West Virginia13,000
Wisconsin24,000
Wyomingunknown/robust population

30. Pennsylvania​


There were approximately only 4,000 black bears in Pennsylvania in the 1970’s, but today there are approximately 20,000 bears in the state. There has been a slight decline in recent years, but the Pennsylvania Game Commission says there is no cause for concern quite yet. In fact, the commission says that a healthy population for the state is closer to 16,000.

wildlifeinformer.com

Black Bear Population by State (Current Estimates) - Wildlife Informer

Here we'll give you recent estimates and reports of black bear populations in each of the states that are known to have breeding bears.
wildlifeinformer.com wildlifeinformer.com
 
Wow, that’s fascinating,, you are definitely in amongst them! Just looked and where you are is exactly due North of Lancaster where we used to live, and only about 100 miles, it looks as though you are in a more rural setting, but that 100 miles North really makes a difference.
I think the good people of Lancaster would be wetting their pants if even one Bear showed up!
Ian
 
Cabinetman said:
Wow, that’s fascinating,, you are definitely in amongst them! Just looked and where you are is exactly due North of Lancaster where we used to live, and only about 100 miles, it looks as though you are in a more rural setting, but that 100 miles North really makes a difference.
I think the good people of Lancaster would be wetting their pants if even one Bear showed up!
Ian
Click to expand...
Yes, Lancaster is down in the low country, out of the mountains... much better soil down there.
Nothing but rocks up here. I have 14 acres and can't put a shovel in the ground anywhere on my property... :oops:
Not a problem unless you want to plant some crops...
P.S. I used to do a lot on "antique" shopping in & near Lancaster... I found many great old woodworking tools down there.
But alas, lately way too much traffic and congestion for me... I am just a simple country-boy at heart.
PA Mountains MAP 01.JPG
PA Mountains MAP 02.JPG
 
How about Mountain Lions? I was visiting/working in Boulder, Colorado years ago at a small s/w company. When they started they occupied the LH half of a single storey U-shaped building. They grew in size and eventually took over the other half. People would freely move inside between the two buildings as they’d cut through the dividing wall. But over time many folk found it easier to open the front door, walk across in the fresh air and enter the other half.

One day there was a scream from one of the ladies. She’d opened the door to transit across and nearly trod on a Mountain Lion basking in the sunshine and lying across the door threshold.
 
My wife has seen a few over the years, myself only once in person but many times on the trail cam.
About 20 years ago some locals scoffed at my wife when she told them, they said they have been gone for years. So she produced a photo and they shut their pie holes.
 
duke said:
Curious Alex, is north west of you where the hunting scene for the movie Deer Hunter shot. (Appalachian Mts)?
Click to expand...
Well... possibly, but I am not sure where that was filmed. I suspect it was much farther West in PA, or even possibly in West Virginia.
 
Regarding the topic of Mountain Lions; I have lived in PA since 1983, originally in Central PA (now NE PA).

In Central PA, there was always much talk of Mountain Lions even back then. Some of the locals would claim they saw them, and report it to the local Game Commission, who always discounted the reports as false sightings.
A few years later, I saw a video on YouTube documenting Mountain Lions in Western PA, however, like everything else on the net, you never really know if it was actually real.

The original range of the Mountain Lion in the Americas was huge (coast to coast as below) prior to the colonization of the continent. They were hunted into oblivion in the East.

Mountain Lion Range in the US.JPG

In PA, there are still vast areas of wilderness, mainly made up of Federal and State Forests, state-run "Public Hunting" Lands, and huge tracts of land owned privately by individuals and the Forrest/Timber Industry. Much of it is mountainous. I suspect there really are Mountain Lions in PA at this point.

When I was a young man, there were far fewer deer, bear, etc. around here. The Wild Turkey, Fox, Lynx/Bobcat, etc. were once rarely seen, now they are commonplace.
The Game Commission has made huge strides in restoring the original local wildlife. I guess the monies they charge us for licenses, etc. really have gone to good effect.

PA STATE & NATIONAL FOREST PUBLIC HUNTING.JPG

Their latest reintroduction has included a species that was native to the region, but wiped out by trapping, etc.; the "Fisher". I have seen several in the past few years. They are actually huge, appearing to be four to five feet long, counting the tail.

FISHER.JPG

FISHER 2.JPG
 
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Bet it's not like that now, Roger, as we only saw the sun in Bristol for about 15 minutes mid-morning and it's been tipping down ever since.
 
Amazingly, The Geordie Enclave (Northumberland) has has a day of unremitting sunshine...pity it was 3°C and a heavy wind chill...felt more like Lapland...
 
Frome this morning was a tad frosty... dog walk to the now (and for some time) muddy with puddles from the past 40 days rain (someone joked about there being an Ark built last time it rained for that amount of time). Blue sky at present - but (possible? bound to be) rain clouds bubbling up.

I've a couple of Bonsai trees deciding to break buds... It's NOT spring yet....
 
Lucky Pam and I have had a few days of sun and warmth and have come back to yet more snow, and they say we will get another 24” on Monday, big storm coming. Thank goodness I fixed the snowblower!
Sil assures me this isn’t normal and is once in a 20 year thing. Jolly well hope he’s right.
Today’s pic.

IMG_4260.jpeg
 
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