A Visit to the Swamp

 

The path is nearly non-existent with high weeds growing alongside of it, some shoulder high. Footsteps need to be placed carefully to avoid slips or tripping. There is also the need to be on the lookout for poison ivy. Ticks pose another threat, though you won’t see them until later.

Why would anyone want to walk down this path leading to, of all things, a swamp?

Even though rain has fallen a few days ago, the small ravine leading to the swamp is dry. The mud in it is thick, deer tracks show how deep it is.

The Swamp

The swamp is about 8 or 9 acres of flooded land in-between a set of railroad tracks and a road. Bushes grow out of the water and carcasses of trees lay in it, their roots sticking up in the air, giving birds a place to perch. Flowers cover the bushes and bubbles pop up in the water, breaking the mirror images on its surface.

Button Bush

Milkweed Plant

There is a large variety of flowers, bushes and plants growing here. Some of the most prevalent are button bushes with satellite looking flowers, their roots sunk into the watery mud. (Interestingly, these plants are a member of the coffee family!)  Near the edge of the swamp is a batch of cat tail bushes, their brown hotdog shaped spikes growing higher every day. Milkweed plants add some purple colors to the scene. Milkweed flowers are important because they are a food source for Monarch butterflies.  In the early spring, one of the first plants to break through the muck in the swamp is skunk cabbage, their brownish-purple and green shells reminding us that spring is coming, along with more flowering plants. Thistle grows on the edges near the road and the railroad tracks, their pale flowers and prickly leaves decorating the borders.

Brown Tailed Hawk

Birds are all over the place and evidence of animals abound. Squirrels can be seen in the trees around the edges and the “handprints” of raccoons can be seen in the mud beside the deer tracks. Flocks of birds fly from bush to bush and every so often a woodpecker can be seen tapping on a dead tree. Ducks visit the pond and if you’re lucky you can see a hawk sitting in one of the higher trees watching for prey. Herons also stop by to search for food. Frogs can be heard croaking and then quieting down when the heron appears.

During my last visit to this area, a heron flew past me. I don’t think either of us realized the other was there until we were side by side!

The edges of the swamp are mud, the water level changes almost daily. The mud is thick and brown. Little pools of water with an oily sheen lay in the hollows. Further out the water is clear and reflects the plants and sky above. Pools of water hidden behind the button bushes provide a protected spot for the birds and passing ducks.

Why wouldn’t anyone want to stop by and spend a few minutes? It’s relaxing and peaceful, it’s nature! It's just a swamp, but it has all sorts of wonders hidden in it, hidden in plain sight! It’s there, just waiting for someone to stop by and visit! Try it; you never know what you’ll see!

Go on, stop by...visit a swamp near you!

Mom Nature Strikes Again!

 

The weather has been playing games with me this weekend. Yesterday, it darkened my hopes of going out to our clubs observatory to hold a star party. It had never looked promising but every so often a bit of sunshine would break through the cloud bank. Thunder and downpours pushed any hope out of my mind.

Today was very similar. I just experienced rain, accompanied with thick dark clouds. Now, as I write this, five minutes after the rain, sunshine is glowing on the near-by field. I know there are more clouds, if not rain coming behind this brief bit of brightness. The star party for tonight has been cancelled.

I am sitting beside a stream enjoying the sounds the water makes. The stream is high and the water is dark. The sounds are soothing, water tumbling over rocks accompanied with occasional chirping of birds. No cars pass by, increasing the feeling of isolation.

The wind blows through the trees, a little psithurism to accompany the birds and giving a bit of movement to the scene I’m looking at. The field lightens up and then like clockwork darkens again. Looking at the sky, there is no clearing, only thinning cloud cover. Dark angry clouds drift along the edge of the valley with pale haze overhead.

I have known for weeks that the weather this weekend would be bad. When planning a star party, it is always a gamble, especially here in Pittsburgh where the weather is prone to rain and clouds. I shouldn’t be disappointed or upset, the odds were against us!

It has been a long time since our club, the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh, held a star party. Over 20 months according to one of the members. The Covid epidemic has put a hold on so many things in our lives, the star parties are really a minor thing! But still, we miss them!

There have been a lot of discussions about these star parties. Will it be safe, how can we keep our equipment clean and sterile? Do we need masks? Do we need to worry about possibly catching anything by allowing the public to use our gear?

Most of us are going along with the idea that if we are vaccinated, we should be safe. The desire to share the night sky with others drives us on!

My own personal schedule has opened up and I didn’t have any required demands for Friday nights. I have been looking forward to this weekend since the star party dates were announced. Even as I penciled in the dates, I knew my chances were slim. Still I kept my fingers crossed.

A small bit of blue sky drifts overhead, surrounded by grey clouds. Dark, thick clouds are moving into view. The blue sky was just a tease. Mother Nature is playing with me, laughing at my hopes and my dreams.

Rain drops start splashing on my windshield and spotting the surface of the stream. There won’t be any telescope viewing tonight. I guess this will only make the next clear night all that much more enjoyable!

Last but not least, this cartoon reminded me of Pittsburgh…for some odd reason.

Comin' Round the Curve

 

As is so often the case with pre-planned days, this one started with rain.  Thankfully it wasn’t much more than a light sprinkle. We sure weren’t going to let it stop us from enjoying our trip!

We had been planning this “photo-expedition/geocache search” for a couple weeks. Our final destination would be the Horseshoe Curve near Altoona.  We were planning on going up the hill on the backside of the curve to take some pictures of trains. On our way over, we would make a few stops to try our luck at finding some geocaches.

Frank and I have taken countless photo trips, starting sometime in the 80’s and continuing on through the present day. Frank is a fine photographer and we always enjoy discussing photography and our various other hobbies. Whether our photos turn out good or bad, the day sunny or rainy, we always seem to have a good time.

We left Franks house around 6:30 in the morning. The windshield wipers were only used intermittently, the day was looking good.

Our first stop was at a BBQ joint. It wasn’t to get some food, it was to find a cache. We had been here previously but hadn’t realized that there was a cache hidden there. Since the place was closed, the food option was off the table. We settled on finding the cache instead. It was an easy find, inside a box that contained a rubber pig that oinked when the lid was opened.

On top of a mountain about 5 miles away we made our next stop. This cache was hidden in a small ambulance! Cool, you never know what you might find when you’re geocaching! The radio towers across the highway were partially hidden by the fog. Further down the road we would see fog hugging the hillsides on the distant mountains. Pennsylvania has so many nice views!!

A few “pedestrian” caches followed; nothing real exciting other than the thrill of another find. Rt. 22 has hundreds of caches hidden near it. We picked only a small quantity and left the others for another time. There were two that we couldn’t locate. We looked in all the usual spots but couldn’t find them. We left because we had more important things to do, like watching trains!

Driving to the curve using the back roads avoided going into Altoona. Getting off rt.22 at Gallitzin gave us clear roads with hardly any traffic and no traffic lights. We reached the back side of the curve in about 15 minutes.

Our camera gear was packed in our backpacks. I carried a tripod, planning on using it as a hiking staff if needed. We doused ourselves in bug spray and started up the hill. It was a steep climb but other than a few stops for me to catch my breath, there were no problems.

At the top, we were uphill from the observation platform in the center of the curve. We looked down at the building and the locomotive that is sitting there. The rocks we set up on were thankfully in the shade, not that we had to worry about sunlight. It was just brighter and hotter out on the tracks.

Not much was happening at first. Two trucks were up the tracks a bit, the workers were doing some sort of maintenance. We sat and waited and BS’d.

The picture above shows the curve from space. The yellow line is our path up to the curve and the approximate spot where we set up. Altoona is located off to the upper right of the picture. The track rises as it goes towards Gallitzin, off the picture at the lower right. The curve was built in 1854 by the Pennsylvania Railroad to allow trains to cross the Allegheny Mountains. The curve, approximately a quarter mile across uses the topography of the mountains to lessen the grade to the summit.

 As we sat and talked, we heard a couple toots and then the echoes from across the valley. The men cleared off the tracks and a train came downhill towards us. The engineer tooted to the men as he passed them and then again to us as he went by. A short while later we heard another toot as he passed the observation deck.

A few minutes passed and then an Amtrak train came down the hill, heading east into the curve. He tooted also as he passed the observation deck. It must be in the engineers handbook; “Always toot your horn at railfans on the Curve!”

Next to appear was a train heading west, coming uphill out of Altoona. This one was going slow; we heard the noise of the growling engines before we saw them. There were three locomotives pulling the train. We didn’t think to count the cars. The train seemed to go on forever. We guessed that there were at least 300 cars. Two engines were helping at the end. It is amazing to me to think how much power was in those 5 engines!

After that train there was a lull in the action. Then the sounds of another reached us and finally we saw the engines slowly coming into view across the valley. Eight engines pulled this train! Wow, this will be a long one we thought. We started counting the cars as they passed. 

Forty seven… That was it?  Maybe the engines were being taken somewhere? They sure didn’t need that many to pull that small amount of cars. While we were watching and counting, another eastbound train passed on the tracks behind it. This train was much longer and had some helpers positioned in mid train. It passed before the westbound train passed us.

Once these trains had passed we packed our gear and returned to the car. We had been here for about an hour and a half; we were ready to get moving again. The path going down the hill was much easier going down! We did another cache located inside the bowl of the bend. Frank signed the log as another train passed on the curve above us. We then stopped at two other caches but decided to pass on them since they involved some risky climbing.

The caches I do these days pale in comparison to some of the ones I’ve done in the past. My body just doesn’t bend and stretch as well as it used to. Then there is the healing time, which tends to drag out a bit longer than in the old days!

We were back home around 2PM. My odometer showed that I had traveled a little over 200 miles. We had no slips or falls and we found most of the caches we searched for. I only got us lost once, which is about average, but Frank quickly found our road and we were back on track again. I felt pretty good when we got back, after a stretch or two my back muscles felt normal once again. The pictures came out well and the rain had held off for most of the trip. There were no problems; it was a good trip…as always!

Note; I have to say, I did have one small problem. I found a tick on me before I went to bed. Hopefully it was the only one.  Human nature being as it is, for the next hour or two, I could feel “them” crawling all over me!