Trail Work and Decompression

[image credit Gary]

Last week the blog was largely dark because I took some time off to decompress from the death of my father-in-law, with whom I was very close.

I spend a lot of time doing volunteer maintenance for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, and I just figured it was the right time to go to "my" shelter and trail and just chill. Typically when I go there I am wielding a weedwhacker, loppers, and/or a mattock.  The work is long and sometime intense.  This time I only did some minimal maintenance activities and spent most of the days in reflection.

I took plenty of reading material, some adult beverages, my camp stove, and trusty old battered coffee pot.  I spent 3 days and 2 nights at the Reese Hollow Shelter and did not see another soul...which was as I wanted it.

This image is of the trail signpost adjacent to the Reese Hollow Shelter, at the origin of the Reese Hollow Trail**.  I made the two lowermost signs.  The ferns in the background are characteristic of the entire area--a veritable sea of ferns--as far as the eye can see.


**southern PA, Franklin County, just west of Mercersburg