Nov 2010 Deer Carcass attracts

Here is what shows up when you have a dead deer lying in the woods. This 8 point buck was shot during black powder season and limped off to expire alongside my hiking trail. I decided to put my trail camera up for a couple weeks to see what happens by. In just 2 weeks I had 418 photos triggered by a motion detector. These are the highlights.

Nov 7 American Tobacco Trail

The American Tobacco trail, now open on its southern end, for 13.6 miles, makes for a lovely afternoon ride. On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, 12 Piedmont Hiking and Outing Club members rode the 27 miles at a strong pace.

The northern part of this trail begins at the Durham Bulls stadium and continues south to the break at I-40. You see alot of backyards on this section.

Here we are rolling along the ATT.

Tom Leo's Sign Collection

The lighting was terrible so I was only able to get little more than half the collection pictured here.

Tommy was a wonderful host. I spent 2 days looking over his vast collection. In addition to signs he has a nice crown collection

Slideshow of the collection

Biking the Allegheny River Trail

The Allegheny River and the Samuel Justus Trails will someday follow the Allegheny River from Titusville to Pittsburgh. Right now there is a 34 mile unbroken stretch from Oil City to Emlenton. Add a few road miles and you can access anothre dozen miles of trail. The really amazing part is - it is paved. I rode the 28 miles from Franklin to Emlenton in about 3 hours. The ride back was even easier with the wind at my back.

Just 5 miles from Franklin, the Sandy Creek Trail, also paved, crosses the Allegheny on this trestle. Another few miles downriver of the trestle is Indian God Rock, a large sandstone rock riverside the Indians considered sacred. There are pictographs and much historical writing on all sides of this rock. I suspect that the Indians thought highly of it because their carvings facing north, filled with moss and made a wonderfully colorful display.

The railroad was built shortly after the oil boom. The Drake Well in Titusville was the first successful oil well in the world. Local farmland was traded like stock options with everyone wanting a piece of the riches. Even famous assassin, John Wilkes Booth got into the action. Soon there were refineries up and down the river, refining the crude into lubricants, illuminants, waxes and polluting the river into a smelly cesspool. Famous Quaker State got its start in Emlenton, the site now off limits due to contamination. North of Franklin, Wolf Head oil was refined. Remnants of other refineries can be seen along the river as well.

The railroad was sold in 1914 to Pennsylvania RR. Immediately 14 miles of track was eliminated by the construction of 3 tunnels costing $1.5 million. The longest is 3350 feet and quite dark. I used 2 flashlights and had to walk as I could barely see the reflectors on the pavement.