A few days later we return to the junction of Route 210 and the Baker Trail and set up a car shuttle to the South Branch of Plum Creek. The trail guide and map are very specific in their description of the continuation of the trail on the other side of Route 210, but that description doesn't seem to match signs and marking that we see along the road. There is a wooden sign with "Baker Trail" written on it but it isn't where the trail guide says it should be.
We decide to try the sign and push into the woods. There is a piped spring just off the road and what seems to be a continuation of a trail that runs off to the left. We walk up the trail, but it quickly shrinks down to an old deer path and we retreat back to the road.

We start the second part of our Baker Trail hike back at the car pull-out near Cochran's Mills after leaving our second car at the trail crossing on Rte 210 about nine miles away. Driving over the bewilderingly interconnected back roads of Southbend Township to get to Cochran's Mills, we were stunned by the number of robins we saw. Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of robins were perching on tree branches, hopping across fields and lawns, and swooping across the road in front of the car. We had seen very few robins around our yard and field over the past month or so (the robins seem to fade away in mid to late summer after their second clutches have fledged). But, the flocks of robins were here! Were they gathering up for their migration flights? Was the habitat quality out here so high that they were drawn to these woods and hollows in huge numbers? Why were they here? How long would they stay? We pondered these questions as we pulled on our day packs and sprayed on insect repellant.

The Baker Trail was established in 1950 under the sponsorship of the Pittsburgh Council of the American Youth Hostels. Named for Pittsburgh attorney Horace Forbes Baker, the trail originally began in Aspinwall on the north shore of the Allegheny River and, after crossing the Allegheny at Freeport, wound its way over 133 miles through farmland and woods to Cook Forest State Park. The Aspinwall to Freeport section, though, was lost due to development and irreparable fragmentation, so in its present form the Baker Trail begins on the hilly bluffs over the east shore of the Allegheny River just past the base of the Freeport Bridge. A northern extension added in 1971 took the trail past the Cook Forest Fire Tower terminus and extended it into the Allegheny National Forest and, eventually, connected it to the North Country Trail. Different web sites state that the present length of the Baker Trail is 132 miles, or 140 miles, or 141 miles.

My Front Yard:
My front yard is a wood-fenced rectangle about 20 by 24 feet. It has been a multi-use part of my property serving as the "dog yard," "bird feeding area," and general buffer between the house and street. I am not a compulsive lawn manager and only reluctantly give in to the need to mow. This front yard area, though, always had a thick, green grass cover and was visibly healthier and more robust than any other lawn on my street. I attributed this to moderate applications of dog urine from two very gentle, very urinarily healthy dogs, Shiga (a golden retriever) and Danny (a schnauzer mix).

June 10, 2009: Laurel Highlands Trail
Deborah and I had to meet the Pennsylvanian Amtrak train in Greenburg at 6:50 pm and, so, decided to spend the afternoon on a section of the Laurel Highlands Trail nearby. We drove past Ligoneer to a parking area off of Rte 271 and stepped off on the north bound trail that represents the last day's section for those hardy few that backpack the entire 70 miles. We had several time and weather (there was a coming rain storm predicted to start at 5 pm) constraints, so we planned only 1 ½ hours "in" and a retrace of our steps on a 1 ½ hour "out."
It was a humid, cloudy day not quite hot, but very steamy. We carried water and plenty of insect repellant. When the breeze died down, the mosquitoes swarmed around our heads, legs, and arms.

I finally got out in my yard yesterday afternoon and tried to get caught up with the changing season. The wind storms have severely pruned my red maples, and I have already gathered enough stick wood to fuel four or five great bonfires. The grass is starting to turn a deep green and is growing up in uneven clumps throughout the yard (places fertilized by my loyal dog friend?). In the great seed husk pile under the bird feeder, hundreds of passed over sunflower seeds are germinating. The crocuses are possibly already passed their peak blooming, and the daffodils have fat flower heads. Down along one of the roads near campus, the wild daffodils were blooming all along the southern exposures. The lowest branches of my driveway forsythia are blooming, too. The heat from the concrete surfaces is pushing them weeks ahead of the rest of the plant. I brought a few flower twigs inside today and put them in a jar of water. They are adding some nice color to the top of my writing desk.

I am just back from Ecuador and the Galapagos. Many long days and so much to think about. It was an incredible trip!

There is, though, no "spring" on the equator (nor is there "winter," nor "autumn," nor "summer"), there is only an astoundingly consistent, year-round, 12 hour day in which the sun tracks, with tiny variations, across the highest arc of the sky...each day...everyday!

(for Ed Lenz....Welcome Back! We have missed you!)
One week to spring break and it still feels like winter. I am sitting at my writing desk watching a cold front blast across my hillside. The bird feeders are swinging wildly in the wind spilling their black, oil sunflower seeds all over the top of the seed husk pile that has built up on the ground over the winter. I will have to shovel those out later in March and talk to Ed about how to get the grass to grow in again! 

All right, there are two inches of snow out there right now and this morning when I woke up the radio announced a minus four degree wind chill. Maybe I started these "Signs of Spring" too early this year. No good deed ever goes unpunished. There are, though, some "spring-things" going on outside.

Like the male tufted titmice's singing and fighting for mating territory (my front yard bird feeder and fancy, "ice-free" bird bath are highly contested resources!). Like the house finches (even on cold snowy mornings like today) greeting the day with their chattering, group songs. But, the big observation of the week came just before the snow and cold hit...the rise of the earthworms!

Strong wind gusts are a year-round occurrence up on our Penn State New Kensington ridge top. Summer thunderstorms, spring and fall weather fronts, and winter blizzards can each generate high velocity winds that can do serious damage to our trees. This past week, a racing cold front colliding with our first warm, humid spring air mass (wasn't it nice?) triggered wind gusts that locally topped 90 miles per hour! It was a hurricane of a storm.