Larry A. Smail's Blog

Frank maus

    Since our retirements, my friend Frank Maus and I have been doing some muskie fishing and hiking. Today, after a discussion we walked along trail  known as the Redbank Valley Trail. The trail, although not yet completed, proved to be a great scenic trail. The trail runs along  Redbank Creek. RedbankCreek divides the counties of Armstrong and Clarion in western Pennsylvania.                      

Redbank Creek

Frank wanted to study the waters for possible future fishing excursions, so I happily agreed to the jaunt. Our walk lasted three hours of steady steps. I am estimated we hiked ten miles, at least. (This is my guest.)

Fisher tracks

   The morning was rather brisk and about 4 inches of snow blanketed the area. Snow always tells many stories as we would soon observe. One of the first tracks were those of the fisher. The fisher was once native to our area and drastic timbering operations and over harvest caused the specie to become absent for many years. The Pennsylvania Game Commission re-introduced them about 15 years ago and now the mammal is spreading  rather well.                                                                                  

Moving ice

Other tracks were deer, squirrel,turkeys, fox and mice. A pair of mated coyotes used te trail a lot. We smelled their presence more than once as they marked their territory. While walking a saw a mass covered with snow. I pushed at the mass with my walking stick and a porcupine rolled away. The porky was soft and not frozen. Rigor-mortis nor freezing has stiffened the creature. Neither of us had an explanation as to that fact.

An island

   One very interesting observation happened. We began to hear backed-up ice cracking when the ice pack began to push and creat ice dams. We, both, felt blessed to have been at the area at that precise time to watch this event. The cracking and pushing lasted about 15 minutes when the movement ceased.

As we were returning we noticed fresh gobbler tracks that were not present earlier. All told we saw 5 deer and 1 turkey. We saw a bat flying although the temperatures were in the thirty degree range. We observed high steep hills; thick hemlock covered hill sides; beautiful icy waters and huge rock outcroppings.The snow had melted off dramatically on our return journey. the February sun was making heat.  

Allegheny River hills

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Snapping turtle skull

  A week ago, I walked along the railroad tracks bordering the western side of the Allegheny River. I saw five fox squirrels; geese; wood ducks and mallards. I, also, saw a pair of herons flying overhead. One interesting discover was the skeleton of a snapping turtle.Of course, I gathered much of these bones up.     

Mallards