Larry A. Smail's Blog

Cherry Run

  My friend, Frank Maus and I elected to travel the Cherry Run area for a hike. (Armstrong County, Pennsylvania)The weather was like spring and to not utilize such a day would be a sin!  The hills at the area I chose to hike are destined to be stripped for coal soon, so I felt the need to travel and enjoy.                                         

Skunk Cabbage

The lure!

   We parked along a bridge by the trout approved waters of Cherry Run. We laughed at the site of fishing line and a lure hanging from a tree limb. The recently stocked trout, apparently, proved to much of a temptation for someone.

The travels began walking uphill along Wright Road until we reached the top of the hill. Cherry Run has some ruggedly steep and high hills for the county.These were the hills I grew up crawling over from a lad until now. I have grown to love this country.

We walked along areas of fields bordered by big tracks of woodlands. We expected to see turkeys strutting in these fields, but the big birds were absent. Some of the critters we saw included a squirrel and red-tailed hawk. I noticed a few bluebirds too.

Crow

  Eventually we completed the ridge and began the trek downslope to the road that parallels Cherry Run. The truck traffic was growing as gas wells and stripping jobs are becoming reality and more numerous.

Coltsfoot

  I had some firsts for the year. I saw my first red-wing blackbird; coltsfoot blooms and later I saw seven turkey vultures flying over the house. Spring is here. I saw Grackles on March 1 and heard killdeer serenading the skies a week prior to the grackle sightings.

The walk was approximately 5 miles and we enjoyed the day very much. While traveling along a very rural road, Frankie said, “Did you see that?  It looked like guts of something.”  He saw it coming off of the bank to the ditch-line of the road. I stopped and sure enough a groundhog skin was laying there. We pondered  about this and figured someone has skinned a ‘hog to eat and some critter must have carried the hide to the pine. We suggested the breeze caused the hide to fall at that precise time as we drove past.??????                  

ATV erosion damage along northbranch of Cherry Run