Episode #145: Granddad Finds Things In The Mountain

I've often found/seen unusual things over the many years of hiking around Cedar Mountain. Kind of amazes me over the fact on how determined the younger generation, for they are the only ones that can really accomplish these feats of daring do, is when it comes to doing stupid things.

Prime example is this liberated stop sign staring out at you. Obviously it came from a street somewhere, but there it is, leaning against a concrete bunker imploring the vegetation to stop growing.

I have seen the remnants of a television that somehow got tossed/brought into one of the street entrances about a dozen or so feet. Also, roughly a hundred feet or so from this picture are the remains of what used to be an appliance of some kind. Now, we're not talking about something tiny, we're talking about something like a stove or something similar that someone had lugged deep into the mountain.

If I continue down then up on one of the trails, I'll come across a very old 1970's style one piece rear seat that someone lugged up and wedged against a tree. Still usable, but very unsafe just the same.

And you can't forget about the fire pits that are scattered all over the mountain. Now these aren't dormant, but are very active in the summer time, as you can see them being used as you're driving down one of the side streets towards the mountains. Now these for the most part are somewhat accessible in the day time, but quite dangerous to seek out at night, even with flashlights, as the footing to the pathways are very treacherous to begin with. 

Another odd thing I've seen in the past few years are the end results when chainsaws are used on the trees. Now it's not sure much as people are illegally cutting lumber and hauling it away, but more like some necessary clearing of the landscape. To elaborate, we've had some nasty rain/wind storms in the mountain, which has allowed Mother and Father Nature pursue a prudent campaign of selective clearing out the old and dangerous trees, in order to make room for new growth.

Most of the time, these trees fall in areas where there are no trails or so far away from a trail, that there's no real danger to people walking on the trails. However, there have been times when some rather large old growth trees have fallen across the hiking trails, which in turn makes it a tad hazardous/difficult to walk around them. So what some people have down, either private folks or town employees, have taken chainsaws to those trees and removed just enough of the tree(s) to make the trail passable again.

They have also taken out some dead/dying/rotted trees down so that they don't have the potential to injure folks walking/hiking the trails. So for 2022, the trails have been remarkably, save for one, user friendly due to the selective dead tree removal.

Overall, this year the mountain has been remarkably stress free to partake in, in that there's no stray trees to really worry about hiking over or around. Walking and hiking is always good, especially when you can go on trails and not worry about major obstacles impeding your way. Just the occasional animal.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved