Memorial Day in Leetonia...things to do.

There are two interesting things to do related to Memorial Day in and near Leetonia. First is to go up to Leetonia Cemetery and visit the soldiers grave sites.  This site is just about 600 yards down Francis Leetonia Rd to the left as you come up to Leetonia from the South. The graveyard is on a steep hill. There is also a row of babies buried up there from a whopping cough epidemic in the late 1870's. As you go up the hill you will notice an old foundation. That was the site of the first school house/church/meeting room in Leetonia.

The next thing involves a bit of driving out to Captain Lawrence Ritter's crash site. In 1946 this pilot crashed his WW2 P47 into the side of the mountain and was not found until 7 months later by bear hunters. I have instructions at the link to get there. If you are not familar with the roads but know where my place is. You head to the right out of my driveway and make the first left towards Cushman view then down the mountain and the first right is Francis Leetonia Rd. follow site directions and pictures from there. This involves about 3.5 miles of hiking to get to the wreckage site. Please do not take any of the wreckage out of respect.

Enjoy the weekend, but take a little time to remember all those who came, fought and died before us. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Memorial Day Leetonia

Leetonia Cemetery Memorial Day 2015

Memorial weekend is always a big weekend for people coming to their camp. It is also a day when a special tradition takes place. The graveyard in Leetonia has fresh flags today including the ones on those who served in the military the last one being a Campbell in World War 1. Mick and Alice used to do the job of placing the flags each year. I have to be honest that I am not sure who has taken over this honoring of our veterans in the small out of the way place in Leetonia. I am sure someone knows and if they want their name mentioned let me know and I will be glad to do it. This day we remember even in the mountain ghost town of Leetonia. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

That Dam Thing

Austin Dam Ruins

Austin Dam Ruins

Memorial Plaque

Yesterday we were at a wedding for some friends at Austin Dam. I have driven by it several times on 872, but never entered the park. The Memorial Park opening is quite a distance before the dam on the right as you are heading south from Coudersport to Austin. The road to it is rough, narrow and feels more like a donkey trail than a road. Just about the time you sure you are lost it will appear at first on the left from above. It is definitely worth the trip to see what mere water is able to do. It cut through and moved these large concrete structures like they were pebbles and killed 78 people in the process who names are on the plaque below the dam. The dam was never rebuilt and the town now remains small compared to what it was during the flood.

Newpaper article click to read.

Inside of dam before flood

Business destroyed

Not much left standing

Memorial weekend and stuff

Memorial weekend marks the beginning of summer and the weather kicked it off right. Beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70's to lower eighties with nice breezes made a perfect weekend for cookouts and Spring camp cleaning. Most of the camps seemed to have people up this weekend and it was good to catch up with so many. 

The bears are definitely out with many a sighting. I haven't talked to anyone who has seen snaggle nose our infamous bear who had about half his face ripped off about five years ago. So if any of you have seen him let me know for now he is MIA. 

Mick's camp is up for sale by owner so if you are in the area and interested you can get the contact information off the sign. Next weekend is the road rally, so for those of you who don't like this event and wish to come to the quiet of the woods avoid coming up at all cost. 

The road coming up from Cedar Run the first two miles is in awful shape. I am requesting everyone who uses this road to call 1-800 FIX ROAD or 1-800-349-7623. You can let them know from the intersection of SR414 and SR4009 the first mile is in Brown twp, Lycoming Co. the second mile is in Morris Twp, Tioga Co. the road name changes from Leetonia Rd. to Cedar Run Rd during those two miles and the state should have it as SR 4009. It is like going through a mine field of potholes. None of the ditches or pipes have been cleaned out for years so the water flows across the road and ruins it. I call every Spring otherwise it doesn't get fixed, so if everyone calls maybe they will get out here faster. Thanks to all who will do this and my car thanks you. The rest of Leetonia Rd to Leetonia is being worked on by Elk Township.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I know all who came to Leetonia this weekend had a wonderful time. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Memorial Day

Don't forget to remember the fallen soldiers today. We have two special ones close to me. Lawrence Ritter who crashed  his P47 not far from here. Following the link on his name will give you more info. And Capt. Campbell buried in Leetonia Cemetery.  Visiting these sites on Memorial day gives a hands on feeling to memorial day far above the family barbecue.

On a different note we had a visitor the other night. While watching television I heard Scooter growling at the fireplace. Scooter isn't one to make noise for no reason so I asked Lee if something was over there. Sure enough, there was a three-foot long Rat Snake like the one above crawling on the hearth. Now a rat snake can look and act a lot like a rattler to try and fool you into leaving it alone so I wasn't too quick to grab it. Once I identified it, I grabbed it behind the head and tossed it outside. Scooter and the rest of us were glad to see it on the right side of the house. 

I am not one to kill a snake when at all possible as they do a lot of rodent killing, which helps keep the intermediary host of Lyme's disease, the mouse population, down. Most of my snake killing is accidental during lawn mowing. Snakes do not go through a lawn mower well.

The bear who knocked the fence down has stayed away since we and the dogs are home and I am hoping it stays that way. Lee and I are spending the afternoon with friends having a cookout and playing a game called, "Dudo". My son sent me home with this game and it is simple and fun, specially if you are a good liar. It involves dice and trying to guess and bet how many of each kind everyone has. The guess has to get progressively higher so eventually someone has to lie and the next person calls, "Dudo". If there is not the number of dice kind bet the person who bet losses a dice, if there is the Dudo caller losses. Last one to have any dice wins. You start with 5 dice each. Part of most people's experience at camp is playing a non-electronic games. Hopefully, this will continue to be a part of camp in the future. Have a great Memorial Day. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Report from the Forest

The mountain laurel started blooming this last week and it looks like it is going to be real good on Cedar Mountain up from our house on Leetonia Rd. I am surprised it is doing so well after that hard freeze the first part of May. It seems a bit early so maybe it likes cold weather.
The water level in Pine Creek dropped all the way down to 1.6 ft after a week of dry weather and hungry plants. We got a real soaker last night and the creek popped back up to 2.25 ft. It really takes a 2 ft mark to canoe with out a lot of scrapping so today would be great. It won't last long above 2ft if the rain doesn't continue but there are several rain storms listed for the week
so you never know.
The fisherman at Blackwell, took advantage of the low water and were wading out over the weekend. It was a bit hot and very buggy for Memorial weekend, but the rain held off allowing people plenty of time to have their memorial day picnics. There were a lot of people up to their camps enjoying some of the natural beauty of the area.
The last picture I took while traveling around the woods on Francis Road just off Slate Run Rd. The bridge is closed a few miles down the road, and it is very bumpy with potholes, however the views made up for it.
There are a couple of overviews on that road that have the old log rails they used to use on all the
overviews. The day was a bit hazy but you can
see the late freeze damage on the trees as you look down the valley.
If you have never been down this road and don't mind bumps and turning around at the bridge it is a beautiful drive. I can thank the Census Bureau for funding my drive up there. I don't usually travel roads that have bridges out.
It got a little dusty over the weekend with all the traffic of camp goers, but the rain has washed the air clean and it has that great forest smell today. Since the sun is staying under clouds it is also pleasant temperatures in the low 70's.
Have a great Leetonia day! Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Memorial Weekend is here!

Scooter is all tired out and ready for a nice Memorial Weekend. The weather has been unusually cold for May. We have gone through an entire row of firewood, not the normal. Usually by May we are done with the firewood burning. We had a frost this morning again at 30 degrees and the hummingbirds are not happy about the chilly mornings.

It does promise to get into the 60's over the weekend and maybe into the 70's Monday. The only plus of the cold weather has been a lack of bugs. I hope they don't return with the warm. Looks like I will be working most of the weekend in preparation for a week off when my family comes up the first weekend in June. I have heard many people saying they are making fewer trips to camp this year and trying to make them longer when they do come because of gas prices. It is yet to be seen what this summer will bring to the local business owners with what is promising to be a tight year.

To all the Veterans out there I would like to shout out a special thanks for your service and make this an opportunity to visit places which honor our Veterans. Walking to the plane crash site is always a good way to make a special tribute to the World War 2 pilot who died there. You can look it up in key words for this site by going to p47. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

Memorial Day in Leetonia

We had lots of visitors over the weekend. Unfortunately, many of them came while we were gone. Beverly and David built and installed two bluebird houses on the property and they are absolutely great. We are looking forward to seeing some bluebirds adopt them as their special nesting areas. They came and erected one of these while we were out and about and were sorry to have missed them. So a special shout OUT and THANKS to them.

It was David's sister who broke her foot hiking back to the crash site of the P47 mentioned in a previous blog. Seems she has had to have surgery on the leg and it is slow to get better. We certainly wish her the best.

The second surprise which also came while we were gone was this nice bunch of cut flowers. Since there is no note this gift is a mystery, but still appreciated after a long winter. It is great to see the colorful flowers and definitely put a smile on both of our faces. Thanks to our mystery deliverer. We were actually having our own day off Sunday and did a very touristy thing and went canoing down Pine Creek even though the water was low. Friends were up and we had not done any canoing since moving up here five years ago. Seems when you live here there is always work to be done...there was work that day....but for once I ignored it.

You will probably notice my posting will be much less often during the summer months. My carpentry business really picks up and it is much more difficult to take the time to gather information for you all. I will try to get a couple of postings in a week regardless. Have a great Leetonia Day!

Mountain Girl, Paula, Logging out!