Gloomy Thursday

It started out raining yesterday morning, but we had planned a trip to the Kinzua Dam to look for Bald Eagles that had been spotted there recently hunting near the base of the dam, and I'm glad we went because the weather cleared up, and although we saw no eagles, it was a beautiful ride. This dam was constructed beginning in 1960 and is located about 12 miles from my hometown of Warren, Pennsylvania. When I was growing up, there were many times the Allegheny river over flowed it's banks, and flooded our town. My parents had a cottage along the river about 5 miles below the present dam sight. Before the dam, the river used to freeze enough that we could ice skate on it. In 1956 in the early Spring ( March) there was a quick snow melt due to heavy rains which resulted in a massive ice jam on the river below our cottage. The water rose at an average of an inch every 30 minutes, and eventually there was 18" of water inside the cottage. It took many days of cleaning all that mud and silt before we could stay there again. The cottage was built up off the ground but had a "crawl space" underneath and the chunks of ice that got trapped there didn't melt completely till June!  

Across the road from the dam, the cliff has lots of trees, and even some big rocks that occasionally break loose and fall to the road below. As you drive along there are signs warning of falling rocks, and some do get quite close to the actual roadway!

This is the lake above the dam. Lots of recreational places, boating, fishing and camping.

On the way home I drove along the same river to the spot where I saw the Mute swan family last summer. Only the parents remain. The locals had told me that all the cygnets ( there were 6) had disappeared, mostly taken by Muskies or turtles.
  Well, gone is the brief sun we had yesterday, and back to the gloomy days of winter, and no snow now to complain about... Take care all.

Day Trip

Friday we took a day trip and first stopped at the Kinzua Dam about 9 miles from my home town of Warren, Penna. This Dam has been in place since 1962. Before that the water from the Allegheny River quite often would flood the towns down stream. I'll save that for another post. My parents owned a cottage 6 miles below the Dam, and more than once had lots of high water. The Allegheny River runs South to Pittsburgh, Penna where it joins up with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River, and eventually joins with the Mississippi.

Across the road from the Dam is a very high rock wall , and there are several pretty waterfalls.

We took our GPS "Lizzie" with us, and sometimes "she" leads us astray... Friday was one of those days! She said to turn left and I did down a one lane dirt road. Bad choice! We were to go 3.8 miles, and once I got on this road there was no turning back! It truly was one lane right through the deep woods. The road was narrow and had many deep mud puddles, and rocks.

Not only was the road deserted, but this Ruffed Grouse was the only wildlife we saw, and then we almost missed her.

Just no place to turn around. We could only go about 2 mph too.

This was the driest part. Finally we got to turn around and would you believe "Lizzie" never told us "Recalculating" LOL

Our destination was Kinzua Bridge State Park in Mt. Jewett, Penna. We went to see the highest railroad bridge in the world. This was before it got struck with a category 1 tornado in 2003. You can read more about it on Gary's blog http://steamacrossthetrestle.blogspot.com/ There is a picture there, and we will be telling the story about this wonderful bridge in the next couple of days.

While at Kinzua Bridge State Park I noticed lots of woodpeckers flitting through the trees. They were Yellow bellied Sapsuckers. There were so many and they were so quick. I felt fortunate to have gotten 2 shots. All 3 were males.

It was a cool and windy day. We managed to get back home withOUT "Lizzie's" help too.

Have a wonderful and Blessed Easter everyone.