Ricketts Glen waterfalls ablaze

  

While it's not an endurance hike, the Falls Trail to the bottom of Ricketts Glen makes you wish you hadn't eaten that last doughnut for breakfast. Four miles of this rocky, slippery and steep trail will make you wonder why you chose to climb the glen. Then you see the first waterfalls, and remember.

Ricketts Glen State Park is about a pleasant three hour drive north of York. The park is the second most visited park in the state, says a ranger there, and autumn weekend crowds are ridiculous. Can't keep something like this a secret, so pick a weekday is possible.

While the park offers the usual park niceties, like a lake, woodland hiking, camping, picnicking, its jewel is the falls trail. Before you hit the trail, be aware that it's not the usual walk in the park. From the top of the glen or canyon to the bottom, it's a 1,000 foot drop.

That's good for making remarkable waterfalls, but tough on the legs and lungs. The rock steps can be extremely slick, and the rock paths are uneven and rough. Such is what you have to suffer through to see visions like this. The trail is in great shape for the shape it is. It's steep, on cliffs, through mud, over creeks.

On the way, you'll see waterfalls that range in size from ripples to a 90-foot tower of water. Twenty two of them are big enough to warrant a name, and many others are equally impressive, but just not as tall. Autumn color over the weekend wasn't spectacular-- mostly yellow, or shades of green-- but there were pockets of red maples. Check the woods opposite the creek for birds, mushrooms and mosses.

Once at the bottom, look forward to the return uphill. Actually, climbing isn't as tough because stopping for pictures or stopping to exclaim "Beautiful!" every three minutes will give you the break you need. Many of the hikers were using hiking poles and good shoes. Photographers were using monopods for walking sticks, helping navigate the path in soaked sneakers.

Of course, there was also a soon-to-be-mother slipping her way downhill in flipflops, and a father who was perturbed because he couldn't take the stroller. Apparently, the obvious warning signs explaining the dangers weren't enough. Or the newspaper articles at the head of the trail showing a recent rescue.

Waiting for dinner

Both a young calf and a kitten await the Springfield Township farmer who is coming with a bowl of milk.

A patch of Flat in a world of Mountain

Obligatory mountain shot, with help from Photoshop.

 Visited Cataloochee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee on Thursday. At one time a bustling little mountain neighborhood with more than 1,200 people, the town was home to farmers and apple growers, as well as those who boarded tourists and other visitors.  It's hard to imagine grinding out  a living in this beautiful but rugged patch of Flat surrounded by a world of Mountain.

The Cataloochee school.

The town is in the middle of the mountains with no easy way to get there except for the winding, 65-mile drive-- sometimes a gravel, single lane road-- from Gatlinburg or 35 miles from Cherokee. Many of the old buildings have been preserved, including homes, a school and a couple churches.

Quiet streams slide down the mountainside.

The Palmer home is still papered--somewhat lightly because of vandals-- with newspapers writing about president William Howard Taft, who was president in 1909.

A bull chase

Within the last 10 years, the Park Service released more than 50 elk into the area, and elk viewing has become almost a sport in the late afternoon and evenings. Animal lovers bring their lawn chairs, sit on their cars or trucks and observe the elk, guessing which bull has the gumption to chase the others away from the females. Their bugling is heard throughout the valley.

Pity poor Andrew Johnson

Johnson's tailor office in the Park Service visitor center.

The visit to the Greeneville, Tennessee, homes of the 17th U.S. president Andrew Johnson was a fascinating one, in that visitors almost feel pity for the poor man who became president after Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

The Civil War had just ended, and northern politicians wanted the South punished. And Johnson? Well, he was no Abraham Lincoln. He faced a myriad of problems, and he made some of his own.

Johnson was the first U.S. president to be impeached, his accusers arguing that he unlawfully dismissed a cabinet member. Congress also generally disliked the fact that President Veto, as he was known, kept shooting down their proposed laws.  He was acquitted by one vote.

It is interesting how the National Park Service is able to keep a proper perspective on his term. He joins Lancaster's James Buchanon (who preceded Lincoln) on lists of the 10 worst U.S. presidents in history according to a recent U.S. News and World Report ranking.  But that's not mentioned.

The Park Service tells Johnson's story clearly and by the time visitors leave the visitor center, one can't help but think Johnson did what he thought was right, and according to what Lincoln would have wanted.

Johnson's office has mostly original pieces.

Johnson grew up as an apprentice tailor, but somehow found himself in politics, quickly rising to where Lincoln appointed Johnson the war-time governor of Tennessee, and then as vice president during Lincoln's second term. In 1863, Johnson let the few slaves he owned choose whether to leave or stay on as paid workers. They all stayed with Johnson.

Johnson's family life was anything but normal, with half his family, including his wife Eliza, dying of tuberculosis. One son died after being thrown from a horse, and another died of a drug overdose. Eliza suffered as an invalid for more than 25 years with TB, and one of Johnson's daughters took over political and social duties as 'first lady' during the White House  years.

Johnson was a Democrat, while Lincoln was a Republican, but was needed on the ticket for the border states vote. When Lincoln died, Johnson relied heavily on his states rights  beliefs, and vetoed many bills because of his feeling that these bills were better left to the states and not the federal government.

Congress wanted to step in and clean up the problems the Civil War had left behind, but Johnson insisted upon leaving most of that to the states.

After leaving the White House, Johnson was reelected senator in 1875. He is the only president to return to public life as a senator. Before his return to Washington D.C., however, he suffered a stroke and died. Eliza died six months later.

Unlike many historic sites, Johnson's is nearly all original pieces, not reproductions or period pieces. Johnson's hat sits on his old dresser, his lap desk is in a far corner and his office is nearly intact. 

The two homes, the visitors center and cemetery are interesting places to visit, about a man who was thrown into a lions den of hungry and eager politicians looking for retribution.

Don't know much about this history

Visited the Civil War's Chickamauga Battlefield in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia Monday. Didn't know much about the battle, despite having lived near the more famous Gettsyburg and Antietam Battlefields for quite a while. One would think I'd absorb some knowledge by osmosis or something.

The moon rises over Snodgrass Hill.

The two day battle south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the second bloodiest battle of the war, second only to Gettysburg. While it was considered to be a Confederate victory, the South was still parked away from the highly important transportation hub of Chattanooga when the fight was over. And the North had control of the city's railroads, rivers and highways. One southern soldier said the loss of Chattanooga was the "death knell of the Confederacy". The North could use the town as a hub for supplying its armies during the southern campaigns.

The battlefield is a contrast to Gettysburg in that there are far fewer memorials and stones. In that, it's more like Antietam, with its quieter, more somber tone.

Deer graze near a cannonball marker.

An interesting sidelight of the battle was Colonel John T. Wilders' Lightning Brigade of mounted infantry that saved the day for the North. The Confederates had discovered a hole in the Northern line and began driving through it, which would split the Yankees, possibly distroying the army.

Just in time, Wilder's brigade filled the hole and drove the Rebels back with their seven-shot Spencer repeating rifles, saving the day for the North.

When the war ended, Wilder returned to Chattanooga to live. In 1871, he was elected mayor six years after the war. 

In seems interesting that the man whose brigade killed hundreds of Confederates was welcomed in Chattanooga shortly after the war.  Unless I'm missing something here.

Drummer ran off to join the circus

When Alex Hilton decided to run off and join the Royal Hanneford Circus (at the York Fair this week), it wasn't the family scene you might expect with wringing of hands, crying, and wailing in fear of a bleak and uncertain future.  Just the opposite.  "Can we help you pack?"  An entertainment family, they understood that this is just another way to make a living.

Hilton, born near Altoona, has been playing drums since he was two years old, and 20 years later, he's now the show's percussionist, having worked up from a stage hand.

He's seen the show hundreds of times, hit more rimshots and cowbell accents he can imagine, but if you watch Hilton during the performances, he's still smiling, laughing with the trampoline comedy bit, and shaking his head in amazement at the balancing acts.

It's a heck of a show at Memorial Hall. Balancing acts that make 'America's Got Talent' look puny and amateurish, contortionists that make you hurt just watching them, high wire acts, and of course, the beautiful and glamorous costumes for the trapeze artistry of Annngelllllllla! 

It's still remarkable that Ringmaster Billy Martin can do his job with as much freshness today as he did years ago. What a great voice.

Bury's is a York Fair food favorite

 The York Dispatch is in the middle of a contest that I can get my teeth into. (Sorry).

Vote for your favorite York Fair food here. You'll see a list, including Johnny Eagle hamburgers (or Bury's). Now, there's plenty of good stuff, but between Johnny Eagle, the York City firefighters cheese steaks and Tubby Tommy's, it would be a tough choice.

The Fried Food capital of the world, the Texas State Fair, announced its food winners recently. You can choose between Deep Fried Jambalaya or Fried Bacon Cinnamon Roll. I always favor the Texas Fair's armadillo eggs. This is the place that sells turkey legs as big as a ham.

Bury's has been at the fair for more than 70 years, and in the postcard at left, it says it sold more than six TONS of burgers in 1940. Impressive, eh?

The family still works the stand, and will bring out the World War II price list at the first hint.  Burgers were 13 cents apiece, milk or coffee was a nickel.

If you've not had a Bury's burger, be aware you'll need a few napkins. The burgers swim in a red sauce that is guaranteed to drip on your shirt, or at least down your chin.

And it's worth every drip.