Soft Rain, Open Water

About 6:30 a soft rain started to fall and the dry soils, exposed to the winds and the sun, are now happily taking it all in, even if it isn't all that much.

This time of year even a modest amount of rain makes all of the plant life turn an iridescent green, and that would be wonderful! If it rained hard we would get to see the buds swell, but I don't think that is in the cards today.

This morning Cook's Pond is almost entirely open water, with almost no traces of ice remaining. That was a very quick melt off for the pond! Even this weekend there was a partly submerged coat of ice nearly covering the pond. Poof! Spring!

SIGN WORK & TIMBERWORK - THURSDAY

This Thursday is going to be sign and timberwork at the Lodge, and we start at 9:00 am and run until noon. It is supposed to be a beautiful day, so come on by and chip in on some trail signs and property signs and other assorted signs that make the woods intelligible for folks.

EARTH DAY - SATURDAY

This Saturday is our Annual Earth Day Cleanup!
There will be folks at Coes Reservoir, Sherer Trail, and Cascades East!
Our primary enterprise is YEAR 3 of the Cascades East cleanup work!
9 am - noon, followed by a BBQ at the Lodge at Cascading Waters for the Volunteers!

Now, Cascades East was preserved in a little "rough" shape, and has been an ongoing restoration project...
Don't get me wrong, there was a certain "cultural history" to the rusted tricycles and upside down bread truck deep in the woods, but that "je ne sais quoi" isn't really great in terms of land management and conservation practices.

REQUEST!!!!
We could really use WHEEL BARRELS/ WHEEL BARROWS!!!
Even is you can not join us Saturday morning, if your wheel barrel could it would be much loved as an instrument of extracting the debris out of the woods.

Cascades East Factoid: in between last Earth Day and this Earth Day (what we call the "off season") 5050 lbs of metal were recycled out of Cascades East!

If you count the metal and tires and debris taken out in the past 2 years of Earth Days, and count the large metal hauler who took out the vehicles, a huge mount of work has been done up there!

TED on the AT

No word from Ted on the AT, but that is also tied to his being in more rural terrain and his cell carrier being less excited about rural coverage. We will let you know when next we hear from him on his walk towards Damascus, VA. tedatgwlt.blogspot.com


8:00 am Trailhead Conditions at Cascading Waters (elev. 630'):

Temperature is 52.7 degrees F and falling;
Humidity is 75% and rising;
Pressure is 29.94" and steady;
Wind is moving but not registering mph;
Skies are overcast, and there is an occasional light rain falling;
The Cascades are running;
The Cascades Brook is flowing in both channels;
The USFS Fire Danger Class is still MEDIUM.


National Weather Service Forecast:

Showers likely, mainly before noon.
Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 65.
West wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph.
Chance of precipitation is 70%.
New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.