[at-l] Places to be sprinkled...

Thu Aug 6 15:49:01 CDT 2009

Toey, I hope you're not planning on checking out any time soon, but you have an intriguing list, some of which might parallel mine.

1.? the meadow in front of the little lodge at the Box Y Ranch, which is along the Greys River, which lies between the Wyoming Range and the Salt River Range in western Wyoming
http://www.boxylodge.com/?? And then hike up Meadow Creek and scatter a little there.? And take a little up Deadman's Creek and scatter then along the horse trails there.

2.? in the yard of my childhood home, 3233 Park Place West, Cairo, Illinois.? Let them go along the front sidewalk, where my Mom planted all the daffodils.

3.? anywhere the wildflowers grow at Mesa Verde NP

4.? along the Florida trail, preferably going in from the Barr Street trailhead near Oviedo--somewhere with an overlook of the Little Big Econlachatchee River

5.? I like Tom's idea of 4-H Camp, so along the lakeshore at the 4-H Camp at West Frankfort, Illinois

6.? in the cemetery at Jonesboro, Illinois, on top of my Grandmother Jarvis's grave

7.? in the cemetery at Villa Ridge, Illinois, on top of my Grandmother Bergman's grave

8.? along a wildflower bedecked road somewhere to commune with my Dad, who loved being on the road and taught me to love the same

9.? in the fields of what used to be Wayside Farm outside of Cairo, Illinois, where I spent as much time as I could as a child, riding ponies and horses

10.? held in reserve for some place I have yet to discover and love

Nostalgic,
Joan

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom McGinnis <sloetoe at yahoo.com>
To: at-l at backcountry.net; backpackmeetup <backpackers-149 at meetup.com>; indianaatclub at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 6, 2009 12:44 pm
Subject: [at-l] Places to be sprinkled...

Alright, so, Google Earth is a fun place... but then they allow these pictures 
to be planted in the digital dirt, and put you *even* *closer* to the whole 
business than before! Wayyyyy cool. 

So, with the digital media allowing such fine detail, and costless revisits to 
all sorts of places.... here's the top ten spots I would like my ashes spread -- 
my list of Places To Visit On The Way To The Here-After...

1) (1967?) "Anna's Field" ("Ann's" or "Annie's" maybe) -- a disused name for a 
disused "primitive" camping area on the Swift River in New Hampshire just 
downriver from the regular, long-established, "uppity" even, Jigger Johnson NFS 
camping area on the other side of Bear Notch Road, on the Kancamagus Highway. 
Spent 2 or 3 summer camping trips there -- felt like "home" within an hour or 
two. Heaven (were we to limit "heaven" to earthly dimensions...)
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/928402

2) (1973-1978) Windham-Tolland 4-H Camp.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/13595042
The camp is just west the photo location, where the ponds are. A great place to 
"grow up" as a teen. The boys and I visited in 2007, and the place hadn't 
changed at all -- still magic. WOW.

3) (1975-1978) Miller Pond
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12643635
An still-undeveloped state park in Connecticut, one of the CT Blue Trail system 
trails runs through it; it was the site of early backpacking nights out. Still 
unchanged and wonderful in 2007

4) (1965??-1978) Charles Island
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5180889
Ol' Charles Island. Many in my old home town of Milford think of Charles Island 
as some sort of geologic step-child -- a bastard burp of rounded rock and 
seaweed. (And filled with lore of Captain Blackbeard Teach, a burned out 
monastery, and nautical strandings when the tide wipes out the sandbar every 
12.2 hours...) With some time away, I think of Charles Island a little more 
fondly. AND it was a great place for a kid to play army.

5) (1978, 1979) Race Mountain?
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9438395
http://www.pa
noramio.com/photo/6944033
Perhaps one of my favorite spots on the whole AT -- you camp in a little grassy 
spot just big enough for you, on the edge of the cliff that drops down east to 
the Housatonic Valley. In the morning, the sunrise is un-obscured, and the 
valley is filled with fog. Magic. Only been there twice -- in September of '78 
and August of '79..... Reminded me of what I thought mountain hiking should be, 
and come to think of it, what mountain hiking IS when you get to places like 
Saddleback in Maine. Grasses, rock, breeze, trail. Go, baby.

6) (1979, 2001) Stratton Mountain...
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/16405438
"Redolent" -- the only word to describe Stratton -- full of balsam and peat moss 
and alpine/arctic flora left as hangers-on from the last glacial retreat. And 
the air is redolent with the perfume of it all. OMG. Like Race Mountain, it sets 
a standard.... what a wonderful walk.

7) (1996) Big Creek
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4948741
This place is SO New Hampshire. It's so Smokys, too, true. Discovered it in 
pitch black, looking for coffee off of I40, following the NPS signs and thinking 
some sort of civilization would be ahead. Have visited many times since then, 
and am amazed that such a beautiful, beautiful place is a mere 420 miles, 6 
hours, from Indianapolis. *Always* restorative; a wonderful horseshoe of Mt. 
Sterling around to Cammerer. Lovely. Small. Magic.

8) (2007) Union Pass
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9134997
The northern edge of the Wind River Range, where the deer and the antelope play, 
and the mountain grasses spill out into broad, pine-traced valleys just 
*begging* to be traversed, promising more and more around the next bend.

9) (2007) Mt. Zirkel Wilderness
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6875073
Combine the narrow window of Race Mountain with the breadth of Union Pass and 
what do you get? Mt. Zirkel. It was described to me as Rocky Mtn National Park 
without the (hated, intrusive) regulation. Not having spent even a second in 
RMNP, I can't say; I *c
an* say that Mt. Zirkel demands another visit -- maybe a 
goodly stroll up to Encampment, WY, and hence out to Saratoga Springs, WY (an 
honorable mention, for sure:
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/20493654 )...

10) Stampede Trail bus stop
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11304997
Ever see/read "Into The Wild"??? 'Nuff said.

So where are *your* sprinkle-spots???
_______________________________________________
at-l mailing list
at-l at backcountry.net
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/at-l

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://patsy.hack.net/pipermail/at-l/attachments/20090806/c2049e4c/attachment.html 