Up the Holler / Mossy Paws Goes Native

It was to be a much milder day, with high temperatures in the mid-40s with the possibility of a little afternoon sunshine. So my husband and I decided to grab a pair of Italian hoagies (submarine sandwiches featuring meat and cheese and veggies, and LOTS of onions) from Mac's in Tyrone, and then head over to Plummer's Hollow preserve for a stroll up the hill. 

We'd planned to eat our hoagies at Reservoir Park in Tyrone, but it was still closed for winter and quite icy. So we ended up sitting in our chairs and eating our hoagies along the Little Juniata by the foundry bridge just below the railroad tracks and the hollow.

Based on conditions I'd been seeing lately in Stormstown, I presumed that the lane would be way too icy to even walk on, and that we'd be forced to turn back at the bottom gate, but we were pleasantly surprised. 

There was ice, for sure, and lots of it, but it had neat parallel striations in it to facilitate melting (made by the teeth on a front loader bucket) and was topped with antiskid stones. 

You still need to be careful. Also, just a quick disclaimer: my husband and I are experienced backpackers who are comfortable walking in adverse conditions, sometimes with 50- or 60-pound packs on. So there's that.

In the photo above, you may see the winding lane, which runs a bit more than a mile up the hollow to where the family houses are. Here's a description of the Plummer's Hollow preserve from their website:

"The Plummer’s Hollow Private Nature Reserve is a 648-acre, mostly wooded property on the northern end of Brush Mountain — part of the Bald Eagle ridge system — near Tyrone, in central Pennsylvania, USA. This is the westernmost ridge in the ridge-and-valley Appalachians, and a major migration corridor for hawks, golden eagles, other birds, bats, and migratory insects such as monarch butterflies and green darners. Plummer’s Hollow Run drains into the Little Juniata River, part of the Susquehanna River watershed. Though geologically speaking we are in the central Appalachians, Plummer’s Hollow is at the northern tip of the cultural region known as Appalachia, and near the northern end of the highly biodiverse ecoregion known as the Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests. The entrance to Plummer’s Hollow is located at 40.665 latitude, -78.23028 longitude."

We walked up the lane quite carefully and discovered a bench less than a half-hour's hike up the hill. So we stopped and sat there a while and looked at the creek and listened to some John Mellencamp on the tunes box.

Of course, wherever I go, I often have some small portion of my menagerie with me. And this day was no exception. Mossy Paws the moose was in my one side daysack pocket, and Tiny Tiger and Anteater (who is in charge of ant discovery and removal) were in the front pocket, all keeping an eye on things. They really love time in nature, and so they quietly surveyed their surroundings.

On the walk back down, the Moose demanded to be let out of his pocket so that he could sit on a huge rock covered with tons of gorgeous green moss. Now, I have no idea if moose are indigenous to these parts, or not. (The Moose says that's for every moose to decide for itself.) But I suspect it was indeed a rare sighting for this area, so you may see a photo in the extras.

I've got two photos so here are two songs. First, for the photo of this true northern Appalachian holler, here is Dolly Parton, with My Tennessee Mountain Home. For my second shot of a joyous moose going native and delighting in some luxurious green moss in the woods, I've got Olivia Newton-John, with Greensleeves.