I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the start of the "Get Outdoors and Be Creative!" summer program sponsored by the Healthy York County Coalition.
We went out with Sarah this past weekend and found two more of the 30 creativity stations that are spread across York County.
I took a couple of snapshots. Can you tell me at which park or trail these were taken? If so, e-mail me at cotto@ydr.com.
The above location at Gifford Pinchot State Park is the site of one of the 30 creativity stations that can be found across York County as part of the "Get Outdoors and Be Creative!" summer program.
Our family spent some time this week doing some letterboxing in York County, as the "Get Outdoors and Be Creative!" summer program from the Healthy York County Coalition officially kicked off on June 6. It's a sequel to last year's popular "Catch the Activity Bug" program, which had kids and their parents rustling through bushes and shrubberies to find those elusive ant and spider stamps.
Information about this year's program can be found at www.goyork.org, and the necessary book and materials for the program can be picked up at any branch of the York County Library System. Once again, there are 30 locations (called "creativity stations") to be discovered within York County's parks and kids have three months to find as many as possible and become eligible for a grand prize in October.
This morning, we were at two different locations at Gifford Pinchot State Park. Nine-year-old Sarah plowed ahead of us on the trails, clip-clopping in a fashion that would make King Arthur and Patsy proud. We read about Pinchot Park's history, the reverting of the farm fields that were once located there and how to recognize different types of trees in the ecosystem, such as the eastern red cedar, white oaks and, of course, the larch.
And -- success -- we found both creativity stations, meaning we're already 10 percent finished (3 of 30 stations).
There's much fun ahead again this summer, with this excellent program for kids and families.
My 9-year-old daughter Sarah has been devouring a library book about Bigfoot and other Sasquatch Lore, so I figured it was a good time to see what the latest news is from the Yeti News Service:
1. United Press International reported earlier this week that a group of Bigfoot hunters in Oklahoma has found footprints and "heard calls" of the elusive beast.
Apparently, the sasquatch investigators went on a Memorial Day weekend Bigfoot hunt in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma. And, apparently, they have a cast of a footprint five inches wide and 15 inches long.
The hunters described the "Bigfoot sounds" as imitation bird calls, including whippoorwills and owls. It's unclear why a tall, hairy, apelike creature would need to sound like an owl, but, hey, that's what they said they heard. (Also, the bigfoot hunters did not indicate to what extent the Memorial Day bigfoot outing also involved swigging bourbon.)
2. Also, a new book, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend, written by Joshua Blu Buhs, has been published this month and is now available for purchase on Amazon.com and from other booksellers. Buhs is described in the press notes as an "independent scholar" who surveys the history of bigfoot sightings and lore. Publishers Weekly indicates: "Buhs's rote application of race-class-gender theory -- By imagining themselves into the body of Sasquatch, white working-class men could imagine themselves as black, as women, could come in contact with... repressed and forbidden desires -- yields more academic cant than insight; his oft-invoked white proles feel almost as legendary and stereotyped as the creature itself."
I think Sarah and I will be skipping that one.
Kralltown Elementary student Andrew Leathery took this turkey on a single shot on April 18 in Sullivan County - just his second year hunting gobblers.
The bird was 23 pounds with a 10-inch beard and 7/8-inch spurs.
Here's an excerpt sent in from Andrew's aunt, Lisa:
Andrew's Dad has been taking his son hunting for deer, squirrel and occasionally a ground hog. Andrew has a great appreciation for being in the outdoors and is very aware of the importance of being safe while hunting. He has also developed great patience and has experienced the physical demands that hunting requires.
Kerry Fritz and Anthony Snyder submitted this photo of a 32-pound, 40-inch flathead catfish they shot while bowfishing at Long Level.
OK, so some guys in Georgia found a Bigfoot in the forest. And he was dead. So they took him home and stuck his poor, dead bones in a freezer. And that's where it is right now.
Sure.
The whole story, along with some murky photos, appears on page 6B of Saturday's York Sunday News. Here's the Associated Press version of the story.
Here are some additional layers to the story, as promised in today's Daily Record sports section.
1. The YouTube version of the Patterson-Gimlin film from 1976:
2. For past Bigfoot articles on The Lineup Card, including coverage of the Jacobs photos taken in Pennsylvania last year, click here.
Finally, click here to check out the latest news on Bigfoot, via Google. Many newspapers covered Friday's news conference in California, so you can read all the different perspective on those fellas from Georgia and the hairy beast they supposedly have on ice.
If you're looking for even more news on The Great Outdoors, hunting and fishing, here are some blogs you might want to check out on regular basis:
Lehigh Valley Wild: By Christian Berg of The Morning Call in Allentown
The Redneck Rant: By Jonathan Murren of The Evening Sun in Hanover
Wild about PA by Marcus Schneck of Pennlive.com
Kelvin Pereira (KP), Sonia McFadden, Christopher Pereira (holding bag containing a black rat snake) and David Mcfadden (holding bag containing a timber rattlesnake)
A few local adventuresome types who attended the 2008 Landisburg Fire Company's annual timber rattlesnake hunt fundraiser got to experience some other wildlife up-close-and-personal.
Area residents Kelvin Pereira (KP), Sonia McFadden, Christopher Pereira and David McFadden drove a short distance from where the rest of their group was hunting on July 19. David left the others to hunt a rugged, rocky open pipeline while the rest of the group waited near the vehicle.
Here's an excerpt from the e-mail sent to us by David:
As Sonia, Christopher and KP lounged inside the truck trying to keep cool, a black bear of gargantuan proportions approached completely unnoticed by all. Only when Sonia caught a glimpse of movement outside her window did she see the bear, which at that point was almost inside the vehicle with them. Sonia and the bear saw each other at the same time and the bear turned to meander up the pipeline.
The bear . . .
A state Senate bill that would increase certain hunting license fees beginning in the 2009-10 season received public support Monday from Pennsylvania Game Commission executive director Carl Roe.
Senate Bill 1527 is sponsored by state Sen. Charles T. McIlhinney Jr. (R-Bucks), who is the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee chair.
This fall's deer season could be strong in at least one area, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Matt Kramer, the Pennsylvania Game Commission's wildlife conservation officer in Beaver County, said he's noticed several "bachelor groups of better than average bucks" during his travels.
"While these bucks are on friendly terms in the summer months, when the fall rolls around, they will not tolerate each other's company. However, a dispersing buck is one that often falls to the hunter's arrow or shot, so prospects for harvesting a buck in Beaver County look pretty good for those that do their homework and put in the time," he said.
By Walter Brasch
Spectrum Features Syndicate
ELYSBURG -- Registration at the annual Colonial Classic and Pennsylvania State Shoot was down 15-20 percent this year.
The problems are both the increase in the price of gas and the economy says Bruce Murphy, president of the Pennsylvania State Sportsmen's Association, which sponsors one of the nation's largest trap shoot tournaments.
I think it's safe to say that this story, from our sister newspaper in Hanover, is going to create a firestorm of controversy...
By KATHARINE HARMON
Evening Sun Reporter
A New Oxford man thought he was saving a fawn when he scooped it up off a road in Maryland and took it home to nurse it back to health after its mother was hit by a car.
William Albert bottle-fed the fawn in his 218 Reba Drive garage and called around to see if any wildlife-rehabilitation centers would take the baby deer.
Albert also called the Pennsylvania Game Commission to help him find a place to send the deer, but when a wildlife officer showed up at his house a short while later, he took the deer and had it killed.
Now, Albert says the officer -- who arrived at the house before Albert did, just 10 minutes after Albert called -- was on his property without his permission or a warrant, and the deer definitely shouldn't have been destroyed.
For the rest of the story, click here to go to the Evening Sun.
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — More people are hurt snowboarding than any other outdoor activity, accounting for a quarter of emergency room visits, according to the first national study to estimate recreational injuries.
Trailing snowboarding are sledding and hiking, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in the journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
The most common problems were broken bones and sprains, accounting for half of all cases. About 7 percent of ER visits were for concussions or other brain injuries.
