Year 10 Day 6

Trees! Today was all about the trees and small towns. We left the bottom part of Pennsylvania early in the morning and headed northwest into the mountains. The trees are just starting to turn here. There are mountains of green with little pops of yellow, red, purple and orange breaking through here an there. Its really quite beautiful even if its not in full color. The trees and the chill in the air says that fall is on its way but not quite fully arrived yet.
Our first stop was at Gobblers Knob. Punxsutawney, PA is home to Punxsutawney Phil, the world famous ground hog that tell us all on February 2nd if we will have 6 more weeks of winter or an early summer. Its an actual place with a stage and a little log with a tiny door on it where they get him out of. We stood on the stage and looked in his door. In 1997 there were 35,000 people on site for the event which starts at 3am. They have a huge bonfire and guys in tall fancy hats and a very well pampered groundhog. He lives in a climate controlled space in the towns library where you can go and look into his windows and see him. He was sleeping when we came by. Did you know that every 7 years he drinks a secret elixer with the president of Gobblers Knob and his handler that keeps him young and alive? Did you also know that Phil, the groundhog, looks for his shadow and tells his handler in "groundhogeese" if winter is going to continue or not? The handler then tells the President, who then tells the Vice President, who then tells the crowd and the world. Pretty crazy!

Our next stop was at the Kinzua Skywalk. This place is pretty interesting. Its a bridge that was originally built in the 1890's to cross a divide between two mountains. Total height is 275' tall or just as tall as the statue of Liberty. In 2002 they determined it wasnt safe to be on any longer so they started to refurbish it. In 2003 a tornado, yes tornado, came through and basically ripped out the entire middle section. Now its a bridge that only goes halfway and looks out over the mountains. Somehow I made it to the end. Never looked down through the glass floor at the end or really looked much over the side but I made it out and back. Becca, not so much. Chris decided to tell me once we got back that he wasnt so sure we should be walking on it as the supports were all rusting. Perfect.

We are in the part of Pennsylvania that they call the Pennsylvania Wilds. Tonight we go to Cherry Springs State Park which is one of five I believe International Dark Sky designated areas. We will go just before sunset and stare up at the sky with no light pollution. You have to cover your flashlights and phones in red cellophane in order to not pollute the space for others. We are all quite excited for this stop. Supposed to be able to very clearly see the milky way.