The Busy Lens

Friday, March 23, 2012

68-year-old woman set to hike Appalachian Trail

CHATTANOOGA (WRCB) -- What do you do when you're retired, living the dream, and about to turn 69? If you're Elaine Gregory-Duty, you set out to hike the entire Appalachian Trail!

Age, gender, none of it matters to Elaine. She made this a goal more than three decades ago, and nothing is going to stop her.

"There is life to be lived and I'm not one to sit down," Elaine Gregory-Duty says. "My grandmother died in her 80s and she walked two miles a day every day."

At 68, Elaine will up her grandmothers ante, as she plans to hike 7-16 miles a day for five months on the Appalachian Trail. That's 2,182 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Northern Maine, crossing 14 states.

One could only ask, why?

"Because it's there and I love the outdoors," Elaine says. "First time I stepped foot on it in 1977 in October, they said it went from Georgia to Maine, that was my goal."

Since 1977, Elaine has been training and has hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to the Pennsylvania border in intervals.

She's hiked parts of Maine and New Hampshire. On March 27, she'll set out to tame the entire beast in one shot.

Family members are giving their full support.

"I'm not worried about her, I'm proud and anxious," says Linda A. Gregory-Duty, Elaine's life-partner. "I want the five months to already be here, so she's back home. But, this is her dream and I'm glad her dream is coming to fruition."

One could also only ask, will there be a time when you say what on earth did I get myself into?

After laughing a bit Elaine says, "There are days that come up, and I've had a few days like that myself. You just have to look and say, 'you had a goal in mind, finish it'. It's on the bucket list let's go."

Elaine will turn 69 three days after she starts. She hopes this motivates anyone her age to get out and pursue something because as she says, "it's never too late."

Her family will meet up with her at checkpoints, and they'll send us pictures along the way.

Story shared from: http://www.wrcbtv.com

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Shelter Seeks Homes for Mistreated Beagles

This article has been shared from: http://salem-nh.patch.com/

Some of the dogs will be available for adoption on Saturday.
By Marc Fortier March 20, 2012

The 22 beagles removed from a Haverhill Road property on Friday are now officially in the custody of the Salem Animal Rescue League, and some will be available for adoption as soon as this weekend.

Salem Police seized the dogs Friday after they were found packed into rabbit cages, covered in their own feces and urine, without access to water. The owners are expected to face animal cruelty charges.

Patricia Mack, SARL's development project coordinator, said the town released the beagles into the custody of the animal shelter this morning. The dogs range in age from 7 months to 7 years, and most of them are females.

Amazingly, she said the dogs are in decent shape, but they all had worms, ticks and ear mites, and are still being tested for Giardia. They've all been started on medication, and she said some will be available for adoption as early as Saturday.

"I would say the conditions were not good, but the animals overall appear healthy," Mack said. "Their temperaments are fantastic."

Between 5 to 7 of the beagles will eventually be sent to the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford, where they will also be put up for adoption.

Anyone interested in adopting one of the beagles should go to SARL's website at www.sarl-nh.org and fill out an online application, Mack said. She asked that people be as specific as possible when filling out the application. People can also stop by the shelter, at 4 SARL Drive in Salem, during its regular hours on Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m.

But Mack also urged people to consider both the difficulty of owning a beagle and the difficulty of owning dogs that have lived their entire lives in cages.

"It really is important that people realize these are beagles who have had no training whatsoever," she said. "Not to discourage, but someone who just thinks, 'I'll provide a good home for one of these guys' has to understand they have literally lived in a rabbit hutch their entire life. They have no social skills whatsoever. These guys have nothing, so it's going to be a little bit difficult. It's got to be someone who's got a commitment. It's going to take a while.

"If they've never owned a beagle before, they need to go online and study their personalities. It's not a match for everybody."

Donations can be made on the website or in person at the shelter! I've also attached a link to our wishlist if people are able to donate any items. Thanks so much, they are very much in need with all new arrivals. http://sarl-nh.org/get-involved/wishlist.html

NH Maple Producers will be hosting "Maple Weekend" statewide open house

NH Maple Weekend 2012
March 24 & 25, 2012

The NH Maple Producers will be hosting Maple Weekend, a statewide open house on March 24-25. Click Here for a listing of participating Sugar Houses

For Producers:
The 17th annual New Hampshire Maple Weekend will be held on March 24-25, 2012. The date has been scheduled with the hopes that it will be beneficial to everyone on the premise that most producers will have syrup made and ready to sell by this date. Last year, Maple Weekend was held on March 17-18, and although a record breaking year, not all producers had syrup made by then. Participation for last year’s weekend was at an all time high, and we hope for the same this year.
If you wish to participate, please Click Here to fill out the form. You receive free publicity through a listing on our website and lists of participating sugar houses will be sent to all NH media. We will again be advertising on Channel 9 WMUR. Non-maple related businesses are setting their events on this same weekend, so our event has enough public attention for others to want to piggy-back on the public interest. Take advantage of a great opportunity to get your operation seen and to promote New Hampshire maple.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Hike: Pawtuckaway State Park 3-17-2012

Pawtuckaway State Park‎

128 Mountain Rd

Nottingham, NH 03290-4940

(603) 895-3031

nhstateparks.org‎

View Pawtuckaway 3/18/2012 9:26 AM in a larger map

Spent a great day at the park hiking! We saw two moose this morning at about 8:45am, as they just walked out of the woods in front of us and trotted down the trail ahead of us. They disappeared within minutes into a bog just over the rise of the next hill. Enjoying a great walk this day with my daughter and my wife. This was our route above but there are many trails from which to choose: Trail Map Link: (PDF)

Geese enjoying a 78 degree pre-spring day

Today's trip to the park was a 6.2 mile round trip but with all there was to see and do it was quite relaxing even though there were a few altitude challenges. Although the park does not allow pets in the main entrance of the park there were dogs abound on our trip today. At this entrance there are no postings prohibiting them.

We were one of the first to arrive in the lot off Deerfield Rd., on an unmarked dirt road known as Round Pond Rd (GPS 43.123433,-71.162673) . There are a few residential homes at the beginning of this road but the parking lot at the head of the trail is located about a quarter mile in (GPS 43.120395,-71.165285) just prior to the gate.

Dave on boulder over beaver dam

The main parks access was not yet open, mid May opening according to postings, there was a massive showing on this weekend prior to Spring due to it being a fine 78 degree's at the height of the day. At the main entrance visitor center there were well over 60 cars in the lot full of visitors out walking and enjoying the great day.

Terrain Map, New England's own Volcano

Pawtuckaway State Park is the second largest state park in Southeast New Hampshire with about 5,500 acres of permanently protected habitat. The “undeveloped” western section of the park is accessed by Reservation Road in Deerfield. This majority of the park consists of the remnants of an ancient volcano, forming North, Middle and South Mountains as well as Rocky Ridge. Numerous trails traverse these peaks affording grand views. It is a seemingly prehistoric area with a huge boulder field cascading down towards Round Pond. The Eastern boundary touches Pawtuckaway Lake where a campground offers a variety of outdoor pleasures.

The Pawtuckaway Mountains are a small, rocky, circular range that form the outline of an ancient volcanic ring dike dating from 130—110 million years ago (Cretaceous).The ring dike, first completely mapped in 1944, is a smaller and more accessible example of the same kind of geological process that formed the Ossipee Mountains to the north. The inner ring is roughly one mile in diameter, while the outer is measured at almost two miles.

The vary nature of this unique park, with near 1,000 foot peaks to the north tumbling down ragged boulder strewn ridges to the lake at 250 feet in elevation, lends itself to a wide diversity of wildlife found in the park. In fact a recent study of Vermont and New Hampshire showed that this section of the two states had the greatest diversity of vertebrate wildlife. That’s critters with backbones. The animals almost anyone can recognize! Because of the elevation change, and forested landscape, beavers abound in the park with a pond tucked into nearly every nook. And where there’s a beaver pond, wildlife overflows into the surrounding woodlands.

Balancing Boulder

The immense size of the park and sun dappled South facing rock outcroppings have been favored by even the elusive bobcats. Deer, moose, bear, fisher and coyotes dodge one another amongst the ragged peaks as well. A drive into the campground will run you along Burnham Marsh where a great blue heron is likely to be seen gliding into a perch at the waters edge in search of a tasty fish or frog. A careful search of the roadside will show ample evidence of the turtles that laid eggs in the soft shoulder of the road. Only to have a raccoon or skunk feast on them leaving the white paper shells sprinkled at roadside.

While you may not be lucky enough to actually catch a glimpse of all the wild and secretive creatures, a little detective work will give you plenty of evidence that they abound in the park. The fact is, for the most part, they are real good at playing hide-and-seek.

When we returned to our car later in the afternoon our lot was full of hikers, in a lot that holds approximately 20 cars. When we got out to the end of the dirt road a quarter mile out at the main road there were about 20 more cars lined up along the side of the road. The park is large enough that we only ran into probably a dozen friendly folk enjoying a hike. It may have seemed crowded by the number of cars, but it was very quiet and peaceful the entire day! We give it a 5 out of 5 stars. ENJOY!

Click on any photo below and view these pictures in slideshow and larger size.