The Cove valley

May 19th--

I left Everritt which was misting with fog. I decided to stay off the ridges and follow the valley road. There are lots more things to see with older homes and farms from the 1700's along the route.

My first stop was at a garage with a man making scrapel and pudding. He is a deer processor but there aren't a lot of deer out in the woods. Today he was using pig parts and cooking it down. He had a 50 gallon drum that was full of pig bones. He boils it until the meat falls off. Than he scrapes the meat and throws it all back in the pot. Then he skims the top of the crud off and adds garlic, onions, and corn meal until it boils down and then he pours it into containers and lets the whole thing jell. The remaining liquid is the pudding and it's poured into containers and left to jell. Finger licking good.

Back to the deer-no one knows for sure, but they think the 14 days of doe season has made the herds kaput. I climbed up a 13% incline road and came down into the Cove Valley with a view of giant farms and hundreds of silos. Lots of Mennonite farms in the valley. I stopped at lunch time at a house to make sure I was walking in the right direction, Charles and June Mountain gave me directions and lunch. I don't usually like sauerkruat but I had 2 helpings yesterday-good thing I don't like it! ha ha.

Charles's family has had the farm since 1771. Mostly dairy but now they have sold the herd and are trying other options. We all had a delightful afternoon eating and talking. Then I was back on the road again.

By 3:00pm I walked into a bulk grocery story run by the mennonites. There was everything under the sun on the shelves. I bought a bag of dried bananas and was in the process of eating them when Shaun the vet pulled up.

He works in the valley with his wife making sure the dairy cows moo on the right end.

He and his lovely wife have walked part of the MST and we talked about the ups and downs of the trail. We made arrangements to have dinner together and then I headed to "them there hills." I found a great spot and set up camp, by this time Shaun had found me and off we went. His family and I had a great meal and it was Sahaun's shout-as they say in New Zealand! After dinner we drove to Roaring Springs and watched a colorful water fountain display.

May 20th-

I got up early and followed the ridge line. I came to a local hunter all dressed in camoflage. He was looking for turkeys and maybe they were looking for him. Keith said the same thing about the deer-all gone-same as 1940's. I walked down to the valley floor and followed the road to Williamsburg. No rain today and also no motels in town, so I'll set up my tent in the town park.