Short version.  Got up yesterday, went out for small game for a few hours, didn't
get anything, but it was a nice day.

Long version.

This is the last week of PA's small game season.  And of course work and weather have pretty much
conspired to keep me from getting any woods time, but this day's AM was promising to be
reasonable on the weather front and work, well I kinda got that bull by the horns the day before.

I had managed to get a good night's sleep in the before as well, so dragging out around 7:00 AM
wasn't too much of a problem.  And I had done my locating of the where I wanted to head the day
before, since I was traveling through that area anyway's.

Well I got down to the game lands around 8:30, loaded up the Tulle with about 70 or so grains of powder
and about the same in shot.  Well the crows were calling pretty loud down it that area as well.  We have
been having a very mild winter (40's and 50's) so things are a little funny for this time of year.  There are
spots where even the grass is starting to green a bit.

Leaving the parking area I started heading up the mountain.  Now according to the map I'm at around
800 ft of elevation at that point.  Get to a small feed plot area and there is a trail to the right and sort
of a trail to the left.  First instinct is to head to the right, but for some reason I go to the left.   Now I wasn't
expecting to be seeing much in the way of game at this point in the season, matter of fact about the only
thing I was seriously interested in was going to be pheasant if any were to be found.  Making
my way into the woods I see this.

Just an old stone wall you say, well yep I'd agree.  Except that this one had to go at least 1000 or so
feet up the mountain.  These were mainly to mark property lines and were just a way of using up the
stone that was coming out of the land as it was cleared.  The order of the day, was to dig the stone out
of the land, put it on a sled, have a team pull the sled up to the current end of the wall, unload
the sled, and back to the field again.  Kinda make's one appreciate how far removed we are from the
meaning of the phrase " a good days work".   I then walked a bit more and spotted some more stone.

Kinda hard to tell, it was either the foundation for a small house or a cold cellar (there is door opening that
I didn't quite get in the pictures.) Now this area was the frontier line of PA back in the French & Indian war
days, so it's hard to say how old all this is.  I am going to do some research when time permits, though.

So I kept on walking.  Lots of crow noise and nothing much else to be see.  I had seen a lot of squirrels in
the area while driving around the day before but none to be seen around here.  I get up about 1200 ft
or so in elevation and spot a really heavily brushed up area.  So I make my way around
and come to an old small road and this

This is another one of the feed plots that the Game Commission maintains, just was kinda unexpected
this far up the mountain side.  I stopped for a few minutes to enjoy a wee smoke from mee old clay and
while I was doing so, a big flock of geese came honking over.   This has been a pretty common event
the past month, even if it is strange for Jan/Feb.

I was about 2/3's or so up the mountain at that point so I figured to follow the road up for a bit.
 Now it was pretty easy to tell that this was an old road, not one of the service roads that the game folks will
cut through. The bed was sunken a good foot or so down from the sides.  I kept on pushing and the crows
kept on a yacking.  Finally I got to a point, well the old body said that's enough.  I was up about 1400 feet,
and still had another 100 ft or so to go to hit the summit, but it wasn't a straight run, well I figure to save
that for another day.  Starting working my way back down, spent some time out in that field, seeing if I
could scare something up.  Did see deer sign, tracks and spore, but nothing else.  There was a
woodpecker doing his thing, but I couldn't see where he was.

Worked my way back down and called it a day.  It was 11:30 when I got back to the parking area.
Straight line I guess I covered about a mile, but with all the zagging and zigging I know I walked
a whole bunch more than that.  It was around 33 or so when I started and a touch over 40 when I got
done.  Right comfortable for walking.

I might head back there again if the weather agrees. We can hunt coyote pretty much year round,
(a lot of the clubs have coyote hunt weekends this month)

But it was a good day.  Crows and all...........