What’s new is we’re sprucing up Camp F-Troop. The boys and I go up there a lot, and we always do dishes, haul garbage, pick up around camp, and vacuum the floors before we leave, but we don’t do deep cleaning on a regular basis.
     Donna Rai’ and I traveled up the first weekend in August, though, and spent 10 hours cleaning, uncluttering shelves and tables, and rearranging appliances and furniture, so the place seems brighter now and more spacious and welcoming. Now the boys and I will have to do a better job of keeping it that way. We’re also planning a work trip in September or October to put a new coat of stain on the front and back decks and maybe the whole building. By deer season, Camp F-Troop should look grand.
     Last weekend, outdoors writers Ben Moyer and Gregg Rinkus came up for the annual Fireside Philosophers gathering. We caught plenty of trout on Friday at Minister Creek in the Allegheny National Forest, and on Saturday we canoed the rain-swollen waters of a well-known “trout” stream in Forest County. Guess what – we caught two dozen feisty-fighting smallmouth bass, a couple of them 18 inches long and three pounds heavy. You never know what you might luck into on a Pennsylvania big stream or small river.
     Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.    

~ Don Feigert, 8-16-07