The Wonders of Hiking

So went adventuring with Jeff Stern who is the part time coordinator at AVCOG. He is doing a project with a professor form Orono to see what is causing the erosion that effects the Sunday River which effects the Androscoggin River. So we went to Sunday River and hiked a mountain (don't ask me the name cause there are so many mountains I cant keep track). We met up with workers that work for the State of Maine Conservation of Parks & Lands. So the point of this was to see if the logging operations going on by the state and Sunday River Resort were effected the river flow. SO we hiked and do I mean HIKED up this mountain to where the river starts off as this small (meter in width) stream that turns into the Sunday River which flows directly into the Androscoggin.

Along the way we saw tons of yards that had piles upon piles of cut down trees. It was a little disturbing to see all the trees but they are cutting the diseased beech so that other trees will have the chance to grow and hopefully created more diversity among the species of trees. So it was about 4 hours later that we found the stream to realize that the logging operations we rent effecting the site at all. So we (Jeff Stern and myself) went on ahead and checked out the hydro tubes that were set in the water to calculate and measure the stream flow through certain areas. This project has be on going for three years that they used a "cut and dump" method that consists of cutting trees and dumping them in the stream to slow down the flow of water and create sand and leaf litter build up in areas where high values of erosion has occurred. So far the project has been quite successful.

On our trip back down the mountain in water boots mind you cause we went in the water and I was too lazy to change back into my hiking shoes, I tripped and fell on my face...yes in front of Jeff...thankfully the other people from the state weren't there. He didn't laugh which was nice, and I learned my lesson. The really funny thing is that not five minutes later Jeff fell and landed on his face too. We both laughed then cause..we just shouldn't have been hiking...ahh the wonders of hiking.

Has for my other life. Rite Aid is going as well as can be expected. The more I work the better it becomes. I recently bought a book that was suppose to be a romance...oh yeah if you didn't know I LOVE READING TRASHY ROMANCE NOVELS!!! But it turns out that its actually quite scary..at night I have to put the book down sometimes I get so scared. But there are seven books out and I'm on book three since two days ago and just bought book four. So most of my down time as been reading and eating :)Until next time...enjoy your summer.