sunny and bright, walk not flight

Yesterday's hike along South Avenue toward and to Degolia PA was the perfect after-winter pick-me-up.  South Avenue from Main Street Mercantile Bradford PA is the shortest direct route to Degolia; while trudging into Degolia at the village-name sign, two yellow-and-orange excursion buses lettered with Asian writing passed by on Route 219 driving into Bradford, followed by two dump-trucks with yellow-painted cabs.

A large tree bearing large fungus jutted toward South Avenue along a forested section.  A yellow lighter lay discarded on the east side berm of South Avenue not far from the Bradford Journal offices; an oily rag lay at the driveway entrance to the Holiday House motel a short distance from the South Bradford open-air market situated near an automobile dealership and car-wash.  Minard Run Oil Company and a Masonic Temple are also addressed on South Avenue moving into Degolia, just south from the corner of westside Songbird Road.  The motel is in the process of renovation.  Only slightly startling was a young woman with an empty baby stroller seen while passing by the market during the return walk to Bradford, the market filled mostly with flowers and veggie-sets.

The Tuna Valley Trail  --  also mapped as a State Road, with 'Stop' signs  --  extends from South Bradford to Lewis Run through Degolia directly beside the cemetery installation (and through Cline oil company property).  The trail is largely dirt with some small stones, except at the trailhead along Owens Way where a mix of asphalt and cement leads through a tunnel beneath the Route 219 bypass.  Photos show a collapsed caterpillar common to the region in the Springtime; a collapsed small salamander, and a dead meadow vole.  Chipmunk remains were removed from the South Avenue roadway during the return walk to downtown Bradford, whereas a live chipmunk had been seen crossing the road during the earlier walk to Degolia.  Many live caterpillars were plucked from hot asphalt and tossed into roadside grass.

In the past and to some lesser extent at the present time, bears were known to frequent the Minard Run waterstream area where the Tuna Valley Trail is now formally marked.