by Ed Lawrence, Trail Care Chair
The Seven Mountains Boy Scout Camp's Rimmey Cabin has been the basecamp for the Mid State Trail, State College Region, KTA Trail Care events for the past few years. The cabin is a spacious lodge that sleeps 36, with a wood stove plus indoor bathroom and kitchen facilities. Over the years, it has proved to be a snug and convivial meeting place to kick off the first, often frosty, weekend of the Trail Care schedule.
During the Trail Care weekend of March 30, 2012, however, volunteers got more than they bargained for, when an erratic skunk decided to lay siege to the facility with a staccato wave of pungent blasts that wafted through the cabin in the middle of the night. The obviously ill creature was later spotted staggering about, given wide birth, and eventually found expired on the doorstep Sunday afternoon upon the crews' return from the field.
Everyone who slept over was reminded of these circumstance when they returned home and discovered, thanks to the keen noses of their families, that they smelled "la pu". The odor, although unleashed outside, was able to infiltrate the cabin and insinuate itself into pretty much all the clothes and gear on the inside.
This smelting includes the three boxes of t-shirts that the Woolrich company has provided as volunteer incentives (inscentives?) for the 2012 Trail Care season. So, throughout this year, everyone who comes out to trail care event will have a chance to claim a "special edition" cotton shirt imbued with a remembrance of things past!