Patiently waiting for Indian summer
The beautiful fall colors are shown along Chalk Hill Ohiopyle Road on Kentuck Knob. (Photo by Jack Hughes)
Jack Hughes
The first week of October saw afternoon temperatures in the Uniontown area reach 90 degrees on three consecutive days. Our warm October weather was a carryover from the month of September with its abundance of sunny warm days. Summer just didn鈥檛 want to end this year and the hope is that we will soon get to experience more warm sunny days when Indian summer arrives.
Indian summer is usually one or two periods of sunny pleasant warm days that occur after the first frost. It was a time when our Native American population gathered in their crops and did a lot of hunting to prepare for the coming winter. Although the area has not had a widespread frost and freeze, last week many open fields and mountain were valleys white from Father Frost鈥檚 touch.
The cooler weather is beginning to bring on some color in our forests and hillsides, and the peak of the autumn viewing season is upon us. Colors do vary a lot, and some areas in the mountains have already lost some of their leaves, while lower elevations are just beginning to color. With the nice weather of the past few weekends, the Ohiopyle area was crowded with thousands of visitors who came out to hike, bike, kayak or fish.
I got an opportunity to have a few late season bike rides this past week with the nice weather. It always surprises me just to see how many people visit our mountain area when the colors put on their show in the fall. I was even more surprised when I stopped to chat with Vickie Marietta, the owner of Backyard Gardens in Ohiopyle, when she showed me the maps on the wall of her market shop that show just where our visitors call home.Vickie lets customers put a little colored sticker on the map to show where their home is and also what activity they were participating in while visiting Ohiopyle.
Since April of this year, she has met people from 57 countries and all the states. Visitors came from as far as New Zealand, Australia and Nepal. Even Russia, Uganda and Iceland were on the map and just about every country in the world has had someone visit our little village of Ohiopyle. If you visit town, stop in to see the maps, have a cup of coffee and take home some jellies or jams. The market is located in the old stone school house just across the street from the fire department.
I have written many times about how beautiful this area is and what we have going on in the way of outside activities in a beautiful natural setting. There is also a quiet season when the visitors are back home and we get to experience a different setting with just the animals and a fresh coating of snow to take a hike and enjoy the peacefulness of the river and the hills and valleys.
This weekend should have some nice weather to get a view of the colors before the winds; rains and cold weather bring an end to what has been a truly fantastic weather season.