Central
& Western NY Outdoors
July
2006
~~~ IN THIS ISSUE ~~~
Why would you join a growing number of wild women?
Celebrate Recreation and Parks Month in July at Genesee County Park & Forest
New Trails – New Guidebook by Sue Freeman
The Finger Lakes Region is bursting with new trails. Groups like the Finger Lakes Land Trust, the Finger Lakes Trail Association, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation have been busy building trails. It’s time to head into the Finger Lakes with your hiking boots on your feet and a copy of the new guidebook
Take A Hike – Family Walks in New York’s Finger Lakes Region grasped firmly in your hand.
This new guidebook, hot off the press, is loaded with 68 trails to hike – all clustered in the Finger Lakes Region. Our first edition (Take A Hike – Family Walks in the Finger Lakes and Genesee Valley Region) covered 51 trails in both the Finger Lakes and Genesee Valley Region. It’s still a valid guidebook for the Genesee Valley Region trails, but the new guidebook is updated and enhanced for the Finger Lakes Region.
Some of the new trails include:
-A rugged woodland hike on the Van Lone Hill Loop Trail (Cayuta Lake)
-Wind and water sculpted spires at Chimney Bluffs State Park (Huron)
-Boardwalks through wetlands at Huckleberry Swamp (North Rose) and Sandy Bottom Nature Trail (Honeoye Lake)
-Encircle an old iron ore quarry at Casey Park (Ontario)
-A quiet woods walk in Eldridge Wilderness (Ithaca)
-Visit a rich shrub fen at Dorothy McIlroy Bird Sanctuary (Sumerhill)
-The Cohocton River Valley vista at Mossy Bank Park (Bath)
-A magical forest at Ellis Hollow Nature Preserve (Dryden)
-A former Girl Scout Camp and new park at Beechwood State Park (Sodus)
-A hilly traverse from Ganondagan State Historic Site to Dryer Road Park (Victor)
ORDER
a copy today and enjoy a summer filled with new adventures.
Landslide at Rattlesnake Gulf (Information courtesy of Mark Johnson)
Waterfalls are created by erosion. Sometimes the erosion is gradual, sometimes it’s explosive. Here’s a report from the Onondaga Lake Partnership:
“In April 2005, rapid snow melt, followed by several days of persistent rain caused flooding problems throughout central and southern New York State. While the volume of flow measured in Onondaga Creek was not as great as that measured the past fall, there was enough water to cause a 1,200-foot section of the hillside in the middle reach of Rattlesnake Gulf to fail. Unlike the Rainbow Creek landslide, the Rattlesnake soils were almost entirely clay and silt over bedrock. There were a number of streams flowing off the upper slopes into the landslide area, thereby saturating the entire soil column. As the hillside gave away, large masses of clay, the size of homes slid into the bedrock ravine, blocking the stream and causing massive amounts of sediment to flow downstream to Tully Farms Road. Not unlike Rainbow Creek, when the stream reached the valley floor, the sediment load was ‘dropped’ at the foot of the hillside. These sediments were removed from the area around the bridge, but downstream, the sediment forced the stream to abandon its channel and inundate several farm fields with water, and sand and gravel deposits.”
See pages 6 and 7 for more info and photos:
http://www.onlakepartners.org/ppdf/p1501bn.pdf
Here’s more from the Upstate Freshwater Institute:
“During the spring of 2005, following long-duration snow melt runoff and associated spring rains, the southern clay hillside of Rattlesnake Gulf failed, initially blocking the flow of the Gulf at the slide area. This landslide also caused a large buildup of sand and gravel at the Tully Farms Road bridge crossing of Rattlesnake
Gulf. While Rattlesnake Gulf usually flows turbid each spring due to small slope failures, review of aerial photography for the last 30 years indicates that this area has slowly been failing, probably due to a number of springs which saturate the hillside, but the spring runoff in 2005 probably caused the massive failure.”
http://www.upstatefreshwater.org/html/olsf-seventh_posters.html
Rattlesnake Gulf, as listed in “200 Waterfalls in Central and Western
New York – A Finders Guide” is probably no the best of creekwalking locations any more …. just my educated guess!
More and more women are choosing to join others exploring wild places with
members of the same sex. One
of the benefits is that women can be more independent.
Here they can apply hands on skills they have not had a chance to
try before or someone else did for them. Whether
it is packing a pack or paddling a canoe, there is a satisfaction and
confidence that comes from independent women’s travel group.
Tighten up your bootlaces and head out into the wilderness with a diverse and intriguing group of women who make the wild their home and their workplace
with “A Mile In Her Boots; Women Who Work In The Wild” (edited by Jenn Bove’, published by Solas Hous, an imprint of Travelers’ Tales. 2006) featuring one of PPS's own outdoor leaders, Angela Cannon.
A Mile In Her Boots is an unprecedented collection of true stories by women who tackle a variety of outdoor jobs frequently held by men. These bold women take on smoke jumping, river running, professionally falconry, horse packing, atmospheric science, wildlife management, and more. Angela Cannon - a PackPaddleSki leader, is included with her own true story involving cloud collecting near the top of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks on night shifts while employed as a field technician in acid rain research at the Atmospheric Science and Research Center.
Angela Cannon will be attending the book signing for this new release at Barnes
& Noble in Pittsford on Wednesday, July 19 at 7 p.m.
Cannon’s writings have appeared in numerous local publications such as Rochester Woman, The Daily Messenger, and Rochester Lifeways, as well as national publications like Greenprints and Ladybug Magazines. She currently has two novels she is pursuing publishing houses for including a self-published work of fiction, “The Wildcrafter”, available through Lulu Press (Lulu.com) and an adventure romance set in Alaska where she once worked at a guide service there. Cannon resides south of Naples on a small homestead with her two children, a horse, a couple of chickens and other assorted friends.
"A delightful addition to the literature of women and wilderness" -Annick Smith, author of Homestead
Nature is an awesome force. It’s constantly reshaping our world. Sometimes on an immediate basis, like the action of December 2004’s tsunami, but more often the changes are more gradual, like the erosive forces of wind and rain. There’s a special place in Wayne County that I’d been to before to see the effects of these slow changes. I was drawn to Chimney Bluffs again recently to witness the progress firsthand, to see the natural sculptures and connect with the passage of time. I could see the effects of aging on me – were the bluffs experiencing it too?
The first change I noted was that Chimney Bluffs State Park has been upgraded. There’s now a paved parking area and a rest room building. And, the trail leading north from the parking area is paved. I followed it northward, into the cool, fishy smelling wind coming off Lake Ontario. In a few minutes I was on the bank, looking down at the stony shoreline and across the wide expanse of dark blue water framed by a lighter blue sky.
I climbed down the steep bank to the water’s edge, kicking the small water-rounded rocks with my boots. These cobblestones are a product of the glacier and the ravages of nature, just like the bluffs I plan to visit. Between 11,000 and 21,000 years ago, the place where I’m standing was buried under a series of successive glaciers. The glaciers brought the rocks with them from the far north. As the ice melted, it first formed the gigantic Lake Iroquois, then the smaller Lake Ontario. Wave action rounded the stones that the glaciers dumped, to create the beautiful multi-colored cobbles. Early settlers in this area gathered these cobblestones and used them to build their houses. (Cobblestone Quest)
But, I digress. I’m here to see the aging bluffs, so I climb back up and follow the grassy trail parallel to the lake, heading east. The trail begins to climb and my breathing becomes labored. I’m climbing a glacial drumlin - a long, narrow, rounded hill of sediment (sand, clay, silt, gravel, cobbles and boulders), formed when the glaciers passed by. This drumlin is a part of one of the most extensive drumlin fields in the world, containing over 10,000 drumlins. These ridges sit north-south across this region and resemble an old-fashioned washboard.
The trail turns to dirt and I continue to climb. Then I see it – just ahead, through the trees. A sharp precipice forms to my left. It’s the first of the 150-feet-high sculpted spires that form Chimney Bluffs. This particular drumlin has a high clay content that acts like cement, binding gravel and cobblestones together. Still, the cliff face continues to erode, as much as 5 feet per year in places, making the cliff edge trail dramatic but dangerous. In places, where erosion has been particularly strong, the trail is on the very edge of the precipice. This is no place for small children or people with a fear of heights. But for the rest of us, it’s a natural garden of modern art.
Repeatedly I stop along the trail to gaze out over the sculpted cliffs to the lake beyond. Sea gulls dart and glide over the water making their cackling calls. A rumble echoes off the cliffs as a motorboat passes by on the lake far below. I scrutinize the shallows along shore, searching for large fish. Then gaze back up at the bluffs. Some form long ridges, others are short pointed spires. The edges are all sharp, honed by wind and rain.
Yes, the bluffs have changed over time, just as I have. Even though it has been thousands of years since the ice melted off the land, the land continues to rebound rising at a rate of about a foot each century. Then the wind and rain action take over, reshaping the cliff edges. It would be interesting to do a photographic time study of this area. It has certainly changed but my mind can’t recall an exact picture of how it used to be, for comparison. All I can do is marvel at the current beauty before me.
I continue gingerly along the trail, clinging to the edge, savoring each new view as it unfolds ahead of me. Sated with the beauty, I turn right to follow a loop trail back through the woods, downhill to the parking lot. Such a difference! Along the bluffs there were sharp contrasts in colors with the golden banks framed by a bright blue sky. Here in the woods I find softer browns and greens. Together, they create a wonderful palette of natural colors. Time changes all things, but even changed, their beauty continues.
(Enjoy your own adventure at Chimney Bluffs with a copy of the new guidebook Take A Hike - Family Walks in New York's Finger Lakes Region.)
As some of you may recall last year, we shared a few nice shots of baby hummingbirds. Well, a new batch of babies and pictures
has arrived for your viewing pleasure.
Be sure to click on NEXT PAGE at the bottom of each page; there are 5 pages in all. A lady found a hummingbird nest and got pictures all the way from the egg to leaving the nest. It took 24 days from birth to flight.
http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/
Celebrate Recreation and Parks Month in July at Genesee County Park & Forest
The Genesee County Park and Forest will host the following programs during July for Recreation and Parks Month. All programs will take place at the Genesee County Park Nature Center, 11095 East Bethany Center Rd., East Bethany.
Discover Your Senses – 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays, July 5, 12 and 19. Hands-on activities, games and interactive exhibits encourage kids to discover their senses through our natural environment. Members of the ACORNS (Association for the Conservation of Resources and Natural Spaces) will provide free tours of the Nature Center. Admission is free. Large groups need to register in advance by calling Shawn Tiede, volunteer and youth development coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County, at 343-3040, ext. 117.
Tree Identification Hike – 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 13. Register by July 10. Join George Squires, manager of the Genesee County Soil and Water Conservation District, for a walk in the park and learn about native and non-native trees that thrive in our communities. Free. For more info and to register, call Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County at 343-3040, ext. 106.
All About Bees – 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 26. Master Beekeeper Charlie Augrom will take questions and provide tips about residential bee problems, hives, and more. The Nature Center’s working hive will also be on display. Admission is free.
Naturalist Training Program – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, July 29. Free training open to anyone interested in learning about the Genesee County Park and Forest and its many volunteer opportunities. Training will cover Nature Center orientation, cycles of life, mammals, pond exploration, entymology and more. Registration deadline is Monday, July 24. To register, call Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County at 343-3040, ext. 106.
Nature Center Hours – Open 12 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays all year, and 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through August 30. Located in the Genesee County Park and Forest, 11095 Bethany Center Rd., East Bethany. Features hands-on, interactive exhibits. Admission is free. For more info. about Nature Center programs and activities, and to reserve the Interpretive Center for a school or educational program, call Shawn Tiede, volunteer and youth development coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Genesee County, at 343-3040, ext. 117 or e-mail srt28@cornell.edu.
The Genesee County Park map can be found in Take A Hike! Family Walks in the Finger Lakes & Genesee Valley Region, Take Your Bike - Family Rides in the Finger Lakes & Genesee Valley Region, and Snow Trails.
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