Lottsa Skiing

  While we haven't had an abundance of snow this winter, there has been enough for lots of skiing.  This was especially true the week before the February break from school and then the whole week I had off.  I was feeling pretty strong from a couple weeks of skiing, mostly in Six Mile Creek, and I got thinking about the old days of the Chautauqua Overland Ski Marathon and the Tug Hill Tourathon, so I thought I'd give a solo marathon a shot.  The snow in Six Mile Creek had turned to a hard crust and ice, and I expected Hammond Hill to be crowded on a sunny Saturday, so I headed to Connecticut Hill where the trails are seemingly endless thanks to a friend who maintains many miles of them all year long.  I got a sunrise start and skied a little over two hours alone on trails I was fairly confident not to get lost on, then met my friend, Dave, for the second leg.

  He took me on a tour of many trails that this machine will be laying waste to in the coming months.  It's part of the DEC's forest management plan for CT Hill which is classified as a Wildlife Management Area.  The DEC has made it clear that is the purpose for the area, not recreation, by removing almost every marker Dave and others have put up on ski trails.  Fortunately they haven't actively blocked the trails and we spent a few hours seeing some before they are converted to a deer park.
  I then headed out again on my own and managed to ski the entire Bob Cameron Loop of the FLT before getting a little lost, there are so many trails and no markers!  All together I spent 7.5 hours on the trails and figure I skied between 15 and 20 miles.  Far less than the 30-35 of the official events, but a much tougher course with lots of time spent consulting maps.  No complaints, it was a beautiful day to be out and a nice way to see a place I don't know well.

Lottsa Skiing

  Prior to the marathon I visited a few favorite places and some new ones.  On top is a trail in Hammond Hill, below that is the boardwalk at the Finger Lakes Land Trust Roy Park Preserve.  This is a nice addition to the Hammond Hill experience, one can park here on Irish Settlement Road and ski up to the trails above.  I did some exploring in the preserve to see areas normally not accessible due to beaver activity, and I wanted to see some large ash trees an the adjacent Cornell preserve but couldn't find them.  I somehow avoided being stung when I skied into a hornets' nest.  The bottom picture is from the Land Trust's Lindsay Parsons Biodiversity Preserve which I hadn't been to since it was established sometime in the 90's.  It's expanded a few times and offers great views of the Pinnacles in Danby State Forest.

  For a couple years I've been wanting to try skiing in Treman State Park, I finally got there over vacation but it didn't live up to the expectations I'd built up.  First, it was too icy to enjoy the FLT which is relatively flat in the park, but it's also quite narrow so some deep or fresh powder is needed.  Second, they plow one of the access roads that I hoped to ski on to get to the Rim Trail so I didn't get there either.  Maybe worth a try sometime after a storm.  The swimming area was cool, I'd never seen it in winter.

Lottsa Skiing

  Sometimes the conditions don't allow for skiing so the skis have been left at home.  Connie and Andy and I slummed it one day and used snow shoes to check the FLT in Shindagin Hollow before a scheduled winter hike by a group of kids.  A couple times I went out in Six Mile Creek wearing micro-spikes when it was too icy to ski safely.  Nice ice build-up on the cliffs and plenty of beaver activity on some logs in the creek.  The Rec Way was good for skiing and being the gateway/link to trails in the gorge, but without fresh snow it turns into a surface of pure ice.  The town is doing work removing invasive species so they spread gravel over the ice.

Christmas Travels

  Over Christmas Break Gail and I took a trip most of the way around Lake Erie to visit family and friends.  We first stopped in Huron, OH to see her brother, Geoff, before he and Kristi, Harper and Dusty move to California.  Huron is well known as a hang-out for bald eagles over the winter when there's open water for them.  It was my first, and only visit to their house which was just a block from Lake Erie.  We saw lots of bald eagles, and family.  Since it was Christmas, Ann and Chips, Kristi's parents, were also there.
  After that we headed to Detroit to see Sue and Brian, we just missed Colleen, and we intended to see the Buffalo area McMahons by driving on the Canadian side of the lake but forgot our passports so went to Westfield to see John and Melissa.
  It was unseasonably warm, and we didn't encounter any lake-effect snow.  We didn't encounter any snow.

Christmas Travels

  A stop in Westfield offered an opportunity to see lots of my high school friends still living there or visiting family over the holidays.  A bunch of us showed our bowling prowess, I was thrilled to throw a 140.

Christmas Travels

  Nephews on Lake Erie.  Not how I remember the lake on Christmas day at their age, though I checked, and when I was 16 Buffalo set the record high for the day when it reached 64 degrees.  Just two years earlier it was a record low of -10.  Can't say I remember either.

Christmas Travels

We went to the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve a couple times to see the high concentration of bald eagles and learn a little about what Kristi did in her work there, and walked on the beach where Old Woman Creek flows into Lake Erie.

 

Christmas Travels

   In Detroit we got some culture by walking around the Fisher Building, beautiful to say the least, stunning to say more.  Then Hitsville, where Motown started and recorded too much music to list.  I find it amazing that when a Motown song is played over the PA at school even the teenagers from all over the world I work with know it. Hard to believe what came out of what was essentially a tiny neighborhood home.
  Our longest stop was at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  It has the incredible Diego Rivera murals showing Detroit's place in not just the automotive industry, but science and aviation.  There was an exhibition funded by former Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson that had many paintings on loan from Buffalo's Albright Museum on display while that museum undergoes an expansion.Ralph's two cities connected through art.

Into 2020

Skiing in Tioga County at Oakley Corners State Forest with Steve, Connie and Andy.  Bean keeping watch on the 'hood and a new fence along the Rec Way where invasive honeysuckle was removed.

Winter

  Got a nice dumping of snow in early December and was able to ski several times before it melted.  Kari may have retired from teaching, but that's no reason to stop skiing.