Goodbye Agility, Hello Dance Classes

 

  

  Gail and Roxy had their last, and most successful, League event at Paws for Thought in Groton.  I'm not sure where their team ended up in the rankings, but everyone was a winner and it was good for them to finish on a strong note.  Surely, you remember this post.

   Agility starts back up after a brief pause, but I think they've moved on to Doggy Dancing.

   With my new gig as a DJ, I've been on the hunt for more material to play on the radio.  With my score at Ithaca ReUse this weekend, I should be able to keep them cutting the rug for quite awhile. 

Clearing Coddington Valley

 

  The next phase of the Coddington Valley Rail Trail is progressing from Ridgeway Rd in Caroline.  A work party was scheduled, and if turned out to be like the previous ones, about 20 people would show up.  Getting off the road was going to create a serious bottleneck, so I suggested to a few people we get it set up to get the most out of a big group.  I started by taking a picture of the entrance.

  Then I walked around on the ice and snow and approached it from the other side.  That honeysuckle bush was blocking the only solid ground once the path reached the beginning of the pond.  I stepped around it and my foot dropped into water without reaching the bottom.  It was deep enough to go over the top of my boot.  
 

  

  In the other direction, I was able to walk over this snow a couple times, but it was apparent that would be as many trips it would hold up to before stepping through to the water running under it.

  The idea was to take all the brush from the entrance and pile it on the unstable snow and ice to make a bridge.  It worked splendidly, even if the footing was a bit tricky.  Steve showed up soon after I got started and began working on the elevated rail bed.  Our goal was to the get to the outlet so the big group coming in a few days could spread out.

 

   Let's just say progress was slow.  We didn't quite make it to the outlet.  I estimated we were halfway there.

   A couple days later, Kari and I returned to see if we could get the outlet bridged with brush.  We accomplished that, and I was able to cut all the trunks of the honeysuckle leading up to it.  Enough room and tasks to keep dozens of people active.

   And the masses arrived Saturday as planned.  Lewis had some foot-wide planks that we set on top of the brush for better footing, a few people had chainsaws, and everyone had loppers.

  

I continued on cutting trunks and Eric followed clearing the brush.  That's his hat, about 30' behind me.

   Katy, Andy and someone else felt the outlet crossing needed fortification.  Eventually, it had a pallet in the middle with planks extending to both sides.  Other people were still willing to trust the ice for a flat walkway.  It was sufficiently thick to hold a person, but the edge to get back onto the rail bed was dicey.

   We kept optimistically proclaiming that when we reached the larger trees to the north, the underbrush would thin out.  By the time I left just before the group called it quits, there was no thinning in sight.  But what an accomplishment by lots of hands.  

  Come join us April 25th when there will be a celebration of the trail extension and hopefully a work party that will connect it (except for two washouts in need of bridges) from Ithaca to the county line on White Church Rd. 

 

Silly Walk

 

  This doe has been employed in the Ministry of Silly Walks for at least four years.  I've always wondered if all the drivers she's been taunting get a good laugh as they taunt her back.

 

   She's pretty easy to distinguish even when you can't see her.

   I suspected she was the mother of the piebald that was causing trouble for a few years.  People kept calling the police about an escaped goat or llama. 

Skiing Around

 

  

Things took a turn for the worse on Monday when temperatures went up above freezing.  Though there was plenty of snow, I almost decided against skiing.  Then,  while walking Roxy, the snow was a nice consistency that I couldn't resist.  If you take the rail trail west from our house, it gets very little sun, so that's where I headed.

  

  It's not too far to get to Buttermilk State Park where I saw what was left of the supply of stones for the new steps on the Gorge Trail.  The bottom picture was taken in early August at the same spot as the top.

  There are a few left to send over to the other side via the rope and a sling.  It was tempting to cross that way myself.

  I wonder how long this rigging lasts?

   Good thing they didn't use this pine near the one they did use for the anchor.  Heads up...

  

  The dam that used to hold back water that formed Lake Treman.  

   Might as well call it Cane Lake now.  I'm going to get the kids from school to help me recreate the Bad Bunny Halftime Show.

   Sluice pipe below Comfort Rd bridge.

   Lick Brook is always a treat.  I had to take the skis off and walk down the trail.  But totally worth it.

   Too hungry and getting too warm for skiing in Treman State Park again, I headed for town and visit my buddy, Jim.  I hoped he had something to nourish me to make it back home.  He lives right along the rail road tracks that pass between the bottom of Lick Brook and Treman and the snow hadn't started melting enough yet making the tracks skiable.  The engineers don't like it when they come around a curve and there's a skier on the tracks.

  A flood control dike back to Big Box Land.  The hillside is most of Lower Buttermilk Park. The service road I skied up goes along Owl Creek on the left side of the hill.

  

A drainage pond from an unnamed big box parking lot.

  The Bridge to Everywhere.  I could go north to Taughannock, west on the tracks to Treman or all the way to Spencer, east to Brooktondale.  And I didn't have to take my skis off to cross the highway at the light between McDonalds and the Salvation Army. 

  For now, it's necessary to go around this NYSEG substation to get on/off the rail trail, but access is coming soon.

 

Back to the Rec Way for a couple-hundred feet to get to the top of the hill above our house.  The snow had softened up to the point that when I got to the sidewalk across the street from our house, a ski got bogged down in the soft snow and I did a faceplant.  Nice ending.

  For a day I considered not skiing, I'm calling it a respectable 13 miles.

Skiing Adventures

   The creek skiing continued for another weekend, so my intention of skiing all the trails in one day went out the window.  Once I got on the creek by Giles Street, I just kept deciding to go on to one more landmark.  Eventually, I was standing at the end of the ice under the Middaugh Road in Brooktondale.  Six Mile Creek gets its name from the crossing way back in the day that was six miles from town.  I'm not sure where exactly the bridge was, but I was pretty close to six miles from town.

   My first stop was to get footage for a film I'm making to enter in the Banff Film Festival.  I think I see a grand prize in my future.

   

  I've probably skied to Potter's Falls before, but I don't remember it.  This is one of two spots I had to leave the ice to get around. Years ago, I had a near-death experience just above these falls under similar conditions.  That's part of why I do gorge awareness talks at the high school now.

 There were a couple times where water runs over the thick ice and there's slush to ski through, but the view is still good.  Little did I realize at this point that I would make it to just below that farthest hill with the bare spot on top.

   Had to go fast under Burns Rd to avoid falling concrete.  It's more dangerous than rock falls from the gorge cliffs.

   Just upstream from the city reservoir.  What percentage of its capacity is taken up by silt?  There were a few spots along the way that looked like this.

   Usually, when you hear about a hunter having an accident, they have fallen out of their stand.  You rarely hear the part about the tree falling.  Hope the water was deep enough that they didn't get hurt.

   The rail trail now goes from our neighborhood almost to Middaugh Rd.  I'm claiming the glory of being the first to ski all the way from town to Middaugh.

  

  My plan was to ski home via the Coddington Valley Rail Trail and Rec Way, but that was set aside when Connie and Andy decided to ski part of it.  Fine, I like their company and the timing was perfect to meet on Banks Rd.  They got there a few minutes after me (as a warm-up, I skied towards the washout that prevents the trail from going to Middaugh Rd).  They got their skis out, and changed plans.  We ended up going to Ridgeway Rd to scope out another section of the CoVRT where a work party is scheduled.  We couldn't ski much of the rail bed, but the pond that is the source of Willseyville Creek was an interesting excursion.

   Nice view of Bald Hill, which is sometimes referred to as Bald Mountain because of its steepness.  I hypothesize that it is this steep because it was blasted to obtain fill to build the Cayuga and Susquehanna Rail Road in 1858. 

  

  I heard there were drifts to be found on the hilltops, so after a delicious lunch, we went back out for a little more skiing to see them.  I wouldn't say this is even 8 feet high.

  

  And you'd be hard-pressed to find this much bare ground in the city.  They're always going on about how much snow they get.

                                                                                                                                                                              I don't have an accurate estimate of the distance, but it was roughly eight hours of skiing.  Three separate stints in one day.  That's a good start to a vacation!

 
    Connie gave me a ride home so I wouldn't have to ski in the dark.

  

  I slept in a little before going out for some more creek skiing Sunday morning.  This time, it was light enough to get pics of ice closer to home than I could get on Saturday.  The trails can wait.

   But then I got word from Steve and Andy that they were on the CoVRT and I should head out to meet them and we'd ski back to our house.  Much obliged, I got them off the rail trail and took them on the Big Tree Tour.  Some specimens were more impressive than others.