Monthly Archives: September 2008

Remsen Corn Maze

Sunday Kathryn and I took Eric and Trevor to the Remsen Corn Maze. Trevor was a little anxious that the corn maze would be scary, but once in the maze his concerns were largely forgotten.

There were four posts with colored magic markers that we had to find. At each post we would mark the map to indicate where we thought we were on the map. Eric and Trevor were responsible for running down the dead ends to determine if there was a post hidden down there.

We found all four posts as well as a couple of uncharted paths that threw us for a loop. The boys won a post card picture of the corn maze for their efforts.

Upper West Branch of the Sacandaga

The West Branch of the Sacandaga River is a nice stretch of water that is extremely popular. This stretch of flat water is approximately 8 miles in length and generally parallels NY Route 10 to the Shaker Place in Hamilton County.

The launch site for this stream is where Route 10 crosses it just north of Arietta. Canoes can be launched on both sides of the stream, and limited parking is available. Going downstream, you’ll come to a point where the river bends to the left at a big pool. Look for a channel on the right side of the pool–just wide enough to get a canoe through–that leads to Chub Lake. Further downstream on the Upper West Branch, you’ll find Trout Lake, which can be reached via a channel entering the river. For an overnight trip, campsites are located along the three lakes.

The Launch: The popular area to start your trip is a small bridge and small parking area. There is a lot of parking space and on weekends in the summer months you will find many cars here.

Description: The West Branch of the Sacandaga offers beautiful flat water paddling. The river travels through a broad valley of marshes lined by mountains. Trip distances will vary according to the number and length of side trips into Chub and Trout Lakes.

The one-way route begins at the bridge and ends at a steep bank where NY 10 comes close to the stream. About 0.2 mi farther is an old Civil Conservation Corp camp dating from the 1930s known as Shaker Place. At present there is a locked chain-link fence blocking Shaker Road, so canoeists and kayakers can no longer use this area to exit the river.

An interesting side trip is to paddle upstream to Good Luck Lake. The paddle is short. You will reach a fork in the river shortly after heading upstream. To reach Good Luck Lake, take the right fork.

Downstream from the launch the river here is noticeably wider and deeper. Within a few minutes you will come across Chub Lake on the right. According to books on the subject, there is supposed to be a large rock on the lake where you can stop and rest or picnic. As you proceed down the river you will come to the outlet of Trout Lake approximately 2 miles from the bridge. Depending on the time of year and resident beaver activity, sometimes you are able to leave Trout Lake and enter Little Trout Lake. This is dependant on the water level.

Takeout: Depending on the trip you choose, the takeout will be either back at the launch site or at a steep bank on river left where the stream comes close to NY 10 prior to the Shaker Place. There is a rough trail up the bank where others have lifted their canoes or kayaks to the road. A few cars can be parked beside the road in a narrow pullout area. The cars can be seen easily from the river. By car it is 6.0 mi on NY 10 from the second bridge to the takeout.

Saturday Eric and I attended his 8:45am soccer game and then drove over to the Sacandaga put-in to launch at 11:45. We were trying to join up with Skip, Bob, Matt, Len, Rob and some of Skip’s friends. However, they launched about 45 minutes ahead of us.

This was the maiden voyage using my fiberglass Jensen 18′ with a new drop in seat that I purchased from Spring Creek Outfitters.

It allows me to sit near the center thwart and paddle the Jensen as a solo. That way Eric could paddle at his leisure – which he did. I estimate that Eric paddled 25-33% of the trip – all on the left side. Other than rapping my knuckles repeatedly on the clamp unit I was very satified with new seat and the ability to paddle with Eric.

The temperatures were warm with sunny, clear skies. The fall colors were beginning to show with deeper reds and maroons.

We paddled for two hours to reach a nice rock where we pulled out, snacked, and played UNO.

We never caught up to the other group, but I had a great time paddling with Eric. Other than getting a little antsy before reaching the rock, he did great. We pulled out on IP Land, caught a ride back to our car and were packing up as Matt, Len and Rob were leaving. Eric and I had a hot dog and burger with Skip and Bob who were staying over at the camp. We left a little after 6pm and Eric crashed on the way home.

Oneonta Geography Department Picnic

At the end of August I received an invitation to the SUNY Oneonta Geography Department touting a picnic for Faculty, students and alumni.  It advertised an opportunity to meet with past faculty including Paul Baumann, Martha Corry and Tom Gergel.

When I attended (71-75) Dr. Martha Corry was the head of the department teaching primarily Economic Geography. She had a large, rather pampered black Labrador retriever that I took care of at times when she was out of town.  I remember feeding the dog 1/2 of condensed sweeten milk with it’s food.  I can’t remember it’s name, but it was overweight had the slickest black coat you could imagine.  It was also quite strong and not exactly leash trained.  I am not sure who was leading whom along Main St, Oneonta on the Sunday walk.    Martha is now approaching 90 years of age, mentally sharp and in good shape.

Tom Gergel was one of my favorite teachers.  He used to live on East St or vicinity – it was within walking distance and I remember him arriving in his office huffing and puffing from his frantic hike up the hill.  One of my scariest memories was riding in a car with Tom driving.  We were destined for a field trip to some bog and Tom was quite the sight see-er.  We would bomb along within the speed limit with Tom checking out all the scenery and pointing out and describing interesting geomorphologic features while infrequently making casually glances at the road.   It was a miracle to behold.  Tom was also always reading horticulture articles about growing apples.  If I remember correctly he had started an apple orchard before I left.  I learned that Tom lost a thumb cutting wood in his orchard and it prevented him from another passion – playing violin.

After graduating in 1975 I worked for two years within the Geography Department in a cooperative project between Schoharie County (where I lived) and the Geography Dept.  We were building an early Geographic Information System under the guidance of Paul Baumann. Paul set up the whole arrangement and gave me my 1st professional job.  Back then everything was programmed using FORTRAN and COBOL on Burroughs mainframe computers.  Card punch units and manual data entry ruled our project.  We had boxes and boxes of computer cards stacked in rows 12 wide by 4-5 boxes high.  After awhile we transitioned to computer tapes.     During my stint at graduate school at University of Washington I returned to Oneonta for a summer job – again arranged by Paul – whereby we conducted a study of emergency services for the City of Oneonta.  We lived in Paul’s house for the summer as he and his family were away vacationing for the summer.  Paul was a valuable professional reference for my 1st jobs.  He was an important mentor for many, many years and a good friend.

Friday I drove to Oneonta in the rain to attend the picnic.  It was a nice low key affair.  I got to meet the new department chair – Dr. Tracy Allen, and current faculty Ben Dixon, Jim Greenberg and Wendy Mitteager.  Below I pose between Paul Baumann and Martha Corry.

Canoe Camping St Regis & Round Lake

Skip & I went to St Regis Canoe Wilderness area on Saturday AM. We launched from Hoel Pond, hopped over the RR into Turtle Pond and Slang Pond. We did the short portage into Long Pond and set up camp on the north shore across from the portage as it started to sprinkle rain. We no sooner than got our tent and a rain fly set up and it came down in bucket loads.

We sat under the rain fly, drank coffee, read maps and watched other canoers exit the pond.

Later the rain stopped and we decided to take the short paddle to check out the next day’s portage. We hiked to the Dave Cilly’s CanoeOutfitters outpost and met Dave ( he wrote the ADK Paddler’s map & recent guidebook ). We talked about a friend of mine, John (Jay) Baumann, that used to guide for Dave in the ’80s when he was starting his outfitting service. Unfortunately, Jay Baumann passed away due to colin cancer, but he was a nice person and good outdoors man.

On our walk back to our canoe the skies unloaded and we got drenched as we had left our rain coats back at the canoe! Returning to camp we changed into dry clothes, huddled under the rain fly and cooked our one pot meal of rice and BBQ pork and ate sliced peaches and chocolate chip bars. We heard loons through the night.

The next morning we were paddling at 8:30 and across the portage by 9am. We traversed Floodwood Pond to Square Pond; portaged to Follensby Clear Pond and again portaged to Polliwog and we were back to our car at Hoel Pond at noon. Since we were out so early we decided to grab burger for lunch and head to Round Lake to spend Sunday night.

We found 3 cars in the parking lot and set out around the lake in late afternoon. We checked out the new campsites along the western side of the lake ( which are poor) and finally settled on the bluff at site #3. We sat out on the large rock as the evening set in.

The temperatures dropped after sunset and a decent breeze came in so we turned in at 8:30 for a nice 10 hour snooze. We awoke at 6:30, packed up, paddled out, and had breakfast at the Long Lake Diner by 8:30.It was nice heading out in September – after the crowds had left.

Eric starts school

The last week of August was gorgeous weather. We mixed house chores and a day at Boucheron’s camp. Kathryn took out the sailboat with Steve. The boat has been stored in our barn for 10 years and some of the cordage had to be replaced.

Eric enjoyed swimming while the sailors floated in the background.

Eric and Kathryn stayed overnight and returned on Monday while I mowed trails across the road. The weather held and Wednesday was so nice that Kathryn, Linda and Eric returned for a day of play before school started.

Like every other kid starting kindergarten, there was a lot of anxiety before school started on the 4th. It shows on Eric’s face as he poses prior to getting on the school bus for day 1.

Everything went fine and we celebrated day 1 by having pizza for dinner. Friday night Eric came home as a tired kid, but stated that he liked school.

We spent Monday evening taking Eric to the emergency room. He was sick during the day with stomach pains and fever and then at 5pm he broke out in rashes – face, eyes, lips all swollen. His hands, feet and groin all covered with rash. The call in doctor said we needed to get him checked out for Coxsackie disease. It is a hand, mouth, foot disease exchanged among children. After long hours, blood tests, etc they said no – it was just a fever viral reaction. He missed school on Tuesday as well and we had a marathon Monopoly game encompassing 3 sessions totaling 3-4 hours. Wednesday things went back to normal.

Long Lake

The Friday -Sunday weekend of 22-24 August Skip, Bob & I took a camping trip to Long Lake with the objective of spending a day/night on Long Lake, exiting downstream the Racquette River, turning up the Cold River to the Cold River lean-to spend Saturday night. Sunday we planned to return to the village of Long Lake after exploring the new State Land near Cedarlands Scout Camp.

The weather forecast for the three days was clear and sunny with temperatures in the 80s. We left at 9am and were in Long Lake and paddling about 11am. After 90 minutes of paddling we began looking for a place to pull out and stretch. We found a nice campsite with a large rock that jutted out into Long Lake with Kempshall Mountain rising in back of us and a nice sunset view to the west. Our rest stop turned into a decision to stay for the night. The site was small and just tolerated our two tents, but a nearby stream with fresh clean water and the large rock sold us. We were concerned about mosquitos, but we sat on the rock and caught the breeze out on the lake. The panorama picture below was our view looking north up Long Lake from our rock.

We watched a gorgous sunset and were surprised by a display of fireworks at the north end. Judging by the timing and presentation we surmised it was a private exhibit. I took a number of pictures, but the distance and timing made it hard to capture the fireworks and reflections.

The next morning I captured a picture from my solo tent as Skip prepared coffee out on the rock.

We had a leisurely breakfast and decided to leave our campsite in place and headed out for Cold River on a day trip across a dead calm Long Lake. Bob & Skip made nice ripples on a windless Long Lake.

Turning up Cold River we had a short paddle to the Cold River Lean-to. It was a short distance up a pretty stream. This panoramic makes the river look wider than it truly is.

The Cold River Lean-to was buggy and we were glad we decided to stay another night on Long Lake. We continued up Cold River for a short distance until it required too many exits and lining of the canoes.

We returned to camp and enjoyed burgers and beans for dinner, sat out on the rock and once again saw a beautiful sunset and were entertained by fireworks.

Sunday we had an early breakfast, broke camp and were paddling out at 8am across a once again dead calm Long Lake. We explored the new State Land and DEC’s roadside lean-to before packing up.