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I am writing this the day following our
return from the Heart Lake work
weekend in April. This was our second
year at this event. We became
reacquainted with people we met last
year as well as new ADK members.
Participants not only come to the Loj
from throughout NYS, but we also met
members from Philadelphia and New
Jersey.
There is always an extensive list of jobs
that need doing such as replacing storm
windows with screens in the Loj;
cleaning all the campsites for winter
debris; staining tables, benches, chairs;
roofing lean-tos; plumbing, electrical
and carpentry work, etc. This year we
stet up the campground host site, Kathy
re-stained some Adirondack chairs and
helped clean up the campground while I
helped build a new tent platform. There
are jobs for any level of expertise.
People attending ranged from
elementary aged to junior high, high
school on up to the very experienced
80+ age bracket.
Both the Heart Lake and JBL work
weekends are held twice a year and
everyone is welcome to come and work.
Most people stay in the Loj with a few
people in the Trail cabin and
campground cabin and a handful of us
elect to camp. Meals for works are
provided by ADK in the Loj. If you are
interested in future events, talk to one of
our chapter’s 9 attendees for their
comments and suggestions.
On a somber note, many of you are
aware of the hiker that died on the FLTC
cross county hike series in March. In
this case, there was nothing that could
have been done to save the individual,
but when hiking you should carry
identification as well as any pertinent
medical information such as drug
allergies, heart issues, medications, etc.
It could save your life.
Recently, our chapter made donations to
the following groups: Gift basket to be
auctioned at the ADK Black Fly Affair,
$300 to ADK National Trails Day at
Indian Lake, $500 to FLTC. In addition,
whatever receipts we obtain from the
EMS Club Days will be sent to ADK.
Check out the Outings Schedule listed in
this Newsletter. The summer list grows
every year and there is something for
everyone. We always look for new
places to visit. Hope to see you on the
trail…
The FLTC Alleycat Trail Crew has
scheduled the Tinker Falls trail
relocation project for August 2-6, 2010.
The plan is to transport the materials and
tools to the top of the Falls on Sunday
August 1 so as to begin construction on
Monday August 2. Volunteers from
outside the CNY area will be camping at
Highland Forest for the week and our
volunteers will commute from
Jamesville to the work site daily.
Whatever time you can spare will be
much appreciated, as the project will
render that section easier and safer to
traverse. Contact me, Tony Rodriguez, if you are
interested.
Are you interested, or just curious, about
the history of parts of our CNY area? If
so plan to participate in the collaboration
between our Chapter and Highland
Forest to clear, preserve, and exhibit the
foundations and artifacts left by the early
settlers of the Park. Did you know there
are remnants of a former cheese factory
and that there was a high security
program for the testing of war
explosives? For the past 30 years a
gentleman named Al Lafrance has
discovered the location of more than 20
foundations that had been reclaimed by
nature. This year we hope to clear four
of the foundations so that Park users can
become aware how the area was settled
and eventually became what it is today.
We have already cleared one foundation,
but it will take a lot more effort to clear
and prepare the others for exhibit. These
are not planned events, but if you would
like to participate contact Lucy Hawkins,
Education Chair, or me, Tony Rodriguez, for more up to
date information. It should be fun!
Summary statistics for trail maintenance
and construction during 2009, as
compiled by Hal Boyce:
- 200 independent work events
- 511 volunteers contributed over 3,000 person-hours of
work
- Bill Brosseau 369 hrs
- Anne Brosseau 235 hrs
- Mary Coffin 281 hrs
- Bill Coffin 206 hrs
Those are pretty
amazing numbers and everyone who
participated, whatever the contribution,
should be proud; we all heartily thank
and salute each and everyone of you!
The steward and worker appreciation
picnic is set for Sunday June 27 at
Highland Forest. If you are free to
attend please inform me so that we can
plan for the amount of food.
The Awards Committee is accepting
written nominations for the 2010
Chapter Distinguished Volunteer Award.
The Executive Committee is looking for
an individual who has made major
contributions to the Onondaga Chapter
either for a specific project or for many
years of service. The nominee must be a
member of the chapter in good standing
who has demonstrated outstanding
volunteerism, leadership or is a role
model for the membership.
Nominations must be made in writing
(email is acceptable), listing the
accomplishments and received by (Mary
Coffin) maryccoffin@gmail.com by
Sept 1, 2010. The Committee will select
an individual to recognize and the
presentation will be made at the Annual
Meeting Banquet in November. Past
recipients comprise the committee are
not eligible: Hal Boyce, Al Obrist, Anne
and Bill Brosseau, Mary and Bill Coffin,
Dick Lightcap, Kathy Disque, Tony
Rodriguez, Mary Dineen, George
Zacharek, Peg Whaley.
Central New York offers many
opportunities to learn and explore in our
very own backyard. State and County
Parks in Madison, Onondaga and
Oswego Counties have a varied history
and have been around as long ago as the
1920’s. The Erie Canal, Pratt’s Falls
County Park, Green Lakes State Park,
and others are part of our heritage and
offer family friendly spaces for us to
enjoy. The FLT, North Country Trail
and Link Trail are trails maintained by
our Chapter and are minutes away from
where we live. Please join us this
Summer on the Tuesday evening “In Our
Own Backyard” hike series and receive
the New Onondaga Chapter Patch for
participating in one or more hikes (one
patch per member please). Please look
for the “In Our Own Back Yard” hike
events in the Outings Schedule.
Want to experience the diversity of the
lake, ponds, and woods of the Northwest
Adirondacks? The ADK-ON Outings
Committee is planning the ‘Cranberry
50’ hike series coming this Summer and
Fall. The ‘Cranberry 50’ links the
beautiful Five Ponds Wilderness with
the Cranberry Lake Wild Forest in a 50
mile loop around Cranberry Lake. Join
us and celebrate ‘Octoberfest’ on the last
hike in rustic Wanakena and receive
your ‘Cranberry Lake 50 patch’ awarded
by the Five Ponds Partners. The loop
will be sectioned into 4 hikes: There
will be a fee for the boat shuttle,
participants must pre- register and pay
the boat shuttle fee prior to the hike.
- Hike#1: Shuttle by boat to Chair Rock
Flow. Hike to Dog Pond Loop to
Burntbridge Pond to Route 3. (16.6
miles)
- Hike#2: Shuttle by boat to Janacks
Landing, Hike High Falls Loop Trail
(side trips to High Falls, High Rock) and
back to Wanakena. (14.4 miles)
- Hike#3: Shuttle by boat to Chair Rock
Flow, Hike Indian Mountain to Six Mile
Creek to Cowhorn Junction to
Wanakena. (13.6 miles)
- Hike#4: Hike the Peavine Swamp Trail
to Wanakena, spot cars. (7 miles)
Note: the 5.5 mile road section on Route
3 may be hiked, biked or driven to
receive your ‘Cranberry Lake 50’ patch.
It’s now a well-established tradition for
us to do a winter High Peaks climb using
the Brookside Motor Inn as a base camp.
Onondaga Chapter members converged
on Upper Jay from Boston and Albany,
as well as from the Syracuse area, for a
quick dinner followed by a group
orientation and safety meeting, with
distribution of emergency gear among
the nine group members. We did a gear
check, and spent a bit of time making
sure that all the full crampons were wellfitted
to their respective boots.
We left the motel about 5:30 a.m. and
were hiking by headlamp when morning
light penetrated the forest near Heart
Lake. Temperatures were in the teens
and the sky was overcast. We had some
hopes pinned on the “partly sunny” part
of the forecast for the afternoon. We
made good time on the well-packed trail.
We stopped for snacks, drinks and
photos at the frozen waterfall, then
pushed on.
As we got past the nubble on the right
and the Wright trail on the left, the tree
tops got lower and the wind got louder.
We saw a cloudy and overcast sky
above. The last half mile or so below
timberline is unrelentingly steep. Just
below timberline, it eases a bit, and this
is a convenient place to layer-up before
making the bid for the summit. We
fortified ourselves with a bit of lunch,
drank what we could, then went up into
the clouds above timberline. We had
done well up to this point on snowshoes,
and encountered very little ice. We
decided to stay with snowshoes unless
conditions up higher compelled us to
change to crampons.
Visibility was limited, often less than
fifty yards, but we were able to follow
old tracks and the occasional cairn to the
summit. The only view was of the
inside of the cloud cover. We had hoped
to hike the summit ridge of the
MacIntyre Range from Algonquin to
Boundary and Iroquois, then back, and it
was early enough to try it. However,
visibility was poor, and the wind, about
thirty miles per hour or more, made
voice communication impossible from
more than a few feet. Under these
conditions, someone could very easily
and quickly stray out of sight and out of
earshot or the group become separated,
and the trail to Iroquois is not
maintained, and tracks would be blown
over in minutes or less. We decided
against continuing towards Iroquois, and
dropped back down to timberline, where
we regrouped and had some more lunch.
Most of our group wore MSR
snowshoes, and most of those were the
MSR Denali Ascents. In the leader’s
opinion, they are the best snowshoes for
trails in the High Peaks, and they cost
about half the price of the second- best.
As we hiked down to the Wright
junction, the leader noticed that the
fabric binding on one of his snowshoes
had separated from the rivets attaching
the binding to the rest of the shoe.
(These shoes have seen a lot of wear.)
He took a piece of 3/4" webbing strap,
such as one might use to lash something
to a pack, figure-eighted it with one loop
around his boot and the binding
assembly, and the other loop around his
ankle, pulled it tight and resumed hiking.
The repair held, and the shoe required no
further attention that day.
At the Wright junction, some of us opted
to keep hiking out and get dinner started
back at the Brookside, while some of us
made the ascent of Wright. Much of this
summit is above timberline. We were in
clouds for most of the ascent above the
trees, but got some breaks in the cloud
cover on the summit. We had some
spectacular back-lit views of the summit
of Algonquin, briefly in the clear, and
good views to the north. We headed
back down, and made good time to the
Loj parking lot.
At the Brookside, while Patti’s
vegetarian lasagne cooked in the oven,
and Stephanie’s vegetarian chili warmed
in the crockpot, we dug into Jim’s
homemade garlic hummus with pita
bread. For the carnivores, Dave brought
meatballs and tomato sauce. We dished
up Jaye’s spinach salad. For dessert, we
had Paul’s spiced harwich hermits and
apple sauce muffins, and Kellie’s key
lime pie. After an evening of
conviviality, we turned in early, having
started the day at 4:30. The following
morning all were fortified by a breakfast
of sausage, eggs and pumpkin pancakes
provided by Deborah and Mike.
A post script to the hike: Mike called
Cascade Designs, which makes the MSR
line, and they replaced the bindings on
both snowshoes without charge. The
shoes are U.S.-made, built to last, and
the manufacturer stands behind the
product.
The Executive Committee is looking for
someone to be the Publicity Chair for
the Chapter. If you would be interested,
please contact. Jon Bowen or any
committee member at the numbers listed
on Officer's page.
As you will soon discover, this quarter’s outings schedule offers a gazillion
events. Therefore it is ever more likely that you will come across some of our newest members whose
names are listed below. We would encourage you to welcome them, be it on the trail, on a bike or on the
water.
- John & Dawn Bishop
- Elizabeth Estes
- Stephen & Sharon Florence
- Gerri Hall & David Pasinski
- Janice & Richard Hezel
- James Huftalen
- Michael & Barbara LaCasse
- Meredith Lee-Clark
- Anthony Lisi
- Thomas Long
- William Lynch
- Clinton Maloney
- JoAnn Marsala-Goettel
- Richard Nicholas & Wen Chen
- Paul Restante
- Tom Rogers
- Denise Seltzer
- Aaron Chamberlain
- Charles & Mary Hausladen
- Yvette Hewitt
- Fred & A. Lemley
- Cyndie Long
- Matthew MacDougall
- Sue & Peter Morgan
- William Morrow
- I. Holly Rosenthal
- Andrew Schiano
- Greg & Christina Sears
- Matthew Bock
- Robert Brenner
- Gayle
Callen
- Eric Carter
- Janine & Mike Corning
- Gary Edick
- David Hinman
- Akos Mersich
- Wendy & Dave
Ubbink
- J. Thomas Bassett
- Andrew Cassidy
- Larry Ellison
- Adam George
- Robin Goettel & Eric Higgins
- Mike Kerker & Mary Bochino
- Patrick Parkinson
- Sarah Wilkinson
- William Barney
- Carol Burritt
- Peter
Ensminger
- Mike Gerber
- Ursula Lord
- Vicky & Steve McLaughlin
- Matthew Stuhler
- Rachel Wood &
Carrie Corcoran
- Karl Zinsmeister
- John Geisler
- Steven & Lisa Indrick
- Matt Palmer & Lauren Sholette
- Jack Phelan
- Kim Talbott
- Benjamin & Lindsay Wilcox
- Leigh Forman
- M. Hobert
- Kerry Young &
Elizabeth Ruckdeschel
- Affiliate: James Soriano
View the conservation report here.
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