Watkins Glen State Park - Saturday, August 28 to Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Moving day!  I have to outsmart the cat as he knows when the routine is different and he doesn't like travelling in the truck, so he hides under the bed when he suspects something different is happening.  When we start packing up the trailer I have to close the door to the bedroom so he can't hide under the bed, from under which it's impossible to retrieve him.  He hides instead under one of the reclining rocking chairs, but I can get him from there and put him into his carrier.

It's a really beautiful day today.  Grady is very unsettled for the first part of the trip, so I have to pull him onto my lap to calm him down, which he finally does.  We stop for lunch and groceries near Bath, NY on I-390 and put Grady in the trailer (again closing the door to the bedroom).  It's a lot cooler in the trailer, and he's more comfortable there.

The entrance to Watkins Glen State Park is right in the town of Watkins Glen on route 14 and we get registered easily enough, fill up with water at a spigot just three sites up from our campsite, so while the tank is filling, Brad and I walk up to our site.  We have no idea how we're going to get the trailer into this site.  We can't do it from the direction we're currently heading; we're going to have to come around the other way because it's an easier turn, but even then it'll have to be a sharp turn and the road is so narrow it's a hairpin turn and there's really no room to swing the truck.  But we'll give it a shot.

So after we fill, we back the trailer up to the main road, and go around to the other end of the loop road to come at our site from the other way.  Brad pulls ahead of our site until the back end our 31-foot trailer is well ahead of our site and starts turning the truck (with a trailer, you have to turn your vehicle in the opposite direction), but it takes several feet for the trailer to start responding to the turn, and it's not soon enough.  He has to go forward and try again.  A neighbour comes over to help.  "It's a tight one," he says.  The trailer is a double axle, and as the trailer turns, the wheels on one axle are folded inward and the wheels on the other axle are folded outward.  Everything is creaking and groaning, including me worried about bending an axle or popping a tire off a rim in this very tight turn.  The wheels are not actually even rotating, just pivoting in place at this point because the angle is so sharp.  But still it won't work because the front end of the truck is locked up; it'll go into the bushes.  Brad has to pull forward again.

The neighbour, Frank, Brad and I assess the situation.  Perhaps we can't camp in any of these sites in the loop where the turns are too tight?  But Frank makes a good observation.  The campsite next to us is still vacant.  We might be able to pull forward into the site next to us, and turn the trailer around into our site as there seems to be enough room between the trees.  "It might work," Brad says, "But how do I get out when we leave on Wednesday?"  Well, going forward is always easier than backing up, so we'll worry about that then, and we could always go out the way we came in - we did it at Killbear Provincial Park a couple of weeks ago!

So Brad has to go back to the main road to turn the truck and trailer around again and come at it from the original direction, and I guide him in to make sure he doesn't hit any trees or the firepit, and voila!  No problem!  Of course, we may never be able to leave, or we may have to have the State Park Rangers cut down some trees so we can leave, but that's a problem for Wednesday!

We no sooner park the truck, when Frank appears with three beers - Molson Canadians, no less!  "Are you from Canada," I ask.  "No.  I'm from Germany" he says.  "I moved to the States about eleven years ago.  I just like good beer."

The next morning, we decide that we should go to the camp office and see if anyone has the site next to us booked for the day we're leaving, because we will likely need that site to get out, just like we needed it to get in.  And it turns out there is someone arriving on Tuesday for a few days - we leave on Wednesday.  So Molly, the park clerk, suggests that we move tomorrow since the people next to us and across from us are leaving then and we can use either site to get out.  She provides us with a list of possible sites for us to move to and we go on our bikes to check out which ones we can get into and out of easily.

Having made our selection, we return to the office, and Molly closes the site for us so no one else can book it (she can't reserve it for us because of the way the computers work!).  The new site is actually much more private than our current site, backing onto a wooded ravine and our neighbours are further away than they are here, so it's a good move.  However, having to pack up and move is a bit of a hassle, but will also provide us with the opportunity to dump our tanks and refill with fresh water.

Brandon and his girlfriend Jessica are coming down to join us today for our stay.  We don't expect them until tonight as they are coming from just outside Algonquin Park where her cousin is getting married this weekend, so they have a seven-hour drive to get here.  So we decide to hike the South Rim Trail which follows the gorge along the top on the campground side.  This trail is part of the Finger Lakes Trail which is several hundred miles long and passes through beautiful woodlands, but there are no good views of the gorge or Glen Creek below.

At first we hike upstream, and after about one hour or more, we turn around and head back downstream, all the way to where the trail merges with the Gorge Trail.  Here we sit and have a picni, before heading back up the trail to return to our campsite.

When we get back to our trailer, there is a note stuffed in the door handle from Brandon that they arrived at 3:40 but went to the campground pool and will be back around 5:30.  That's nice to know, but we have no idea what time it is now.  That's one thing about being retired.  We never wear a watch any more so we never have any idea what time it is.  We don't have to be anywhere at a specific time (like when you're working), so why live by a clock?  It was hard to get used to at first, but now it's great.  There is a clock in the trailer however, that tells us it's almost 5:00, so we know that Brandon and Jessica will be here soon, and they do arrive within the half hour.

After relaying stories about our trailer issues and their wedding fun, we have dinner and settle for the night.

Another moving day, although we don't have far to go, but Grady doesn't like it anyway.  Getting the trailer out is much easier than getting in was.  We pull directly forward into the site across from us and then back the trailer out onto the road.  It takes two tries to line everything up right because of the location of the trees and the elevation of the ground, but again Brad does an amazing job and we get things moved fairly quickly.  Brandon and Jessica babysit Grady in his carrier at the new site while Brad and I take care of the details at the camp office, which may be considered animal cruelty because Grady is really frightened of Brandon for some reason, we don't know why.

Back at the site, the 50 feet of water hose we have doesn't reach to the water spigot so we can refill our tanks with fresh water, so we have to pull the trailer out onto the roadway to fill.  As we're filling, the woman from the camp office comes by and says, "You want to be careful of the poison ivy.  It's all over the park, and it's along this corner right here.  Your water hose is in it."  Now, Brad takes a very severe reaction to poison ivy.  Fortunately it was Brandon who took the hose to the spigot and he didn't walk through the poison ivy, but we will now have to wash the hose thoroughly to ensure that Brad doesn't come in contact with the oils from the plant!  But once we finally get everything set up, this new site is well worth the move as the view is stunning and it's very quiet.

Activites while we're at Watkins Glen:
The South Rim Trail (hiked yesterday, see above)

The Gorge Trail which follows the Glen Creek along its 19 waterfalls through the gorge.  It's another gorgeous day with not a cloud in the sky, although more humid again today.  It's very cool in the glen where we're surrounded by the stone and water.  There are a total of 800 stairs on the Gorge Trail, mostly going up from the lower parking lot to the upper parking lot which is the direction that we're heading.  From the top, we take the Indian Trail back which follows the gorge along the top, but there is only one good view of the water and falls from this trail.

Watkins Glen, Cascade Cavern in background

Brandon and Jessica at Watkins Glen

Pools at Watkins Glen State Park

A trip to Robert H. Treman State Park where we can swim right below the waterfall.  Unfortunately, they don't have enough lifeguards today, and the "deep end" is closed so we can't swim directly below the waterfall.  And the water is only 60 degrees F.  Okay, that lets me out.  But Brad, Brandon and Jessica all go in - yes, I'm a big, old chicken!  I don't even go in my pool when it's below 75 degrees!

Jessica and Brandon at Robert H. Treman State Park, NY

On our way home to Canada, Brad and I check out Chimney Bluffs State Park which is on Lake Ontario due north of Watkins Glen.  It's a VERY hot, sticky day, so we don't actually hike up to the bluffs since Grady is in the trailer.  These bluffs are clay-molded formations that look like big termite hills on the shore of Lake Ontario.  The water here is also very clear, but the beach is rocky.  There are "No Swimming" signs posted, although I suspect that is because it's a state park and there is no lifeguard present.

Chimney Bluffs State Park, NY

Grady is getting a lot better travelling in the truck.  He doesn't hide under the backseat anymore.  He likes to sit on the console in between Brad and I, so I put a heavy towel on it to make it more comfortable for him.  However, when we're getting in and out of the vehicle, or when we have the window rolled down for any length of time like at the border crossing station, I lock him in his carrier which is always sitting on the back seat.  He has a hard time sleeping in the truck though because it's so bumpy and shaky.  As humans, I think we're used to it, but watching his small body shake all over is actually hilarious.  He tried to eat something while we were moving because I leave his food and water dish on the backseat floor, but I think he kept bumping his face on the bottom or side of the dish and gave up.  He hasn't tried using the litter box in the truck yet; let's hope he doesn't ever have to.

Grady's next trip will probably be the big trip south starting in November.  But for now, I think he's glad to be home.

Letchworth State Park - Tuesday, August 24 to Saturday August 28, 2010

I don't know why, but it takes us until 4pm before we are able to leave home for our second trailer venture which is to the Finger Lakes Region in New York State.  First four days at Letchworth State Park and then four days at Watkins Glen State Park at the southern tip of Seneca Lake.

Because we are leaving so late, we expect a lot of traffic in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, the border crossing in Fort Erie and Buffalo, but there is none.  Where is everybody?  We zip through everywhere, including the Peace Bridge border crossing where there is zero wait!  Maybe dinner time is the best time to cross!  We don't even have to undergo much of an inspection other than the Customs official stepping into the trailer for a quick look.  Interestingly, crossing with a cat doesn't even require showing a rabies vaccination certificate, which I am carrying with us just in case and because the State Parks do require this.

Grady is a bit better on this ride down. Perhaps he knows better what to expect.  We travel across I-90 and exit at Batavia because Brad wants to shop for certain cereals and cookies that he can only get in the US.  I don't know how I live with this man!  Grady and I wait in the truck because the cat has passed out on my lap and he sleeps for the HOUR that Brad shops.

When we finally arrive at Letchworth State Park, it is dark and there is still the trailer to level and water tank to fill.  Now for those of you who read my previous blog about our trip up north, you'll recall our trouble with the fridge.  We did get it fixed at the dealer last weekend.  So we plug in here to a 50 amp service and the fridge LED shows an error message!  Says there's a problem with the current or the fuse.  Fuses are fine, we're plugged in okay and we have lights, so what the hell?  The fridge ran fine at home before we left.  We're so tired (it's now almost 11pm) that we just switch the fridge over to propane and decide to go to bed.

However, Brad decides it's also getting cold and gets his little electrical heater out of the storage compartment.  He plugs it in and it doesn't work either!  Okay, now we're fed up AND tired, so we just go to bed.

In the morning I'm trying to make coffee, but the coffee maker won't work.  The hair blower doesn't work - none of the electrical outlets work, but yet none of the fuses in the panel have tripped.  (This should be a clue, but it isn't yet!)  So I start reading the trailer manual and how we should have made sure to ground the electrical cable before plugging in to the electrical panel box outside.  Brad goes outside to the power box and calls back in to me "I found the problem!  Does the coffee maker work now?"  I check and it does.  I switch the fridge back over to electrical and it works too!  Turns out that there is a breaker on the power box outside and it was off.  We didn't see this in the dark last night.  So electrical problem solved.  I realize too that the lights were working off of the batteries last night.  It really fooled us.  So much to learn!

During our stay at Letchworth, we hike or cycle four different trails:

#1, the Gorge Trail from Inspiration Point to see the Middle and Upper Falls.  Both are very pretty and the gorge itself is incredibly deep - almost 600 feet!  They call it the Grand Canyon of the east and I can see why.  Too bad a lot of this trail is along the roadway, although there are very few visitors in the park at this time of year so it's pretty quiet.

Letchworth State Park, Middle Falls with Rainbow

Brad at Letchworth State Park, Upper Falls

#1, the Gorge Trail from the south swimming pool parking lot to the Lower Falls which is spectacular.

Letchworth State Park, Lower Falls

#5, Lee's Landing also from the south swimming pool parking lot and the only trail that actually goes down to the Genesee River.  You are not allowed to swim in this river anywhere in the park, so the park has two pools (the one in the north part of the park is closed this year).  There are the three waterfalls and a lot of rapids along the river making swimming too dangerous; although the river doesn't seem to be very deep.  The top part of the trail is quite steep, about a 500 foot drop down a windy, gravel road.  At the bottom is a rocky beach with small rapids and a beautiful view up and down the river.  We realize half way down the hill that we forgot the camera in the truck (duh!).  The ride back up is a lot more difficult than the ride down, and I must admit I succumb to walking my bike up the steep part of the trail.  Brad is in better shape and makes it all the way to the top on his bike.  What a hero!

#6A, the Footbridge Trail, which crosses the river just below the Lower Falls.

#7, the Genesee Greenway Trail which is on the other side of the river.  This should provide us with a different view of the Middle and Upper Falls.  We have to exit the park at the Portageville exit at the very south end of the park and re-enter near the Parade Grounds Entrance.  Here we pick up the trail and are fortunate enough to cross paths with three women on horseback taking the trail going in the opposite direction from the road.  The horses are beautiful.  One is silver, one is patched brown and white and the other is chestnut.  The chestnut one practically walks right up to me.  Her rider says, "She loves people."  Her name is Cassy and she's an Arabian.  She also loves to lead, so is anxious to get going instead of waiting for me to pet her as the silver horse is getting away.  Off they go.

This trail is also part of the Finger Lakes Trail.  We cycle towards the Middle Falls, with the gorge and river on our right.  There are several paths to the gorge edge - with no guard rails, ropes, fences - nothing to protect anyone from falling over the cliff edge, and it's a straight drop down about 500 feet!  But the views are spectacular!  Photos say it all.  And yes, that's me wearing a helmet!

Marilyn biking the Genesee Greenway Trail - it's a one-way trip straight down!

Hardly anyone else is hiking this trail.  We see only two other couples and one family during our three hour hike.  At one point we abandon our bikes because the trail gets really rough and muddy.  Unfortunately, after about 1/2 a kilometer, the trail becomes flat and groomed again, but it's too late, so we just continue to hike.  The woods are beautiful - tall, tall trees, spaced far apart with little undergrowth.  Apparently the woods were cut down in 1842 to build a wooden railway bridge across the river and at the time it was the highest in the world.  Unfortunately, it burned down and was replaced with a steel bridge in 1875.  This structure still stands today.

At the Upper Falls, we are able to walk out onto a footbridge underneath the railway bridge.  From this vantage point, we are above the falls and the view is amazing, with a rainbow in the mist.

Brad on the railway bridge at the Upper Falls, Letchworth State Park

On the hike back, we see a beaver in his lodge.  We knew there was a beaver at work here as the evidence was all around - a dammed pond, trees cut by beaver teeth, and a couple of lodge-like features right along the path.  I look inside the wooden structures and in the last one, there is the beaver.  He doesn't cooperate very well for us to get a good photo.  In the next shallow pond, there is a turtle, possibly a snapper but it is hard to tell.  Other than that, there isn't much wildlife visible other than the odd chipmunk and squirrel.  There aren't even a lot of birds singing and the weather isn't too hot although beautifully sunny today.

One thing that is notable about this park is that there are a lot of picnic areas with large open grass fields which are great for family picnics - playing soccer or football, or just throwing a ball around.  The park is very well kept, the grass is nicely cut and trimmed everywhere.  There are a lot of concession stands and washroom facilities.  There are no bike paths though; you must share the road and there aren't really any shoulders for bikes to ride on.  Also, the campgrounds are 9 or 10 miles away from the majority of good hiking trails, so you generally have to drive to them daily, unless you're in really good shape and want to take your life into your hands and ride on the park road.  There are 28 hiking trails in the park overall, with 14 you can ride your bike on, including the Finger Lakes Trail which is part of a longer trail system.  Some trails also allow horses.  The park itself is huge, 14,350 acres along the Genesee River, and is just 35 miles south of Rochester, New York.

We run out of time to hike or cycle, but drive into the north end of the park where the "Hogsback" trail and the Mt. Morris Dam are.  The vista near the dam is the best - we can see the dam itself and quite a way upriver as well as a bit of the valley below.  There is actually very little water behind the dam and it's hard to believe it's necessary, but someone at the Visitor's Centre said the water is low right now.  We are about 400 feet above the river, and I spot two deer at the river's edge quite a way upriver from the dam.  At first I think they are mother and fawn, but then one of the deer swims across the river and then seemingly plays on the other side, running happily up and down the river's edge.  About five minutes later we see the doe on our side with a fawn, so perhaps she chased the other deer to cross the river to keep her fawn safe.

Once again, Grady is very content spending time in the trailer, although his most active time seems to be at dawn when he spends about 1/2 hour running from end to end inside the trailer and across the bed, making as much noise as possible.  Brad says Grady is the only one who can get away with waking me up that early, because he's so darn cute!  Fortunately we all go back to sleep for a couple of hours as us older folk need our rest.

The nights have been very cold since we've been here; in fact we've had to run our heater early in the morning and snuggle under all the blankets at night.  And a few of the trees are starting to change colour, a sure sign that fall is on the way.