“Hiking 101 – A Finger Lakes Sampler” Learn to Hike Series

The Finger Lakes Trail Conference invites you to participate in the first “Hiking 101 – Learn to Hike Series”. This series of three guided hikes is geared towards the novice hiker (with little or no experience) and will cover more than 16 miles, take place in three different counties and sample some of the beautiful and varied hiking on the Finger Lakes Trail. Our goal is to expose you to the great sport of hiking. Hikes are scheduled for the second Saturday of the month from July to September. This hike series would be considered an easy to moderate level of hiking with some steep altitude gains and losses in the third hike. Hikes will vary from 5.1 to 6.3 miles.

Each hike will begin with all hikers assembling at the end point. Buses will transport you to the beginning point for the hike so you will be able to hike at a comfortable hiking speed and enjoy the beauty of the trail. Experienced hikers will guide the smaller groups from the beginning of each hike back to their cars. Hiking groups will range from “nature appreciative” to medium fast hiking “speeds”. There will be a “sag wagon” strategically placed at crossroads with water and snacks. The sag wagon can give you a ride back to your car if you become exhausted on the hike.

The series will end at Ontario County Park with a picnic for all hikers to celebrate personal accomplishments on the footpath. Enjoy food and drink, an awards ceremony (to receive your embroidered patch for completing the series) and some great conversation with friends that you met on the trail.

Registration is required and will be limited to 65 hikers for this series.
Rain or shine
Dates: July 11 August 8 September 12
Buses leave at 9:15am. No pets.

All registrations are due in the FLTC Office by July 9, 2009. First come, first serve. Cost for the entire series is $30.00 per person (children under 18/adult = $25). The hike plot for the entire series with parking locations will be sent to paid registrants.

Registration form can be found at www.fingerlakestrail.org or call 585-658-9320

For more information, please feel free to contact the “Hiking 101″ hike leader, Paul Hoffman by e-mail paulhoff@frontiernet.net (preferred) or by phone 585-335-3688.

Editorial in timesunion.com by William Mirabile, Link to original post

I appreciated Phil Brown’s June 15 op-ed piece, “Paddlers face murky waters: Navigable waterways are bogged down in legal limbo.”

While some illegal blockages of navigable waterways in the Adirondacks have been removed as a result of state land acquisition, others, like the one on Shingle Shanty Brook, are still there in violation of common law rights.

As Mr. Brown said, the important thing now for all who enjoy paddling on New York’s navigable waterways is to get A-701 passed in the Legislature. Paddlers should write supporting letters to Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Gov. David Paterson and Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis and anyone in the Senate who seems to be in charge.

To find out more about this public right, see the authoritative article by Ken Hamm, of DEC’s Office of General Counsel, in the 2008 Conservationist magazine. A free copy of the booklet, “Public Navigation Rights in New York State: Questions and Answers,” is available from the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks (518-377-1452) or on the association’s Web site (http://www.protectadks.org) under “Publications.”

by Maureen Nolan / The Post-Standard , link to original post

State park officials will need some extra chairs if even a sliver of Green Lakes State Park users show up Tuesday for a meeting about its future. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation says some 850,000 of you visit the park in Fayetteville annually.

The state is creating an updated master plan for Green Lakes and is asking for public input at a meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday July 7 at Pine Grove Middle School, 6318 Fremont Road, East Syracuse.

The current plan dates back to 1970, parks department spokesman Dan Keefe said. With about 850,000 visitors a year, Green Lakes is one of the busiest state parks in Upstate New York, he said. Last year, the state launched an effort to update the plans for all its parks.  “The goal is to do 25 over the next five years,” Keefe said.

The state will accept written comments until Aug. 7. They may be emailed or mailed to Mark Hohengasser, Planning Bureau, Agency Building One, Empire State Plaza, Albany NY 12238.

The plan is supposed to be adopted in December 2010, after a public hearing.

Green Lakes is perhaps best know for its two glacial, meromictic lakes. Meromictic means the upper and lower levels of water do not mix, which gives the lakes their vivid color.

Watch a video of Manlius-Pebble Hill students at Green Lakes.

Read about recent improvements to the park.

Should you wonder who all those Green Lakes visitors are, here is some demographic information from the state:

– Of the more than 800,000 annual visitors, 51 percent come from Onondaga County, 40 percent come from elsewhere in New York State and 9 percent come form outside the state.
– The average annual household income of visitors is $50,000.
– Most visitors have some level of college education
– The average length of a day visit is about 4 hours
– The average length of a camping visit is 7.5 days

Aired in 2005, these TV video clips are now available on the web. Topics include outdoor recreation, plants, wildlife, and DEC at work.

The outdoor recreation segment includes videos on camping, hiking, geocaching, kayaking, canoeing, birdwatching, cross-country skiing, the outdoors woman program, and many others.

Click here for DEC TV.