Tag Archives: Mossy Bank Park

Natural Landmarks of (or Near) the Finger Lakes

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We live in a marvelous region, replete with sights and wonders. I suppose that just about every place is like that, if you dig deep enough. Another time, we’ll look at “man-made” landmarks in the region. But for this week, I wanted to enjoy compiling a list of NATURAL landmarks, in or around our Finger Lakes.

Each of our lakes is a natural landmark. But Keuka stands out. Because of its two northern branches, true – but even more so because of the arresting Bluff right between them. It dominates the main body of the Lake and both Branches, making a sight that dwells for decades in the memory. (It’s even MORE overwhelming if you’re actually IN the Lake, gazing up at it.)

NOT one of the Finger Lakes, but the last of the GREAT Lakes, is Lake Ontario. As a sight, well, it’s not MUCH of a sight. It’s the realization that this is an inland fresh-water sea, part of chain of such seas, joined by mighty rivers, in all spanning thousands of miles, that takes the breath away.

At Sodus on the southern shore of Ontario lies Chimney Bluff State Park, home to ever shifting geological formations, shaped and reshaped by wind, wave, and gravity.

Just a few rods south of the Conhocton River in Bath, a cliff and slope rise sharply for 500 feet. You can admire this from the village, for it looms like a wall as you drive south on Liberty Street (or just about any other street, for that matter).

But this view is especially remarkable because it works both ways. Head on up to Mossy Bank Park, drive or walk down to the Lookout, and the whole village, including Lake Salubria, spreads out below you like a playset. You can’t see Keuka Lake, but you can see the vale that wends toward it through the high hills. You can look westward along the course of I-99 toward Kanona. If the air is clear enough you can spot the wind turbines near Prattsburgh, and the set in Howard. If the season is right, monarch butterflies may rise up from the flat. If the stars are right, bald eagles may pass by.

The gorges of Stony Brook State Park and Watkins Glen State Park are natural landmarks, with the streams that rush through them continuing their millennia-long shaping and reshaping of their glens. The cleft of Letchworth Gorge is staggering to see, as is the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

We’re blest with many waterfalls, each possessing its own beauty. Montour Falls and Taughannock Falls are two of the best, and it’s fun to stand in their spray on a summer’s day. And talking of falls, how could we omit Niagara? What must that have been like, for the first men and women to see it, ten-thousand years ago or more? First the roar… then the mist… and then a sight which they never could have imagined. And nobody else could either, so reports must have been scorned as travelers’ tales, until so many people had seen it that they had to be believed.

Being from Rhode Island, I long for salt marshes. None nearby, of course. But the Queen Catharine Marsh, between Watkins Glen and Montour Falls, is a huge beautiful flatland, girdled with a foot path created by the Finger Lakes Trail Conference. Harriers, redwings, waterfowl and wading birds abound. If you like marshes – don’t miss it!

Look Out for Microclimates!

Quite a few people, over quite a few years, have taken note of the fact that if you’re driving I-86, between Campbell and Savona, you often run into a band of rain, snow, or sleet. There’s something similar going on above Prattsburgh, on the height overlooking the village from the north, along State Route 53. You’ll also find it along I-390, on the height between Dansville and Cohocton.

WHY this should be the case, or even whether they result from the same phenomena, is more than I can tell you. But I take it that they reveal microclimates – small pockets where the climate (and thus the weather) differs from its surroundings. It may differ by only a tiny amount, but it’s enough to make noticeable results.

You’ve already noticed this, on a small and transitory scale, whenever you’ve stepped into the shade to escape the blast of the sun’s direct rays. Not that this has been a problem LATELY!

You’ve also seen it when you lift your eyes unto the hills, and see that they’re covered with snow, while there’s none where you’re standing.

Altitude can make quite noticeable changes, as you can learn if you’re in Bath on a hot summer’s day. Drive on up to Mossy Bank Park, overlooking the village, and you’ll instantly be MUCH more comfortable.

We aren’t the only ones to recognize this. We know that many birds migrate northwrad in summer, and southward for winter. Juncos migrate UPWARD for summer and DOWNWARD for winter. When the snow flies, we enjoy them at our feeders. We meet them again in summer at Mossy Bank Park, or in the gorge of Watkins Glen State Park. Just a few feet of elevation, and a little cover, are all that they need. The climate’s a few degrees cooler, and they’re perfectly happy.

Watkins Glen is so narrow that it blocks out most of the sunshine, meaning that the ice and snow sometimes lie on the trail for weeks after it’s a memory elsewhere, keeping the gorge closed to frustrated hikers and tourists.

In some seasons Letchworth Gorge also preserves ice for a long time, while it can lie under Niagara Falls until midsummer.

As western New Yorkers we’re aware of microclimates that create “lake effect snow.” But I’ve noticed that Steuben County seems to be in an odd little trough that frees it from most of these proverbial snowfalls. Lake Erie lake effect seems to peter out around Hornell. Lake Ontario lake effect gives up the ghost around Canandiagua, or at least around Ingleside. And coastal storms rarely dump much west of Elmira.

We live in Bath village, and drive maybe a quarter-mile to work. We often drive INTO a thick fog bank, as we approach the Conhocton River. Folks in Cameron Mills and elsewhere get similar narrow morning fog bands lining the Canisteo.

And this persists after those rivers flow together to form the Chemung… as you’ve bitterly realized whenever you’ve tried to take an early morning flight out of Corning-Elmira Airport, near Big Flats.

You can thank microclimates for our grape and wine industry. On the eastward-facing slopes (the west side, in other words) of the Finger Lakes, we get a warming effect from the combination of the sun’s rays and the lakes’ heat sink. It’s just warm enough to preserve the vines, and just cold enough to kill the pests, et voila! But I imagine, unfortunately, that global warming will open up that narrow window, and pretty well put us out of business.

Good Hikes With Easy-On/Easy-Off — Part II

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Two weeks ago in this space, we looked at Sperr Park and the Keuka Outlet Trail – two easy-on/easy off hikes where you don’t have to send half the day just getting to the trail. We observed that Sperr Park and the Big Flats Trail made a very easy hike, with Keuka Outlet Trail not much harder.

*Going up a little bit on scale of difficulty… and going up a LOT on spectacularity… are the trails at Mossy Bank Park, overlooking Bath.

*Those who’ve visited Bath have surely noticed the cliffs across the river on the south side of the village. Up at the top is Mossy Bank, a site that had that name at least as far back as 1851, when diarist Hannah Seeley noted that it had become a fad for people in Bath to go up to Mossy Bank to have picnics and to walk around.

*And they’re still doing it, 167 years later! But the hill is steep, so today’s walkers and hikers find getting there an easier trip than the trips that Hannah’s friends had.

*Once you get to the park the simplest walk is a double loop. You can park on the outer loop, near the pavilions and the Ted Markham Nature Center, or you can park down by the Lookout. The dirt road forms a figure eight, with the loop that includes the Lookout encircling forested land, while the other loop encircles lovely green picnic, playground, and rest room space. There’s also fitness equipment you can indulge in, if you’re inclined in that way.

*Doing the double loop twice will take you close to a half-hour, depending on your speed and what you stop to admire along the way. Lady’s slippers bloom in their brief beautiful season. Juncos desert the flats to summer up at Mossy Bank, and butterflies flit mindlessly by. Pileated woodpeckers laugh in the trees, while squirrels and chipmunks crash around so frantically that they probably forget where they’re going, or where they’ve been.

*Mossy Bank visitors sometimes get to see bald eagles. For eight years running they nested successfully down on the flat, but this year they didn’t, despite some indifferent gestures in that direction. It’s going too far to say that they’re commonplace, but they do come along in every season of the year. Ospreys also nested nearby until recently, and still turn up at times.

*There are several trails inside the wooded loop that includes the Lookout. There are also mapped and blazed trails throughout the park. For the most part they’re pretty well beaten underfoot, but there are spots where it’s a bit of a climb up or down.

*On top of that, despite the mapping and blazing some Mossy Bank trails have minds of their own – they’ll disappear right in the midst of the woods. When that happens, just turn around and cheerfully follow the blazed trail back. I’ve been exploring Mossy Bank for twenty years, and even I can get “a mite bewildered” if I get off the trail.

*(Part of the problem is property lines. Hitting a line can bring a trail to an end, but it’s also easy to mistake property blazes for trail blazes.)

*If you’re facing out on the lookout, a trail to the west has a somewhat steep drop (you stay upright, but worry about it) for twenty feet or so, but then a more gentle downward grade that takes you through the woods and over a couple of streams until you reach the property line near an abandoned road. Of course, then you have a long (though gentle) climb back up.

*Unlike Sperr Park, most trails in Mossy Bank are wooded, and it’s isolated enough that (unlike Keuka Outlet) you don’t encounter any active roads. You CAN, however, hear (and in spots see) Interstate 86 far below. Walking into the woods at Mossy Bank, I often feel weights of troubles lifting instantly off my shoulders.

*Of course, no trip to Mossy Bank is complete without enjoying the Lookout. Bath village, Lake Salubria, and the Conhocton River are spread out below you. You can see a good distance toward Hammondsport, Mitchellsville, and Kanona. On a good day, you can see wind turbines in Prattsburgh and Howard. And the Lookout pavilion is a great place to watch the rain progress across the scene, and listen to it drum away on the roof.

WHAT’S NEARBY: Bath, county offices, Steuben County Fairgrounds, the Bath V.A. and National Cemetery. Hammondsport’s not too far, either.

*WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: (a) The best way to get there is to cross the Conhocton River at Cameron Street (becomes County Road 10) from Bath, veer left onto Windfall Road, then go left again onto Mossy Bank Road. (b) There used to be bobolinks on the road in, but I haven’t seen them in years. (c) Markham Nature Center schedules interesting programs from time to time. (d) The Bath Christmas star is installed (in season) onto the Lookout pavilion. (e) During the winter months Mossy Bank is open to walkers, BUT cars are not permitted AND hunting is.

What I Did Next Summer

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It’s a joke or a stereotype… the September back-to-school assignment for an essay on What I Did Last Summer.
Well, I have some thoughts on what I want to do THIS summer. Some of them have actually been on the list for quite a while. But it seems like whenever I’m about to get started, some family member winds up in the hospital. Still, a man can dream… and try… so, what I’d like to do not just SOME summer, but THIS summer….

Visit Genesee Country Village. I’ve been there several times before, but not for quite a few years. In particular I want to walk the nature trails. I want to see the gallery of outdoor and wildlife art. And I want to see their reproduction Civil War observation balloon.
Two out of three of those are going to be weather dependent, of course. If weather permits, maybe I can squeeze in watching a game of “town ball,” that very early version of baseball.

Hike the Letchworth Trail. This is 26 miles along the east rim of the gorge, in Letchworth State Park. Had I been on my own theoretical schedule, I’d have finished two years ago. As it is, I haven’t yet started. Onward!

While I’m over thataway, visit the early 19th-century Mills Mansion in Mount Morris. Each year some of my American History students visit for one of their required projects, but I’ve yet to be in town and available at a time when it’s open. I’ve got to plan ahead and do that.

Tour the new wing at Corning Museum of Glass. I’ve had several invitations, but schedule hasn’t permitted. This summer I hope to make it happen.

Walk and bird-watch frequently in Mossy Bank Park, above Bath. My wife and I were just there this morning, now that it’s reopened for the season. An 1851 diarist wrote of how it had become a Bath fad to go up to Mossy Bank for picnics and rambling. And we’re still at it! Most seasons lately, we even have eagles and osprey.

Hit Cruisin’ Night in Penn Yan. That’s loads of fun with the crowds, the old cars, the open library, stores and restaurants. We miss it about as often as we hit it, mostly through inattention, but this year we’re trying to schedule it in. (June 19th!)

Play some miniature golf. At least as of last season there were courses in Bath, Penn Yan, Harris Hill, Corning, Wellsboro, and Watkins Glen. We still haven’t covered them all.

Spend a day at the Windmill. With all that hospitalization, we’ve missed the past two years. But wait till this year!

Walk in to Taughannock Falls. Mrs. Window on the West hasn’t had a chance to do that, but now we’ve actually got it in the calendar! (Weather permitting.)

Go to Steuben County Fair in Bath. I’ll probably wind up volunteering at the one-room school, so that should make it easy.

Get the bike tuned up, and start cycling to work. It’s a catch-22 with Addison’s disease – you need the exercise, but you pretty much start the day already tired. Still, except for emotional inertia (and bad weather), there’s really nothing to stop me.

Do some hiking on the main Finger Lakes Trail in the Burdett-Watkins Glen area, linking up stretches that I’ve already hiked.

Visit Record Archive (a cool place) in Rochester, and pick up some more music CDs to listen to while I’m driving.

Well, all that should keep me busy. Maybe it’s too much for a single summer, but we live in an area with lots of great stuff to do. And without some planning ahead, the whole summer will just turn into work and grocery shopping. Summer in the Finger Lakes should be much more than that.