Category: Native American

You win some. You lose some.

So many exciting things have been happening lately.  October is my favorite month of the year.  First, because it’s my birthday month.  Second, the fall is so beautiful with the changing leaves and the earth is so fragrant this time of year.

Just to catch up on all the wonderful wins for me this fall:  I DID IT!  I finally finished the Allegany 18 Challenge!

My darling husband hiked the last 5-mile trail with me.  I literally skipped to the Registration Building after the hike to claim my winnings!  A very cool water bottle that lists all the 18 trails and a sweet sticker!  I put the water bottle in my china cabinet alongside Dave’s 300-game bowling trophies.  It deserves to be in a place of honor.  Hahaha!

Way back in March I signed up for the Allegany 18 Challenge because of a post by the  Outside Chronicles Facebook page.  After a bunch of us completed the challenge we were invited back to Allegany State Park for a bonus hike and social.  It was a lot of fun meeting everyone and making connections with people that have the same passion as me!

After that excitement, my BFF, Linda and I went hiking/geocaching in Letchworth State Park.  We hiked seven miles in one day on the Finger Lakes Trail – Letchworth Branch.  It was the best of times.  The entire week was cold and damp mostly but we managed to find a lot of caches and I may have seen Linda’s full moon during a campfire!  We even spent a few rainy hours at the Dunkin Donuts in town using the WiFi.

I just can’t help but take photos while hiking in Letchworth.  There is beauty around you at every step.  I even managed to catch the “Hidden Indian” looking out over the Genesee River from the Middle Falls.  Can you see him in the photo below?  In the other photos, I visited the Mount Morris Dam Visitor’s Center.  That is a dam photo from the Visitor Center side of the river.  I highly recommend checking out the dam visitor center and watching the short dam movie.  I learned a lot of dam things.  I also hiked a good portion of the Gorge Trail and the Wolf Creek Trail. The gorge trail is about 7 miles long and you have amazing views along the way.  There are helpful stairs to get you up and down the steep sections.  The Wolf Creek trail has a really pretty waterfall and neat bridge.

I visited Letchworth a couple more times and Allegany State Park too.  Nearby Emery Park has a few ski hills I’ve been hiking up and down.  I’ll hike anywhere on a dirt path. I can’t keep myself out of the woods for too long or I get jittery.

There was more fun in October! My birthday is the day before Halloween.  My sweet husband gifted me with a personalized hoodie with my “name” on it and an Italian flag heart!  Best gift ever!  And we had a Halloween party where I made an ashtray out of pretzels and white chocolate.  No one minded that everyone was smoking!  I even carved a pumpkin to celebrate my upcoming hike.  See I do more than just hike all the time!

One more extremely exciting thing that happened, that some of you already know, is that I booked my ONE-WAY plane ticket to Atlanta for March.  I even have my room reserved at Amicalola Lodge for the night before I hit the trail.  It’s really real, folks!  All in all, this Fall has been a big WIN for me!

But sometimes, you lose too.

Don’t worry too much and don’t start praying to St. Anthony to help me find what I lost!  I am proud to say I’ve lost 40 pounds.  Woot Woot!  My backpack fully loaded is about 30 pounds.  When I started my weight loss journey I wanted to lose the same amount of weight as my pack and I surpassed that because I needed to.  I am thrilled that I am healthier and more confident.  Heck, I even think I look pretty good.  Although I still have about 15 pounds to go to reach my goal weight before I leave in March, I know I will get there.  For those interested, I have been using the weight loss app Noom.  I found it very helpful.  If you want more information about it, I’d be happy to personally chat with you.

Here’s before:

IMG_20160425_132801610Don’t mind Dave’s finger.

And now.

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This month I will be back in the Smoky Mountains and plan to retake that before photo.

Happy trails!

 

Peace Bridge Sidewalk

I almost missed this!

Once in a while I have to push myself to do something I just don’t feel like doing. Our day hiker meet-up was going downtown to a little park and I didn’t feel like going. I almost called to cancel, but I didn’t.  My bff, Linda, wouldn’t have let me anyway.

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Driving down the thruway, I would see people walking on this strip of cement in the middle of the Niagara River and wonder about it.  I thought it would be cool to walk “in” the middle of the Niagara River on that strip of cement.  I didn’t even know it was a park!  You see, there is a long cement pier that splits the Niagara River and separates the Black Rock Canal and the Niagara River.   The pier is very narrow and runs about a mile and a half.  It goes under the Peace Bridge that connects the United States and Canada.  Now that I made up my mind to actually go on this walk, I was really excited to check it out!

History lesson time!  The Native Americans had their own name for this island, but back in 1812 the English called this island Squaw Island.  That was the name that was used until last year when a Native American woman petitioned the Courts to change the name because members of the Seneca Nation of New York felt the name was racist and derogatory to Native American women. It is now called Unity Park.  The island is home to two parks – Broderick Park and Bird Island Pier – and you get to it by crossing a drawbridge.  Bird Island Pier was built in 1860 and there are a lot of people that fish here.  Apparently, you can catch some really big fish!  I only saw a dead one on the sidewalk, sorry no pictures of that!

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Broderick Park was the location of the former Black Rock ferry.  It linked Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario until the mid 20th century.  The ferry’s dock was used as an Underground Railroad station.  Escaped slaves would take the ferry or other boats across the Niagara River to Canada to their freedom.

This is also a great place to watch the sunset.  From my last post, you know I love the sunset on the water!  The evening walk began with a little geocaching, of course!  I was with Linda and when Linda is around, there’s a cache to be found!  The cache was in dire need of maintenance!  Which reminds me, I still need to log that!

We walked through Broderick Park and approached the narrow entry of the Bird Island Pier and looking to my left I could see the concrete thruway that Buffalo thought would be so smart to put right on the water. How beautiful.  NOT.  But, in the canal were crew boats.  The men rowers were grunting and rowing so fast!  The lady rowers were almost as fast, but not quite!  It was quite a sight.  We also saw the Edward Cotter Fire Boat.  This fire boat was built in 1900 and is still in use by the Buffalo Fire Department.

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I glanced up and noticed the Peace Bridge looming large above me.  I was going to walk right underneath it!  How cool is that!

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There are many birds that hang out along the rocks on either side of the pier.  Some even managed to leave their feet print on wet cement, leaving their permanent mark on Bird Island Pier!  Walking on the pier you had better watch where you plant YOUR feet!  The bird poop was everywhere! Although we noticed that they liked to poop on the left side more than right!

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At the tip of Bird Island Pier stands the glorious United States Flag.

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It was a gorgeous evening for a walk on the pier.  This wasn’t my favorite hiking destination; as I like my trails without cement.  But, it was fun to finally experience a place I’ve only looked at from a car window traveling down the thruway.

Now, back to the woods for me!

 

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